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I was thinking about how Tau fire warrior units are mixed. With the short lifespan and the losses Tau take how can they keep growing.
The only thing that I can think of is they lay eggs this makes down time for female Tau short and with high technology rapid growth.
Have GW given any hints or shown female Tau not in armor that's not fan art. It also makes Tau more non human then the Eldar.

Or they artificially incubate there young in growth tubes or artificial wombs?

or something equally sci fi?

maybe they harvest all the parts from individual tau when they are of age. then genetically match the best ones and grow them in tubes. so that the individuals can run off and do their greater good duty.

With the losses that the astra militarium take every day how has the IoM not fallen? There are always more troops to draft into the army. (Yes the IoM has a larger amount of planets to supply their armies with but they also have a much larger army and take part in far more wars than Tau) The Tau are probably the same as all other humanoids in the Galaxy and reproduce by giving birth to a live infant.

 mrhappyface wrote:
With the losses that the astra militarium take every day how has the IoM not fallen? There are always more troops to draft into the army. (Yes the IoM has a larger amount of planets to supply their armies with but they also have a much larger army and take part in far more wars than Tau) The Tau are probably the same as all other humanoids in the Galaxy and reproduce by giving birth to a live infant.

The IoM though dose not seem to be as mixed gender wise in the forces and doesn't have casts as any human can be forced to fight vs at most 20% of Tau

Oldmike wrote:

 mrhappyface wrote:
With the losses that the astra militarium take every day how has the IoM not fallen? There are always more troops to draft into the army. (Yes the IoM has a larger amount of planets to supply their armies with but they also have a much larger army and take part in far more wars than Tau) The Tau are probably the same as all other humanoids in the Galaxy and reproduce by giving birth to a live infant.

The IoM though dose not seem to be as mixed gender wise in the forces and doesn't have casts as any human can be forced to fight vs at most 20% of Tau

IOM will conscript you pretty much regardless of gender. Just because GW don't have female guardsmen models doesn't mean there are none. Just look at the Tanith - plenty of female soldiers - and the Cadians. It mentions how even female troopers serve in the Cadian military, only taking time out of service to raise more Cadians.

And no - Tau have been identified as more akin to bovine cattle (by Imperial researchers, make of that as you will), so probably do not lay eggs.

"Bovine" - The Tau have special doctors that put on long gloves and stick their arms up inside the female Tau in order to pull the baby tau out. As well as this the Tau have four nipple protuding out of one breast.

Does this mean we can start calling them Cau?

 mrhappyface wrote:

Does this mean we can start calling them Cau?

God i hate life :/

If I recall correctly, we see images of female Tau in the opening sequences of the Fire Warrior video game (when the imperials abduct/assassinate the Tau ethereal), and I think there's a picture of some "commoner" Tau women back in the 5th ed codex.

Or they could be like ants and bees who have a Queen to make all the bebbes. Ants kind of believe in the greater good

I thought we already established that the tau empire is essentially a herd of Cattle.

The Cau empire. (I am going to continue saying it)

I find the sheer amount of time this forum dedicates to thinking about alien reproductive systems to be . . . disturbing.

 EnTyme wrote:
I find the sheer amount of time this forum dedicates to thinking about alien reproductive systems to be . . . disturbing.

Hmmm, I was just thinking the same thing. 'Aw not this again...'

I guess it's that time again.

We really have no idea how they have kids. We can assume that children mature fast since Farsight was going to be accepted into the full military academy at age 7 or so and got in three years early. It doesn't specifically say 7 but Tau only live to be 40 on average then they must reach maturity very fast. Some kids in the Imperium would likely be recruit able/drafted at age 10-14 depending on how dire the circumstances are.

So Tau would hilariously enough be even more better at rebounding from losses than the IG planets around because they can have a new generation of soldiers up and quicker.

It's the Dungeons and Dragons Elf problem. Elves are just slow learner and probably like 20 years in diapers. It takes Elven mages centuries to master magic meanwhile humans can do it in a scant few decades.

Similar thing here. Humans are just naturally slower learning and remain helpless longer than Tau. They do live longer but having a short life can be beneficial depending on the species.

If they do lay eggs which I find unlikely then we're in trouble since they might lay eggs in clutches which would explain even further their ability to get what seems to be an almost endless amount of troops to the front.

Well, this answers it for me...

 EnTyme wrote:
I find the sheer amount of time this forum dedicates to thinking about alien reproductive systems to be . . . disturbing.

Welcome to the internet!


As to Tau reproduction, since there are no Tau women, Tau just spring out of holes in the ground.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 EnTyme wrote:
I find the sheer amount of time this forum dedicates to thinking about alien reproductive systems to be . . . disturbing.

Welcome to the internet!


As to Tau reproduction, since there are no Tau women, Tau just spring out of holes in the ground.

That there are no Tau women is technically correct... there are, however, Tau females. :p

@Furyou Miko - I see what you did there...

 EnTyme wrote:
I find the sheer amount of time this forum dedicates to thinking about alien reproductive systems to be . . . disturbing.

We must have a lot of Mass Effect fans here.

EnTyme wrote:
I find the sheer amount of time this forum dedicates to thinking about alien reproductive systems to be . . . disturbing.

Idd.

Do we know that Tau have males and females? Do we know they reproduce by sex?

Do Tau females look different from Tau males? To the untrained human eye, they probably look exactly the same, if you see any animal, unless you have a ton of experience, you won't be able to differentiate between the male/female of the species.

 Griddlelol wrote:
Do we know that Tau have males and females? Do we know they reproduce by sex?

Do Tau females look different from Tau males? To the untrained human eye, they probably look exactly the same, if you see any animal, unless you have a ton of experience, you won't be able to differentiate between the male/female of the species.

We know that there are different genders of Tau (Shadowsun), but reproduction is unknown.

There can be a visible difference in Tau gender appearance, males have an I in their forehead compared to the Y of female Tau.

We know that they raise their children in creches, separated from their parents, and that they are mated by genetic lottery rather than romance.

We know that Tau romance is separated entirely from reproduction - Tau marry their team-mates, not the father/mother of their children - Ta'lissera.

We also know that Shadowsun would have had to retire to raise a family.

Contradictory facts because of a fool who decided that was the best plot hook for a story about a female military commander without actually knowing the rest of the fluff, I guess.

What ? Someone really wrote this about Shadowsun ?!

I can't see how it can be for the greater good to one not make someone like shadowsun have kids or let her retire as long as she can fight

Q: Do TAU lay eggs

A: Only in close combat!

godardc wrote:What ? Someone really wrote this about Shadowsun ?!

The Last of Kiru's Line by Braden Campbell.

Oldmike wrote:I can't see how it can be for the greater good to one not make someone like shadowsun have kids or let her retire as long as she can fight

Well, what makes no sense is forcing her to retire to have children - Tau mothers don't raise their own children. At most you're looking at a gestation period's worth of leave.

The only explanation that could possibly make sense is that they mean for her to retire from active duty to run an academy like Puretide did, but no, it explicitly states that it's to become a mother.

It's a real shame, because apart from the core conflict of the book, it does a good job of showing her to be a total badass.

There's also the fact that your genetic lineage doesn't really determine if you will or won't make a good soldier.

 Psienesis wrote:
There's also the fact that your genetic lineage doesn't really determine if you will or won't make a good soldier.

depends, some traits would be inherited, physical attributes, for example, also genetics can make you more predisposed to certain types of behavior etc. you'd need to train that yes, but it's certainly possiable to breed soldiers with prefered traits.


as for the inital question... Honestly the inital question seems to indicate a thought that a woman can't possiably have children and a career... human women juggle it just fine.

 Furyou Miko wrote:

godardc wrote:What ? Someone really wrote this about Shadowsun ?!

The Last of Kiru's Line by Braden Campbell.

Oldmike wrote:I can't see how it can be for the greater good to one not make someone like shadowsun have kids or let her retire as long as she can fight

Well, what makes no sense is forcing her to retire to have children - Tau mothers don't raise their own children. At most you're looking at a gestation period's worth of leave.

The only explanation that could possibly make sense is that they mean for her to retire from active duty to run an academy like Puretide did, but no, it explicitly states that it's to become a mother.

It's a real shame, because apart from the core conflict of the book, it does a good job of showing her to be a total badass.

Maybe Tau really *ARE* like bees or ants. Maybe most Tau females are drones and the few that reproduce have to grow huge ovipositors like the Queen from Aliens.