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I noticed that Farsight's arc closely resembles that of Horus Lupercal. Most celebrated commander of his people, turning against them due to discovering the lies and hypocrisy of the Emperor/Aun'Va. So far as I can tell the main difference in their arcs is that chaos never tainted Farsight and his cause; his defection was motivated (AFAIK) by idealism and conventional disgust with the Ethereals. Thus he simply defected, rather than setting the Empire aflame. In this parallel I guess Shadowsun would be Guilliman?

You said it; Horus was a tool of Chaos used for the aim of destroying the Imperium and throwing humanity into a dark age of strife and division, and Farsight is a reformer who has legitimate grievances with the Ethereals. If his story line moves forward I can see him trying to reform the Tau Empire the "right way" instead of just trying to burn it all down to install himself as leader of the ashes.

They're not really analogous. Horus explicitly betrays and turns on his people. Farsight doesn't do anything of the kind (and it's pretty heavily implied that he'd swoop in to help the Tau empire at large if gak really got dire).

Farsight legitimately believes in the concept of the "Greater Good", he's simply had an opportunity to experience it without the shadowy hand of the Ethereal caste meddling in its execution.

Well, Farsight isn’t a Horus equivalent.

Thinking back, his rebellious tendencies began when his Expeditionary Force lost all their Ethereals due to attrition. He then nicked off with his troops, and cut off contact.

Crucially, Farsight doesn’t overtly work against the Tau Empire. He’s just not keen on Ethereals.

Exactly why isn’t revealed clearly. But if you look into obscure books like Xenos Biologis, there are hints that the devotion paid to Ethereals isn’t entirely natural. Indeed, that book contends there’s some pheremonal quality to it. Now that is either just happenstance, or quite insidious depending on how you look at it.

But I can’t safely or fairly say Farsight is their version of Horus, because he will still stand with the other Enclaves, and has never sought their destruction.

 Danielle Rae wrote:
I noticed that Farsight's arc closely resembles that of Horus Lupercal. Most celebrated commander of his people, turning against them due to discovering the lies and hypocrisy of the Emperor/Aun'Va. So far as I can tell the main difference in their arcs is that chaos never tainted Farsight and his cause; his defection was motivated (AFAIK) by idealism and conventional disgust with the Ethereals. Thus he simply defected, rather than setting the Empire aflame. In this parallel I guess Shadowsun would be Guilliman?

Short answer... no.

Longer answer... nooooooooooooo.

Kidding. I think a huge, fundamental difference is that Farsight isn't looking to take control of the T'au Empire. He's moreso looking to survive on the fringe, fighting the good fight against enemies that the Empire's leadership refuse to acknowledge. I think his story is more pragmatic. There are enemies on the frontier and his duty is to defend the T'au people. If that makes him an outlaw, so be it. There is also a pretty big difference in terms of perception. Horus was the Warmaster. He was a well known public figure that the average Imperial probably admired. Farsight is different. He's an impossible figure. The T'au don't live that long. The average T'au citizen probably thinks that the Farsight stories are boogeyman tales. He's kind of like Batman. There are a lot of stories, but he can't possibly be real, right? Then there are others who sympathize and either go off to join the Enclaves or send supplies and new wargear. He clearly has a secret, but functional supply chain. It's entirely possible that the Ethereals are aware of this and passively support it because while they may not like how he's going about it or understand why he seems functionally immortal, but they do seem aware that Farsight is performing a valuable service to the Empire. They just can't acknowledge that publicly without losing face (and subsequently a bit of their grip over the T'au people).

I don't trust Dawn Blade. I don't think he's the Tau equivalent of Horus but in the grim-dark of 40k, wielding a weapon like Dawn Blade can only lead to bad things.

The general gist og it:

You can place it. Possabilaties varies, as it can be used on nids.

It genrrates a lot og energy. Resulting in heat.

It focuses that heat in one direction.

Farsight DID help the tau empire, last edition in the Damocles campaign, he led a rapid insertion suit force and saves the Tau empire.

The sword he held looks Necron/pre Necron based, perhaps it deters Chaos somehow like the pylons.

 lare2 wrote:
I don't trust Dawn Blade. I don't think he's the Tau equivalent of Horus but in the grim-dark of 40k, wielding a weapon like Dawn Blade can only lead to bad things.

Well the Dawn Blade isn't a chaos weapon and most likely a Necron one...

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 lare2 wrote:
I don't trust Dawn Blade. I don't think he's the Tau equivalent of Horus but in the grim-dark of 40k, wielding a weapon like Dawn Blade can only lead to bad things.

Well the Dawn Blade isn't a chaos weapon and most likely a Necron one...

Because Necrons are so lovely and nice.

They are though. Now step inside the blood spattered room with ominous looking high tech equipment, with a sign over it that says "Free puppies and cookies here"

 Danielle Rae wrote:
So far as I can tell the main difference in their arcs is that chaos never tainted Farsight and his cause; his defection was motivated (AFAIK) by idealism and conventional disgust with the Ethereals.

Wasn't the point at which Farsight defected also the first time that the Tau encountered chaos?

I thought the Dawn Blade was a sword of vaul?

:think:

I really can't tell it looks like one.

 Asherian Command wrote:
I thought the Dawn Blade was a sword of vaul?

:think:

I really can't tell it looks like one.

There's a recurring theory that it might be the last Cronesword.

If deliberate, it's a nicely-drawn parallel, even if it's only really there to provide a straightforward fluffy justification for Tau fighting other Tau on the tabletop.

Farsight is Martin Luther to the Ethereals' Catholic Church.

I don't think they're remotely close as far as their relationship with their respective fellow kins as well as their actions based on their beliefs.

Farsight broke off from the empire after finding out that ethereals he was guarding were experimenting/hiding the existence of the warp from the empire. He felt that the ethereals were being shady with whatever they were doing/involving themselves to the warp, and began to distrust them and no longer saw them as figures who are fit to rule over the Tau society. Of course, he could not overturn the caste system that has been set up by the ethereals or the empire itself, so he broke off with whoever would join him.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Grumblewartz wrote:
Farsight is Martin Luther to the Ethereals' Catholic Church.

Missed this post up here - this is a good comparison.

 skchsan wrote:


Farsight broke off from the empire after finding out that ethereals he was guarding were experimenting/hiding the existence of the warp from the empire. He felt that the ethereals were being shady with whatever they were doing/involving themselves to the warp, and began to distrust them and no longer saw them as figures who are fit to rule over the Tau society. Of course, he could not overturn the caste system that has been set up by the ethereals or the empire itself, so he broke off with whoever would join him.

Mostly accurate. After learning the truth about the Etherals Farsight couldn't bring himself to start a schism in Enclave society for fear of returning them to the chaos and madness of the days before the unification, so he deliberately wandered off into a desert to die. Unbeknownst to him he pretty much couldn't die from old age (thanks Dawn Blade!) and spent quite a long time (i think it's almost two hundred years) as a hermit. Only when the Tyranids came to the world did he return, and assume the mantle of leadership over the Enclaves, which at this point had been isolated from Tau society for a few hundred years.

As the fluff goes, the act of sacrifice by Earth Caste scientists to destroy the Tyranid splinter fleet re-ignited Farsight's faith in the Greater Good, even if his interpretation of it differed from the one the Ethereals attempted to impose.

Farsight is more like Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now than Horus.

Sterling191 wrote:

 Asherian Command wrote:
I thought the Dawn Blade was a sword of vaul?

:think:

I really can't tell it looks like one.

There's a recurring theory that it might be the last Cronesword.

There was a short story about the CTan creating a sword that did something similar, and I would personally argue that the Dawnblade has many aesthetic similarities to Necron blades weapons.

It's all conjecture though.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

There was a short story about the CTan creating a sword that did something similar, and I would personally argue that the Dawnblade has many aesthetic similarities to Necron blades weapons.

It's all conjecture though.

For sure. I tend to lean towards the Crone Sword theory largely because it keeps Farsight relevant to the galactic meta-narrative, as opposed to being just one of the few non-donkey-caves in m42.

Maybe the Ethereals are using empathic technology instead of psychic technology.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Exactly why isn’t revealed clearly. But if you look into obscure books like Xenos Biologis, there are hints that the devotion paid to Ethereals isn’t entirely natural. Indeed, that book contends there’s some pheremonal quality to it. Now that is either just happenstance, or quite insidious depending on how you look at it.

You need to read the Farsight novels. It's not hints anymore, they explicitly have some sort of mental control that they're fully aware of. Aun'Va forces a Water caste to commit suicide just by telling her to despite her trying to fight her own body from doing it. He does this after a different Chaos possessed Water caste questions an Ethereal(something that's implied should be impossible for other T'au to do) in a council.

Sterling191 wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

There was a short story about the CTan creating a sword that did something similar, and I would personally argue that the Dawnblade has many aesthetic similarities to Necron blades weapons.

It's all conjecture though.

For sure. I tend to lean towards the Crone Sword theory largely because it keeps Farsight relevant to the galactic meta-narrative, as opposed to being just one of the few non-donkey-caves in m42.

Not every character needs to be fluff-changing like that to be relevant to the galaxy though; just look at some of the Chaos Marine characters. Him wielding an ancient Necron sword is good enough for me, and he can change the galaxy via crushing the man, man.

 Grumblewartz wrote:
Farsight is Martin Luther to the Ethereals' Catholic Church.

This is a great comparison.