It was a discussion in the comments. I cant re-find it at the moment.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Iracundus wrote:The Vau are not the Tau. If anything, they are thematically closer to the Eldar, in that they fill the role of inscrutable manipulative alien "Other" with advanced technology as contrast to the medieval European themed mainstream human society of the Fading Suns universe.
Isnt the Eldar is more of a dying race consisting of specialists rather than castes?
According to
GW publications the Tau is inspired by japanese culture. While the Vau is based on China, even to the extent of their leaders being called mandarins, so I can see the thematic similarities.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Mentlegen324 wrote:Sounds like complete nonsense to me. That isn't how copyright and licensing works. You don't need a license in order to create something with some of the same basic aspects.
Having a quick at wikipedia the Tau were first thought of in the early 90s, before this "fading suns" even existed. They were called the "the Shishell" originally and the caste system was still part of them, with the idea being a W40K counterpart to lizardmen in the same way eldar were elves. Their name after that was then "Tao" before becoming "Tau".
https://gavthorpe.co.uk/2017/06/26/the-origins-of-the-tau/
"Gavin Thorpe began developing what eventually became the Tau in the early 1990s. Initially, he conceived them as the counterpart to the Lizardmen faction from Warhammer Fantasy, in the same way the Eldar are the counterpart of the High Elves, and he called them "the Shishell". Like the Lizardmen, the Shishell had a caste-based society. The Shishell had five castes: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. The race was ruled by a caste of psykers. In 1999, Thorpe revisited his Shishell concept when Games Workshop asked him to develop a new army. The caste system became part of the new Tau race.[1] The Spirit caste was renamed "Ethereal", and the Ethereals became non-psychic so as to differentiate them from the Eldar Seer councils.
Whereas most of the races in Warhammer 40,000 are based on Tolkien fantasy races (e.g. the Eldar are based on High Elves), the culture and technology of the Tau were heavily inspired by Japanese science-fiction. This idea was proposed by Jes Goodwin, who is a sculptor at Games Workshop, as a way to attract new players who weren't interested by the overall fantasy-in-space theme of the other Warhammer 40,000 races.
The Kroot were originally conceived as a separate army in themselves, but were eventually merged with the Tau.[1]
According to Andy Chambers, the chief designer at the time, the T'au were intended "to be altruistic and idealistic, believing heartily in unification as the way forward." Graham McNeill was responsible for much of the background material produced for the T'au, developing what Andy Chambers described as "their proud, quiet but determined character [developed] to the point where they actually became a rather likeable, if slightly naive addition to the cosmos.""
Vau were certainly released years before any Tau model was made? I downloaded a few Fading Suns sourcebook pdfs and can certainly see similarities. The eastern influence, the altruistic/good guy/ordered society compared to a decaying human empire. The lack of noses