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Homeworld:Blerreon (Destroyed by Supernova) Now, they inhabit sorrouding systems.
Location: They inhabit regions on the galactic south, in Veiled Regions beyond the reach of Astronomican. First contact has been made in M38 by a Rough Trader.
Their area of influence contains only small number of systems.
Physiology: Their physilogy is humanoid, similiar to Ork, but less musculate. And way smarter.
Height is usually between 1.7 to 2.2 meters, weight about 140kgs. Their back is covered in long, grey fur.
They are completely herbivorous.
There is Male and Female gender.
Technology: They are capable of interstellar faring, but not Warp travel. During space flights, they hibernate.
Energy weapons can be found only on capital ships. It's not known of they prefer solid projectiles, or energy weaponry isn't fully developed.
Force-field technology partially developed. They developed repulsive fields, effective only against small items, such as asteroids up to approx. 7 meters wide.
Nuclear fusion understood and widely used.
Anti-grav technology not developed.
FTL drive not developed.
Culture and society: Unknown.
Warfare: They like to attach cybernetics, bionics and other mechanical replacements of their own body.
By using bionics, they can also specialise in different combat roles, such as runners, jump infantry, heavy infantry, climbers, brawlers etc...
Soldiers ritually burn their flesh as a demonstration of their bravery, leaving them horribly scarred.
They are also supersticious and uses "shamans" to get rid of bad spirits.
They utilise alot of specialised infantry and walkers. Combat vehicles are used rarely.
Known Unit names: (Names listed bellow are nicknames given by Guardsmen. Real names are unknown) Infantry: Runners – Lightly armed and armored, used mostly as fast assault or recon unit.
Flyiers – Equipped with bionical wings, allowing them to fly or glide.
Brawlers – Heavily armored walker with giant claws.
Heavys – Heavily armored and armed ranged infantry.
Climbers – Lightly armed infantry infantry capable of climbing over walls.
Smarts – Usually command units. Distingtive mark is big head.
Horsers – Armored walker with 4 legs. Equivalent to our Rough Riders.
Clowns – Non-combatant, but common on battlefield. Probably shamans or such.
Known Vehicles: MZ – Armored 8-wheeled vehicle, used as platform for various weapons. (Equivalent to our Chimera)
Crawler – Walking armored vehicle roughly same size as Leman Russ.
Coffin – Lightly armored 6-wheeler used as transport.
Known Fliers: Shadow – Giant octarotor flying fortress. Usually serves as transport.
Dragonfly – Small twinrotor. Used mostly as recon unit. Combat role is rare.
Known Weapons: Hrae'er – Thing very similiar to autogun. Probably a standart issue gun. (The only known real name) Grenade Thower – Similiar to our one.
Electric Harpoon – Very dangerous weapon. Fires large needle connected by thin wire with gun. After impact, gun sends powerful electric discharge to victim's body. Can be prevented by not being grounded. Dangerous to vehicles and usually carried by Heavys.
Flamethower – Do decsription needed.
Known Characters: Rulali Keueitt – A Smart who neogotiated with Rough Trader.
Clabaoxion – A Brawler, leader od Rulali's bodyguad reunite.
Argisub – A Clown
Kzirgatarn – Flyier who shot himself with Electro Harpoon during Rough Trader's visit.
Klaxomarta – Captured Runner who tied to get aboard a Rough Trader's vessel.
That's a good start but I will state that the Imperium itself uses Nuclear Fusion trivially and liberally. They look down on the Rak'Gol as primitive savages because the Rak'Gol don't have anything more sophisticated than Nuclear Fission.
Midnightdeathblade wrote: Think of a daemon incursion like a fart you don't quite trust... you could either toot a little puff of air, bellow a great effluvium, or utterly sh*t your pants and cry as it floods down your leg.
Well, I'd keep Fusion as the Rak'Gol can make use of it to the extent they do because they're apparently immune to ionizing radiation.
It's also their signature.
Midnightdeathblade wrote: Think of a daemon incursion like a fart you don't quite trust... you could either toot a little puff of air, bellow a great effluvium, or utterly sh*t your pants and cry as it floods down your leg.
Are Rough Traders the merchantmen of the Void who've fallen on hard times and get by with a rust-bucket of a ship and offer no-questions-asked, no-Imperial-entanglement passage to plucky farmboys, old men and wisecracking servitors?
Next question... is it because they're busy that the Imperium hasn't scheduled this race's extermination, or is there something else stopping them?
It is best to be a pessimist. You are usually right and, when you're wrong, you're pleasantly surprised.
They are beyond Astronomican's reach so no ordinary space flight don't go so far. And one fallen on hard times Rough trader in rust-bucket ship dared to go there and found them.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/04/29 18:46:28
The average distance between stars outside the galactic core is from 5 to 10 light-years.
Without FTL travel, that means it takes your species about 15 years or more to travel from one point of their reign to another. It is too much to hold an Empire, to coordinate attacks/defense and the like. If someone attack one of the systems, it will take a lot of years for the rest of them to notice. So each sector will be to all effects isolated from the rest. Cultural evolution will soon create highly divergent societies.
But they have psykers. Perhaps they can communicate through the void using astropaths-equivalents. That will allow them to hold a central goverment. However, the vast majority of the population will be to all effects isolated and quickly become quite different from one another.
What are the Clowns? What are they able to do? What exactly they think they are doing?
Getting psykers means getting in contact with Chaos. Which means crime, insanity, art, dreams & nightmares, religion... Do they get corrupted by Chaos? What do their leaders do those corrupted? Are the leaders corrupted?
Culture and society:
Unknown.
^This is bad. You should work on it.
Do they have religion? Art? Castes? Politics?
Who rules? Why?
Why do Smarts have a big head? Genetics? Surgery?
Do Smarts rule or it is only a military position?
What do they do with those who deny their right to rule? It is a happy society where everyone has money to live... or a hell-like regime? Do they educate / indoctrinate their children to accept their rule?
Soldiers ritually burn their flesh as a demonstration of their bravery, leaving them horribly scarred.
White Scars and Slaanesh followers do the same. Some of them eventually start to enjoy the feeling. Do some Rants love the pain and relish the madness of battle?
About Psienesis´s question: the Imperium is extremely xenophobic. The imperial citizens are told since birth that all xenos must be destroyed. What is the relation with your guard-army?
Force-field technology partially developed. They developed repulsive fields, effective only against small items, such as asteroids up to approx. 7 meters wide.
This is important. It means they cannot survive a bombardment by a human fleet. A single Inquisitorial vessel could go to one system, destroy all planets, then go to the next, repeat... In a few days, another xeno species will join the vast list of species wiped out by humanity. More information about this particular problem could be nice, Do they know the size and power of the Empire they just found?
What do they think of humans?
Did they meet other xeno species before? Did it end in war, trade, alliance?
What do they know of their own history?
Stupid question I want to ask anyway: how it comes a herbivore became the dominant species? I would wage my money on carnivores & omnivores... Not that I dislike it or think that it can´t happen, but what happen to carnivores?
Last question. This is 40k, so... what terrible truth lies hidden behind this species? What mind-boggling secret are some of them hiding?
Enjoy!
‘Your warriors will stand down and withdraw, Curze. That is an order, not a request. (…) When this campaign is won, you and I will have words’
Rogal Dorn, just before taking the beating of his life.
from The Dark King, by Graham McNeill.
Sorry for being a bit blunt but I kind of think it's a little bland at the moment (then again, that's probably just me).
On the other hand, it looks like you put a large amount of effort here and I'll agree with Kain, it's a good start.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/04/30 00:55:46
Faithful... Enlightened... Ambitious... Brethren... WE NEED A NEW DRIVER! THIS ONE IS DEAD!
I hoped to find someone like you. Answering would be hard, but... Here you go!
So you say FTL is crucial. They can't use Warp, then what about wormholes? Space-bending. Technology not used by the IOMiirc.
they can use non-FTL engines (which can achieve speed close to light speed) and travel through generated wormholes, greatly decreasing time requied to travel.
About communication, they can use "Quantum entanglement" technology. I dunno how it works, but in Mass Effect 3 it allowed interstellar real-time communication.
Clown are shamans. If you imagine native african shamans or witch doctors, wearing masks, jumping around the fire and weird sounds, thats it.
They keep morale of their troops by banighing "evil spirits" and such.
They do not have psykers.
About culture, it is now under development. GF is working on it. She know better theese things than me. I'm more that "cogs'n'gears" guy.
only thing clear right now is, they are ruled by a king.
Smarts have bionically augmented brains. They work as commanding officiers, generals, scientists, mathematicans, various clerks, CEOs and such, where are needed complex calculations and thinking.
About actions of king...
You can discuss it, you can disagree, but thats all you can do. Unless you tahe the throne. Bloody or peaceful way.
Offsprings are educated to become part of a herd. Be quite and go with the mass. (just like us)
No, its a message to others that they are not afraid, they do not fear. True fearlessness but doesn't exist.
Rants will launch huge assault against Europa system. (Equilibrium is 5th planet in this system)
They were been raiding nearby planets, for technology and materials, so they are locally known.
I'll rewrite this part. They will use force-fields on larger ships, repulsion fields on smaller ones. (corvettes, frigates, and smaller.)
Since they have been raiding, they roughly know what IoM is capable of, but they don't know they are galaxy-wide.
About other xenos I have to think about more. They met Necrons, who are quite active down there, but that is still subject of development.
Tricky question...
Maybe carnivores were only smaller sizes (i.e. Foxes, Wolves) and herbivores were fast-reproducing.
How time went, Rants became smarter and started to using weapons for their own defence.
Thats how they became dominant.
They eat human babies! Ha!
Nah, just joking, they are herbivorous.
Honestly, I have no idea...
Hawky wrote: (...)
I hoped to find someone like you.
I enjoy fan-made stuff...
Answering would be hard, but... Here you go!
So you say FTL is crucial. They can't use Warp, then what about wormholes? Space-bending. Technology not used by the IOMiirc.
they can use non-FTL engines (which can achieve speed close to light speed) and travel through generated wormholes, greatly decreasing time requied to travel.
Nope. Wormholes are holes through the fabric of reality. It is an old scientific concept many times used in fiction. And many writers have asked themselves... what is this "other reality" the wormhole pass through? Some authors wrote stories about this "hyperspace" being Hell. Doom (the game), Event Horizon (the movie).... and Warhammer 40000. Wormholes are used widely in the setting. Humanity and the Eldar use them. They call them portals or whatever but they are still wormholes. Orks and Humans tear a hole in reality and they move through it. Eldars do that or use a stable set of wormholes called the Webway. In both cases the "it" you are moving through is called the Warp, and it is Hell, or at least something really close to Hell.
Also... if Rants use wormholes, they have FTL travel. Wormholes is a well-known type of FTL. I mean: it is a well-known, theoretical, many times used in books, FTL method based in quite well developed scientific concepts. Another well known way of FTL travel (in fiction & theoretical science) is through gravity (used by GW on nids). Another one is Quantum Entanglement.
They are all FTL methods: they go faster than light. That´s the reason they are used in fiction involving moving from star A to star B. Otherwise it would be 15 years for every travel.
About communication, they can use "Quantum entanglement" technology. I dunno how it works, but in Mass Effect 3 it allowed interstellar real-time communication.
I recommend you to know the basics of a technology if you say your faction uses it. I know some writers do not do that, and just say scientific terms and hope the readers are dumb. But I will not recommend that.
This is a summary of Quantum Entanglement:
Spoiler:
Quantum Entanglement was discovered / invented (nobody know for sure it exists) mostly by Einstein, Pauli & Schrödinger. More people were implied, but they are the most famous.
Einstein was not fond of the Quantum Mechanics that was taking on Physics, and he believed he had found a paradox that proved that this Theory was wrong. He reasoned like this:
1: According to Quantum Mechanics (1925, Pauli exclusion principle) that if we get two electrons in the same position (“orbital”), they take different values of a given property named “spin”. One of them gets “Spin +” and the other “Spin –“.
2: According to Quantum Mechanics (1935 Schrödinger´s cat experiment; this was after Einstein´s paradox, but it serves us well), reality has many properties mixed up until someone meassures them. So if you launch a coin and it ends where you cannot see it, the coin is not getting “Head” or “Tails” until you look at it. Think about it: you are not seeing the coin -> the coin does not even exists. When you look at the coin, reality picks one of the possibilities and become “Head” or “Tails”.
3: Ok, so imagine we take a couple of electrons in a single orbital and, without looking which one is “Splin +” and which one is “Splin –“ we separate them somehow. You take one and put it into a box and I take the other one and put it into another box.
4: There are theoretical ways to detect the existence of Spin´s unbalances without actually meassuring it, so if we connect the box to a Spin unbalance-detector it will give us “no unbalanced”, since we are not meassuring the Spin and thus, according to Quantum Mechanics, the electron´s spin does not even exists.
5: Now I take my box and get into a space ship, moving 2 light years far from you. And then I open the box and meassure the Spin of my electron, which to all effects creates it.
6: Since there is no way both electrons can get the same Spin, your electron, 2 light years from me, will instantly get a Spin. Both electrons are “entangled at a quantum level”. When one is meassured (created, to all effects) the other instantly reacts. Your Spin unbalance detector will activate and you will know that I just opened my box.
7: By doing this, I have send you information faster than light, something that, according to Einstein Theory of Relativity, it is completely impossible to achieve.
8: Thus, Einstein concludes, the Quantum Mechanics is wrong.
Results: the problem is… the Quantum Mechanics is right. We know it is. It works. We are making machines and technology out of it. So Einstein, it seems, was wrong… and he just discovered a way to send information Faster Than Light. Thank you Einstein! Now we only need to find a way to do steps 3 and 4.
If we get not one but 1024 entangled electrons we can use binary code to turn that into 512 binary boxes. If a box is open then it is a “1” and if it remains closed is a “0”, just like cables inside computers. That’s enough to send you a text made of four letters.
Short version: it is a form of FTL communication using particles you first "entangle", and then changing one of them. According to the current theory, the other will change instantly (so "faster than light". It could be discussed if Quantum Entanglement could be used as a form of transport, and many writers have given their opinions on the matter. If it is, then you are moving from point A to point B by turning into raw information and then being 3D-printed in point B.
Quantum Entanglement goes beyond any technology you listed.
Clown are shamans. If you imagine native african shamans or witch doctors, wearing masks, jumping around the fire and weird sounds, thats it.
They keep morale of their troops by banighing "evil spirits" and such.
They do not have psykers.
I am not sure this works. In this setting, faith is a weapon. If enough people believe in something, they warp reality. If they are "shamans" and people believe they are actually doing something, in this setting that will get a reflection in the warp, and they will become sort of psykers. Magic works. I don´t get the point of having shamans that do not do anything.
Also, by using "it´s magic", you could solve a lot of problems concerning your xeno race in case they do not develope technology powerful enough to do stuff. How do they communicate? Shamans´ dreams. Sounds clunky but it is a solution. An Ork Mek can dream on a weapon (or a FTL system) and build it, and it works! Magic is strong in the setting.
It also gives your race power. The existence of psykers gives a chance of one of them becoming powerful enough to turn, just this individual, into a force to be reckoned with by the other factions.
About culture, it is now under development. GF is working on it. She know better theese things than me. I'm more that "cogs'n'gears" guy.
only thing clear right now is, they are ruled by a king.
Smarts have bionically augmented brains. They work as commanding officiers, generals, scientists, mathematicans, various clerks, CEOs and such, where are needed complex calculations and thinking.
About actions of king...
You can discuss it, you can disagree, but thats all you can do. Unless you tahe the throne. Bloody or peaceful way.
Offsprings are educated to become part of a herd. Be quite and go with the mass. (just like us)
Internal power struggles? How the king become a king? Feudal "my son is the next king" mixed with occasional rebellions? Are nobels a problem?
No, its a message to others that they are not afraid, they do not fear. True fearlessness but doesn't exist.
I will add a "some of them go totally nuts" in the scar parts, but hey I like Chaos.
Rants will launch huge assault against Europa system. (Equilibrium is 5th planet in this system)
They were been raiding nearby planets, for technology and materials, so they are locally known.
I'll rewrite this part. They will use force-fields on larger ships, repulsion fields on smaller ones. (corvettes, frigates, and smaller.)
Since they have been raiding, they roughly know what IoM is capable of, but they don't know they are galaxy-wide.
About other xenos I have to think about more. They met Necrons, who are quite active down there, but that is still subject of development.
Cool
Tricky question...
Maybe carnivores were only smaller sizes (i.e. Foxes, Wolves) and herbivores were fast-reproducing.
How time went, Rants became smarter and started to using weapons for their own defence.
Thats how they became dominant.
They eat human babies! Ha!
Nah, just joking, they are herbivorous.
Honestly, I have no idea...
OK about the carnivores thing. It was just a random thought....
I think every single thing in 40k has a dark side. And usually a really dark one. Think grim dark enough and it will eventually come to you I am sure.
‘Your warriors will stand down and withdraw, Curze. That is an order, not a request. (…) When this campaign is won, you and I will have words’
Rogal Dorn, just before taking the beating of his life.
from The Dark King, by Graham McNeill.
How about you cast rants as one of the weird races the old ones created when playing gods (perhaps even say they were created when the old Ones were trying to make the Orks) and it didn't work out so well, so the old ones sent them away to a deep, dark corner of the galaxy to let evolution fix their problems, then after the war in heaven, they were forgotten about, and eventually evolved into rants. Fits with the fluff of the other races, and actually makes for a pretty good back story when developed well.
If they are "shamans" and people believe they are actually doing something, in this setting that will get a reflection in the warp, and they will become sort of psykers. Magic works. I don´t get the point of having shamans that do not do anything.
You can be a sorcerer without needing to be a Psyker. There are actual schools of arcane magic in the setting.
It is best to be a pessimist. You are usually right and, when you're wrong, you're pleasantly surprised.
Either way, if you believe, it works. Having a full race with fake shamans without real power seems odd. If Rants have a religion, they have a god. And in this setting the gods are real, it is more a fantasy setting than a sci-fi setting. (I think).
There is one single known case, the Tau, without presence in the Warp. One is enough.
‘Your warriors will stand down and withdraw, Curze. That is an order, not a request. (…) When this campaign is won, you and I will have words’
Rogal Dorn, just before taking the beating of his life.
from The Dark King, by Graham McNeill.
I have another idea. They do NOT posses FTL drive, their ships can achieve sub-FTL speeds (lets say 0,8c) by their own engines. During flight, part of the crew is in coldsleep.
Once they arrive to new colonisable system, they build so called "travel hubs". It is basicly hundrets of meters wide. kilometers long, supraconductive solenoid coil, generating extremly powerful electromagnetic force, accelerating the ship.
On one side a ship flew in, and the coil will spit it out at superluminal speed to wished location.
Hub can't be usen only for travel between two of each, but also for sending deep-space missions into the void. But ship must decerate itself.
Also can serve as a weapon against invaders.
TL;DR: Little bit bigger coilgun.
Cool, lessons of quantum physics for free I like it.
I don't want them to be with contact with Chaos, there are no psykers. Quantum entanglement it the only today-known technology that is suitable.
Or I can choose same method as GW used on Tau and do not tell people how they communicate. They just communicate, somehow.
Another option is using same coilguns for travel and comms. Both data or couriers.
(Sending small stone tablets with carved messages )
Ah, Shamans...
Original idea was, Shamans get rid of "evil spirits" and Rants are highly supersticious, so they really "do nothing" but it still make other Rants happy cause they belive the "evil spirits" are gone. They are just morale support. They have been with them since their creation by Old Ones (Which is pretty good idea, thanks Volo )
I would leave it that way, its much easier than making them work as mages, since Rants are technologically oriented.
Or Shamans can be something like techno-mages, using various technologies and device to aid his comrades in battle.
Calling orbital atrillery, firing back-mounted laser blaster, burning foes with handmounted flamethower etc... Something as AdMech higher rank Skitarii.
Then I'll rename them from Shamans to something else. Techno sounds good.
Yes, kingdom is its Feudal way, with all of its features.
Some Nobels licks Kings exit port (Not literally), for more power, benefits etc... Others oppose him, trying to seize the throne for themselves.
Can be. Masochists exist everywhere
I'm wondering what really gimdark thing have Tau. (Europa should have been attacked by Tau, since they are really tiny, I made Rants, that are minor race.)
Nah, my ability to make things more grim-dark is really low. :(
This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2014/05/02 08:17:14
Hawky wrote: I have another idea. They do NOT posses FTL drive, their ships can achieve sub-FTL speeds (lets say 0,8c) by their own engines. During flight, part of the crew is in coldsleep.
Once they arrive to new colonisable system, they build so called "travel hubs". It is basicly hundrets of meters wide. kilometers long, supraconductive solenoid coil, generating extremly powerful electromagnetic force, accelerating the ship.
On one side a ship flew in, and the coil will spit it out at superluminal speed to wished location.
Hub can't be usen only for travel between two of each, but also for sending deep-space missions into the void. But ship must decerate itself.
I like it.
This concept has been used in some novels, the most important being "Hyperion", by Dan Simmons. Humanity used sub-FTL methods to reach a planet and then build portals. It works well, and the resulting society is well described.
Also can serve as a weapon against invaders.
That´s a concept used in a novel called "Prador Moon", by Neal Asher. If you read this book you will probably start thinking about getting the Prador into the 40k setting, they are awesome. In the book the system is called "Runcible".
Cool, lessons of quantum physics for free I like it.
I don't want them to be with contact with Chaos, there are no psykers.
But how could that be possible?
In the setting, Chaos is everywhere. If they have emotions, they feed the gods. And the gods talk to them.
When the Tau were introduced, they had a unique trait: they are not in contact with Chaos. It was the first time a xeno species was left out of the warp. It sounds funny to see another xeno species also invisible to Chaos. I am not saying it cannot be done, it is just that seems odd.
Quantum entanglement it the only today-known technology that is suitable.
Or I can choose same method as GW used on Tau and do not tell people how they communicate. They just communicate, somehow.
Sure, you can do that, but that´s a plot hole.
There are lots of problems with the Tau background because, as you just said, many things they do are left unexplained. In the last Codex, we see Tau launching an attack against the Imperium without using FTL. That means "the author didn´t know what FTL means" or "the author didn´t know how far are stars from one another". Either way, it is badly written background, or cheap fiction. It is a lack of effort.
I am not saying you can´t do that. Any author must stop at one point and stop giving answers and information.
Another option is using same coilguns for travel and comms. Both data or couriers.
(Sending small stone tablets with carved messages )
Why not sending a disk or something?
This is a good solution anyway. If you can send matter you can send information
Ah, Shamans...
Original idea was, Shamans get rid of "evil spirits" and Rants are highly supersticious, so they really "do nothing" but it still make other Rants happy cause they belive the "evil spirits" are gone. They are just morale support. They have been with them since their creation by Old Ones (Which is pretty good idea, thanks Volo )
I would leave it that way, its much easier than making them work as mages, since Rants are technologically oriented.
Or Shamans can be something like techno-mages, using various technologies and device to aid his comrades in battle.
Calling orbital atrillery, firing back-mounted laser blaster, burning foes with handmounted flamethower etc... Something as AdMech higher rank Skitarii.
Then I'll rename them from Shamans to something else. Techno sounds good.
The techno-mage thing sounds fine. They could act as shamans, while actually being techno-adepts. Expanding this concept, the full civilization may think weapons and stuff work through magic, with only the shamans knowing the truth. Nano-technology and bionics could be presented as some form of religious thing.
I will keep them as shamans though. This is a fantasy setting with demons and angels and orks, after all.
And this doesn´t solve the problem of not getting in touch with chaos, which is everywhere.
Yes, kingdom is its Feudal way, with all of its features.
Some Nobels licks Kings exit port (Not literally), for more power, benefits etc... Others oppose him, trying to seize the throne for themselves.
Good, that leaves room for all sorts of stories.
Can be. Masochists exist everywhere
I doubt it applies to the Tau. Emotions feed chaos, and masochism sounds like emotion.
I'm wondering what really gimdark thing have Tau.
They went from feudal age to high technology age in centuries. That happened when, right before a major battle, the skies went dark and the Ethereal came, out of nowhere. And they brought technological and philosophical ideas never heard before. And a full species obssesed with war stopped making war and accepted them as unquestioned rulers, starting a technological arm race against some unidentified target, creating space fleets for this war to come, never questioning the reasons behind the Ethereal´s orders.
They were highly emotional. But they are somehow protected from Chaos. They do not let a trace in the warp that a daemon can use.
A background book called Xenology hinted that the Eldar were behind the Ethereals, and that they controlled the Tau through pheromones. The Necrons were also hinted to be behind the Tau for the no-chaos thing. The "dark" secret is still a secret: we know there is something really odd with them, and they are probably a biological weapon developed by someone. Who and for what purpose is unknown.
A "second" secret is about hypocrisy. They work "for the greater good", but the species that does not accept it are exterminated. And some of the allies may not be allies. The Vespid was hinted to be controlled by the armour they brought, which was supposed to be a communication device given by the Ethereal. So they could be slaves. This may apply to all Tau, with the Ethereals being the undisputed masters, the rest of the species the slaves, and a hidden power behind the Ethereals.
Then you have the Kroot. They get genetical enhancements by eating intelligent beings, they send warbands to eat people. And they suffer extreme mutations that turns them into spawn-equivalents.
(Europa should have been attacked by Tau, since they are really tiny, I made Rants, that are minor race.)
Nah, my ability to make things more grim-dark is really low. :(
Read 40k stuff. Chaos stuff is really dark.
Other not 40k dark stuff: Lovecraft. Clive Barker.
This is not dark, but for inspiration about creating new species& cultures, the best fictional writer is, in my opinion, Jack Vance.
‘Your warriors will stand down and withdraw, Curze. That is an order, not a request. (…) When this campaign is won, you and I will have words’
Rogal Dorn, just before taking the beating of his life.
from The Dark King, by Graham McNeill.
This problem is then solved.
Sorry, I don't really know theese authors. I do not read sci-fi so much.
Hah, that suits GW authors quite well. Some of them.
Stone tablets was a joke. Another problem solved.
*Closing the "Interstellar travel and comms" folder*
*Closing the "Shamans" folder*
I'll write short story, or maybe a novel about Rants assaulting Europa and Imperial guard defending it.
GF told me, she made some parts of their culture. They have God-hero of Rantkind Something as Emperor.
So then I'll be forced to make them to get in touch with Chaos. (You happy? )
But I still don't like the idea of Rant psykers.
Oh, I didn't know that. Maybe because I don't care about Tau. In fact, I don't like them.
What you wrote is quite dark.
I read first two novels of Gaunt's Ghosts, Baneblade and Priests of Mars + following books. They were not so grimdark.
Sorry, I don't really know theese authors. I do not read sci-fi so much.
Reading a lot is a good way (perhaps the best way) to get really good at writing. Then writing a lot.
*Closing the "Interstellar travel and comms" folder*
*Closing the "Shamans" folder*
Good
I'll write short story, or maybe a novel about Rants assaulting Europa and Imperial guard defending it.
GF told me, she made some parts of their culture. They have God-hero of Rantkind Something as Emperor.
So then I'll be forced to make them to get in touch with Chaos. (You happy? )
Yes!
I get happy every time Chaos grows...
But I still don't like the idea of Rant psykers.
Psykers, or individuals related with Chaos one way or another, are part of the setting.
If you don´t like them, don´t use them. But write down some explanation why they don´t. Perhaps that Emperor-equivalent did something that protected them from Chaos, or perhaps the Smarts (or the Shamans) developed a technology to cut the link after doing an experiment involving psykes that ended in a minor daemonic attack, or perhaps is just something related with the way Rants feel emotions....
Saying that they just don´t have a link with the Warp due to nobody knows is already taken: that´s the case of the Tau. They do not let a trace in the Warp, in spite of having emotions and a soul. Nobody knows why, but it is clearly mentioned as a mystery.
Oh, I didn't know that. Maybe because I don't care about Tau. In fact, I don't like them.
What you wrote is quite dark.
The setting is quite dark. The Tau background is "brighter" than the average though.
‘Your warriors will stand down and withdraw, Curze. That is an order, not a request. (…) When this campaign is won, you and I will have words’
Rogal Dorn, just before taking the beating of his life.
from The Dark King, by Graham McNeill.
Neutran Panzergrenadiers, 
Ostrakan Skitarii Legions, 
Order of the Silver Hand
Faithful... Enlightened... Ambitious... Brethren... WE NEED A NEW DRIVER! THIS ONE IS DEAD! 
)