FILE REFERENCE: 5502-TX-TAU SUBJECT: T'au (The T'au Empire / The Grey Menace) CLASSIFICATION: Xenos Minoris / Ideologicus CLEARANCE: Violet // Eastern Fringe Command Only DATE: 999.M41 (Standard Terran Cycle)
The T'au are a relatively young, humanoid species originating from the planet T'au in the Ultima Segmentum. In the grand timescale of the galaxy, they are infants. Mere millennia ago, they were savannah-dwelling primitives mastering fire; today, they possess an interstellar empire that encroaches upon the Damocles Gulf.
They are biologically distinct from the divine human form, possessing grey-blue leathery skin, digitigrade legs ending in hooves, and a flat, noseless facial structure. They are physically weaker than the average Imperial Guardsman and possess slower optical reflexes, making them poor combatants in close quarters. However, to dismiss them as weak is to misunderstand the nature of the threat. They do not seek to defeat the Imperium through strength of arm, but through the insidious poison of their ideology.
T'au society is structured around a rigid, genetically enforced caste system. Each caste is a subspecies bred for a specific role, forbidden from interbreeding.
Fire Caste (Shas): The warriors and soldiers. Bred for aggression and strength.
Earth Caste (Fio): The engineers and labourers. Stocky and pragmatic.
Water Caste (Por): The diplomats, merchants, and spies. Fluid linguists who spread their lies.
Air Caste (Kor): The pilots and void-crews. Hollow-boned and adapted for zero-gravity.
Ruling over all are the Ethereals (Aun). These mysterious figures command absolute, unquestioning loyalty from the other castes. Imperial analysis suggests this control may be pheromonal or chemically induced, as the devotion displayed borders on the biological. The T'au claim this unity is for "The Greater Good" (Tau'va), a collective philosophy that subsumes the individual's worth to the needs of the empire. This is a naive, godless doctrine that denies the divinity of the Emperor.
The most disturbing attribute of the T'au, to the eyes of the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition, is their lack of spiritual presence. The T'au possess a negligible signature in the Warp. They are effectively soul-blind.
Because of this, they are incapable of generating psykers. They cannot navigate the Warp using Navigators, relying instead on slower, shallow "ether-dips" for faster-than-light travel. This limits the speed of their expansion but also renders them largely immune to the corruption of Chaos. They do not understand the Daemon; they view the Warp merely as a hostile dimension of "mind-science," a dangerous ignorance that will eventually lead to their undoing. To the Imperium, a race without a connection to the Warp is a race without a soul, hollow and empty.
The T'au rely on technology to compensate for their physical shortcomings. Their engineering is sleek, efficient, and deeply heretical. They utilize "Pulse" weaponry, plasma-based rifles that outrange and out-punch the standard Lasgun.
Their primary military strength lies in their Battlesuits. From the stealthy XV25 to the towering XV104 Riptide, these exo-armours grant a single Fire Warrior the firepower of a Leman Russ tank and the mobility of a jump-trooper. Furthermore, they make extensive use of Drones - floating disks controlled by basic artificial intelligence. The T'au have no prohibition against the "Silica Animus." They grant their machines a degree of autonomy that borders on the Abominable Intelligence forbidden by the Omnissiah. They trust their lives to thinking machines, a sin for which they must be punished.
The T'au disdain the "honourable" combat of the bayonet and the chainsword. They view attrition as a failure of planning. They fight with a cowardly reliance on ranged firepower, mobility, and overlapping fields of fire.
Their tactical doctrines are dualistic:
Kauyon (The Patient Hunter): The lure. They feign retreat, drawing Imperial forces into prepared kill-zones before unleashing overwhelming firepower.
Mont'ka (The Killing Blow): A sudden, decisive strike at the enemy command structure to sever the head of the army.
They employ "Pathfinder" teams to paint targets with marker-lights, guiding seeker missiles with unerring accuracy. Fighting them requires speed and the willingness to close the distance into melee, where their technology counts for nothing against the edge of a blade.
The T'au are unique among xenos in that they offer the option of surrender. They utilize the Water Caste to subvert Imperial planetary governors with trade deals and promises of technological aid. They broadcast propaganda to the downtrodden masses, promising a life free of the "corpse-worship" of the Imperium.
Traitorous humans who defect to the T'au are known as "Gue'vesa" (Human Helpers). These heretics fight alongside their xenos masters, utilizing Imperial equipment upgraded with T'au tech. This makes the T'au a moral threat; they prove that the weak-willed can be turned not just by Chaos, but by the promise of comfort.
The T'au are a naive child playing with a loaded bolter. They believe reason and diplomacy can conquer a galaxy of horrors. They are expansionist upstarts who must be taught that the galaxy belongs to Humanity alone. Their technology is to be smashed, their Ethereals executed, and their "Greater Good" exposed for the lie that it is.
Thought for the Day: A small mind is easily filled with faith.
@Broadside Battlesuit XV88 (T'au)
@Cadre Fireblade (T'au)
@Crisis Battlesuit XV8 (T'au)
@Fire Warrior (T'au)
@Pathfinder (T'au)
@Riptide Battlesuit XV104 (T'au)
@Stealth Suit XV25 (T'au)