Good anti-Imperium of Man fappery essays.

[name_here]

The Tyranids also use non-Warp FTL. If I recall correctly, they have some handwavium gravity manipulation technology.

I think that depends on the writer, or has changed recently. I definitely recall them emerging from the Warp in some cases.

Proper canon is that they travel through the warp by harnessing the gravity of distant masses to pull themself towards those masses. Tyranid hive fleets are drawn to disturbances in the warp (such as the Astronomican), but they actually block access to the warp in their vicinity. Which leads to the very obvious fan canon that they are intergalactic artillery engineered by some warp sensitive race for the purpose of exterminating (and insulating their creators from in the process) other warp sensitive races because of shit like the birth of Slaanesh, which throws out warp storms in every direction. They are heading for Terra because the Emperor on his golden throne is a gestating chaos god of grimderp and he smells delicious.

Unfortunately, the authors were probably just going for "they are attracted to warp disturbances because they want to eat them for their super awesome warp powers" or "they are attracted to warp disturbances because."

I would assume they use warp disturbances to steer. I mean, they home in on signals from genestealer brood psychic broadcasts. The Astronomicon is basically the same principle.

[hyzmarca]

I mean, say what you will about the Imperium's leadership, there hasn't been a repeat of the Horus Heresy since the Emperor was put on the throne.

Depends on what you mean by that. There totally was another Imperium spanning civil war, but neither side fell to Chaos.

Yeah, I mean nearly half the Space Marines joining Chaos.

[Stahlseele]

You know something is wrong with your Empire, when the Orky lifestyle starts to look like a nice alternative.

[OgreBattle]

Orks have a zen state of mind and the galaxy is exactly the way they want it to be. That quote from the Eldar philosopher on that was a good one that really made the 40k galaxy a lot more interesting for me.

[Sakuya Izayoi]

I used to think the Tau were pretty weeaboo, but I came to realize that's the point. They are the light that illuminates just how oppressive the gloom is. They show that there are problems with the galaxy that go beyond "monsters exist IRL", about how mankind is the real monster, yadda yadda. And darkening the Tau up misses the point entirely.

[Zaranthan]

That quote from the Eldar philosopher

"A society without stress", right? The very idea sent shivers up my spine.

[Stahlseele]

Uthan the Perverse. Very good quote.

[nockermensch]

I used to think the Tau were pretty weeaboo, but I came to realize that's the point. They are the light that illuminates just how oppressive the gloom is. They show that there are problems with the galaxy that go beyond "monsters exist IRL", about how mankind is the real monster, yadda yadda. And darkening the Tau up misses the point entirely.

The reasonableness of the Tau is hilarious in the context of WH40k universe. I mean, look at them:



When your army ends looking unique because they use camouflage in their armor and vehicles, you know something is amiss. The joke, of course, is on them. The Tau bring sane tactics and equipment to a galaxy where chainsaw swords and power fists are considered top military technology and interstellar travel is done by portalling through literal hell (that the Tau can't quite perceive).

[OgreBattle]

Their s5 30" range guns were really shocking when they were first announced.

Though I want to know who exactly it was in GW that decided that the Tau needed a space pope guarded by naked halberdiers.

[Chamomile]

I'm okay with Tau getting grimdark'd because it gives me an excuse to blow them up, and I go to 40k for a setting where every single faction is someone I can blow up.

[Sakuya Izayoi]

It's kind of a weird darkening, too. Sterilization programs, brainwashing, death camps, etc - these are things that actually happen, so its not unreasonable that the Tau might end up doing them, especially when they're trying to draw parallels with the Cold War. So this is to drive home the point that there are "no good guys" in the 41st millenium, right? Well, over on the Imperium side, the black ships still carry thousands per day to their death, and the Space Marines love nothing more than sacrificing Sororistas to do their space voodoo. And when the Black Ships don't get you, the tithe ships often do, carrying you off to face the galaxy's greatest threats with all of a laser pointer and letter opener.

In contract, I'm fine with a little Stalinism, and still would get in line to become Gue'vessa.

[Lago PARANOIA]

Inventing reasons for factions to engage in mortal combat (pun intended) is like one of the easiest storytelling tasks ever. Anyone who has ever run a campaign of D&D or Shadowrun or WoD or whatever the fuck will have done it so many times that people don't even notice that the game is asking them to come up with thinly plausible reasons for people to butcher other people literally dozens or more times.

If GW has to shitdark up one of the factions because they can't think of enough reasons to motivate people into blowing up a random squadron of Tau without making them another needlessly villainous faction, then they just suck dog dick.

[OgreBattle]

I only read the codices though, not into the novels and the videogame adaptions usually do something 'wrong' in my view.

So are the Tau grimdarked within codices, or just videogames by 3rd parties?

[Stahlseele]

In the Video Games they are not grimdark as far as i remember.
Might be though, has literally been years since i played that last.
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Tau says they started in DOW with the sterilization.

[MGuy]

I only read the codices though, not into the novels and the videogame adaptions usually do something 'wrong' in my view.

So are the Tau grimdarked within codices, or just videogames by 3rd parties?

I remember the sterilization bit but honestly I don't blame the Tau for wanting to do that. The humans in that game were all pretty damn terrible and considering all the human factions had the attitude of "kill all aliens and other humans" then the Tau deciding to limit the human problem after the campaign seems a lot more reasonable considering the circumstances. Note though that I am much more familiar with the games (which I've played almost all) than the books (which I've only read a handful). So videogame wise they were the good guys as far as I was concerned. They were my favorite race in the games, with the necrons coming in at a close second (I found necrons were easier to play for me).

[name_here]

It should be noted that the Tau controlled Kronus prior to Dark Crusade, and the human population was apparently doing alright. The Tau herded the human population into camps after a major uprising in support of the Imperial Guard. It's ambiguous whether they actually sterilized them or the birth rate dropped sharply as a natural consequence of having gender-segregated camps.

[Stahlseele]

The only time the Tau were mentioned in a novel, the Kroot were shown as cannibals and the aetherials as knowing and accepting of that fact.

[Koumei]

Cannibals as in eating their own kind? Or cannibals as in eating humans? Because if it's the latter, well... so do cats and pigs, and people are okay with those things.

They can eat basically anything made out of meat, and benefit (as a species) from eating a wide variety of genetic material, so eating some amount of human flesh would be handy for them, but they are established as being able to do that with people who are already dead (and they have no qualms with that). So replace graveyards with Ted's Bar and Grill. Problem solved.

If they eat their own kind, that's even less of a problem: clearly it doesn't cause any problems to their health or society - there are other species that eat their own kind just fine, after all.

[radthemad4]

Eating sapient beings isn't evil but it usually requires murder (corpses that aren't freshly murdered tend to be bad for you). If you can sterilize corpses so it doesn't require murder, or if they were already freshly murdered (e.g. fresh enemy soldier corpses, homicides that already happened, prisoners who got the death penalty (not debating the morality of the death penalty, just assuming it already happens), etc.) I don't see any problems with it.

[Blade]

I had the impression that the Tau were designed to carter to the US children, who would rather play "good guys" rather than space nazis, and whose parents would be more likely to buy them mechas rather than brutal looking minis with pagan religious symbols.

[Stahlseele]

Err, eating humans. And i guess themselves too, the kroot dogs are normal kroot who ate the wrong food that led into an evolutionary dead end i think.

The book described it as being a big farm barn(one of the industrial sized ones, not one of the good old timey ones) filled with heaps of skinned dead bodies ready for shipping and eating.
And headhunts for specific units to be eaten to gain a genetic/evolutionary advantage from.

[name_here]

The Kroot get to copy genetic information from stuff they eat, so eating enemy dead gives them a major advantage in most cases. They don't attack civilians and allied forces to produce more corpses, so it's not really terribly objectionable. The Tau think it's kind of gross but generally let them do it unless they're going after Chaos corpses.

[Sakuya Izayoi]

I had the impression that the Tau were designed to carter to the US children, who would rather play "good guys" rather than space nazis, and whose parents would be more likely to buy them mechas rather than brutal looking minis with pagan religious symbols.

Hey, that's not fair.

Erwin Rommel actually gave his troops weapons that worked against the enemy, lel.

[Koumei]

And Kroot don't eat genestealer*-infested meat. If you've been tongued by those critters, Kroot can instantly taste it in your corpse and won't eat it. Presumably the whole "infect genes and cause mutations" thing causes them to devolve into Hounds.

Tau were also a ham-handed attempt at getting in on the whole "anime" thing the kids are into these daysten years ago. Possibly for the weeaboo West, possibly "Oh, all of those interchangeable Asians will like this!" Hence all of the mecha suits, which looked too blocky for fans of sleek mecha design.

Yes, actual anime fans naturally flocked to Eldar, who cater to a lot of the smaller demographics (Tolkien fantasy, fancy-looking Sci-fi, anime, female gamers). Eldar was actually a big hit for players who aren't into death metal.

But fortunately, they didn't throw their hands in the air on that one and say "Okay, they have one codex ever then we forget they existed", but actually evolved them a bit. So they're colonialists who are less awful than European colonialists were, and they have amazing tech in specific fields that do not mix magic with tech, and they have a kind of weird caste system that is almost closer to the thing insects have. Also they're okay with strapping nuclear reactors to their bigger robots for power sources - I can't see how that could go wrong. And yeah, they always had the "Kind of good guys" thing, and the "Look, we have decent ranged weapons and camouflage and full environment suits!" thing, and skimmers that, in the desert colour scheme, really looks like they're going for Star Wars pod racing. They have an audience. It's just not the original intended one.

*They're more like gene-hijackers really. Kroot are the ones who "steal" (illegally download and copy?) your DNA for their own uses, Genestealers cause your next of kin to carry their traits.

[Lokathor]

Their s5 30" range guns were really shocking when they were first announced.

Though I want to know who exactly it was in GW that decided that the Tau needed a space pope guarded by naked halberdiers.

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So, are the guys from Halo based on these Tau leaders then?