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[Circus]

Well, I was inspired. This is the first in a series of articles entitled "Bad Ideas," about, well, bad ideas, and explaining why these ideas are, in fact, bad ideas. I am well aware that the majority of the forum's users are enlightened as to the fact that these ideas are bad ideas, but they may not know exactly why, and these articles will also be for newbies who, being new to the game, simply are not aware that these ideas are unequivocally bad ones.

So, without further ado, we move onto the idea of Chaos Tau.

What is the idea?
Chaos Tau. This means, broadly, Tau who have been possessed by daemons or Tau that worship the Chaos Gods. It can also mean Tau that have been press-ganged into service by other Chaos-serving factions.

Why is it a bad idea?
We'll start with the "possessed by Daemons" angle. It is well established that the Tau have little-to-no presence in the warp (technically this means they have no soul, but that's for another day). As such it is extremely difficult for a Daemon to possess a Tau, they must go through a much greater effort to get into a Tau's head than it takes to get into the mind of a human. This effort is, quite bluntly, not worth it. The Tau Empire is tiny on a galactic scale, and considering how hard it is to possess a Tau the influence gained compared to the effort expended it is not a risk any Daemon of any God is going to take. It is much easier to corrupt a human, and by and large the humans run the galaxy. No matter which Tau happens to be possessed, even Aun'va, it's going to be more worthwhile in the long run to take over a human in control of a significant Imperial planet. Remember also that Chaos kind of has a vendetta against the Imperium and the Eldar, significantly less so with the Tau. Revenge is not really a motive.

The "possessed by Daemons" angle dovetails nicely into the "worshipping the Gods" angle, as the easiest way to get a lot of people worshipping Chaos is to corrupt/possess an influential individual who then directs those under his influence toward worship. The Tau have a "shoot-on-sight" policy with all things connected to the warp, so if an 'O from any caste starts directing those under him toward worship he's going to be found out pretty quickly, and I'd imagine euthanised. Remember as well as lording it over the other castes, the Ethereal caste polices itself so if an Ethereal got mindraped by daemons they too would be set upon.

What if a cadre was separated from the Empire, you ask? The Tau Empire is an atheistic society, so they are not going to be praying to any kind of God for their salvation when they are in danger. They do their duty. That's the long and short of it. Because of their utmost faith in the Greater Good, they aren't afraid of death in the same way that humans are. It's entirely possible (in fact, probably likely) that a Guard regiment in the grip of a debilitating fatal plague will all turn to Nurgle, but not the case for the Tau.

So we've established that the Tau don't get possessed (waste of effort on the part of the daemon) and don't worship of their own accord (shoot-on-sight warp tainted policy/atheistic society), and these are well known ideas. So now we're going to talk about Chaos Space Marines.

Another option to those that accept the reasons I've given so far is "They were captured by Chaos Space Marines and forced to work for them." Why? Chaos Space Marines capture for two reasons: Forced Labour and Ritual Sacrifice. They don't get their underlings to fight with them except as meatshields, and Tau forces are no more likely to desert the Greater Good in the company of CSMs than they are anywhere else. It is most likely that the Tau, being weaker than humans and unlikely to do anything useful in the eyes of the prideful Chaos Space Marines, would simply be slaughtered as more bodies for the Dark Gods. It's not going to happen that way, boys and girls.

Those are the main ideas. If you have any other ways in which Tau could fall to Chaos, please let me know and I'll debunk them too.

I really like the aesthetic, what do I do?
Well, unlike most of these articles where the "I still like the idea, what do I do?" section is going to be "There's nothing you can do, suck it up," there is something you can do here. The Tau Army, as a rule (and not a guideline) across the Empire, does not employ terror tactics. It doesn't see the point. They are practical. They do not display trophies of their foes; the closest to that they may get is I would not be surprised to learn of Tigershark pilots painting little Titans and tanks on their fuselage to represent kills. But the fact is breakaway factions such as the Farsight Enclaves exist, as do cadres embroiled in constant war.

Of course, this is constant war from a Tau point of view not from an Imperial one, so it's a fluid hit and run conflict rather than a war of attrition, but it still counts. In situations such as these it is plausible that the Tau involved might prey on the superstitions of their foes, say Imperial or Orks. This could result in battlesuits and Fire Warriors with armour modified to look gruesome, say with horns or bestial faces (giving the aesthetic of Chaos Tau without any of the bad idea Kroot-shtlk I've just gone through).

Just bear in mind that when they got back to the Empire (assuming that they're not a true breakaway faction), they'd probably be disciplined and issued with new, clean equipment


So that's the end of Bad Ideas Part I. I hope it cleared some things up for the newbies among you (that's not meant to be a derogative term, "noob" and "newb" mean different things), and maybe even for the vets among us who know that Chaos Tau are a no-no but don't know why.

If I've just gone on and on for ten paragraphs about something everyone already knows then... oh well


After a new post in the "Daemonic Tau" thread (which spurred this in the first place), I update this post with this:

ok guys we've established you think its a bad idea....

  because i like new ideas, i'm gonna give you a new idea that is more plausible fluff wise

Tau are a young a naiive race right?, and 'The Greater Good' is just a phrase, what if 'The Greater Good' meant serving a chaos god?, what if a cadre was decieved by a daemon?, Tzeentch is probably your best choice for decieivement here

there you are, bingo chaos tau

your army your models is the way i see it, you dont have to listen to these guys

"Being deceived by a Daemon" does not mean Chaos Tau. Yes, a Lord of Change (or even a Keeper of Secrets) could appear as an Ethereal and convince a Tau Cadre to further its goals in the region, if it wasn't found out.

However:

1) If it was found out (and I BET Tau know if an Ethereal is an Ethereal or something else just pretending to be, they aren't just Tau with jewels in their heads) it would be destroyed. And the Tau are not naiive about the warp anymore, not since Medusa V.

2) If it does work (which, as I said above, is not something I believe likey) and Lord of Change-Ethereal says to Hunter Cadre 68B "Go and attack the Space Marines on this world", and they do it, that does not mean the Tau go all Chaos-y and mutate-y and start worshipping Tzeentch. If, when they attack said planet, a host of daemons appears you can bet that'll result in the Space Marines and the Tau actually joining forces temporarily to kill the daemons, because nothing unites warring factions like Daemons/Tyranids/Necrons.

Your suggestion, while slightly more plausible, does not actually give him (or anyone else) any license to produce Chaos Tau.

And I'm adding this response to my first "Bad Ideas" article.

[Zenai]

I friggin' <3 you.

[SteelPanther]

*applause*

Very nice Circus. I hope to see more of my bad ideas debunked later.

Note that I read this just after looking at my Fire Warriors and saying 'they look...possesed almost....' 

[Doombringer]

They do not display trophies of their foes; the closest to that they may get is I would not be surprised to learn of Tigershark pilots painting little Titans and tanks on their fuselage to represent kills.

Imperial Armour III says that the Tau don't even go this far. 

Kill-markings and personal slogans are prohibited by higher, though propagandist sayings or phrases being displayed on Tau vehicles is fine.

It really is hard to find a way "in" to Chaos from the Tau, hehe.

+10 Doom Points! 

[Watchdog]

Excellent article. Flagged for Karma.

Keep up the good work.

[Circus]

Excellent article. Flagged for Karma.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks, and thanks to everyone else here too.

The next article is up, it's in the Inquisition board and about Chaos Grey Knights.

Edit: And I just put an update in for this one.

[Deraj]

(click to show/hide)

Everyone knows that tau are evil, you're just too dumb to see the signs, like:

1)Tau have white hair. Who else has white hair? Old people. Old people live in florida, which is always hot. Where else is always hot? Hell. Yeah, tau are from hell. What else comes from hell? Demons. How are you so stupid as to not see this?

2) Tau have hooves. What else has hooves? Tyranids? Evil reptiles! Their leaders are called Tyrants, and everyone knows that all tyrants are evil. In fact who was the most evil tyrant? Hitler. That's right, Tau serve Hitler. Godwins laws ladies and gentlemen!

3) Tau are blue. Blue is the color of depression, in fact an old way of saying you're sad is to say you feel 'blue.' Tau are the cause of depression. Look around! Is anyone actually happy while playing tau?! NO!

4) Tau have robots. They ride around in robots because of their low self esteem. Crisis suits are to tau like wonderbras are to 15 year old girls. Are you condoning wonderbras?

5)Tau must worship chaos. Tau leptons were discovered using the chaos theory.

6) Tau are actually fish. This means that they don't breathe air, because everyone knows that fish breathe water. Air is good though, which means if you dont breathe air, you're evil. Also... tau don't have noses. This means tau can't sneeze. Sneezing is good, because when you do, you get blessed. Being blessed means you are loved by god, and if you can't be blessed... god hates you. And if god hates you, that must mean you worship.... chaos.

7) Probably most damning of all is this. Tau have 3 letters in their name. Tau also have 3 fingers. 3 times 3 is 9! Now stay with me; Tau were discovered in M35. 3+5 is 8. Now tau were actually discovered twice, because of a 6 thousand year warp storm. 6 divided by 2 is 3. Now add that 3 to the 8, and you have 11. Put that with the 9, and you have Nine....eleven! Now the 3rd edition tau codex was released in 2001. 9/11/2001! Tau brought down the twin towers, tau are terrorists, and therefore TAU ARE DEMONS!

How is that for your Tau vs Chaos theory? Huh?! Huh?!

How can you ignore all of this evidence?

That being said, there are a few chaosy options that I will adress in another post.

[Khanaris]

Nearly swatted you, Deraj.  Might want to put a sarcasm indicator in there somewhere...

But I do think you are going a little too far with this.  When someone is trying to do something bizzare, the important thing is not that it is impossible.  It isn't impossible.  You are not GW, so you do not have the right to make that call.  The important thing is that some of these ideas have major obstacles in the background that you need to answer in order for your background to be plausible.  I have a lot more respect for someone helping a member work through them than I do for someone dismissing their ideas as impossible.  That is your opinion, so don't represent it as fact.

In the details I think you are more or less spot on, with the caveat that not all Chaos Space Marines operate the same way.  Word Bearers or World Eaters will simply kill or sacrifice prisoners.  The Alpha Legion or one of the latter day renegade Chapters might try to use them in other ways.

Another caveat is that while the lack of psychic presence may protect the Tau against mental influence, it will not protect them against physical influence.  You need to be psyker yourself to have any hope of that.  If Chaos can manipulate the forms of rocks and trees, Tau are not going to fare better if exposed to the Warp for any length of time.

[Circus]

It's spelled "British."

[Deraj]

There are 2 real ways of seeing chaos tau as chaos tau. Actions and appearances. While it is pretty obvious that tau cannot become truly chaosified, they can A)help chaos, and B)be spikey.

I want to adress b first, as it is the simpler one. Tau are smart enough to know how psychological warfare works. If they fail to bring a world into the greater good, why not terrify the civilians into joining? After having seen worlds brought low by chaos marines or even being terrified themselves by chaos' warriors, they may see the value in the psychological aspect of appearing frightening, and therefore doing it just for those reasons.

Then we go to helping/serving chaos. They can be tricked into it, but what about fighting alongside chaos? Tzeentch is the only one I see as being smart enough to be able to say 'Hey, tau, we share a common enemy.' Then in the end turning on them. Is that really so far fetched? This is in addition to any way that their actions may benifit chaos.

Now onto one final point. Mutation. What is there to say that tau cannot mutate? Even if they have little to no presence in the warp, they are still bioloical, which means they can be mutated, and they can mutate.

The only real way they can't fall to chaos is through worshipping it, in every other meaningful way, they can.

[Zenai]

Drop it, Deraj. You know you suck at trolling

[Watchdog]

I have always imagined the Chaos mutations as a manifestation of the state of your soul in your body, very much dependant on the link or even bond of your soul with the twisted powers of the Warp that you worship and welcome. The more evil and bonded to the Warp you become through both your worship and actions, the stronger the state of your depraved soul manifests itself in your very physical body.

Now, since Tau have next to none such link, how can their bodies manifest it in such magnitude?

[Khanaris]

I have always imagined the Chaos mutations as a manifestation of the state of your soul in your body, very much dependant on the link or even bond of your soul with the twisted powers of the Warp that you worship and welcome. The more evil and bonded to the Warp you become through both your worship and actions, the stronger the state of your depraved soul manifests itself in your very physical body.

Now, since Tau have next to none such link, how can their bodies manifest it in such magnitude?

The power of Chaos can twist and warp feral animals.  Or plants.  Or even rocks, for that matter.  There may be some link between the spiritual and physical corruption, but it does not appear to be the only means by which something can be Changed.


Situation:

A Tau cadre is cut off on its own.  No Ethereal, and little of the command staff left.  Just Fire Caste.  They happen to have an enemy in common with a band of Chaos renegades.  Not a Traitor Legion, but one of the renegade chapters that turned to piracy.  Renegades can be any shade of grey you want.  Without a ship of their own the Tau have to choose between going with their erstwhile allies or staying and dieing.  With no ships of their own they can't even take over an ex-Imperial ship.

Now Shas are not diplomats.  They respect martial prowess, but they are blunt instruments when it comes to relations.  So they might try to play at it with the hopes that they can convince their new allies to join the Empire.  But their allies are mustering for a larger offensive.  They don't mind having the Tau along.  Maybe they even have some respect for them.  Remember that Chaos Space Marines can represent a broad spectrum of morality.  And really, the introduction doesn't even need to be CSM.  It could just be a traitor Guard or PDF force. 

But by the time the Tau get wherever they are going, they are in way over their head.  Now it is just a battle for survival amongst a wide range of diverse and unpredictable allies.  Chaos Space Marines, Traitor Guard, Daemons, and other Xenos.  Some of their "allies" can cause mutation just by being close to you.  If they are near the Eye or the Maelstrom the very air they breath might cause them to change.  They can't fix their own equipment or make their own ammunition, so they have to make do with what they find for weapons or scrounge.  The younger Shas, in the absence of any guidance from the Ethereal Caste, are likely to regress back to their old bad habits.  Becoming more aggressive and embracing the hunter aspects of their culture.

The commanders just want to keep their Cadre together and alive and find a way back to a home that gets further from them every day.  And 40k being what it is, that means a lot of fighting and sacrifice.  The Greater Good becomes a trap, as the commanders are forced to make bad choices over and over again.  Each choice is for the Greater Good of the Cadre, but ultimately the fortunes of war turn them into something the Empire won't even recognize any more.  And so this wayward cadre comes to lose the only home they had.  Their only Greater Good is the good of the cadre.

This idea works because after the Imperial Guard the Tau are really the most human race in 40k.  They can be naive and emotional.  They can make mistakes and fall victim to psychological problems.  By developing an interesting story you can explore real morality and real heroism.  Not the shallow stuff you read in most of the Space Marine books, but stories that bring it back to a more human scale.

[Deraj]

Drop it, Deraj. You know you suck at trolling

That one's not trolling, that's constructive... suggestion?

I have always imagined the Chaos mutations as a manifestation of the state of your soul in your body, very much dependant on the link or even bond of your soul with the twisted powers of the Warp that you worship and welcome. The more evil and bonded to the Warp you become through both your worship and actions, the stronger the state of your depraved soul manifests itself in your very physical body.

Now, since Tau have next to none such link, how can their bodies manifest it in such magnitude?

You could see it that way, or you could see it as the warp setting forward uncontrolled mutation, IE chaos as a primal force. If you see it this way, it's doing nothing more than giving you tentacles and tails and claws just becuase it can, rather than you being evil. You see.... there was nothing in human's 'souls' that caused them to get the mutation of losing most of their hair. The warp could be something akin to radioactive materials, causing rapid mutation with no rhyme or reason.

And @khanaris, wasn't them not being very emotional the reason they don't have so much of a warp signarature? Other than that, I like you're bit of argument.

[Chobskin]

7) Probably most damning of all is this. Tau have 3 letters in their name. Tau also have 3 fingers. 3 times 3 is 9! Now stay with me; Tau were discovered in M35. 3+5 is 8. Now tau were actually discovered twice, because of a 6 thousand year warp storm. 6 divided by 2 is 3. Now add that 3 to the 8, and you have 11. Put that with the 9, and you have Nine....eleven! Now the 3rd edition tau codex was released in 2001. 9/11/2001! Tau brought down the twin towers, tau are terrorists, and therefore TAU ARE DEMONS!

that was amazing. Tau are terrorists. all could picture was a fire warrior standing next to some Imperial forces then yelling "for the greater good!" and killing himself. wow that was weird.