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[Zowno]

im actually 100% positive you looked at my thread about daemonic tau and thought to do this thread

[Zenai]

I friggin' <3 you.

I'm still going to model my obliterator-style battlesuit and Black Legion-style Fire Warrior team, provided I can get my hands on some decent greenstuff.

And there's sod all you can do to stop me.

It's not MY model so go ahead.

im actually 100% positive you looked at my thread about daemonic tau and thought to do this thread

Read the first post again.

[Circus]

im actually 100% positive you looked at my thread about daemonic tau and thought to do this thread

Yes.

[Frisbee]

So far I haven't had a response to my latest post there so I was wondering if you'd mind debunking this:

My idea for Chaos Tau was that, you know Tau use drugs to improve performance? And you know they are very proud to be bodyguard/commanders?

Tau are aspirers, they want to achieve things. They use some stimulants and other drugs to get there. A few individuals in an isolated group of Tau may use more and more drugs until they become obsessive. They install more deatures into their suite of senses, making things brighter louder, all to "increase reactions and performance".

Until performance and pride comes before the greater good, and pride comes before a fall.

Damonic Tau would not work, but selfish, pumped-up Tau might. My idea may not be Slaanesh per se but it's reasonable. In my idea the models would have additional stuff in their helmets, drug injectors, overcharged weaponry, that kind of thing. It's only a matter of time before the Tau around them try to show them the error of their ways and some individuals have gone too far and things get messy. Those individuals that go too far can tunr their backs on the empire, pursuing their own goals or physical perfection. When that happens, that's pretty close to the closest Tau can reasonably get to chaos.

Anyway, that's my reasoning.

I've been in a lot of debates about Chaos & Tau before (and I just had massive inspiration for an unrelated fluff piece - don't worry it follows everything you've said) so as this is one of the most reasonable 'tau turn to chaos' stories I've thought of I was wondering how this would be wrong?

And when I said isolated int that quote I meant isolated from other the Celestials, maybe a tired cadre left behind somewhere (although being left behind is quite unlikely).

[Deraj]

That's something along the same lines of something I said a few posts back about tau not serving chaos, but by their actions and appearances, appearing to. The reason they are not 'chaos tau' in these cases is that they do not worship, and therefore wouldn't just start worshipping slaanesh just because their actions serve slaanesh.

[Circus]

So far I haven't had a response to my latest post there so I was wondering if you'd mind debunking this:

My idea for Chaos Tau was that, you know Tau use drugs to improve performance? And you know they are very proud to be bodyguard/commanders?

Tau are aspirers, they want to achieve things. They use some stimulants and other drugs to get there. A few individuals in an isolated group of Tau may use more and more drugs until they become obsessive. They install more deatures into their suite of senses, making things brighter louder, all to "increase reactions and performance".

Until performance and pride comes before the greater good, and pride comes before a fall.

Damonic Tau would not work, but selfish, pumped-up Tau might. My idea may not be Slaanesh per se but it's reasonable. In my idea the models would have additional stuff in their helmets, drug injectors, overcharged weaponry, that kind of thing. It's only a matter of time before the Tau around them try to show them the error of their ways and some individuals have gone too far and things get messy. Those individuals that go too far can tunr their backs on the empire, pursuing their own goals or physical perfection. When that happens, that's pretty close to the closest Tau can reasonably get to chaos.

Anyway, that's my reasoning.

I've been in a lot of debates about Chaos & Tau before (and I just had massive inspiration for an unrelated fluff piece - don't worry it follows everything you've said) so as this is one of the most reasonable 'tau turn to chaos' stories I've thought of I was wondering how this would be wrong?

And when I said isolated int that quote I meant isolated from other the Celestials, maybe a tired cadre left behind somewhere (although being left behind is quite unlikely).

I actually like that ideas an idea, it works but it is in no way "Chaos Tau."

[Khanaris]

What did you think of my earlier proposal, then?  For an isolated Tau force that through the fortunes of war ends up in one of the loose coalitions that sometimes characterize Chaos fleets?  Who falls into it more by the gradual erosion of ideals than through outright possession?

[Circus]

The thing is, what you guys are proposing are not Chaos Tau. They are renegade Tau. And there is a difference. Renegade Tau are supposed to be really rare, but they're doable.

[Khanaris]

The thing is, what you guys are proposing are not Chaos Tau. They are renegade Tau. And there is a difference. Renegade Tau are supposed to be really rare, but they're doable.

I was talking about something a little further than that, though.  Tau who had spent too much time in the company of Chaos Renegades. A cadre that had started to mutate physically due to Warp exposure, and who had picked up bad habits from those around them.  It would be a lot easier for them to start worshipping Khorne than any of the other Chaos Gods.  Not through the influence of Khorne daemons, but because they are learning from the example of some of their more savage allies.  These Tau would ultimately turn to Chaos through the erosion of their ideology by atrocity.  But the end result would the same as if their minds had been turned directly.  You are basically casting it as a classical tragedy, in which evil comes about as the result of strengths being turned into flaws and good intentions leading to bad.

[Frisbee]

^ What he said ^


Basically, my idea was that (after what I wrote above) a few individuals drive the rest and as they get more Ego they are physically eroded and furthur down, mentally debased.

As seen in Fire Warrior the chaos entities can "speak" directly into a conscious mind (albiet one that was born pretty disturbed and traumatised).

[Lerra]

The Tau Empire consists of many races, right? I read somewhere that the Tau Empire is something like 30% human now after expanding into territory that once belonged to the Imperium. So while the Tau themselves are nearly incorruptible, they have many allies who aren't. I think it's plausible that human auxiliaries could be corrupted to Chaos and bring some of the tech with them.

I just got my first model today for a Chaos Tau army, primarily using counts-as rules. There will be no biological Tau in the army, purely human auxiliaries and maybe kroot. I haven't been able to find any information so far on the warp presence of kroot, so if anyone could fill me in, that would be awesome.

The idea behind the army is basically fallen guardsmen with pulse rifles, plus lots of Tzeentch-corrupted machinery with tentacles and daemonic bits. It was inspired by the soul grinder model, actually.

Is this fluff viable?

[Cogsley]

I don't know about the tau taking on chaos mutated humans but subtler types like psykers or cultists could mix in with the human aux. That is actually one of the reasons it gives in the daemon hunters codex for fighting tau. So while chaos tau are unlikely tau with cultists that have avoided drawing to much attention to themselves would be doable.

[Lerra]

Well, the idea is not so much that chaos-mutated humans joined up with the Tau Empire. More that old, trusted human auxiliaries with training and access to the Tau technology were temped by chaos and eventually fell.

My fallback plan is that Chaos Space Marines defeated a large Tau force but managed to keep the tech intact, but corruption is so much sweeter 

Another potential idea: according to the Adeptus Mechanicus, all machines have a machine spirit. What if Chaos found a way to corrupt the machine spirit of Tau vehicles, and the vehicles turned on their owners? Sadly I don't know enough about machine spirits to know if this is possible either . . .

[Scoutfox]

The machine spirit is just the mechanicum's superstitious name given to the AI of the vehicle. There aren't ghosts living in tanks. Tau vehicles don't have a machine spirt, as their fio techs actually understand what the hell they are doing when they build/maintain/design them.

[salamut2202]

The thing is, what you guys are proposing are not Chaos Tau. They are renegade Tau. And there is a difference. Renegade Tau are supposed to be really rare, but they're doable.

I was talking about something a little further than that, though.  Tau who had spent too much time in the company of Chaos Renegades. A cadre that had started to mutate physically due to Warp exposure, and who had picked up bad habits from those around them.  It would be a lot easier for them to start worshipping Khorne than any of the other Chaos Gods.  Not through the influence of Khorne daemons, but because they are learning from the example of some of their more savage allies.  These Tau would ultimately turn to Chaos through the erosion of their ideology by atrocity.  But the end result would the same as if their minds had been turned directly.  You are basically casting it as a classical tragedy, in which evil comes about as the result of strengths being turned into flaws and good intentions leading to bad.

as i see it, only the fire and air caste would turn khorne seeing they are the ones who go to interesting places, meet interesting people then shoot them. the intellectual and representative water caste would turn to tzeench for knowledge and power over their opposing party, the earth caste after years of labor for industry and agriculture would like a rest and indulge so they would probably go for slaanesh. oh, and if any of the tau have daddy issues than they wouls turn to nurgle.