TAU EMPIRE- Species EXPLAINED | WARHAMMER 40k Lore

it's a common misconception in the warhammer universe that every faction is inherently evil the reality is that everybody is capable of great good and terrible acts some however are far worse than others drew carey but there's actually a faction that blurs this line even more one that seems to actively value peace and diplomacy which is an incredible rarity in the 40k universe they're everybody's lovable space communists that are obsessed with anime [Music] but it's weird because they clearly have never seen an anime because every single one of their mechs doesn't have a giant sword and they're also not communist because they have a caste system and are ruled by a ruling class but is this faction actually benevolent or is there something sinister going on under the surface let's talk about the tau empire [Music] so in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium where every single faction is in a never-ending war of survival all species including humanity is capable of great reprehensible evil the tao on their surface seem completely benevolent they stand in stark contrast to pretty much every other faction as they actively believe in peace and diplomacy they're a faction that will pursue peaceful negotiations 100 ways from sunday before declaring war and in truth they are a relatively small faction but advance at nearly supernatural levels having gone from discovering fire to being a space faring galactic presence in the span of about three thousand years now they are relatively new to the galaxy and being such a young racer often perceived as naive by their bitter and hardened galactic neighbors some of which have been warring throughout the cosmos for millions of years and as in time-honored fashion they believe that there is no peace amongst the stars it almost seems too good to be true a race that actually cares about peace and diplomacy and uniting the stars rather than dividing them through conquest the grim darkness of the 41st millennium is characterized by violence and hatred or maybe there's something going on under the surface maybe the tau aren't as benevolent as they appear to be so let's take a deep dive and let's get to the bottom of this and figure out what the motives of this peace-loving fish people actually is so i think the first thing that we should establish about the tau is that although the bulk of them are represented by a species that shares the same name what we know of as the tau empire actually incorporates many different races you can think of them like the covenant from the halo series a coalition so to speak of many different races under one banner pursuing the same goals now some of the other common species you'll see amongst them are the carnivorous bird-like crude or the skittering insect-like vespid that accompany tau forces in war they are two of many species that have joined the tau empire willingly through peaceful negotiation and mutual goals crude for example joined the town when their species and homeworld was being besieged by an orc the tao forces who had been observing them came to their aid and saved the crew pushing back the orc afterwards the croot agreed to join the empire as they had owed them a great debt now don't get it twisted despite their seemingly good intentions the tao are conquerors just like everyone else however there are alternatives when it comes to taking territory the tao understand that all-out war does more damage than good preferring to pursue peace and diplomacy and exhaust all options before employing the use of violence and compared to the tactics employed by even the imperium of man this would seem pretty benevolent by contrast you see every member of the tau empire follows the philosophy of the greater good also known as the tao va now this philosophy deems that every action an individual takes should do the most good for the most people now this often represents the galaxy at large but normally is more focused on doing good for the tao empire as every species is welcomed within its ranks if they accept the way of the greater good now every tau citizen believes in this message wholeheartedly and that giving themselves over to the pursuit of the greater good is the best path for any individual furthermore they believe that it is their sacred duty to spread this creed throughout the galaxy and unite all species under its banner when you compare this to the imperium's way of conquering the galaxy that is to say destroying anyone that gets in their way based on the fundamental belief that the galaxy at large is the birthright of mankind and to suffer not the heretic the witch or the alien to live you can start to see the major difference in philosophy here and make no mistake this is still conquering by enforcing their beliefs on others but their beliefs encourage peace and unity rather than an eradication of everything that doesn't look like you and where the tao got such a wacky notion that you're more likely to survive the 41st millennium with allies rather than enemies i have no idea it's anybody's guess now one of the main pillars of the talva is that the tau empire must always be expanding that the greater good must be taught to as many people as possible and it's not enough for the tao to simply sit back and wait for other sentient species to come to them in search of enlightenment no they must bring it to the galaxy at large it's as if they seek to eliminate opposing views through enlightenment and conversion rather than through a genocidal crusade like other species using violence only as a last resort or to defend their worlds that being said violence is a tool that could be used to spread peace listen we're gonna bombard your planet but we're gonna do it peacefully and in the name of the greater good so you know it's okay they believe that the message of the greater good must be brought to every civilization and for all sentient species to be brought under its banner and seemingly as if masters of manipulation they understand the core fundamentals of getting someone to alter their views that is the individual is more likely to adhere to your beliefs if they feel like it was their conscious choice to do so rather than it being forced on them through conquest the way in which the tau bring new species into their empire is a simple process drones are sent out ahead of the taofledes to scout out various worlds when a colonized planet is found the drones immediately report back to inform the tao of potential allies and the tao begin preparations to spread enlightenment first contact is always done through the water cast diplomats whose silver tongues and overwhelming charismatic presence is often enough to establish peaceful relationships right off the bat through rigorous and constant interaction they teach the new species of the wonders of the tau empire they will often bring their citizens back to their own worlds to show them what life could be like under their banners and upon visiting a tao world many would be left completely awestruck by their serene beauty not only are these cities resplendent and opulent but they are thriving metropolis they're well protected by energy shields and railgun systems even the poorest of settlements are dotted with beautiful statues and fountains and breathtaking architecture in these cities it is made abundantly clear that education and innovation are put on a pillar science culture and military academies dot the landscape and are open to the public and everywhere you look true born tao citizens are rubbing shoulders with various alien species including humans throughout the poverty and squalor characteristic of other civilizations is nowhere to be seen here now many weaker species agreed to join quite quickly as being visited by an incredibly advanced group of aliens that come with silver tongues and promises of a bright illustrious future are often enough to sway any speculation they may have however some still have their doubts and are not ready to join and this is acceptable to the tao and they may spend generations amongst them communicating trading and even coming to their aid in times of war before the species is finally ready to join the empire and the tower completely fine with this they're down with playing the long game if the tao know anything it's patience now down here in the real world we've seen plenty of movies about alien invasions they come with guns and weapons of insane destructive potential but the human spirit endures and fights back against the invaders eventually pushing back the threat but what if those same hyper-advanced aliens came with open hands to welcome you into their society to promise to share with you the secrets of the universe of their culture and of most importantly the radical concept of peace what if they claim they will fix every problem your species is suffering from cure any disease and any war and to lift all of your citizens out of poverty what if you're a species that has been under constant attack by stronger aliens like the orcs or the tyranids who only want to consume and destroy you and everything you've ever loved what if without aid your world is doomed to be destroyed by this threat when you put things into this perspective it becomes pretty clear why somebody would choose to join them and speaking of the long game there have been examples of tao who have landed on backwater worlds occupied by human settlers and instead of just wiping them out or issuing a join us or die decree they've instead set up a base of operations there and traded back and forth with the humans for hundreds of years these humans will often deny the tao at first as the doctrines they've grown up with within the imperium teach that all xenos are vile malevolent creatures that have committed the sin of existence however over time small interactions between the species lead to bigger ones and eventually trade opens up between them and trade leads to cultural exchanges and eventually the two societies begin to mingle freely with one another before the humans eventually agreed to join as generation after generation has grown up with their tau neighbors they've learned to love and accept them despite the rigorous and xenophobic doctrines of their species in the novel kaifus kane we see an example of one such planet who after hundreds of years of this back and forth the humans on such a world have adopted many of the taos way of life such as rounded architecture and even wearing their hair and the signature shaved head braided ponytail some going so far as painting or dyeing their skin blue and in this way the tao understand that they can gain allies through peaceful interactions it may take much longer than simply conquering them but in the end this furthers the greater good now i'm sure you can imagine the imperium surprise when they arrived on this planet and the humans here look at them members of their own species with disgust and disdain calling them murderers and telling them to go home the imperial soldiers see human buildings molded to look like that of their enemy and from the military perspective of the imperium this is textbook xenos brainwashing and in this particular novel it was a good thing for these human settlers that it was commissar kane that showed up rather than a member of the inquisition because it turns out shaving your head painting yourself blue and singing kumbaya with a whole bunch of aliens that is some top shelf heresy my friend now like i mentioned before getting a new species to join the empire through peaceful negotiations is the top priority but regrettably there are times when a species just refuses to join even if they've spent hundreds of years trading back and forth with the tao they just refuse to join the empire and this is basically when all that peace and love stuff comes off the table and the tao will teach this planet of their superiority through great and spectacular violence because what you have to understand is when you refuse joining the greater good you're not simply saying hey you know thanks for the offer but we're kind of doing our own thing here and i think we have it under control you're rejecting the greater good and they believe so strongly in this creed that it is the only way to save the universe that you refusing to join is not an option now unleashing the fury of the taos military is considered a last resort but so strong is the belief in their creed that they are not adverse to using it if absolutely necessary but even after doing so they do not simply destroy the world and its inhabitants after a surrender is initiated and the species finally agrees to join them they'll send in the earth cast to heal this world and its people sending an enormous amount of resources to rebuild whatever was destroyed in the fighting and to support the survivors welcoming the refugees in with open arms under their protected shield drums of their own worlds now the tau do not view them as enemies that need to be eradicated more so as misguided and lost souls that needed to have their ignorance corrected through force a demonstration of the raw physical might of their creed the misgivings and violence are eventually forgiven and the species is welcomed with open arms from their perspective they tried to do it the nice way and that didn't work so now it's time to utilize the rail cannons it's as if they view the different species like an unruly child that needed to be disciplined now probably the most messed up thing about the tau themselves is that they actually have a caste system within their society now these casts don't really have a hierarchy there's no one cast that's above the others all citizens within the tau empire are considered equal that is to say with the exception of the ruling class which is the ethereals their word is law and they are definitely above everybody else however despite being forced to adhere to this rigorous caste system no tao citizen would ever really think to question it it's how it has always been even since the time before the ethereals now their adherence and belief in the greater good is so strong that the caste system is rarely if ever questioned as their unique biological traits and specialties of each cast member are put to the best possible use for the furtherment of the greater good within their birth given societal roles a member of the tao that would break from the caste system and choose to pursue passion or love or anything that is not the best possible use of their unique traits is seen as selfish that to waste their time and focus on anything that is not the best possible use of their unique traits is to go directly against the greater good which says to do the most good for the most people with every action you take for example members of the tau's air cast have hollow bones and much skinnier frames which ends up making them some of the best pilots in the galaxy if one of them was to randomly decide that they wanted to be a painter instead of a pilot then the best possible use of their skills would not be being fulfilled a selfish nature like this is frowned upon deeply within tao's society and at the least they would be shunned by their peers and at worst they would be sentenced to rigorous reconditioning to instill in them the error of their ways and to adhere to the principles of the greater good to break from the caste system would be to reject the will of the ethereals and the greater good as a whole which is something that is an incredible rarity amongst tao citizens and it is through rigorous adherence to the taos caste system that they become not a nation of individuals but of one group working towards the same goal now the tao have bred specifically within their cast for so long that you'd be forgiven if you thought each of them was a completely different species and make no mistake this is by design as the ethereals only allow the tau to breed within their own caste it is also not outright said but it is heavily implied that they practice eugenics in the sense that certain individuals are encouraged to continue to breed to keep that line moving forward while others are restricted from it and this practice is without a doubt messed up but to them this furthers the greater good in that through selective breeding they make sure that the casts remain as strong as possible in that each member of the cast is not a unique individual more so they are a single piece of a larger whole it's definitely a we not a me situation now despite some key characteristics like the blue skin and certain types of hair and the marking on their forehead members of each of the different casts actually look radically different from one another they all also have unique biological traits that make them better at certain roles the earthcast are disciplined and intelligent artisans and scientists who build and design their cities weapons and defense systems while the firecasts are more muscular and have faster reflex times and make for the taos military force the air casts have hollow and thin bones and make for some of the best pilots in the galaxy allowing them to withstand enormous levels of g-force while the silver tongues of the water cast make for the best emissaries you don't see the meek and scrawny members of the air cast demanding to be front-line soldiers in the fire cast they are all fully aware of their unique biological structure that makes them better pilots and in staying within their cast they can do the most good for the most people it is through dedication to their cast that the tal pursue the best use of their individual unique skills and thus further the greater good it is through this rigorous adherence to the caste system that the tao become not a nation of individuals but a cohesive whole working towards the same goals whether or not this is right or wrong really depends on your perspective to them it is so deeply ingrained in them from birth that this is the best way to live i'm sure many of us in the real world would see such a system that is so inflexible and refuses to let the individual pursue the life that they want as inherently evil and like with most things in this universe it's more complicated than that and it's up to you to decide how you feel about it so let's take a step back from tau politics and let's talk about their combat strategies the way the tau fight is unlike any other race in the galaxy they demonstrate impressive range superiority that can pick apart an enemy force before they even know what's happening when they surge into battle they are escorted by hordes of crew that descend on the enemy like a pack of ferocious piranhas literally eating them alive while transports known as devil fish ferry short-range breecher teams and fire warriors into strategic positions to lay down suppressing fire while hammer heads and massive battle suits bombard the enemy from long range with massive and devastating guns that have pinpoint accuracy now if this wasn't effective enough the jewel of the tau empire the crisis suits mechanized marvels of engineering descend from the sky bristling with every weapon system imaginable to punish those that would turn from the tau va tao utilized two primary philosophies of war the montca or the killing blow or the khao yun as the patient hunter firecast cadres trained in the mont cad utilize tactics that hit strategic locations hard and fast using highly mobile crisis suits aircrafts and ground transports to move in and obliterate points of strategic importance to the enemy such as taking out their opponent's command structure in the blink of an eye sowing chaos throughout their ranks why go through a costly war of attrition with the body of the serpent when you could cut off its head in less time with less casualties now those trained in the way of the patient hunter instead choose to bait the enemy into a trap often using a single unit as a decoy they trick the enemy into over-extending before firing on them from every conceivable direction with hidden units now many of the taos tactics are used to save as many tao lives as possible what you have to understand about the way the tao fight is that they do not have the numbers that the imperium does it's estimated that the imperium of man has 30 trillion active guardsmen in service with constant new recruits being taken from the million worlds it controls the towel by contrasts control around a hundred worlds they cannot afford to fight like the imperium does with its meat grinder war of attrition style combat that will send millions of troops to their death if it means ensuring victory and although at first glance this may seem like another example of how benevolent the tao really is in reality this is just a numbers game on the surface it may seem like the tao valued the lives of their citizens so highly that they're not willing to risk losing any of them but the real reason is that when your supplies and troops are limited you have to be clever with how you fight so now that we know a little bit more about how the tao operate and their military tactics let's talk about where they came from the tao started much like any other sentient species as they progressed their technological achievements outpaced their moral compass now this would have disastrous consequences for the tau species as it split into four distinct groups that absolutely hated each other and were constantly at war with one another this was a dark time that the tao referred to as the montao and the four factions were completely different from one another and would serve as the fundamental basis for the tao's caste system thousands of years later strong and war-like planes hunters tough and skilled builders charismatic merchants and diplomats and winged messengers these would eventually form the fire earth water and air casts now tau legend says that at one point great lights appeared in the sky that heralded the arrival of a new species of tau known as the ethereals now whether or not this was a completely different species or a divergent path in their evolution is still left unclear what is clear though is that through their immense charismatic presence they were able to set all of the different clans down and negotiate peace a feat that was thought nearly impossible now they introduced the concept of the greater good to the tao and once their society had unified under its message their progress began to skyrocket under the guidance of the ethereals the tao went from discovering fire to becoming a space-faring galactic presence within the span of three thousand years and i think it's really important to put that into perspective three thousand years it took them three thousand years to go from being basically cavemen to forming a galactic empire so just out of curiosity how do we compare to the tao it's believed by experts that humanity's first use of fire took place around 1 million years ago and we here in the year 2022 have made some pretty remarkable scientific achievements between now and then but we certainly aren't out spreading throughout the galaxy right now in fact humanity wouldn't actually colonize their second planet mars until the 22nd century so allow me to do some quick maths here but that means the tau advanced 300 times faster than humanity and despite this frankly ludicrous advancement rate you'll still hear people in the community say ridiculous things like the tower not a threat and if the imperium wanted to they could easily wipe them out and this isn't inherently wrong the towel only controls a small section of space in the eastern fringe and although their threat is not as obvious as that say the orcs or the tyranids they represent something far more insidious and it's twofold the first is that they're obviously and very quickly outpacing humanity in forms of technological advancement they have the potential to completely dominate the entire galaxy if left unchecked through the raw might of their innovations and technology something the imperium has shunned and viewed as tech heresy for thousands of years now unfortunately for the imperium they are besieged on all sides by every threat imaginable and with the fall of cadia the forces of chaos have split the galaxy in half while tyranid high fleets are on a crash course for terror itself not to mention the rising threat of the ancient necrons all coming online or the various orc wogs that are all gaining strength the reality is the tau do not represent an immediate threat to the imperium and thus its attentions are drawn elsewhere and the great irony of this is that the tau were originally discovered by mankind in that period where they were basically cavemen but they were fighting with sticks and stones so the imperium pretty much ignored them however immediately after this a whole bunch of warp storms would spawn that obscured the taos presence and by the time they had finally passed 3000 years later the tao had advanced to ludicrous levels and it's true that they still don't have the numbers that the imperium does but the tau do represent a second threat to the imperium's stability and it's far more insidious in nature as it's not a physical conflict it's a seemingly invisible threat played out not on the fields of war but in the hearts and minds of imperial citizens the tau represent the most dangerous full of all a different ideology the greater good is the message that runs counter to that of the imperium's teachings and many humans have already defected from the imperium to join the tau empire and follow the greater good and it's pretty obvious why the imperium is a repressive and bloody regime you are a cog in the machine a slave to the imperium's will your life is meaningless and there is no greater purpose for you than to die in service to the god emperor in his creation whereas the tau represent a breaking of those shackles a chance to pursue the life that you want and through your actions save this blighted universe from itself by all accounts humans that join the tower are actually treated very well and are not forced into its rigorous caste system when tao take a human world they actually allow them to continue worshiping the emperor and live however they want the only requirement is that they adhere to the greater good and do the most good for the most people with every action they take which in terms means that everything they do is for the benefit of the tao empire and they will be called upon to fight when the tao go to war not to mention pretty much every resource they make that they would be sending to the imperium they will instead be sending to the tao empire despite what many people in the fandom will tell you rumors of castration mind control through pheromones repressive conditioning most of the source material on these things can be chalked up to imperial propaganda by all accounts life as a human citizen within the tau empire is quantifiably better than that of being within the imperium in almost every conceivable situation other than being born on a backwater feudal world where the imperium has all but forgotten you and your planet and although many of these worlds exist within the imperium your chances of being born into one are incredibly slim as the vast majority of imperial citizens live in mega hives forced to exist in the slums and fight for survival every day now on the rumors of tau malevolence and their actual grim dark nature most of this comes from a few key novels where an ethereal basically tells a tao citizen to kill herself and she does it but in the moment before she does the narrator explains that she felt compelled to do it like she didn't want to but she didn't have a choice now this has led to many rumors of mind control by the ethereals now this is just me being speculative but there is no actual canon source that says that the ethereals are actually literally able to mind control their citizens through supernatural means but we do have many examples in this universe of individuals with an overwhelming charismatic presence that you simply won't or can't say no to the primarchs of the imperium are a prime example of this let alone the god emperor himself their presence is so commanding that it is all but impossible for even the most disciplined and trained warriors to deny their will now there are some examples of space marines who were able to deny their primarks but even that is incredibly rare the entirety of the horse heresy can be chalked up to such commanding presence by horus and the other traitor primarks it is my belief that the ethereals are such entities with a presence at least equal to that of a primark possibly even greater maybe even on par at least in the charismatic department with the god emperor himself this is in combination with the rigorous and perpetual propaganda that the ethereals put out if you were to live within the tau empire you would see propaganda of tao supremacy everywhere you look it is something that is conditioned into the minds of its citizens over time to where the path of the greater good is something that is completely ingrained in you humanity is just as guilty of systems of propaganda although their propaganda holds much more insidious messages about the witch the alien and the heretic now despite how much good the ethereals have done for the tao people they are definitely not without fault for one they rule with a complete and utter iron fist what the ethereal say is law not to mention the relentless propaganda that tao citizens are subject to is directly because of the ethereals they utterly and completely control the narrative that the tao citizens are fed on a daily basis letting them see only what the ethereals want them to see and think only what the ethereals want them to think there's this guy named commander farsight and we'll get into him in another video but real quickly he was a great commander of the tao empire and after being sent to the damocles system he requested reinforcements from the ethereals many times but was denied each and every time he eventually abandoned them and the greater good as a whole at least the version of the greater good that was the direct will of the ethereals he would then go on to found what is known as the farsight enclaves and before this the ethereals had put up many statues of him pretty much all over the place everybody knew commander farsight's name he was seen as a great hero amongst the tao people but as soon as the ethereals learned that he had started his own enclaves they tore down those statues and labeled him as a blasphemer and a heretic one who had committed the ultimate sin of turning against the greater good and the will of the ethereals and here's the thing the ethereals have told the tao that without them their society would completely collapse and that makes sense to them they have been told from birth that the ethereal's will is law and basically everything around them was because of them and there might be some truth to that but the farsight enclaves have proved that you can make a society of tao without the ethereals because they don't have any and by all accounts they seem to be thriving now many people try to use the actions of the ethereal as justification for portraying the tao as sneaky and evil and just as bad as everybody else and i feel like this does a really big disservice to them as the tau certainly aren't perfect nobody in this universe is but they do seem to be a lot better than pretty much every alternative now i personally feel like the tao are a lot more creative and a lot more interesting than people tend to give them credit for on one hand they're a seemingly benevolent society that's more interested in making allies than enemies but a lot of this is surface level just like their beautiful spectacular worlds on the surface they're beautiful and spectacular and the veneer of perfection is pretty much everywhere you look but under the surface they still utilize a cast system despite what the individual may want through rigorous and relentless propaganda the ethereals teach the tao people to think only the way they want them to think but maybe to you this makes sense maybe you understand the message of the greater good and what the tower trying to do perhaps you understand the narrative of peace through control rather than outright annihilation like the imperium does at least in the context of the 41st millennium where under normal circumstances there is no peace there is no diplomacy there is only war and i'll be honest here this is a topic that goes way deeper than just 40k lore so this is something that you're gonna have to reach on your own now what i will say though is despite how you may personally feel about the tao the tao citizens at the core of their being believe what they are doing is right that the creed of the greater good is a superior way of life that true strength can only come from unity under their banners and the tao will simply not sit back and let the galaxy burn through their superior way of life and the teachings of the greater good that every action should do the most good for the most people they will save this universe from itself at least this is what they have been told to believe so this was my first attempt at doing a long form lore video i'm used to doing you know the the tick tock shorts and stuff like that so let me know you enjoyed it by hitting like and subscribe it only takes a second but it seriously helps me out i'd like to take a minute to just give an extra big thank you to all of my patrons uh honest to god without you guys i wouldn't be able to do this as you all know tick tock pays its creators like two cents per thousand views something ridiculous uh so if it wasn't for the support i get from all of y'all i honestly god wouldn't be able to do this now there's definitely a lot more to talk about with the tao but i'm trying to keep these videos under 30 minutes as i'm kind of known for doing shorts but let me know if you'd like to see longer deep dives or if you want me to keep it to like five to ten minutes but really punchy like the videos you're used to seeing and let me know down in the comments what other factions you'd like to see covered thanks again for taking the time to check this out and until next time happy wargaming

Channel: WesHammer

Views: 773,473

Keywords: warhammer, warhammer40k, warhammer 40k, tau, tau empire, kroot, warhammer lore, lore, 40k lore, 40k, tau lore, xenos, xenos lore

Id: 9KAya-MjsJo

Length: 29min 25sec (1765 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 29 2022