THE TAU - RACE OVERVIEW - Beginner's Guide | WARHAMMER 40,000 Lore / History

[Music] [Music] [Music] while many races in the universe of the 41st millennium have deeply travelled explored and established a heavy footprint across the galaxy the same cannot be said for the upstart forces of the xenos race known as the Tao they are a comparatively young race who unlike the Imperium have developed and advanced their technology giving significant power to their burgeoning Empire today we will overview the race known as the towel the towel originally discovered in the latter part of the 35th millennium by an exploratory fleet of the adaptive mechanicus at this time the towel were noted and recorded as being a fairly innocuous species who was seen only to have recently begun using simple tools as well as having learned to make safe fire they were clearly at the very early stage of development whereas the Imperium of man was already reuniting planets that had conquered millenia before the planet the Tao inhabited at this time was also identified as being usable as a resource world by the Imperium and any other time this primitive race would have been subsequently eradicated from the planet so that it could be prepared and colonized by humanity in preparation for the extraction of its resources the Tao though through a significant amount of luck would travel a different path some might call it fate for this xenophobic purging by the race of mankind would not occur violent warp storms would have wrapped around the Tao home world before the Imperium would have a chance to cleanse the planet and the outbreak of the Age of apostasy would descend on humanity as well this was a power struggle between the ecclesia key and the High Lords of Terror as well as others who sought to exploit the internal struggles of the Imperium and would additionally prevent any further return to the tower homeworld to compound things and how often this is the case with Imperium record keeping the planet would be archived and forgotten about buried in the Seas of bound paper and labyrinths of archives that is the Imperial administrator the impairment short order forgot about these exploratory notations in order to pay far closer attention to more pressing attentions within its own ranks 6,000 years would pass until a ship of unknown determining would appear at devlin in the ultima segment 'm after failing to identify itself the ship was destroyed by the Imperial Navy bodies were recovered and examined they were assessed cross-referenced with Imperial records and showed a significant match with a long since forgotten about 6,000 year old report that described a primitive race who had barely advanced beyond the earliest beginnings of civilization if this was in fact the same race that had been described millennia before it was of an urgent and immediate concern to the Imperium seeing such fast advancement in the xenos race from using stone tools to building starships and voyage into the darkness of space within only a few millennia was troubling and would require prioritized exploration and information gathering by the Imperium subsequent investigations found that even some human worlds that in proximity to the Tao system had already begun trading with these Zeena's somehow and enough was enough the Damocles crusade will begin and initiate the first state of war between humanity and the Tau Empire the tower are an unusual race by the standards of the 41st millennium for they are neither a race of bloodthirsty instinct driven monsters seeking purely and ever ongoing plague of war nor are they irrationally xenophobic or choose to base their way of life around some grandiose ideology of either conquering those who resist them or the absolute destruction of all they do though seek the expansion of their empire and through force if necessary for the towel all their societal directions are governed by an overarching philosophy they refer to as the greater good I stated unlike other races in the darkness of the future the town do not by default seek to eradicate other species as a matter of course but they do aim to spread their philosophy culture and territory they do want to grow and further their civilization to put it simply those individuals or plants who are unwilling or unable to open their minds to the benefits of the greater good are likely to face some form of more forceful persuasion first diplomatically and if this should fail or reach an impasse then through physical force the greater good is at the core of Tao culture because it dictates and influences everything from their civilian life to diplomacy and warfare the greater good is also known as the Tala and this combination of philosophical and quasi religious principles governs much of what the Tau feel they must do and helps maintain their structure and lives it operates around a caste based social stratification system which means that essentially a Towels role in life is dictated by hereditary transmission into a certain workforce or lifestyle ultimately these are embedded social classes in Tao society that ensure the majority of Tao have very little in the way of personal choices however it has been stated that tau all have the free will to choose their own destiny and the fact that they choose to serve the greater good and their lot in life is merely a testament to how righteous a path it is that all tau choose to live by its teachings in some ways this is not entirely unlike the Imperium across many worlds for the towel though it is more embedded as a principle and taught as a fundamental balancer for their lives for this reason it is more accepted and brings a sense of focus and serenity for many tau who were born never having to make a decision about what they should do they will learn that place and then focus on carrying out that role to the best of their ability for their lives instead of either destroying or an occasion crushing into submission enemies as the Imperium does the towel rather seek to absorb others into their collective this concept to most of the other races in the galaxy seems entirely unthinkable however it has been rumored the pockets of Imperial forces who have been cut off from all other help instead of making the correct choice of fighting to the death and have actually allowed themselves to be absorbed into the tower Empire and now live within their society and these individuals are to the surprise of no one seen by the servants of the Imperium as heretics and they should be purged and exterminated at the earliest opportunity not before likely receiving an extremely thorough interrogation the fundamental premise of the greater good generally speaking is that everyone within the Empire will work to the benefit of everyone else to better the towels position in the galaxy and their collective quality of life because of ideals in the way by which the Tao unusually amalgamate are the species into their society they now already contain multiple other species as part of their collective these include the croute of savage species of bird like Warriors vest bids a strange insect like species who utilize crystalline based technologies while the crew to appear to have more like mercenary tendencies that vespid actually believe in the ideology of the greater good and when fighting alongside the tower will contribute to one another far more ver morale-boosting effect and tau have also adopted a species known as the new casa a nomadic race who are powerful psychos and they are travelers in space that how used them near exclusively for this role of transporting through space they are highly psychic entities in consequently the Tao concealed their existence from their enemies and only used for space travel purposes not combat and the Casa contribute mainly ships towards the tower Navy for exploration and scouting purposes in addition to these absorbed races of the Tao Empire they also previously stated human sex that exists within the Tao collective as well conquered humans who by all rights should have chosen death rather than the heretic or dishonor of serving the Tao there are even those who have joy natal of their own free will impressed by the concept of the greater good as opposed to the more severe nature of the Imperium and as you would expect these individuals are considered extreme traitors to the Imperium and if discovered would be shown this will mercy and suffer the worst of impaired and quiz' ters or simply executed on the spot one that ideological philosophical and societal organization is of interest and highly contrasting to the impairment of man in many ways the most concerning element of the towel for Humanity is their technological advances in the speed with which they have advanced their hardware within a short period of just a few thousand years the towel has stated of advance from using basic tools making fire and learning how to create basic foundational mechanics and engineering to a transformation of an advanced spacefaring race with powerful weaponry and exosuits that are at the very least concerning to the Imperium far more worrying though is the possibility if they were able to continue their current pace of research and development they could advance beyond the weaponry and Waka of the Imperium which has largely due to ever-expanding religious dogma allowed itself to stagnate and barely develop anything new that is until the most current period in human history by contrast the Tau have already become one of the more technologically dependent races in the galaxy and given the impairments stubborn inability to move forward technologically until very recently with the return of the previously stasis entombed ultramarines Primark now returned to his place as Lord Commander of the Imperium the Imperius beginning to drag itself up out of the mud every step forward requiring apparently agonizing effort that's how though maybe an experienced but they're not fools and ever since their initial contact with human settlements they have played a highly tactical game of infiltration and suggestion to allow them to begin trading and eventually absorb some human worlds in their system as part of the tower Empire yet these worlds were the dissident fringes of the human Empire some words were even forgotten human colonies who had no real sense of themselves as being part of a larger impairment man it took the Tau some time to grasp the understanding that there was a far greater and more powerful collected human and that if they were not cautious could bring down a wrath they would not be able to defend against so their initial steps were tentative but become progressively more confident some have seen fit to suggest that the towels speedy development of technology could be down to there locating a lost human STC system but there's nothing to support this suggestion and if it were true in any sense you would imagine their developments would already be far more advanced than they are the towel simply demonstrate what can be achieved by a collective focused sense of purpose and unified drive towards specifically directed goals if the employer had not critically hamstrung itself in religious dogma and bureaucracy then it may also have been able to achieve far more than it has done over the past millennia where instead it allowed itself to decay and rot from the inside so this threat of being outpaced by an upstart race who should by the Emperor's will have been exterminated millennia ago is a sting on the side of the Imperium far more than the actual literal impact of the towel with that said it is worth noting that the towel have already proven their ability to hold the line against the Imperium only further compounding the sense that a towel are considered an ever-growing threat to the stability of the Imperium perhaps not a critical threat in the current moment to be sure but it be more than fair to say that unless things begin to change the threat the towel represent as well as being all too aware of having missed a golden opportunity to eradicate them in the past down to nothing more than petty human infighting between their internal divisions mean that the towel are ever more irritating to the Imperium and while additionally becoming even more dangerous a threat the longer mankind waits to crush the towel the more difficult and dangerous that task will likely become worse though as Inquisitor galius would come to realize that the Tao exhibited a naivety not seen in other races a distinct lack of understanding of the galaxy its events and their place in it their technological advancements were matched only by their ignorance in the dangers of over reliance on technology such things brought to the inquisitors mind scripts that he had read that described mankind before the Dark Age of Technology while so much knowledge of this time is lost it is believed at mankind's fundamental faith in technology and the overall ants on machines caused the downfall of humanity and to spread out beyond if the tower were already on a path to developing ever more advanced technology it was surely only a matter of time before they began to develop that which the Imperium and humanity place among their most severe fears the development of artificial intelligence abominable intelligence to that end the Tau represent a clear and present danger to the impairment of man and perhaps the entire galaxy beyond what many could imagine like many races the town began as an onion a fight species whose tribal groups would periodically spar with one another they would have their own territorial space and defended against those who infringed upon it and in these early times the tower were formed of for specific castes who are continually warring with each other and the severity of these skirmishes added with the uncompromising nature of the tower at this time is said to have risked the very survival of them as a species this period of brutal warring is known as the Mont Isle it all began during a conflict between some tower warriors of the plains and those of a fortress city Theo Tom the plains tower had assaulted and subsequently set up an encampment around the city but negotiations had failed the plains warrior tower would not be satisfied until the entire city lay in ruins and its citizens were broken and slaughtered the conflict went on for years and despite holding out as best they could the inhabitants of the city began to fall victim to deteriorating health and ever-worsening living conditions starvation disease were starting to take hold and the situation looked bleak for the citizens of the city however it was at this time that two mysterious individuals would appear one of these figures would walk steadily but confidently out from the enveloping darkness in complete silence approaching these circled encampment of the plains warrior tau and speaking calmly and softly who'd explained that he required to speak with their camps commander the guards to the camp found themselves unexplainably compelled to comply by this figures confident and authoritative use of language at the same time another similar guard would appear in the besieged city and approached the guards within when questioned as to how he'd been able to enter the lockdown city he simply refused to answer but instead requested to speak directly with the Castellon the Oh City despite the years of bitter fighting between the two groups of Tao the strangers came into the center of the conflict with their dignified sincerity and overwhelming calm confidence about them that radiated on to those around them this strength of presence combined with their skillful abilities in diplomacy left both the attackers and defenders ready to begin new peace negotiations within hours the gates of the city of Aswan open and as the party of defending tower walked out for the first time in years a party from the encamped plains Tao also approached these mysterious strangers initiated the first talks between these sides and years and as they spoke they would highlight the positive traits of both sides and that if they could only consider uniting their strengths together they could instead of slowly weakening one another achieve a form of collective forward progression there would be a greater good for all this description obviously skims what must have been a more powerful event than just such simple words the two figures had a certain power over the other Tao around them and as they spoke to their philosophy extensively beneath the pure white moon that illuminated the figures as they talked long into the night and as the Sun broke over the horizon the next day a previously unthinkable situation had been achieved a truce had been drawn between the two warring sides these previously unseen Tao are now referred to as the first ethereal zhh the singular instance was just the beginning vote more ethereal would appear after the success of Puritan and collectively reach out to spread their message of peace and for the struggle to achieve a greater good for all tao where previously only bitter battles and skirmishing warfare had existed now would come peace and a new sense of uplifting inspiration by the philosophy of the ethereal the fast spread an uptake of the athira outlook was prophetic would only take one year in the town calendar for it to unite all tao across their homeworld and it would drive them toward a strengthened sense of unity and a progressively positive outlook the likes of which had never been seen before construction communication commerce would be some of the very early benefits as the Tao sought to bring all their individual car skills to the collective betterment of all the plains warrior Tao were the most difficult to ultimately convinced that this was the right path forward but upon seeing the positive constructive nature that was being achieved by all the other Tao this was enough to Vince them that this new philosophy was the way forward for them and they would join the new Tao Empire in its collective quest for the greater good the newly reformed race of Tao was now comprised of five castes the earth caste of builders and artisans the water caste of traders and merchants the Aircast of scouts and communication experts and the fire caste those warriors of the plains the fifth caste of course the ethereal x' a unifying force in the tower civilization and they are in this sense these superior individuals the elites they are the fifth elements in the Tao cast because they are the unifiers unfortunately while this all sounds very positive and progressive for the tower there are it seems more sinister and speculative elements to the ethereal 'z many theories wirless to their origin one being that the elder have genetically influenced them so as to have a role in the direction of the general tower populace and get them moving in a forward direction so as to have another force that would assist in dealing with the many threats of the galaxy including the Imperium orked chaos and so on there is though little direct evidence of this the possibility of the elder having seen potentially some early race and then taking the initiative to spark their forward evolution is quite a delicious Theory when you consider that the end goals of this could be for the elder to try and ensure that if they don't survive the horrors that are consuming the galaxy there remains another force to contend with more importantly a force that do not make the same mistakes that they themselves have a society focused around a cooperative shared goal instead of individualized selfish desires which near totally destroyed the elder race secondly to create a species you have near to no presence in the warp and are such considerably more resistant to the dangers of the chaos gods and the warp itself something which has already ruined the elder multiple times over as they themselves were seeded and guided by the old ones with the goal of deliberately forging a race of powerful psychos all of this though highly speculative and based on very few fragments of interpretation so it's anybody's guess as to the true origin and perhaps it is ultimately as is usually the case all the more a banal explanation perhaps one day we'll know the truth the more disturbing aspect of tau society though has revealed itself over time and is far from being a theory it's surely clear now for all to see no matter how unpalatable the truth may be to tau loyalists there is plenty of evidence as to the issue of the ethereal z-- that they have not so simply presented a positive and unifying philosophy that all tau then miraculously decide of their own will to abide by and the more you consider that the more it makes so little logical sense is to be dismissed with or without evidence we hear this tale of how this v tau caste appears out of nowhere and only with a few words end savage conflicts that showed only bitterness and no signs of ending and then overnight they all lay down their arms and decide they're all friends and now it's time to work together please only the most naive could believe such a tale interrogations and autopsies by the Imperium as well as documented accounts have with solid reasoning that without the presence of an ethereal The Tao are more than likely to revert to a state of self-determination and directly abandon the philosophy of their greater good this runs in complete contradiction to the official towel line that all Tao understand by its very nature that the greater good is what they must and will willingly dedicate their whole lives to there is no other logical choice to make the fact that this is demonstrably untrue suggests a very uncomfortable truth but if suggested any tower would immediately and strongly dismiss and a reasoning that ethereal have no explanation for and become suspiciously silent over if pressed to answer the truth that the ethereal are essentially a coordinating class and it is they who enable the tower to function as a unified collective I'd be sure much to the towers horror that if they took the time to really consider this they in actuality operate not so unlike the tyranids with their hive mind and how this is achieved by the ethereal ziz unknown Imperial biologists have suggested that the diamond shades organ in the centre of their foreheads plays some role but results as to its purpose of yielded inconclusive results other theories speculate that the ethereal 'z control the lower rank towel with some biological chemical means exuding like a pheromone or even some low-level latent psychic ability except that the Tao as far as we know have no real cycles in their own race now whether this collective control is a more passive influence leading the lower-class to simply be more open to suggestion or if it is in fact a far more aggressive and enslaving sense of control is open to discussion I lean more towards the sense there lies somewhere between this direct control and passive suggestion that perhaps some tower more easily influenced than others it's also possible that for many Tao this guidance is only partly necessary the strength of an ideology can be very persuasive maybe the ethereal --zz are only needed to keep your average towel in check there's no disputing though that those who exist within the tower Empire are living a lie whether they know it or not this is evidenced by the fact that Tao who are cut off from their ethereal seem to revert to a pre greater good sense of individuality which is the Thao's ideology is to be believed and taken as they themselves describe it seems extremely likely if you were absolutely convinced and indoctrinated into your society's ideology and philosophies why would you then so abruptly abandon this at the first opportunity and more specifically doing so when ethereal czar absent it clearly points towards ethereal is having a far more proactive and sustained process of mental control over the lower Tao castes and you can also look at how some allied races within the Tao Empire such as the vespid where communion Helm's that are in air quotes for communication read in actuality necessary ongoing mental manipulation and control the conclusion to take away is that the Tao are in actuality far from being an advanced and civilized race is simply their propaganda they are not unified by a philosophy or logical ideology that all conveniently agreed to live by without question for the positive betterment of others they are instead quite tragically more like an enslaved race of minions similar even to the tyranids all the Necron they exist tethered to the ethereal by a force ultimately unknown and who without their presence would likely resort to smashing each other's skulls interest as they had done in the past or at the very least just going off and doing their own things near all the towers achievements in the speed of these have been thanks to their collective cooperation and it's likely that without the ethereal the Tao would face obliteration by the Imperium and the other arguably more vicious xenos inhabiting the galaxy in many ways bearing this in mind you may consider to yourself well this is surely a good thing the ethereal is enabling the tower to collectively achieve what they could not on their own and allow them to function and come together as a constructive force and as with so many events that occur in the bleak darkness of the far future it is in fact more often the apparently positive events which can on further reflection reveal a far darker narrative once you begin to scratch away the surface the tower in that regard are no exception constructive achievements yes but paying a high price of mental enslavement never being their true selves how aware are they of this fact and how aware are the ethereal x' it's very difficult to say but the tower they for sure are able to think for themselves formulate decisions intent invent but it's the way in which they unified that is an uncomfortable reality I've seen many state that the Tao while the closest thing that exists to having a race led by a positive constructive hope in the 41st millennium and in truth is any works if you ignore and dismiss the fact tell Owen all likelihood operating is a society of brainwashed slaves while it's true that their goals and diplomatic interactions are far more subtle and arguably positive than that of the alternatives I find myself asking what's worse being forced into a course of action without the ability to have your own free will albeit debatably and comparatively positive or choosing with your own individual and intact sense of self to adhere to your society's chosen system or to abandon it and suffer the consequences but at least making your own decision and knowing your sense of self I still would argue that when you look around the galaxy two races who represent the true purest sense of purpose are the orcs and the tyranids yes both are unspeakable alien killing machines that salivate at the mere prospect of killing in the name of but does it make them ostensibly bad evil even I think not because they're just doing what they do they're doing what they're designed to do and the orcs are loving it to be clear the Tao themselves are not a bad race depending on your point of view of course but they do have a bleak life once you begin to speculate a little right how the ethereal control the Tao they were forcibly indoctrinated into it do they have a subconscious understanding that all of this is happening without their real consent do they dream of freedom and self-determination I need to awake to another day of reality a mental in slave mentality unification it would as we said still be camped out around each other settlements happy to watch each other die of starvation disease and complete emotional and societal breakdown a race of forward-thinking progressive generally peaceful xenos who only used violence when they must if that's how you see the towel then maybe the ethereal mind control start to pierce your consciousness as well it's easy and certainly appealing as to why some would want to see the Tao as being a positive uplifting and alternative force to the unashamed horror and brutality that pervades the rest of the galaxy yet when it comes to the devolved the vicious or the pretentious entities that qualify these civilizations in the rest of the galaxy you can at least say that their Crusades their Wars battles and genocides were honest that they owned their intentions allowed others to witness them and knew both the strength of their words and their actions better or worse the reason the towel to me a certain Horan despite their more progressive veneer is it in truth they're neither they live a lie and worse allowed themselves to be manipulated into a lie they're likely not even aware of and it can show the only be a matter of time for an event befitting the darkness of the far future to occur where must surely come to pass to the towel through some catastrophic slaughter of ethereal perhaps some highly focused campaign of assassination by the Imperium hint that subsequently throw the towel once again back into total anarchy and civil war leaving them ripe for the plucking this seems to be not simply a plausible possibility but knowing how events so regularly before those in the 41st millennium this crushing downfall based on their precarious structure of fallacy seems an inevitability the towel a force for good they're the worst of them all and their day of ruination will come still despite the dystopian nightmare that is Tao society and that they are likely all pawns at the backing core to so many ethereal z-- it is still true that the overarching principles of the greater good are more appealing than some other races if you happened upon some tower yourself and were generally behaving peacefully they are for example unlikely to want to skin you alive as might the Dark Eldar and then parade your skin suit around for the entertainment of others nor would they want to dissolve you whilst you're still conscious from the inside out as giant teeth bearing maggots infest every space in your body as might the tyranids or subject you to months of endless torture and dogmatic interrogation to reveal irrelevant facts for the purposes of dusty administrative record keeping as word the Imperium so while we might deliberately drown ourselves in the Bleak horror of the future you cannot say that it is not the case that comparatively speaking the tower the lesser of so many evils it simply depends on if you're an individual who prefers to deal with reality in a hard and unvarnished sense or live in the blissful ignorance of the societal mind-controlling nightmare you're facing the greater good teaches for lack of a better verb that all sentient beings play an equal an important role in town society the trivial conflicts only disrupted the progress toward the United Tao and fulfilling the greater good the Tao unlike other races have no desires to break down destroy purge or otherwise exterminate others culture they perceive those who choose to resist their enlightened philosophy with more along the lines of confusion than contempt baffled to come to an understanding of how these individuals are unable to see the truth of the greater good which again tells you without direct evidence further suggestion that they are a brainwashed cult who can't see outside their own space to this end the town will generally attempt some form of diplomacy instead of operating a kill on sight code of conduct as is often the case for most other races and as the tower themselves discovered when first encountering humanity after their failure to respond the Imperium simply obliterated them with no questions asked however the tower not zombies and have come thankfully quickly to understanding that for some races attempts at diplomacy are just futile and so when dealing with the races that we know to be inherently unrelentingly aggressive like the orcs tyranids into a degree cows they've come to understand painfully that these races are never going to be interested in their strangers just a friend you haven't met philosophy but being ready for combat when encountering these forces is likely the more prudent course of action and these races have been basically blacklisted by the Tao and they no longer want to try and convince them to join their special greater good Club thank you very much the Tao also seek to expand their empire in what are known as the spheres of expansion these are basically periods of great expansion whereby they will to a degree conquer and absorb the worlds they want to expand outward to while the tell themselves and some of that allies certainly fall under the willful suggestion of the ethereal it's questionable as to how other races will behave in this way it's difficult to know how effective the concept of the greater good will be in uniting an empire that relies in part on a citizenry who are mentally guided by their senior caste if other races the tower Empire absorb a less receptive to the suggestion of the ethereal it could spell a small or even a significant level of disruption for the towers in their home onus order the tower Empire consists of the five castes as previously mentioned and the caste themselves do not vie for any kind of ranked order because all their roles be a worker warrior the scene is equally important to the overall goals of the how within each caste they do have a ranking system woven into their naming conventions la being a lower-ranking cast member and Oh being a higher rank each caste uses the five universal ranks but then have specific designations relevant to their roles in each caste for example in the fire caste from the lowest to highest you have Warrior veteran hero night and then commander the fire caste is likely the most well known to those outside the tower Empire this is the military and warrior caste while often a little shorter in height than an average human and with a muscular build but still generally physically weaker than your average human how generally like to come up with careful plans then rushing with bloodthirsty emotion they also preferred a hit and run rather than dig in for a battle of attrition so often their warfare is about drawing out an enemy or making a tactical retreat to gain an upper hand and secure an overall victory the earth caste is not singularly about construction in infrastructure it's more comprehensive and contains engineers scientists laborers and technicians the earth caste are the builders of tower cities but also those involved in the research and development of some of their most powerful technological leaps forward more containing your average hard laborer they'll also have artisans who embellish and drive the visual culture of the tower forward the earth caste ranks lowest to highest our worker senior overseer engineer and planner the water cart concerns are with trade and diplomacy they seek to ensure smooth communication and diplomacy both with existing and potentially new allies for the Empire water caste often embody the very nature of the ethereal art of suggestion and on more than one occasion water caste have been attributed with turning non tower worlds toward the path of the greater good without a shot ever having been fired the water caste ranks again lowest to highest a bureaucrat envoi magister diplomat and ambassador the air caste are so in more than just name they function as the naval force for the town by the space itself and planetary dropship operations the air caste though perhaps unintentionally live up to their title in that many of them bear disturbing physical traits from extended operation in zero-gravity in the form of them having hollowed bones and this means that they often refuse to step foot on a planet proper because heavy gravity environment can lead them to suffer broken bones very easily often considered better pilots than the Imperium can supply due to their more responsive and advanced fighter craft but the tower also in lack the grizzled combat experience of the Imperial Navy the Air casts ranked lowest to highest our messenger carrier pilot captain and Admiral lastly of course are the ethereal has discussed already the real leadership of the tower Empire and the guardians of the village geopolitical teachings of the tower var rarely are they significantly present on a battlefield but their presence even if not visible is usually assumed if your caste ranks lowest to highest our prince prelate King holy and ethereal the tower unlike most other races in the galaxy shy away from physical bloody combat now a few tau who you find punching an orcs face to pieces or ripping through imperial armor like it were paper nor opting for a session of head-butting each other for a bit of a laugh to see who falls into unconsciousness first now for the tower when it comes to military engagements they enjoy two things most readily fighting at a distance and careful planning Tao also preferred to get the fighting over and done with as quickly as possible and seemingly lack the stomach for long drawn-out battles of attrition the tower way is one of laying down a powerful strike to crush the enemy as quickly as possible laying traps and using external factors to their tactical advantage into that end I'll often prefer to abandon an existing outpost if they're outnumbered regroup plan and employ an appropriate stratagem to crush the invaders in some ways its holds a lot of sense to it the Imperium while fiercely loyal and always a fan of dying to the last man because the emperor will judge you well while somewhat romantic is not especially practical always the tower approach tends to lean towards a logical reasoning disconnected from the emotion of sacrificial loyalty on the other hand sometimes the only way to win an ongoing vicious campaign of slaughter in the 41st millennium is by digging in and refusing to surrender no matter the cost and something the Imperium of man Eldar just about all other races have learned over the millennia the towel while logical seem to lack the real stomach for the grim realities that they face realities like alien Horrors who have no concept of retreat or fanatical superhuman warriors who will gladly exterminate every trace of you by any means and he cost necessary if required to do so there are individual exceptions of course and the town moreover have found convenient ways to get around the fact they prefer not to get their hands dirty when it comes to meat grinding battlefield slaughters that are all too common in the dark future my fight a battle when you can have your minions do it for you the towel will often use the croute as their Mellie based infantry now the crude a far more warlike race than the towel themselves and they're not only found in the eastern fringe region with a tower originated but they are concentrated here the croute are deceptive in that they appear feral and savage but are actually capable of sniping specific high-value targets from enemy units or others such as communication units and so on they then will emerge from cover to smash the uncoordinated remnants of their targets this is where they would diverge from the towel as the ensuing close quarter combat is truly savage instinctive and animalistic and the croute are more than happy to take a pause mid battle and bite chunks out of fallen enemy for a bit of fast energy on the go Marcis displays a distasteful for tower Warriors is tolerated there's a tower very aware of the critical role the crude play for them and will turn a blind eye to such matters the numbers of croute in their passion for battle makes them an invaluable Ally for the towel yet they operate far more in mercenary attitude than adhering to the true teachings of the Tarver the tower well generally speaking use fairly simplistic and age-old battle tactics of using their fire cast units to soften up an enemy at range before allowing their croute supporting fighters to jump in and take the brunt of the dirty fighting fruit carnival squads utilizing croute hounds play a powerful albeit unpleasant role here in their ability to track enemy before engaging in brutal savagery the crew have even trained their hounds to rip of the weak points of known enemy the joints of space marine power armor for example and these squads can also be seen to use crew stalks a large creature who can serve as a mobile weapon platform it's believed that croute eats their prey not simply for sustenance but they can also begin to over time adopt traits of their target increased muscle mass for example or enhanced sensory abilities they can also begin to display traits from their victims culture so they might exhibit not only physical but social tendencies as well mothers may lend similarities to tyranids there's no suggestion of any relation to the same process in fact it would be likely very dangerous for croute to ingest turin it flesh because who knows what invasive DNA they could unwittingly bring into themselves and furthermore open themselves up to developing tyrannic sympathies or higher receptiveness to follow the commands of the hive mind should it ever into the system one would hope that the croute would be aware of these inherent dangers because of their comparatively weak physique coupled with the fact that the Tao just generally prefer to fight at a distance they have to that in developed a range of weapons and force multiplying platforms that enable the Tao to play to their personal preferences this means careful planning and tactical analysis the tower preference is rarely one of emotional reaction or aggression but assessing the best possible outcome this is another admirable trait for the Tao and again a relatively unusual one in the darkened galaxies of the future to be able to make such objective planning the tower will even abandon a base if it comes under attack dismantle important apparatus and then returned later when they have a higher chance of successfully retaking the position the tower also will use two primary tactics known as killing blow and patient hunter as the names describe these are a highly focused directed attack to knock out high value targets in a strike effort in the second more of an ambush when enemy will be lured from a position of strength into a weaker kill zone before being destroyed unlike many forces in the galaxy because the Tao do not combine their ranged and melee combat as commonly as other races their tactics and battle organization also differ to allow for these roles to be appropriately engaged this means they're seen to deploy in formations that are ancient to human history where the tab with their rifles will form a front rank of range power to soften up targets while the crew male will wait behind ready to leap forward as and when the enemy have closed the gap enough this will enable the tower warriors to retreat take up a new position ready to engage again at a safe distance and you can likely imagine what Imperial soldiers might think of such tactics the town possess a variety of infantry base range weapons but it's worth simply mentioning primarily the base pulse rifle this is essentially the tower alas gun and unfortunately for the Imperium it beats mankind's offering on both power and range giving the town warrior the ability to fire extensive repeating rounds the pulse rifle uses powerful electromagnets to fire a subatomic particle which then breaks down creating a plasma pulse upon leaving the weapon now as the tower utilize electromagnetic weaponry they also have access to rail guns which a projectile based and fire rounds as you would expect at an extremely high velocity the result being as you might expect dealing considerable damage to the target the town also somewhat exclusively lean heavily towards using battle suits for their warriors to fighting similarly to a grey Knights dread Knight tower battle suits are powerful combat exoskeletons and unlike most other forces that use some kind of exoskeleton warframes is a highly specialized powerful support unit that ow use them far more commonly for that's how they make up an important part of the general fire cast forces and additionally the tower have been continually making significant leaps forward in the advancement of their technology and the battle suit is one of their highest achievements so far battle suits are more than just powerful tools they are devastating force multipliers assigned to only the most skilled tower warriors and enable a tower force to lay down suffocating levels of fire or highly focused specific power to punch through heavy high-value targets combining their railgun tech with smart missile systems the battle suits smother enemies with withering levels of fire their missile systems being particularly feared as cover will not protect the missiles fire and a drone guided and as such will find a trajectory to their target regardless of cover tower battle suits are formed of a lightweight an extremely strong nano crystalline alloy the suits angles are formed much like armored tanks of the 20th century in that their design shapes are hoped to allow solid projectiles to safely deflect off the suit the alloy is then coated with a liquid metal finish to help reflect varying degrees of laser fire despite they're specifically different tactics the Tau are a relatively flexible force combining both firepower and flexibility making use of their advanced weaponry and playing to its strengths in logical fashion they make use of allies to fill in for their own shortcomings and make use of simple AI drones to either engage or assist in protecting troops as with most races they also sport heavy vehicle weaponry that can deal devastating levels of firepower and the key difference with the towel is that their forces are far more specialized than other races or the Imperium for example has specialists they usually also capable of taking on multi roles as necessary the same to an extent for other races give or take the towel though as with their society take on a specific role and that is the limit of their role in some regards this can be a positive to have highly specialized forces who know their role specifically and know that wrong well but the obvious downside is that once you've lost a specific unit in your battle force it can undermine your capabilities and your tactics and this though is where the battle suits come in is they're highly mobile and able to fill in any gaps across a battlefield as well as react quickly to changing situations that could place venerable units a risk the tower empire would go through multiple expansions in its history but we begin at the second expansion of the tower empire which was launched with the new horizon accelerator engine allowing the town to achieve longer space travel than ever before the tower also now reinforced with their crude allies and a town known as commander pure tide would through this expansion achieve legendary notoriety crushing an orc invasion where through his calculating tactics and tower principles of long-range engagement somehow made the prospect of battle unenjoyable even for orcs pure tide was not simply a warrior and commander either he had mastered all aspects of combat and military tactics would bring new ideas for tower warriors to learn from and take a more balanced and flexible attitude to battle pure tide would tutor promising prodigies of the fire caste and many of his aspirants would go on to carve their names and achievements into tower history themselves if this training would also instill a bit of rivalry between his aspirants who all wanted his attention and approval and still they would share a close bond and respect some of those most notable aspirants were Shas Serra KS and joining them Shover they had all previously demonstrated strong skill both in battle and strategy and now they were here to learn directly from the master each had individual styles to warfare and relevant philosophical thinking to pair with their approach to military engagements as their training reach completion each would leave taking their new names and leave to fight his tower commanders across war zones throughout the time Empire commander pure tide day would suffer serious wounding during the destructive Damocles war with the Imperium unsure as to if they would be able to retain his experiences in memory devices that his tau mind capture devices used to preserve the former commanders experience so that it would be accessible by later tower commanders and this would be known as the pure tide Engram neurochip iffy riyals wanted to scan his mind to retain its high value to the Empire now these Engram ships would be installed in the minds of fire blades and battle suit commanders enabling them to function with a common understanding of pure tides experience and adapt to any tactical situation the emphysema damn side to this was that those who had been implanted with the chip while unable then to draw from their existing own personal experience and so consequently would for losses as a result of being unable to adapt to situations that they may have actually had their own experiences with but this situation also further evidences to the ethereal z-- having the imagination and the willpower to use mind control devices against lower tower casts later they would be ordered to undergo force surgery to remove these Engram chips with the unfortunate consequence they left the warrior leaders drooling vegetables the extraction of the Engram chips effectively lobotomize them now the Damocles war and many of the events surrounding it deserves far more of an expansive detailing than I can give here today but for now suffice to say the employer must smashed the tower like a force they could never have imagined yet through one thing in another the tower still managed to emerge victorious yet this initial war with the Imperium left them with a humbling understanding that they had fought against only a small taste of the true power of the Imperium the tower leadership made a decision that pure tides existing current pupils should be placed into stasis to ensure that they could call upon his powerful teachings and have commanders available when it was critically necessary one of these peoples was of course chassé chassé Zara commander shadow son jove are now known as commander Farsight would continue to lead the tower forces in a period of reclamation to secure lost territory from the Imperium additionally beneficial for the tower would be that the Imperium found itself yet again distracted this time by the turn it - behemoth which significantly diverted their attentions and resources commander foresight would cross the Damocles Gulf law be known as the Farsight expedition during this time he spent extensive time studying the Imperium their tactics any recorded fragments of useful information he could pulled together to expand his abilities encountering and exploiting the humans all at the same time and learning from some of their approaches to battle and tightening up weak points in his own battle plans with the Imperial withdrawal though the orc Menace had already begun to exploit the weakened planet on this side of the Gulf and so by the time the expedition arrived infestations of orcs had already become established and were spreading far site was disturbed by this awk infestation so much so that he decided it more important to halt and then totally destroy the orc threat this would take priority over completing the reconquest of other tower worlds which were now soft targets because of the impairment other concerns a decision by Farsight was directly against the instructions of the ethereals who had tasked him with securing the tower worlds here after Casa engagements on the world of Atari though far sites force would return to the tower enclaves yet on returning found to their horror that while they've been fighting orcs with great difficulty themselves in their absence yet more orcs had assaulted the other tower in clave worlds the war boys of the green Menace ran riot across the tower planets in space become clear that the war boss Farsight had been hunting at Atari veau had in fact doubled back to the enclaves space united the orcs there and then waged a crushing assault on the enclaves planets commander Farsight was greatly troubled by his failings here his lack of vision and understanding that had already proved so costly after placing himself into a lengthy period of the reflective meditation despite all the chaos going on far sight would lead the towel with inspired actions from world to world destroying the orc in all manner of creative solutions finally freeing the enclaved worlds from the horrors of the orca salt and Farsight himself hunting down the orc chief and by all accounts besting him in single combat fast I had won and restored his reputation but the threat of the green Menace still remained and this would not be the last clash between the Tau and ork in fact notably a distant world Arthur's Moloch who surfaced showed little signs of life or settlement but having just liberated their own enclaves the orcs should not be allowed to establish a footing on this planet so near to tower worlds while sight they would encounter a stranger sight and what appeared to be an ancient temple on this seemingly dead world orcs who were falling in battle would cause strange bursts of light and energy from the ground itself an event never witnessed before by the Tau far site was transfixed by this curiosity until this disk of light and energy would pour out red horned creatures with blades as dark as space itself screaming unintelligible war cries and slaughtering the orcs other pink entities would tumble out from the light sending out streams of brightly colored flame that turned any tau they touched a stone water all screaming scorched bone the flesh disintegrated from their bodies Farsight ordered a retreat but his gaze was caught by this energy this portal this connection to somewhere his eyes were filled with the void what was this thing a tear and reality a gateway to another dimension it seemed infinite yet he could feel the call of billions upon billions of deaths his interaction would fundamentally alter Farsight from here on he had borne witness to a danger unimaginable by the Tao but before having time to consider its implications he would black out thankfully being retrieved by his warriors and returned to their flagship as the orcs now continued to fight on the surface seemingly spurred on by the violence spilling across the battlefield the Tao sought to retreat and disengaged and thankfully for them the orcs seemed now far more concerned with battling the red horned a Lian's and pink tumbling oddities than they did the Tao and were throwing themselves ever more aggressively and enthusiastically into the fight as if by some long trained instinct or rivalry yet Farsight would now countermand this retreat even the ethereal attached agreed that they must investigate this new danger planetside again they would re-engage these new aliens who now were joined by flying creatures bearing axes and whips the tumbling pink oddities and red horned sword bearers joined them and Farsight found himself engaged with one of the massive flying creatures were still was the majority of the initial tower force deployed were killed in short order in any manner of unpleasant fashions and compounding the agony an ethereal was slaughtered cut from head to groin as it's flaccid halves of body would tumble apart in a fountain of blood the screaming crying from the tower re-establishing battle lines and Farsight would restore order amid the panic and reformed teams to continue holding their own despite their best efforts though another ethereal would be gored to death and the Fire Warriors were now openly breaking they'd never fought foes like this that seemed to appear as quickly as they were dispatched sometimes it felt like for everyone they killed two would appear but farsighted noted that these new foes were avoiding some statues around this apparently abandoned temple he would see via his suits visual feed from another battle group one of the statues wore a hexagram attic medallion and even Farsight found that to look upon it he the pain he felt ever since looking into the void space trusting his instincts he ordered the battle group to retrieve this object and carrier toward these new horrors the report came back it was working the oddities were retreating at the sight of this object it was an engagement that no towered ever seen before and as a resulting tactic that was entirely unfathomable to them Farsight would consider teachings from master pure tied to secure victory the wise must adopt and adapt he would ordering his warriors to avoid spilling blood and if they took any hits to immediately retreat and re-engage his instincts would prove correct as the red alien creatures seemed to howl in despair weakened without the blood they apparently so craved and were fueled by these events that the town Oxford unwittingly triggered through their audiologic is several of these wings giant alien creatures made for Farsight he would fling the hexagram attak medallions toward the energy void disk and before the aliens could come crashing down upon him a massive blast erupted from the void portal every tower came crashing down into the dust and as they came to assisting each other they looked around to see no sign at all are these aliens from out of the unknown void the tower here would prove victorious over the orcs as well but all of this was a hollow victory the ethereal x' had all been slaughtered leaving the towel without guidance the enclaves had lost their spiritual leaders it was a catastrophic and unprecedented loss Farsight was even more troubled now than previously though these creatures his visions what were these aliens why were they so bizarre in appearance and their abilities and seemingly like the orcs sadistically violent why did these creatures exist at all did they not have home worlds and societies of their own the more he considered it the more it disturbed him was there more to the galaxy than developing your culture progressing your territory and societal unity something far more sinister it seemed played beyond their comprehension but not perhaps beyond their imagination [Music] far from homeworld with the ethereal slain Farsight could not shake his conclusions there was some alternate perhaps parallel reality that ran alongside their own it would explain many things and all seem to be fitting into place the more he ordered the events and conclusions from his experiences so far it seemed to commander Farsight that the ethereal must have had some knowledge of this it chose to hide it from their people keeping them in a state of ignorance he would feel confusion in his own spirit now as well the sense that the castes here may well be better off without the restricting controlling ethereal z-- who ordered everyone as to what they should be doing it it all seemed sensible in the past but now somehow they seem cold uncaring lacking empathy for their fellow tau were the ethereal x' controlling the castes the more Farsight considered it the more his conclusions about the strange void creatures all seemed to fall into place it was if without the ethereal presence he was able to clearly think for the first time that his mind was unclouded and unrestricted he disturbed even himself with such thoughts he couldn't possibly vocalize these thoughts to others at these conclusions seemed of such importance and scale that he couldn't simply put them back in the box his eyes were open he could see the danger to the Tao was not only their enemies but now it was himself as well and his dark troubling thoughts while Shova would retreat into self-imposed exile the towel already have a detailed history even for their short existence and this is not the end of Osho v''e and for the towel themselves they've only begun to just learn the ways of the galaxy in the 41st millennium the towel are a far more complex society than appears on the surface there are many ethical moral issues going on with our ideology and Farsight was the first to see the truth of this the ethereal x' will not relinquish their positions of power easily and the other peoples of commander pure tide Alliance stasis the future for the towers they begin to see can be no peaceful or simple affair they will learn the hard way as humanity has had to for so long in the darkness and horrors of the galaxy our unrelenting [Music] [Music]

Channel: Luetin09

Views: 1,827,967

Keywords: Warhammer 40K, Imperium, Humanity, Mankind, Fall, Space Marines, Heretic, Heresy, The Emperor of Man, Lore, Beginners Guide, History, Guide, 40K, Warhammer 40000, Warp, Immaterium, Tau, Xenos, Race, Greater Good, Tau'va, Farsight, Commander, Puretide, Shadowsun, Damocles, War

Id: ptZVtMQIwZ0

Length: 57min 16sec (3436 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 08 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Zhejj]

You can taste the bias.

[u/Shoreth13]

Always enjoy your videos. I just watched this last night.