Farsight

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.

Shas'O Vior'la Shovah Kais Mont'yr, who like all Tau has the longest name in the freaking world, is the closest thing the Tau have to a stone-cold grimdark badass. He is one of the few beings in existence that Orks fear.

He is also a clone of the Gundam character Char.

Once upon a time, there lived a Tau who had the word "hot-blooded" in his very name...

Back during the halcyon days of the major conquests of the Tau Empire, the majority of the army's victories could be attributed to a single commander: Puretide. Puretide was a legendary genius who wrote the book on Fire Caste tactics, and shaped the military for years to come. He was basically Sun Tzu 40k to the point when O'Rmyr quotes actual Sun Tzu in Taros campaign book, it was stated as Puretide's quote. Puretide's many pupils were all famous warriors in their own right, and Puretide himself was so valuable that when he died of old age, the Earth Caste actually recreated him as an AI program to help train future commanders. However, this was not enough for the Ethereals, who decided that some of Puretide's students would be cryogenically frozen, so that they could be useful far beyond their meager lifespans. Puretide had three top pupils: Farsight, Shadowsun and Kais (yes, THAT Kais from Fire Warrior and DOW), three fiery and aggressive commanders who had a bitter rivalry. Of the three, Farsight was chosen to remain active while Shadowsun and Kais were frozen to be brought back to life in the future, leaving their rival to be the sole military hero of the Empire.

Farsight himself was a fiercely-independent thinker and tactical genius who managed to get three years ahead of his fellow pupils with nothing but determination and planning, in fact he was such a bright spark he ended up embarrassing his instructors and led to a lot of them getting replaced. Though this led to some bad blood Farsight moved past it, becoming a famed commander in his own right. However, Farsight's personal gut instincts and a desire for close, aggressive combat put him at odds with the Empire's battle doctrine. Farsight sucked it up and continued on as best he could, and finally was promoted to a battlefield Battlesuit piloting role that he took to with gusto. Eventually Farsight was selected along with Shadowsun and Kais (yes, that Kais) to learn from the Puretide himself. As a result he was made the leader of a massive Tau fleet and sent out to do the Empire's bidding. In his first deployment as mission commander Farsight performed amazingly, trouncing the Orks singlehandedly with skill and cunning. As he fought, the young Tau realized that aggressive, up-close combat was the key to defeating the Orks, and as such he became more comfortable with the idea of CQC. Though he was unhappily reassigned to another battlezone before defeating the Orks, Farsight met with Tau Ethereal Aun'Shi whom he modeled a style of close-combat Battlesuit fighting off of, which he applied for years after.

Farsight's next big deployment was at Dal'yth during the Damocles Crusade. A small branch of the Imperium's forces had launched a steamrolling attack on the Sept world, knocking over colonies, shelling planets and smashing fleets to get there. Though the attack was clumsy the sheer grit and numbers of the Imperial Guard meant that the Tau were completely on the back-foot, and only Farsight and Shadowsun's combined tactics managed to hold Dal'yth together. During this battle Farsight became aware of the oddness of Human Psykers and Warp technology and their incredible fanaticism, as well as helping him realize more of the problems with his own doctrines. Another incident was that some of the Commanders were implanted with Puretide Engram Chips by the Ethereals to make them as tactically-capable as Puretide, however Farsight found this horrifying when it turned his soldiers into robots with no wills of their own and additionally made them completely useless when Psykers were involved (since Puretide had never encountered them). Finally, after a long and bloody war, the Imperium of Man had to pull out when Hive Fleet Behemoth made itself known in another sector of the galaxy. After the fight, Farsight discovered to his additional alarm that when the Engram Chips were removed they left the commanders brain-dead. You can probably see where this is going.

Gotta Go Your Own Way

After the Damocles Crusade, Farsight was tasked with rebuilding a series of lost colonies that had been overrun in the chaos. So Farsight set out with a huge fleet and a trio of Ethereals to repair the damage and take back planets. Eventually a series of worlds he set up became the Farsight Enclaves. Along the way he discovered some orks in an asteroid belt and decided they should be wiped out, which went against the Ethereals' orders of capturing more worlds. During this drawn-out campaign against the Orks, Farsight and his Ethereal advisors ended up on the dead planet of Arthas Moloch, where some spilt blood on an ancient altar accidentally summoned a swarm of Daemons. In this costly battle Farsight discovered an ancient sword called the Dawn Blade, as well as some statues bearing Medallions that repelled Chaos. Farsight used these to shut the Warp Portal, but during the fight the Daemons singled out and killed his Ethereals (but not before they revealed that they had known about Chaos, but lied to the Tau about its existence for the Greater Good- kind of like what the Emperor did in the Great Crusade)(except the Emperor knew human curiosity and Chaos mix badly, whereas the Ethereals didn't have any reason to worry about Tau being corrupted, but the existence of daemons would basically negate a lot of their highly secular teachings. Kind of like what the Prophets did in Halo to keep their power in the Covenant after discovering humans were "Reclaimers"). After the battle, Farsight realized that the Immaterium and Chaos existed, which to him explained a great deal of things the Tau Empire was unaware of. As he continued to think it became obvious to the Tau leader that the Ethereals clearly knew about this and he began to suspect that their leadership of his people was not benign. After recovering, the Farsight Enclaves began to govern itself while Farsight quietly left his battlesuit in a museum and went to be a hermit, believing that he himself was the greatest threat to the Empire thanks to his own subversive thoughts.

The Dawn Blade

The Dawn Blade is made of chronophagic alloys so whenever he kills something with it his life is extended (it basically steals the life force of the thing it kills and adds it to the wielder.) Farsight does not know this but he has his suspicions, and if he were to find out that his suspicions are correct he would most likely kill himself upon realizing that he's been unwittingly sucking the life out of his victims. He also found multiple six sided medallions with anti-Warp properties in the same place he found the Dawn Blade. Trazyn probably lost some of his collection or something.

163 years later

The Empire eventually lost contact with the Enclaves and believed Farsight long-dead and the Enclaves lost. However one day a probe discovered that the Enclaves were still there and flourishing, even having changed their Sept markings and become Ethereal-free. Learning this, the Tau Empire branded Farsight a traitor and renamed the Enclaves The Forbidden Zone, smashing all his statues and trying to wipe him from public memory. This didn't sit well with everyone especially members of the Fire Caste, and contacts within the Empire soon began secretly supplying the Enclaves with new weapons and hardware.

Over a hundred years later, the Enclaves came under threat from a Tyranid splinter fleet. Unsure of what to do, the leadership of the Enclaves suddenly got a message from a museum where an aged Farsight had suddenly shown up out of nowhere to demand his ancient Battlesuit be removed from its display case and returned to him. Donning his armor once again, the Tau commander took over the defense and thanks to some smart Earth-caste bio-engineering managed to hold off the Devourer long enough to poison the fleet. As Shadowsun, Farsight's ancient rival, was reawakened in the Empire and sent to war, Farsight assembled a new team of elites to defend the Enclaves and stand opposed to the creepy power the Ethereals held over their brethren.

The Eight

The Eight in order: Torchstar, Oblotai, Bravestorm, Farsght himself, O'Vesa, Sha'Vastos, Brightsword, Arra'kon

Farsight's band of Battlesuit aces. Think Seven Samurai with mecha.

-Farsight himself, leader of the Enclaves. Has very dark and cracked skin thanks to exposure to heat and flames, as well as a replacement leg. He pilots an XV8 Crisis battlesuit with his trademark Dawnblade.

-Honor-Shas'vre O'Vesa, Not really a Fire-caste warrior and more of an old Earth-caste mad scientist kept alive by microdrones, given the honorary title of "Shas" to denote his position as a warrior. Pilots a massive Riptide with excellent targeting arrays.

-Commander Bravestorm, an ancient Tau who has been burned and scarred a la Darth Vader after taking down dozens of Imperial tanks with an experimental battlesuit-mounted powerfist and cannot leave his Battlesuit. Incredibly brave and fights with the last remaining Tau Powerfist-equivalent. Too bad we don't know what it looks like... (I can make a guess)

-Commander Brightsword, a generational pilot who inherited the title from the previous Brightsword. Posesses a scarred and pock-marked Battlesuit that was also passed-down, and fights with Fusion Blades (Don't get your hopes up, Fusion Blades is just a nickname for his guns' extra-dakka mode).

-Commander Sha'vastos, an old comrade of Farsight who was forcefully equipped with a Puretide Engram chip. It was a prototype however and rapidly began to degrade, damaging Sha'vastos' mind, so Farsight put him in stasis and secreted him out of the Empire. Years later his scientists finally managed to remove it safely, and in gratitude 'Vastos fights alongside his friend and leader.

-Shas'vre Oblotai 9-0, an AI-controlled XV88 Broadside battlesuit armed to the teeth with smart missile systems. Based on the brain of Farsight's long-dead superior "Ob'lotai".

-Commander Arra'kon, a Tau born in the Enclaves and who served as supreme military commander in Farsight's absence. Expert strategist, and pretty good in a fight, especially against infantry.

-Sub-Commander Torchstar, a Tau Empire deserter and the youngest member of the team, this fiesty pyromaniac female Tau has flame tattoos on her body. She even fights with dual flamers. Hot enough for ya?

Quotes

"Learn to shorten your reach! If your foe can come close enough to negate your striking power, all stratagem is lost and when all stratagem is lost, the battle is lost." --Codex: Tau (3rd Edition)

“Each must find their own way. If those in our heartland had witnessed the savageries of the void as have we they would know this. The hand of each of the great starfarers is turned against the other, none will join their strength together just to see their ancient enemies prosper. Neither should we." --Codex: Tau Empire (4th Edition)

"I've seen things you wouldn't believe - entire worlds in flames, chains of supernovas on the edge of nothingness, the great hole in space. I am changed, an outcast now..." --Codex: Tau Empire (6th Edition)

Farsight IS Roy Batty now.

Cranky old man voice much?

That's the Fluff, here's the Crunch

While popular fluff-wise even among non-Tau players for his badassery, Commander Farsight wasn't actually all that useful on the tabletop.

Previously he came with shittonn of limitations like no auxilaries, 0-1 tanks and pathfinders and so on, and his massive bodyguard blob was too expensive and risky.

The limitations got removed with 6th edition codex and Farsight can now even bring ethereals with him (fluff wise Aun'Shi is the only one welcome). On top of that Farsight is now a beatstick. He can bring a unit of seven never-scattering bodyguards with him and give them all meltas, plasma rifles, target locks to allow the squad to fire at 7 separate tanks with meltas or blast the enemy MEQs and TEQs on turn 1. Moreover, Farsight can now be taken in a game of any size.

Additionally, The Tau Empire has a whole Farsight Enclaves Supplement now, where you can take Battlesuits as troops AND his own crazy retinue of special characters!

See Also

This song plays every time Farsight enters combat.