The Tau are a playable race in Warhammer 40k. When first discovered by humanity, the Tau were a barbaric and primitive people. Then their planet was trapped in a Warp storm for a few thousand years and they emerged from the other side as a unified species, led by the mysterious Ethereal caste and devoted to the concept of the "Greater Good". The Tau were originally developed because Games Workshop felt their setting needed an optimistic race, making the Tau the least grimdark faction in the game. Recent fluff (or at least Dawn of War fluff, which is of dubious canonicity, given Khornate Sorcerers) has them gleefully arbitrarily sterilizing the rebelling humans on Kronus once they come under the rule of the Tau Empire, while their Codex leaves ambiguous the question of just how much of their success is due to various forms of indoctrination, caste-based conditioning, and subtle mind control. It speaks volumes about the 40k setting that in spite this they're still the friendliest race in the setting.

Tau are a classic case of successful design-based trolling on the part of Games Workshop. As stated, they were intended to be a more dynamic and uplifting race in spite of the dark and disturbing nature of the setting; the dudes willing to negotiate when they've beaten their enemies, when all the others are either too murderously psychotic in ways incomprehensible to anyone who does not the share the same batshit insanity, religiously overzealous, arrogantly hubristic, simplemindedly violent, murderously enigmatic, or any combination of the above to offer such niceties.

The thing is, Games Workshop knows that this makes the Tau out to be hopelessly naive in their optimism - and dear god do they play this up for maximum effect. In the 41st millenium, the Tau come across as more than a little naive to the other races; the Imperium see any contact with aliens as heretical and will shoot them with Bolter slugs as soon as look at them; the Orks just want to kick the shit out of things, and the Eldar see the Tau as children, powerful because of their technology but a race in its infancy, just staggering out of its borders for the first time and wandering into a pond full of sharks - a prospect that amuses them greatly, since the Eldar are the most hubristic fucks in the galaxy.

This naivete seems at odds with the GRIMDARK-ness of the setting (and to a degree, a lot of it is), but is intentionally played straight by Games Workshop specifically FOR the Grimdark, meaning that in spite of the sheer balls-out unusualness of the Tau mindset in the 41st millenium, their dynamism and idealism is specifically played up as a weakness; there's dozens of stories in the codexes alone of the Tau shitting photon grenades because god help them - an Ethereal choked on a bagel and died, causing their entire formation to collapse in a shower of weeaboo tears. Putting it simply, there's an ongoing joke that the Tau are some of the most successful trolling performed in the history of mankind just by existing; a case of the company installing them just to mix things up whilst at the same time keeping them surprisingly on-level.

The combination of the above fluff, however, paired with their high technology, generally "Asian" feel (their Fire Caste's combat doctrine is fairly openly based on Sun Tzu's "Art of War"), use of battlesuits, heavy firepower, and one of the most broken tactics in tabletop 40K until it was finally fixed an edition later has conspired to make them very much hated by a reasonable-sized population of the 40K fan populace, and /tg/ has rightly dubbed the Tau Weeaboo (as much due to their Asian-ness as anything else) as a result. An ongoing meme regarding the Tau is how their collectivist empire and belief in the so-called Greater Good makes them Communists, and this has resulted in much hilarity from many a fa/tg/uy.

The Tau disdain melee combat in favor of ranged combat (in fact, they are worse than the Imperial Guard at it, and wouldn't have anything that could melee worth a damn were it not for their auxillaries), which renders them instantaneously less manly in the eyes of most /tg/'s playerbase (which thusly favors Orks, Tyranids, SPESS MEHREENS, and Spiky Marines. Whilst considered not as gay as the faggot space elf defenders of the status quo and loathed a lot less as a result, the Tau have a notably smaller fanbase than the "Big Five" (aforementioned Orks, Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Chaos Space Marines, Tyranids).

Military Doctrine

They tend to rely less on mass warfare and more on sophisticated technical support (drones, stealth technology, railguns) and emphasis on mobility and initiative of individual squads of units. Their military doctrine is not based on absorbing and dishing out heavy shocks like the Imperials and Orks. Rather, they use infiltration and their sophisticated battlesuits to bypass enemy strong points and launch deep into their rear, cutting supply lines and logistics, destroying headquarters and support units, leaving enemies cut off and functionally helpless.

On defense, the Tau are a bit unusual: they leave only token garrisons at their colonies to protect them. These garrisons are intended for scouting rather than combat, avoiding engagement to observe and report on invaders using Pathfinders, scanning towers, and drones. Because the Tau have fairly powerful spacefleets and usually keep their forces within reasoned distance of potential hot-spots, any potential threat can be quickly dealt with by organizing a hunter cadre to deal with the situation. This has, however, backfired on numerous occasions, since it does mean that the Tau are a bit vulnerable on defense.

The Tau, again, boast some of the most powerful ranged weaponry on the tabletop game, and can crank out more concentrated firepower than any other faction with the lone exception of the Imperial Guard. They have pathetic hand-to-hand combat skills, however, and so the Tau bolster this by using several inducted races (the Kroot, Vespid, and even some Humans left behind by the Damocles Crusade) to act as buffers against assault troops to allow Tau fireteams and their heavy long-ranged firepower to tear enemies apart. The perhaps most-infamous part of the Tau is their battlesuits, which can mount multiple heavy weapon systems and provide excellent mobility. They also have an extremely powerful navy, though not quite as formidable as the Imperium's. Tau air units are among the best in the game, with aircraft superior to or equal to Imperial Guard equivalents, including a stealth fighter, multipurpose heavy fighter, a superheavy fighter with guns that can one-shot a Titan, and their own Titan-equivalent (which is a small starship).

Non-combat Fluff

The Tau were a new race/culture found by the Imperium of Man during their "slash and burn" exploration of their galactic neighborhood. The Tau were still pastoral, had just discovered flint tools and charcoal, and the Imperium had them scheduled for Exterminatus to make sure they never got off-world and grew into someone that could threaten humanity. By an unfortunate coincidence which most certainly involved Tzeentch or Cegorath or something, a warp storm occluded the Tau homeworld, so nobody could get in or out. Since the Tau were virtually invisible in the warp, the Warp Storm didn't have much of an effect on them as they were immune to the influences of Chaos. The sector was labeled "lost to Chaos," and clean-up was deferred indefinitely. Only the Adeptus Mechanus still had records of this first contact when the storm died down 6,000 years later. The Damocles Crusade found the Tau, who were completely untouched by the warp storm and now using interstellar colony ships and pulse rifles. The Exterminatus order still stood -- but it was just going to be more difficult than they expected.

Tau history is pretty typical up through the iron-age: a knack for engineering, warfare between "urban" farmers and "barbarian" nomads, and unrestrained growth causing a series of plagues, leading to a dark age. Here's where things go sideways, though the Tau see it as the start of their endless Golden Age: the arrival of the Ethereals. Legend tells of a five-year seige at the castle of Fio'taun, with both sides starving and succumbing to disease, when two foreign Tau entered the battlefield. One went to the castle, the other to the barbarian tribes. Each of these Tau had a quiet grace and irresistible authority. In just a few hours, the castle was persuaded to open their gates, and the barbarians laid down their weapons, and both parties met to parley a truce. These strange Tau called themselves "Ethereals," and stressed the importance of peace and understanding between all Tau. They described a "Greater Good" that each Tau must strive towards. Soon after, soon enough to seem simultaneous, more of these strange new Tau emerged across the continent with their message of peace and co-operation for all Tau. Their quiet authority was always respected, and their message of harmony was universally embraced.

Castes

Tau society after the arrival of Ethereals was organized into castes; everyone with a place, and a place for everyone. Inter-caste mating is frowned upon, or even discouraged in some septs, which resulted in some physiological differences between castes as useful traits breed true.

Shas (Fire) - the warriors. The minis in a WH40K game are almost exclusively Fire caste. They are taller and stronger than other Tau, though still shorter and physically weaker than a typical Human, though they pretty much compensate for this by giving their basic Fire Warrior a pulse rifle, which is sort of like an automatic sniper-plasma gun, and employ heavily armed and sophisticated battlesuits for their elite infantry. Ohh yeah, and Railguns. Regiment-sized Tau forces are called "Hunter Cadres".

Fio (Earth) - the laborers and engineers; they are the "civilians" of Tau society. Their appearance can vary widely, though other Tau would describe them as "plain." They all have a stoic outlook, with little ambition other than to excel in their career of choice and work for the "Greater Good."

Kor (Air) - the intermediaries between Tau, they served as messengers and couriers, sometimes scouts/explorers. When the Tau started exploring offworld, it was the Air caste that took charge of the vessels traveling between the stars, and now the Air caste is the Tau stellar navy/airforce. Air caste Tau tend to be tall and slender like runners or dancers, and this is exaggerated by the years the Tau navy spends in low-gravity.

Por (Water) - the emissaries to non-Tau, they are diplomats, merchants, civil servants. The most open-minded Tau can be found among the Water caste, some even showing individual ambition (but still for the greater good of the Tau Empire). When a new culture is encountered, the Water caste are sent in first to negotiate. If talks break down, the Water caste are withdrawn from the area and it's time for the Fire Caste to then start negotiating with pulse weapon fire.

Aun (Ethereal) - the philosopher-kings described by Plato in the human writ "The Republic," they are selfless, always focused on what is best for the Greater Good ("tau'va") for all Tau, and every Tau without exception. The Ethereal are inspirational to all Tau caste members, and merely being near one will inspire a Tau member to work harder. In the case of the Fire caste, some Ethereal do accompany hunter cadres important deployments in battle as to better lead inspire the troops, which works as all the Tau in the combat zone will fight to their bitter deaths. The backside is that if the Ethereal dies in combat, the Tau are stricken with grief so overpowering that they'll go all emo and might fall back from an active engagement or campaign, even if victory is just a few steps away from them...... yeah, they're that fucking retarded.....weeell that is unless you're Shas'O R'myr, who became fucking angry instead of emo after his cadre's Ethereal got fucked by an Eversor assassin.

The Adeptus Mechanus theorizes that the respect the Ethereal caste gets from all other Tau is caused by a pheromALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTAU......

In a Nutshell

The Stated Reason Why People Hate Tau

Weeaboo space communists - not grimdark enough.

The Real Reason Why People Hate Tau

Fish of Fury. Fuck, even most Tau players felt this was bullshit.

A Real Reason Why People Like Tau

There's few races that give the Status Quo Guardians of the 41st millenium a bigger middle finger than the one race that isn't being a wall of dicks. If the Tau are trolling done by GW, then the target of said trolling was the Eldar. Whoever loses, we all win.

The Real Reason Why People Play Tau

Have the most powerful guns in the game. Often twin-linked. Often on cool-looking robot battlesuits. Also markerlights.

Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants?

An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Given that recent murmurs have suggested that something absolutely massive is in the works at GW, anything could be possible, though past experience has led us to believe that it will simply be a Tau wearing a silly hat. However, seeing as GW is as likely to advance the plot that far as I am to shove both my legs up my ass up to the knee, it doesn't much matter.

Fire Warrior: the vidya gaem

THQ released a mediocre FPS called Fire Warrior soon after the initial Tau Codex's release. Taking the role of Kais, a Shas'la about to undertake his first trial by fire in an attempt to rescue an Ethereal, it was a novel idea though a thoroughly unremarkable FPS in many regards.

Highlights include Bolters working as they're supposed to, some bad-ass dialogue, Tom Baker and BRIAN BLESSED and some really interesting level design. Not-so-good highlights include shitty hit detection, shooting down a Valkyrie with Pulse Rifle fire, the importance of close-combat when you're a Tau Fire Warrior up against stormtroopers + autoguns, balls-of-steel Imperial Guard Sergeants and "time for your chainsword enema" Space Marines. Managing to sword a Space Marine is hilarious though. The fact that you're essentially a one-man unstoppable killing machine is rather silly though.

If it makes you feel better, try to pretend you're the half-crazed Tau version of Rambo, sole survivor of a butchered squad and chopping people up with the Shas'ui's (supposedly purely-ceremonial)bonding knife and screaming like a maniac as you fire a pulse-gatling-gun into a horde of guardsmen. It really helps the atmosphere, and helps make the silliness a little more enjoyable.

The novelization of the game says he was being helped by Khorne. Like we said, this is a silly game.

TL;DR

High-tech Space communist weaboo who are the least grimdark of factions. Can't melee for shit but can blow you back to the stone age with ranged weaponry if you have the misfortune of being downrange. You will either love them or hate them because of all this, and many neckbeards do feel the butthurt.

Notable Tau

External Link

Typical Tau-Human conversation.

Gallery

A Tau Fire Warrior, the basic infantry unit.
And a smaller one.
Tau are not above negotiations with humanity.
At those ranges, those fire warriors are all dead men walking.
Somehow, the Tau are apparently winning this fight even though they're an inch away from the tyranids at best.
Stealth suits are :3
Indeed, many humans have already embraced th- *BLAM*
Sweet weeaboo heresy.
Some recruitment methodologies work better than others.
Ohhh GW.
Few rarely seen Tau chicks. Maybe because Sisters are hotter.
Fire Warriors are :3 too
This is what weeaboos actually believe.
This Char Custom Battlesuit-clad Tau demonstrates his mastery of Weeaboo Fightan Magic. Also DYNAMIC ENTRY!
The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer's entry on Tau players.
Surrender...never shall the Tau.
Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than Space Marines!

Tau are vicious melee fighters, no less able than Space Marines!
Yeah, we all know the truth about their "greater good".
MARKERLIGHTS!
In spite of being filthy heretical xeno scum, the Tau can really break it down.
Here we see Tau propaganda meant to entice men with their terrible, blasphemous, and supple soft skin, smooth curves, perky brea...er...ah...heretical alien bodies.
An attractive human female defector who for some reason has been equipped with a highly modified commander's battlesuit, perhaps as a devious ploy to compel desertion by the less loyal.
DAT ASS
A Fire Warrior appreciating DAT ASS.
In hindsight, attempting negotiations with Orks was probably a bad idea.
In /tg/, tau are the evil guys.
Typical Tau player, engaging in typical Tau behavior. (Faggotry)
What's that? We're not grimdark enough for you, Neckbeard?