Tau
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) has them gleefully arbitrarily sterilizing humans that 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 mind control. It says something about 40k that despite this they're still the friendliest race in the setting.
They're considered by the majority of Fluffbeards to be the Scrappys of Warhammer 40K. Simple because: They clash with the stylized and unique feel of the setting, they're unwanted Asian stereotypes in a universe of Imperium, Chaos Space Marines, Orks and Eldar. They're given an undue level of power in their introduction to the setting; ie: matching the Imperium in Firepower, despite the majority of Tau tech in the cannon being described as much worse than the Imperium's armaments, the only advantage being that Tau stuff is more widespread. Their shooty-faggotry, oh-so clean aesthetic making them more belonging to a more conventional sci-fi universe such as Star Trek, rather than Warhammer 40,000, which is basically a fantasy universe masquerading as a sci-fi universe by virtue of being in space and nothing more. And, of course, being hailed as Creed due to having no more than 2 tactical doctrines. And finally, due to their annoying accents in the Dawn of War and their Animu inspiration.
Despite this, some fags like them.
And the people in question are promptly purged for Heresy.
They are a technologically advanced race, and have some of the most powerful ranged weaponry in the game. Despite the fluff saying that their technology is pretty sucky compared to everyone else but the Orks, but hey, crunch before fluff. Else Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines would all be unstoppable rape-machines in the game. Tau units in general are rather weak in close combat, so they rely on alien auxiliaries such as the Kroot and Vespids who have joined the Tau Empire to bolster their strengths in this area. Fire Warrior veterans and commanders go to war wearing advanced battlesuits, allowing them to field even more firepower. 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).
Tau unit designs were somewhat inspired by Asian culture and Japanese mecha. As a result, /tg/ declares the Tau are weeaboo. Their devotion to the philosophy of the Greater Good often leads to them being labeled as communists, too. Well that, and their non-belief in money, or ambitious personal self-advancement, coupled with a rigidly directed obsessively planned autocratic civilization, as opposed to the Imperium, which just has a harshly directed cumbersomely bureaucratic autocratic civilization. The main difference that could be gleaned by anyone who understood communism, however, would be that the Imperium believes in the Nietzschean Superman, meritocracy and caeserism. The Tau, on the other hand, fit the Communism thing to a T. Nevermind that theoretically, anyone in the Imperium can achieve greatness.
The Stated Reason Why People Hate Tau
Weeaboo space communists - not grimdark enough.
The Real Reason Why People Hate Tau
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. Even if they end up suffering for it.
The Real Reason Why People Play Tau
Have the most powerful guns in the game.
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 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. 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.
TL;DR
High-tech Space communist Asian minotaurs who are the least grimdark of factions.
Notable Tau
See Also
External Link
Typical Tau-Human conversation.
Gallery
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