10th ED T'au dex lore

The bits:
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Notable things from the introductory short story:

-A female Water Caste diplomat named Tsua'm came before a council of an Imperial world's noble lords. She was accompanied by her human and Kroot aides.

-Like many in her caste, Tsua'm enjoyed engaging witty and slippery interlocutors. It made convincing them to join the Greater Good more satisfying. Also, their keen intelligence would be of great value to the Empire once it was harnessed and channeled successfully.

-Her human helper usually went by Gue'vesa J'kaara Mesme'yen and wore his hair and clothes in a way that was similar to the T'au. For the diplomatic mission, he put on an Imperial name, Pravin Reefus, and wore Imperial clothes. He styled his hair in a manner similar to a monk's. All of this was to avoid offending the Imperials since they were highly protective of their ways. The fact that one of their own has embraced the T'au ways not just ideologically but also in a physical sense might be too much for them.

-Gue'vesa J'kaara showed the Imperial noble lords his Aquila tattoo and the necklace that bore the same symbol that he carried beneath his clothes. This display was meant to show that humans under the T'au Empire were not forced to relinquish their faith.

-Tsua'm, however, did not mention that Gue'vesa J'kaara by his own choice abandoned the Imperial Faith. The tattoo and necklace were now mere tools to reassure the cautious Imperials and peacefully fold them into the Greater Good.

-The Imperial governor asked if they are expected to stand alongside creatures like the Kroot besides Tsua'm. They are creatures whose horror they were well aware of.


-Tsua'm answered that the Kroot were instrumental in the defeat of the Orks, Tyranids, and the enemies that the Imperials call heretics. The Kroot's strength was welcomed. There are enough dangers in the galaxy without adding more needlessly. The governor surely allowed this audience because she recognized the same reality as the T'au. The galaxy has become more dangerous than ever. Monsters run amok in the stars. Anomalies wreak destruction wherever they manifest. Alone survival is not guaranteed. Only through unity can the coming storm be endured.


-From the reaction of the governor and her nobles, Tsua knows she found a chink in their armor of Imperial stubbornness. She pressed on. She told the governor that her world was on the fringe of the Imperium. The Imperium doesn't give her world the support it needs to secure itself. The Imperium has ignored her world and underestimated the strength and talents of its people.

-Tsua'm had gleaned this information from her numerous spies on the world that had been active for months before she came to the world.

-The governor responded that her world still has allies bonded by belief and treaty. Tsua'm replied by saying that she knows of whom she speaks. Those Imperial worlds have already joined the T'au Empire and are reaping the rewards of security, prosperity, and unity. If the governor allowed her world to join the T'au Empire, then like the other formerly Imperial worlds, she and her government would retain full control of their world. The warriors of the Fire Caste will defend the world. The Earth Caste will build up the world's infrastructure. The Water Caste will settle disputes. The Air Caste will transport goods.

-The governor responded that this would be conquest in all but name. Tsua'm reminded the governor that she was free to decline the T'au Empire's offer. She invited the governor to talk more so that she could enlighten her and ease her concerns.

-Internally, Tsua'm thought that for the Governor's sake, she would see the light of the Greater Good. Otherwise, The Fire Warriors soon will reveal the displays of Imperial strength are a sham.

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-The world of T'au is small and contains a single continental landmass. Its sunrises are swift and magnificent.


-What makes the T'au notable among the young developing races is the speed at which they advanced. Each generation of T'au strived with great dynamism that saw them achieve alarming and remarkable progress. During the early years of their existence, the technological progress of the T'au outpaced their maturity and morality which resulted in the disastrous era known as the Mont'au.

-Before the coming of the Ethereals, the T'au have been diverging both physically and mentally into a number of tribes. There were the plain hunter tribes, warlike and strong. The builder and settler tribes, tough and skilled. The talkative diplomat and trader tribes. The winged T'au tribes acted as messengers. Each tribe became entrenched in its nature.

-Tribal alliances formed and gunpowder weapons became widespread. This gave way to the Mont'au that threatened to bring the young T'au race to the brink of extinction.


-Even to this day the modern T'au fear the shadow of the Mont'au, for they believe that their race harbors a darkness deep in their collective psyche whose resurgence they ever dread.


-The rapid advancements and expansion of the T'au Empire have put tremendous stress on it and exposed it to dire challenges. The inimical alien races that needed to be fought for survival. The endless hunger for resources to feed the expansion of the Empire and to push forward into the stars. The burden of saving the galaxy from itself. Such stresses would have crippled many young races and empires, even if they lacked the rapid pace of the T'au. Thanks to the dedication of the entirety T'au race the Empire continues to endure or overcome these trials. The T'au relish nearly every obstacle and challenge. Despite setbacks and the bloodshed inflicted upon them by a hostile universe with every step they take, the T'au gladly push forward in pursuit of their destiny of uniting the stars.


-The T'au'Va, or the Greater Good, is summed up as the belief that the needs of the Empire are greater than any individual member of it. Followers of the Greater Good gladly would commit themselves to any great effort, to endure the most exhausting of adversities, or even lay down their lives to further the cause of the Greater Good.

-One of the many obvious benefits of the Greater Good is the clean and orderly cities on the sept worlds. They are technologically advanced and well-protected from hostile environments and invaders alike. They are diverse with various alien races rubbing shoulders with the T'au who are the first among equals. They are places of peaceful graceful beauty. However, they lack displays of self-indulgent wealth, for the T'au consider such things as wasteful. Simultaneously, there is nothing of the poverty and squalor ever present in most of the galaxy's civilizations.

-All who dwell within T'au cities have their places in society predetermined by their caste and the orders of the Ethereals. The T'au and their allied races have little say in their destinies. By the order of the Ethereals, they are all now part of one greater destiny that they must serve. Most T'au do not question the rule of the Ethereals. For them, the Aun's words are law. And no true T'au or ally of the Empire would disobey them.

-The T'au feel genuine empathy and compassion for the other races of the galaxy. So they won't wait for the races of the galaxy to come to them. They will seek them out. They will not rest until all civilizations are brought to the light of the Greater Good. The T'au send out drones into space that broadcast messages of hope and unity. Whenever these drones detect sentient life they signal the T'au who would soon launch colonization fleets and prepare the First contact protocols.

-The T'au, through the Water Caste, will attempt to peacefully fold the alien race into the Empire. Even if the process takes generations, it's acceptable for the T'au.

-Once the world's indigenous population accepts the Empire's offer, the T'au colonization begins at once. Often the native population is peacefully relocated deeper into the T'au Empire where they would further be educated in the ways of the Greater Good. And also where they would be assessed to determine their skills and worth so the T'au would know where to properly place for the best benefit of the Greater Good. Their former home world and its resources would be absorbed into the Empire.

-To the T'au's regret, many populations reject their peaceful overtures. The T'au cannot allow their ignorant stubbornness to threaten their Empire so they shift to war. It's up to the Fire Caste to show them the error of their ways. However, the T'au are not needlessly cruel. As the Ethereal preach, it's not the blind's fault that they cannot yet see. The T'au will seek to lessen the damage to the enemy worlds' populations and infrastructure for they are potential assets for the Empire. Once the worlds are conquered, their populations are forcefully integrated and re-educated while the Earth Caste works to heal the wounds of the worlds and transform them into hubs of further enlightenment and expansion. Thus how the T'au pushed back against the darkness at their borders. With the coming of the Great Rift, more races and worlds are lost in a sea of darkness and terror in desperate need of salvation. No matter the cost, the T'au are determined to reach them and rescue them by embracing them into the glory of the Greater Good.


-The T'au expanded their borders through events called Expansion Spheres. Each took a long build of resources and marshaling of armies before embarking on it. The expansion spheres spanned thousands of years. However, when set against the immense distances of space travel and the pace of other expanding races, the T'au expansion and progress have been explosive. Each Expansion Sphere heralded massive technological advancements and leaps in the T'au race's understanding of the galaxy. Also, each one came with its own grief and costs that the T'au stoically endured.


-By the time the legendary commander Puretide neared the end of his career, the Orks learned to fear facing him in battle.


-During the Second Sphere Expansion, the T'au Empire met the Imperium. The Imperium launched a Crusade in retaliation for the assimilation of scores of their worlds by the T'au. The Imperial Crusade pushed the T'au back across the Damocles Gulf and carved a bloody path in the T'au Empire before the combined efforts of Farsight and Shadowsun bled its momentum at Dal'yth Prime.

-After the Imperials withdrew, the Second Sphere Expansion continued. However, Farsight's expedition past the Damocles Gulf disappeared under mysterious circumstances at the same time Hive Fleet Gorgon descended on the Sept of Ke'lshan. Though the Tyranids were defeated, the effort drained the last of T'au reserves bringing the Second Sphere Expansion to an end.

*Note: This is a retcon. In early T'au lore, it was the Damocles Crusade that put an end to the SSE

-Exploiting the upheaval rocking the Imperium due to the Great Rift, the Fifth Sphere Expansion established three thriving septs in Nem'yar Atoll within the Chalneth Expanse, the septs Fe'saan, Kor'tal, and Yo'vai. Afterward, their expansion fleet received a mauling from a sudden Death Guard invasion. However, that would not stop the progress of the Fifth Sphere Expansion. The T'au continued to push into Imperial systems. They found alien-tainted human cults, humans overcome by a madness that's becoming disturbingly familiar, and Imperials who who given into unreasoning zealotry. With great effort, the T'au claimed world after world. Shadowsun herself achieved a great yet costly victory by pacifying the cardinal world of Astorgius. Gradually, an impressive addition to their growing Empire materialized. Yet the war to protect and expand it is only just beginning. The conflicts continue to intensify as more Imperial and alien armies are drawn in.

-After her victory on Astorgius, Shadowsun focused her efforts on combating her oldest of enemies, the Orks. Vast numbers of Orks poured from the Ful'na Nebula drawn by the mayhem of the threeway war in the Chalneth Expanse. Shadowsun could not allow their invasion fleets to destabilize the efforts to pacify the region's systems. she drew up an interlocking Kauyon strategy spanning three systems at the brunt of their invasion. She planned to bleed the Ork momentum before they could prove a threat to the Fifth Sphere Expansion.

-In the Riatov system of the Chalneth Expanse, T'au forces under commander Darkstar were locked in a three-way battle against the genestealer cults and the Imperials. As the three factions fought, the Warp disgorged an Ork fleet with a Space Hulk filled with Orks at its head. The war for the system entered a new terrible stage that none of the three exhausted factions were even slightly prepared for.


-Despite having a caste system where one's place is determined based on the needs of the Empire, the T'au Empire is a meritocracy where excellence is recognized and rewarded with progress. For example, a skilled Earth Caste menial worker would be plucked from his work crew and put on an amazing career of scientific discovery or great architectural works. Fire Caste progression is straightforward forward with elevation from the ranks and being allowed to wear the hero's mantle and command whole armies. The T'au Empire encourages its citizens to take pride and satisfaction in their individual achievements. But under two conditions. First, all must acknowledge that all work to further the Greater Good is equally important to the Empire. For example, An Earth Caste worker who erects a wall is equally prized as a commander who conquers a world. Secondly, it must be acknowledged that all their works are not for their personal gain but for the glory of the Empire. This way T'au society ensures that the majority of its citizens commit their utmost effort to furthering the Greater Good. Also, it prevents factionalism and harmful rivalries between the castes.

-One of the few obvious things that unite the T'au Castes is their insensitivity to the Warp. There are no psykers in the T'au species. Moreover, they do not have a tendency for Warp mutation. It's unknown how much the Ethereals know about the Warp and its threats but it's clear that generally, the T'au race understands nothing of it. It's a double-edged sword. Knowledge of the Warp can be corrupting. On the other hand, for an empire that's expanding in a galaxy where the power of Chaos is on the rise ignorance of the Warp is a dangerous blind spot.

-The Earth Caste is the most populous of the Castes.


-The Ethereals rule the Empire in a manner similar to a patient adult guiding a spirited, occasionally wayward, youths to realize their potential. As needs dictate, the Ethereals can be serene and compassionate or hard and stern. They rule with the absolute confidence of being the sole keepers of the truth. Among their important duties is the managing of the Empire's propaganda. So it's of little surprise that T'au communication tech has advanced as explosively as their technology of space travel and warfare.

-How the Ethereals exert influence on the T'au is unknown but its effects cannot be disputed. Ethereals on the battlefield can invoke Elemental Truths that allow the T'au to achieve nigh-supernatural feats of endurance, speed, accuracy, and courage. The presence of an Ethereal is enough to turn losing battles into unlikely victories.

-Most Ethereals stand aloof from the rest of the T'au, even when they go to war alongside them. Not so for Aun'shi. Hailing from the hot-blooded sept of Vior'la, he is the epitome of the Warrior Ethereal. He joins the Fire Caste in their rituals and training. He shares their hardships. He believes absolutely in the Greater Good and the destiny of the T'au. He will not rest until that destiny is fulfilled. So he understands the sad necessity of war on the road to galactic peace. He is a grizzled veteran of many battles and a master of many styles of combat. Though his honor blade has tasted the blood of hundreds of foes, the old warrior in his heart longs for peace. This nobility does not soften him against the enemies of the T'au'va.


-Kauyon and Mont'ka are the most common ways of war for the T'au. They are based on the hunting styles of ancient T'au, with Kauyon being the oldest way of war.


-Of all T'au commanders in the history of the Empire, only Puretide was perhaps the greatest master of Kauyon, Mont'ka, and other ways of war, having reached an enlightened balance between them all. Despite his efforts, none of his pupils attained a true balance between the ways of war. Notable students like Farsight, Shadowsun, and the dreaded Monat Kais have emerged as geniuses of their preferred styles.


-Puretide is long dead but he lives on after a fashion. The Empire created an interactive AI from his brain scan to continue to teach and pass on his wisdom to the elite students of the Fire Caste academies. The AI is located at his retreat at Mount Kan'ji on Dal'yth Prime. The Ethereals tightly control access to the AI.


-Shadowsun was the youngest of Puretides pupils. Despite this, she surpassed all her peers except one, Farsight. The two would develop a long-lasting rivalry that would see them push beyond their limits and achieve great feats of command and warfare. During the Damocles Crusade, Farsight's dynamic efforts gained the lion's share of fame and recognition. However, without Shadowsun's Kauyon strategies, Farsight's Mont'ka tactics wouldn't have worked. The Imperial momentum was halted by their combined efforts.


-the Kroot are the most common form of alien forces in the T'au armed forces. The T'au and Kroot have longed enjoyed a mutually beneficial alliance that dates back to the First Sphere Expansion in which the T'au helped the Kroot liberate their worlds from the Orks. The conflict was known as the War in the Place of Union. Afterward, the Kroot pledged to fight for the Greater Good in exchange for regular payments.


-The Kroot natural ferocity, survival skills, and speeds are things the Fire Caste lacks. They also excel in hand-to-hand combat, a type of combat that the Fire Caste cares not to pursue or develop. Kroot warriors fit in the Kauyon and Mont'ka war styles seamlessly giving T'au commanders a greater extent flexibility. Kroot are naturally patient hunters and can traverse terrain that is difficult for T'au Pathfinders. They are superb terror troops who can storm the enemy lines and open the way for the T'au forces behind them.


-Upon a wafront in the Chalneth Expanse the T'au forces encounter a foe that their Gue'vesa allies call heretics. Early battles went badly for the T'au. Inexplicably the advanced technology of the T'au malfunctioned to a deadly degree. T'au communication networks were flooded with ear-splitting static. Nova reactors randomly exploded. Smart missiles turned mid-air and flew toward their firers. T'au sensors and scanners were scrambled to uselessness. Only the Kroot weapons were not affected. With their natural tracking skills, the Kroot have a way to navigate the battlefield and track the enemy movements with no need for technology. In a highly uncommon move, Commander Brightmoon relinquishes the command of the T'au forces to the Kroot shapers who begin to lead the effort of regrouping the bloodied T'au forces.

-Many of the Kroot mercenary contracts are with the T'au but not all of them. The Kroot have little qualms regarding who they work with. They fought alongside Inquisitors, Aeldari of various types, the leagues of Votann, and even the agents of Chaos. Though circumstance and preference will make a Kroot choose or reject to work with any race of the galaxy, the ideal mercenary contract for the Kroot is one of ample pay, little chance of death, and the chance to secure new genetic strands.

-The Kroot are a clever race and this cleverness is combined with millennia of experience. As such the Kroot are superb negotiators. To give them a further edge in negotiations, a Kroot kindred often had already consumed members of the race they were negotiating with giving them insights into the race's fears, strengths, and desires.

-Kroot are ever on the watch for the treachery of their employers, should they want to use them as cannon fodder to avoid paying them. The Kroot concoct secret plans just in case. The Kroot would abandon an employer with no remorse. It's not uncommon for them to switch sides to ensure survival or to gain a greater payout. There is one exception to the amorality of the Kroot, their relationship to the T'au. Kroot warriors are unwaveringly loyal to their T'au allies. The Kroot have never forgotten the aid that the T'au gave their species long ago.

-The T'au still look down on the primitive ways of the Kroot but they treat them with great respect.


-Kroot subspecies understand the Kroot language though they can't speak it. So they are able to understand and execute the complex instructions of their Kroor handlers.


-Due to the harsh conditions on their home world the Kroot had developed a form of pragmatism that the T'au consider to be extremely cruel. In times of famine or disaster, the Kroot would eat the young, old, and wounded who would otherwise slow down the Kindred. In this way, the genetic strands are preserved for future generations. Those devoured are considered to have made a sacrifice for the good of the Kindred. It's in the nature of the Kroot that the needs of the tribe come first.


-The Un'ent Kindred who are fiercely loyal to the T'au pretend to be mercenaries in the galactic south. In secret they smuggle dozens of Water Caste Gue'la enlightenment cells and Gue'vesa and Pathfinder squads from their warsphere unto numerous human worlds.


-Riptide suits experimental nova reactors fuse darkmater to produce energy on a scale close to small stars.


-Unlike humanity, the T'au take pride in not overruning their homeworld. Much of the Sept World of T'au natural beauty was retained, coexisting with the world's magnificent cities.


-Life on the Sept of Vior'la is a daily fight to survive. Every settlement in the system is subjected to the worlds' lethal biospheres and must fight nearly constantly to fend off the ravenous flora and fauna. Such natural threats could be expunged but the Ethereals ordered them to remain. The challenge they present for the T'au of Vior'la ensures they are among the fiercest in the Empire. Only the sept of T'au with their obsession with the burden of tradition and perfection can match the output of military excellence of Vior'la.

-The fierceness of Vior'la is equal in all its castes. Its Earth Caste invented the Onager Gauntlets. Its Water Caste traders and diplomats are known for their forceful manner, risk-taking, and hard bargaining.

-The hot-bloodedness of Vio'la commanders results in them accepting risks that commanders from other septs would not consider. Often it would lead to tensions in mixed T'au forces.

-Vior'la's Fire Caste commanders are generally followers of Mont'ka style but that does not mean that they don't use Kauyon. However, when they do use it they color it with their aggression. They step away from the typical complex forms of Kauyon in favor of overwhelming and decisive ambushes. Often the baits they use in their Kauyon are crippled enemy assets crying out for aid.


-The surface of the worlds of the Sept of Sa'cea are mostly covered in interconnected dome cities that teem with trillions. Time and time again the T'au witnessed how Imperial worlds populated with such numbers become bastions of inequality and squalor. As such, the T'au view Imperial Hiveworlds with disgust and pity. Thanks to the teachings of the Greater Good, the cities of Sa'cea are nothing like Hive cities. The average citizen on the Sept lives a comparatively simple life but they do their part to ensure their cities are clean, healthy, and productive. Such dedication requires discipline and selflessness on the part of the individual. So life on the sept breeds a people famous for their calm temperament and unblemished conduct.


-The Fire Caste of Sa'cea is known for maintaining cold discipline even in the face of the most nightmarish foes, dispatching the enemies of T'au'Va with lethal efficiency. The Sa'cea are adapted to fighting in tight urban areas, possessing a seemingly near-supernatural ability to navigate the confusing mazes of cityscapes and detect the best routes of ingress and the location of the enemy. To further hone this advantage, Sa'cea training facilities contain replicas of Imperial cities, Ork sprawls, Tyranid biospheres, and even Necron tombs

-For every weapon of technological wonder invented by the Earth Caste of Bork'an, there is a weapon system that fails and kills its user. The Fire Warriors who lost their lives testing the prototypes of Brok'an are called va's'tuo, or the selfless tutors. Their names are recorded upon the glowing scrolling light sculptures of Brok'an's libraries so that their sacrifice would be forever honored.


-The Farsight Enclaves are practically an extended sept that is independent of the T'au Empire. The Enclaves are thriving and their castes are working together for the Greater Good despite there being no Ethereals to guide them, they have not slipped back to the feared Mont'au. This is unsettling for the T'au Empire as unsettling as the fact that Farsight still rules the Enclaves after all this time.

-The most disturbing aspect of the Enclaves for the Ethereals is the fact that the Enclaves possess weapons that have been developed long after the Enclaves departed the empire. The Ethereals ponder if it is the work of theft, spycraft, or worse factions within Septs aiding the rebels.

-The Ethereals say that Farsight abandoned the empire. He would counter them by saying that it was they who abandoned him first. As Farsight's expedition pushed further beyond the Damocles Gulf support from Empire dwindled. When Farsight was sidetracked from his mission to fight a seemingly endless tide of Orks, the Ethereals became disinclined to feed the shrinking reverses of the exhausted T'au Empire into what they saw as Farsight's pointless self-indulgent crusade.

*Note: This bit of lore got me theory crafting. Ignoring Aun'Va hating Farsight's guts, I think the lack of support was not due to some malice by the Ethereals but due to miscommunication. The codex places the First War of Dakka as happening roughly at the same time as Hive Fleet Gorgon's invasion. So indeed, the Ethereals might have been unable have send support to Farsight even if they wanted to. The lengthy time it takes T'au to communicate across space would have played a part in making Farsight unaware of the peril facing the Empire or perhaps the Ethereals kept Farsight in the dark about the Tyranid invasion so that he would not drop everything past the Damocles Gulf and run back to the Empire. I believe this could build up Phil Kelly's upcoming plot twist that Farsight's resentment of the Ethereals is unwarranted or has been exaggerated by Farsight's ignorance of the grimdark universe he exists in.

-During the events of "Arks of Omen: Farsight", the Great Star Dais was destroyed by the Orks. The taint of the dais that has long poisoned the world vanished. Later Farsight witnessed how life was returning to Arthas Moloch. Sparking a hope in him that one day his people might settle the ravaged world.

-The sept of Mu'gulath Bay endured the Imperium's fires and its T'au developed a burning hatred for the xenocidal armies of mankind.

-After the second Damocles conflict, insanity descended on the region. Anarchy reigned as T'au and Imperial forces continued to fight for supremacy. Other stranger forces emerged from the Great Rift to join the mayhem. Daemons of Tzeentch and Nurgle are rampaging about the region while Tyranids feast on worlds in their path. The escalating carnage shows no signs of abating any time soon.

-As soon as T'au settlers established a foothold on the world they named Lo'Saea, ghostly messengers in elegant armor appeared to deliver a simple warning. Depart or die. The T'au settlers were unable to convince the messengers of the glory of the Greater Good so they refused to heed the warning and prepared for war. Cadres of Fire Warriors and their Kroot allies came to defend the world and they clashed with the forces of Craftworld Ulthwe who had sent the warning. The T'au art of war clashed against the Asuryani's. Both factions fought with incredible speed and mobility and possessed remarkably deadly firepower. The fighting spilled across the Aeldari ruins and the world's wilderness, both sides refusing to give up their claim on the world.