Warhammer 40k background question

[Falkus]

Now we get such high-quality background as, uhm, the Tau. Blargh.

Stuff it, buddy. The Tau have great fluff.

Sadly, I find the utter lack of any real good in the universe to be a big drawback for the WH40K setting.

The Tau are fairly good.

 

[cmanos]

40K rocks, I haven't seen a pdf of all the history, but I have acccess to the Rogue Trader, Slaves to Chaos, and Lords of Darkness books. Great background. Although the newer stuff is good, I don't think it is as dark as the old stuff was.

 

[cmanos]

The Tau are fairly good.

Hehehe, just wait til you find out exactly who they are working for and why Farsight left. That tune will change quickly.

 

[cmanos]

True, its just so hard to pick only one evil! My personal preference has always been for chaos marines however.. but maybe thats because I like hacking up mini's..

My favorite flavor of evil are the Sisters. But yes, hacking up minis in the name of chaos is a great thing.

 

[Zappo]

Rick Priestley left GW? The founder of the company? Or was it someone like Graeme Davis who invented the sensei stuff?

Davis, I think. I'm sorry, I can't remember who did what; the fact that the guy who invented the sensei left is very clear in my mind, though. I liked that stuff.

The Machine God of Mars probably is, based on a lot of hints in the Necron book. The rest of those are nothing more than idle speculation. There are, after all, only four C'tan supposed to still exist, and we do know who two of them are.

Yeah, I reckon that most of those suppositions were jokes. I know that at a certain point, me and my friends were answering all of WH40k's mysteries with "it's a C'Tan!" just for kicks. The Machine God is quite a good candidate, and if I had to put a bet on the fourth, my gut sense would point towards something related to the Harlequins. There are even rumors that the Iron Hands Space Marines may defect to the new C'Tan, which would certainly make for a fearsome new Necron unit. I'm looking forward to the next world campaign. I wish I had more time to actually play.

Stuff it, buddy. The Tau have great fluff.

The Tau are fairly good.

That's pretty much what is wrong with them, in a nutshell (that, and the gundam look). Shining paladins of tolerance and progress, if not exactly democracy, fit in the setting like a punch in an eye IMO.

 

[Desdichado]

There are even rumors that the Iron Hands Space Marines may defect to the new C'Tan, which would certainly make for a fearsome new Necron unit.

Those are probably wrapped up with the persistent rumors (ably hinted at in the Necron book) that the Cult Mechanicus is going to go heretic, abandon the Light of the Emperor and presumably join up with the hidden C'tan who's hinted at as hiding somewhere on Mars. The Iron Hands being so firmly entrenched with the Adeptus Mechanicus just makes for some interesting speculation is all.

As for the Tau; I couldn't care less for them so much, but they brought the kroot back, and actually defined them as tres cool minis. I can forgive the tau based on the fact that they defined kroot as a side-effect.

 

[Testament]

Shining paladins of tolerance and progress, if not exactly democracy, fit in the setting like a punch in an eye IMO.

I find thats the thing that I like about the Tau, besides their ultra-slick hi-tech look. That they are at least remotely good and idealistic (they remind me of the Colonial British in their attitude to other races, "Oh, they're good, but we're still better!") is endlessly endearing. They have NO IDEA what sort of a galaxy it actually is, the fact that they actually sent emissaries to the Tyranids, of all things, when they first encountered them still makes me crack up laughing. Can you imagine the meeting?

"We come in the name of the Tau'va, I am Por'el ARGGGGH! WHAT ARE YOU DOINGGGG YARRRRGH!"
<ROAR! SKREEECH!>

There's still a shadowy side to them in that they are completely driven by their notion of the Tau'va, the Greater Good, and will do ANYTHING if it serves that ideal. They're anything but democratic, they're like the political lovechild of Marx and Hobbes. They've completely destroyed any individualistic tendencies in favour of an ablolutist, COMPLETELY egalitarian state with no room for movement. And everyone, it would seem, is happy. Its a utopia in the same way as Brave New World was, they've created something perfect, but at what price?

 

[SWBaxter]

Wow, that WH40K fluff bible is a big document. Sadly, I find the utter lack of any real good in the universe to be a big drawback for the WH40K setting.

Eh, I dunno. On the minis side, it justifies the "anybody can fight anybody" situation, which leads to a nice range of games and styles. In a roleplaying context, it'd mean that none of the governments (and equivalents) are good guys, but particular individuals - such as a group of PCs - certainly could be. Lots of games work on that model, and do it pretty well.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Yeah, but if we go by Codex Necrons everything is the C'Tan's fault. I was seriously waiting for that book to tell me that the C'Tan killed JFK.

Actually, it was Lion El Johnson who did that. Duh. The heretic (forget his name), second in command of the Dark Angels, was JFK's chief bodyguard. Aka Clint Eastwood...

Hehehe, just wait til you find out exactly who they are working for and why Farsight left. That tune will change quickly.

The hints indicate that they were created by the great old ones. Resistant to the warp (ie, pathetic at it), expansionist, protected. Just hints... so far.

Shining paladins of tolerance and progress, if not exactly democracy, fit in the setting like a punch in an eye IMO.

Not so much that. They are, like testament said, naive rather than good. They kill anyone who resists their expansion notably. But one of the interesting points is that they will allow any race to join their empire - even humans. Only no orcs allowed. That makes them very dangerous over the long run, as races that hate humans might defect to the ranks of the Tau, making a large coalition against humies

 

[Desdichado]

The hints indicate that they were created by the great old ones. Resistant to the warp (ie, pathetic at it), expansionist, protected. Just hints... so far.

I've only read a few pages of the Tau book; what hints are these? And are the great old ones the same as the Old Ones i.e., Slann? If so, what would resistance to the warp have to do with that, since all of the other races (just about) who were also created by the Old Ones seem to be fairly psychically sensitive? Or are the Tau some kind of last ditch effort to correct the mistake of the other races who unconsciously spawned all the Chaos powers?

Not so much that. They are, like testament said, naive rather than good. They kill anyone who resists their expansion notably. But one of the interesting points is that they will allow any race to join their empire - even humans. Only no orcs allowed. That makes them very dangerous over the long run, as races that hate humans might defect to the ranks of the Tau, making a large coalition against humies

See, if only takes a slightly different point of view to fit them into the 40k tone fairly well.