Warhammer 40k background question

[Falkus]

Hehehe, just wait til you find out exactly who they are working for and why Farsight left.

I can guarantee you that the current fluff of the Tau isn't going to change. Because GW is never, ever going to make any broad, sweeping changes to an entire race.

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.

But don't you get it? They represent what humanity could have been.

They're anything but democratic, they're like the political lovechild of Marx and Hobbes.

Democracy and limitation of powers was developed by humans as a recognition of our own failings. Give any one human unrestricted power, and sooner or later, he's going to abuse it at the cost of others. The Tau Etherals don't have that failing, meaning that a benevolent dictatorship can work.

They've completely destroyed any individualistic tendencies

What gives that idea?

The hints indicate that they were created by the great old ones.

I'm no expert at the fluff, but weren't the old ones long gone before the Tau even evolved into sapience?

 

[Charles Rampant]

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?

The hints were to the effect that SOMETHING had been protecting them. The Eldar (old soldiers of the Slann) got crushed by chaos. And the 60 million year old war of th e Slann vs Necrons got halted by chaos bursting out and annihilating the Slann and sending the Necrons into slumber. The Necrons killed all life on the worlds they used to hold off chaos it seems. The use of a race that won't drop to chaos seems like a fairly sensible route in consideration of that.

And I think it was hints scattered throughout the Tau and Necron books to that end. For example something caused a massive warp storm to annihilate the human ships travelling to exterminate the fledgling Tau. And they went from barely sentient to space empire status in 4,000 years. At the behest of the 5th caste, who instantly commanded great loyalty from the other castes, and who randomly appeared 4,000 years ago. That's 'interesting'. Inquisition is trying to get it's hands on a 5th caste tau just to do some gene prodding. Plus, Eldrad Ulthuan (sp), greatest farseer of the eldar until he got wtfpwned by chaos, said he saw 'a great future' for the Tau, or something to that effect. Eldar don't like other races as a rule. Why did he compliment them?

It just looks suspicious, which is just how I like it.

 

[Falkus]

That's 'interesting'. Inquisition is trying to get it's hands on a 5th caste tau just to do some gene prodding

Of course, the events of the novel Firewarrior (which, while poorly written, is nonetheless a good source of fluff for the Tau) show that it's a really bad idea to be on the same planet as somebody who's just kidnapped an Ethereal

 

[Mokona]

This thread got me thinking: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=133749

Wouldn't Mutants & Masterminds be a good system to emulate all the different powers and abilities of space marines, harlequin, psychers, and Chaos.

Has anyone ever used M&M for a Warhammer 40k type game? Does anyone have any helpful comments on my idea? Thanks.