The Tau Pirate Prince

By Crystal Geyser, in Black Crusade Game Masters

Hey all, just a quick question for you Tau aficionados out there...

For a while now we've been playing a campaign of Rogue Trader, and the party's Rogue Trader is... Well, a Tau. Essentially, the character's backstory is that the Tau was a half-breed son of an ethereal and an earth caste laborer, and given the Taus strict policy in intermingling blood his earth caste mother, the leader of a Tau mining colony, decided it would be better to sell him off rather than try and raise him as a half-blood in Tau society where at best he would be a social untouchable or at worst killed (the player doesn't actually know that he is half-ethereal so I'm hoping he doesn't end up reading this, as spoilers abound - as it is he doesn't know why he was sold as an infant).

Thus, the Tau infant was adopted by a Rogue Trader named Graxis McAllister and given the name Galley Shay. Raised in the decadent lifestyle of a hedonistic pirate, Shay eventually went on to command his own ship and crew. After discovering the science of transgenic grafting, the ship's crew started to augment themselves with xenos body parts but doing so began to drive them insane. To save their minds they dedicated themselves to chaos (as Black Crusade characters don't track insanity, and their Seneschal was at a whopping 96 insanity points from something like seventeen alien surgeries).

So our Tau Rogue Trader (who now has a human stomach, ork fungus blood, and simulacrum hands) has decided it makes the most sense to align himself to Slaanesh given his love of rum, money, and charismatic persona (their home world of operations is covered with statues of him, and his ethereal genes make him well-disposed to leadership). I'm just interested as to how people would interpret a Tau dedicating himself to Slaanesh, and how that would work mechanically. In Rogue Trader it says Tau don't gain malignancies or mutations from corruption, but they still become unplayable at 100 CP, which implies they can turn to chaos, even if it's very rare. Normally Tau are predisposed against Chaos due to their culture and the attitude of the greater good, but given that Shay was raised outside of tau society those restrictions shouldn't apply to him. So far, we've been mechanically representing his corruption and infamy the same way as a normal human heretic - currently he has twenty something corruption points, with the Infernal Will and Warp Saturated mutations (meaning that he is literally leaking rum from his pores).

If anyone is interested in ways to represent Tau corruption, post!

From what i know Tau cannot worship the Gods, or any god, like other sentient beings. Tau souls are often described as "pale", they lack the emotionality of humans/eldar/orcs etc. to be really of interest for chaos gods (infact they don't have psykers) and their connection to the Immatirium is very weak. In theory they cannot fall to chaos, they don't gain corruption or mutations, they can use daemon weapons without fearing possession and so on.

Now you have to decide if in your setting tau can be corrupted, from what you wrote i would suggest a different angle: what if this tau pirate cannot attract the gods but wants to? Would be a nice tragic and delusional character trying to get noticed by Chaos and knowing that isn't going to happen, seeing all his comrades rewarded for their worship but not him, doing glorious services to the ruinous powers and still not be considered at all.

From what i know Tau cannot worship the Gods, or any god, like other sentient beings.

Not quite sure where you got that from, Tau can worship gods if they so felt inclined. There is nothing physically preventing them from doing so and it's just an ideological choice. Tau souls are of little interest to the forces of Chaos gods. Without much of a psychic trace they don't really register in the warp and few really care. It's of little value to a daemon. It's like choosing between the scrumptious roast beef joint that is a human soul or the lettuce leaf that is the Tau. The smart answer is to go for the tasty meat...unless you're a vegetarian on this thread and in which case begone. So it's not like a daemon won't do anything they just wont care to possess them and will simply wipe them out. There is no "in theory" either, no Tau has ever fallen to Chaos and never will. They are just physically and mentally incapable of doing so as the warp practically rejects them.

For the sake of OP though who's doing it anyway, your player should if you ask me, unfortunately get absolutely nothing from all their devotion to Slaanesh. Even if a billion Tau at once pledged their allegiance to a god, it's a crumb and not one which is worth a daemon taking up the offer on over say a nice human one. No creature of the warp will expend their effort to take the soul and body of a race which has no value. It's actually worse for them, more of an effort than it's worth to even try. So if your player wants to go down that route and worship a god then it needs to be made very clear that it will be for RP purposes only. You could be Commander Shadowsun, lead an entire sphere of expansion to glory and still the gods and daemons will not care. The only way you're going to be manifesting that corruption is mentally, having their thought processes degrade and become more depraved or hedonistic in their desires or physical mutations and modifications from manners other than the warp (genetic alteration procedures, radiation, surgery etc). They could wipe out entire worlds of souls for a god but a god is still not likely to turn an interest on the creature himself. It's wasted effort.

Edited by Calgor Grim

They can follow chaos but it isn't like true worshippers that actually have a chance of getting something. You can see it like a person that act like a wizard but isn't capable of casting any spell. Their species isn't capable of the same passions of humans even if they choose to follow chaos they will never be true belivers (zealots).

The tau are quite a passionate people at times - see how nutzoid fire caste can go if an ethereal gets killed.

And worshipping slaanesh as a lifestyle choice is perfectly acceptable - slaanesh isn't going to turn away potential converts.

At the same time, don't expect gifts of the gods too much; as noted, tau have little presence in the warp - so they're not as 'tasty' to the warp gods. The same reason they don't have psykers.

At the same time, the chaos gods and there servants can possess and corrupt inanimate objects like ships, weapons and books if they so desire. Tau are not magically immune to the warp (they're not untouchables), they just don't attract it as much.

A Tau exposed to the warp suffers in much the same way as a human - indeed tau experiments with the warp haven't ended well for that reason (part of the reason they've stuck with slower but safer aether drives). The tau 'observatory' watching the warp phenomena on Medusa V, for example, resulting in the interrogation of a captured gue'la tech-priest essentially going along the lines of "how are you powering this outpost's Gellar field?" "what's a Gellar field?" "Blargle." and then many tentacles.

More importantly, a sentient being can attract the attention of the ruinous powers. A sorcerer need not be a psyker, after all - simply the appropriately shaped thoughts/emotions/sounds have the effect - after all, runes work, even if carved into inert stone. If you can carve a big enough scar into the galaxy, the chaos gods will start to care - because even if your own soul is of so-so interest, the effect you're having on the galaxy at large is enough to make you appealing as a tool or puppet.

Mutations would seem fine. Especially since he's no longer 100% tau.

An interesting point is that tau, as a rule, have so-so senses, if I remember correctly, whilst slaanesh tends to raise those senses to extreme sensitivity. Developing a sensitivity to sound or light vastly in excess of a baseline human would mess up anyone, but especially a Tau (and especially one not fire or air caste by birth)

The tau are quite a passionate people at times - see how nutzoid fire caste can go if an ethereal gets killed.

And worshipping slaanesh as a lifestyle choice is perfectly acceptable - slaanesh isn't going to turn away potential converts.

At the same time, don't expect gifts of the gods too much; as noted, tau have little presence in the warp - so they're not as 'tasty' to the warp gods. The same reason they don't have psykers.

At the same time, the chaos gods and there servants can possess and corrupt inanimate objects like ships, weapons and books if they so desire. Tau are not magically immune to the warp (they're not untouchables), they just don't attract it as much.

A Tau exposed to the warp suffers in much the same way as a human - indeed tau experiments with the warp haven't ended well for that reason (part of the reason they've stuck with slower but safer aether drives). The tau 'observatory' watching the warp phenomena on Medusa V, for example, resulting in the interrogation of a captured gue'la tech-priest essentially going along the lines of "how are you powering this outpost's Gellar field?" "what's a Gellar field?" "Blargle." and then many tentacles.

More importantly, a sentient being can attract the attention of the ruinous powers. A sorcerer need not be a psyker, after all - simply the appropriately shaped thoughts/emotions/sounds have the effect - after all, runes work, even if carved into inert stone. If you can carve a big enough scar into the galaxy, the chaos gods will start to care - because even if your own soul is of so-so interest, the effect you're having on the galaxy at large is enough to make you appealing as a tool or puppet.

Mutations would seem fine. Especially since he's no longer 100% tau.

An interesting point is that tau, as a rule, have so-so senses, if I remember correctly, whilst slaanesh tends to raise those senses to extreme sensitivity. Developing a sensitivity to sound or light vastly in excess of a baseline human would mess up anyone, but especially a Tau (and especially one not fire or air caste by birth)

I wouldn't say that taus are passionate as i wouldn't say that ants are passionate. From my prospective tau are incredibly driven, they can be very focused but they cannot "burn with passion", what they do they do with reason as a motivation not emotions (something like vulcans from star trek), ants will fight to the death to protect their queen even against impossible odds but they do not really have "emotions" for their biology is so simple that they are as individuals more like automatons, anyway we could see their behavior as very passionate but that's just our interpretation of something we cannot relate too because in our minds only strong emotions could lead to such extreme behaviours.

A tau can experience emotions but not to the same degree of humans just like humans cannot experience emotions to the same degree of eldars, as a comparison i imagine tau emotions to be of an order of magnitude inferior to humans: the equivalent of human friendship for a tau is love, while tau freindship would be for a human just acquaintance and so on.

My understanding is that daemons cannot posses inanimate objects, they can be bound to them but they cannot simply "enter" an object. Even when bound the object must be "charged" with psychic energies and emotions to be attuned and then the daemon essence must be trapped inside it with arcane bindings. Daemons can possess living creatures but without arcane bindings the possession is temporary and the host is consumed in a short time, more the host is attuned to the warp more time the body will endure the possession and more power the daemon can pour into it without destroying his vessel (that's why daemons prefer to possess psykers). To bind a daemon you always need a sorcerer doing the rituals (so someone that can with simpathy bridge the gap to the immaterium), to possess the daemon doesn't need anyone, he can do it alone.

I would say that tau cannot be possessed because their connection to the immaterium is very thin, they are more like objects for daemons, so i would say that in theory a daemon could be bound to a tau like you could do with a damon engine or weapon (if it was possible to "attune" the tau to emotions and psychic stuff like an object), but true possession i think is impossible (that's why no tau seems to ever have suffered possession, from a damon prospective a body is still better than no body, so why not possess taus if it was possible?).

For mutations tau aren't immune to the immaterium so they can suffer the effects of exposure to warp energies but i think they are far more resilient than other sentient species to their effects and to induce a mutation the quantity of warp stuff they have to be exposed is huge compared to humans.

In my vision if they are exposed to enough warp they simply die horribly as their bodies are consumed and twisted, they do not "enjoy" a grey area of controlled mutation with a couple of tentacles and maybe a ***** sprouting from their foreheads, they go from totally normal to chaos blob as soon as their bodies accumulate enough warp energy.

Tau have a weak presence in the warp, but still has one.

Emotions are what make the chaos gods, and even if you're tau character isn't resonating a lot in the warp, his deeds will. If said commander shadowsun took his army of tau fire warrior and ordered them to ****, torture and murder anything they met, then yeah, Slaanesh would like them, because it would resonate with him.

Tau are just, by themselves, harder to connect with the warp.

Soul is not the only important thing to take in consideration, otherwise machines couldn't be corrupted, data couldn't be corrupted. The Warp is the Warp and in the end, it will make whatever it wants from it.

****, we've even got necron worlds that were taken in a warp storm and destroyed/alterated this way, and necrons are supposed to not have a soul.

In my opinion, Tau are soul-pale, have a culture that protects them from corruption (like any other very faithful culture in a cause that isn't overtly evil), but are not at all untouchable to chaos.

And about the non-interest of chaos soul to a daemon, then why can dybuk be made with possessed animals in DH? They aren't have great emotions and consciousness like sapiens race have. Still they can be of at least little interest.

Tau have a weak presence in the warp, but still has one.

Emotions are what make the chaos gods, and even if you're tau character isn't resonating a lot in the warp, his deeds will. If said commander shadowsun took his army of tau fire warrior and ordered them to ****, torture and murder anything they met, then yeah, Slaanesh would like them, because it would resonate with him.

Tau are just, by themselves, harder to connect with the warp.

Soul is not the only important thing to take in consideration, otherwise machines couldn't be corrupted, data couldn't be corrupted. The Warp is the Warp and in the end, it will make whatever it wants from it.

****, we've even got necron worlds that were taken in a warp storm and destroyed/alterated this way, and necrons are supposed to not have a soul.

In my opinion, Tau are soul-pale, have a culture that protects them from corruption (like any other very faithful culture in a cause that isn't overtly evil), but are not at all untouchable to chaos.

And about the non-interest of chaos soul to a daemon, then why can dybuk be made with possessed animals in DH? They aren't have great emotions and consciousness like sapiens race have. Still they can be of at least little interest.

Animals can have strong emotions at least mammals: dogs, cats, horses, elephants or primates have strong emotions, for reptiles i wouldn't consider them capable of "strong emotions", birds i would say that depends on the species (pigeons i doubt are capable of the same emotional complexity of penguins and so on) and insects and arachnids i wouldn't see them capable of emotions at all (at least as we see them).

Dybuk are created just like daemon engines or daemon hosts, if the daemon is willing or not isn't important just as it isn't important if it can actually possess the vessel, what metters is the possibility to be bound. Again daemons cannot possess objects and even possessing a living being without the use of arcane arts performed by a sorcerer isn't permament.

Faith is what makes chaos strong, a strongly religious society creates strong belifes and strong emotional conflicts espcially if the religion has strong moral rules that limit emotions and natural behaviours, that's why even "good oriented" religions when followed to the letter create monsters (inquisition, terrorism, genocides, racism, wars... actually there's no religion that states to be "evil", yet all of them are responsable for terrible things). Religion often promote conflict because they devide populations by their own faith and morals, when one faith excludes the others conflict is inevitable and being religion a strong social banner promotes extreme emotional reactions. Every strong belif is subject to become "corrupted", history is full of examples (french revolution was followed by the reign of terror), only a "pale" belif doesn't risks corruption or extremization for the belivers aren't so emotionally attached to go to extremes to follow their ideals.

Warp energies are like radiation, strong radiation can destroy even inert materials and objects or damage them, what they do to living beings is cause mutations and to extremes utterly destroy them, so put a necron in the immaterium and i don't expect it to survive just as i don't expect to survive a cat, the difference is that if not utterly destroyed the necron could be twisted by the warp while the cat when twisted dies (don't try to twist your cat at home XD ), not unlike ships lost in the immaterium they can be twisted and become hosts to various other "life forms" they do not become possessed thou or "mutate" as a living being. In theory you could use a necron to create a daemon engine by binding in his form a daemon just like any other machine (that would be interesting!).

Taus are so distant from warp and are so culturally not prone to corruption that i don't see any reason for them to be actually able to be possessed.

Considering the repercussions of actions i would say that a tau will not be able to "attract" the chaos gods even if he tortures a million of innocents, that's because he doesn't feel any strong emotions in doing so, instead if the entourage of the tau has some humans the gods will surely take notice of them! On an extreme case if the tau manages to create an image of himself that pleases the gods (like terrorizing entire planets) they probably would smile and even be pleased just like they are pleased if a vulcano erupts and creates misery, famine, pestilence, death and so on, they are not pleased of the vulcano but of the consequences. In this scenario the trusted advisor of the tau would be the real champion of the gods while the tau would be seen more as a tool in the hands of the advisor then a follower himself.

At least this is how i imagine the thing XD

Animals can have strong emotions at least mammals: dogs, cats, horses, elephants or primates have strong emotions, for reptiles i wouldn't consider them capable of "strong emotions", birds i would say that depends on the species (pigeons i doubt are capable of the same emotional complexity of penguins and so on) and insects and arachnids i wouldn't see them capable of emotions at all (at least as we see them).

A dog has no ambition. Commander Farsight does.

Why would a dog be easier to possess than a Tau commander?

Taus are so distant from warp and are so culturally not prone to corruption that i don't see any reason for them to be actually able to be possessed.

They have a weak presence. They still have one. They have a soul. They can be possessed, but they won't be often seen in the warp because if this small presence.

It's like the difference between a regular man and a psyker.

The tau won't be spotted, but if the daemon spot him, only the Tau's faith in the greatergood will protect him.

not unlike ships lost in the immaterium they can be twisted and become hosts to various other "life forms" they do not become possessed thou or "mutate" as a living being

Not sure what this sentence mean.

they probably would smile and even be pleased just like they are pleased if a vulcano erupts and creates misery, famine, pestilence, death and so on, they are not pleased of the vulcano but of the consequences

That or, since the Tau is counscious and can be manipulated or help their cause, they will boost him and recognise him for what he is: a champion of chaos.

i don't say that dogs can be easier to possess, infact they aren't possessed by daemons, they can be transformed in hosts by binding, at least normal animals for psychic ones the thing could be different and in daemon worlds where everything is awash with unnatural energies and laws everything could be possible i guess.

a normal human can be possessed and it will survive possession for a few hours, a psyker will survive possessions for days or more depending on his strenght, a tau even if could be possessed would survive a few minutes at most before being destroyed. binding a daemon in a tau i see it as possible but, as i said, i think it would be more like binding a daemon in an object with even a low attunment to the warp (difficult, not usefull and probably even impossible and surely not to the liking of the daemon).

i see the all thing in a phisycal way: hosts are like containers and daemons are like water, a daemon can try to slip inside a suitable container and, for what we know, without bindings there's no mortal container that will not eventually be broken under the pressure, in most cases the container will not be able to accomodate all the water that composes a daemon that's why daemons prefer to possess bigger containers (psykers). There's a limit to how few water you can pour into a container and still consider what is inside a daemon, taus are like small glasses and daemons are like swimming pools size. You wouldn't say that you have the lake in a bottle while you would say that you have a pond in a cistern (a more gruesome image could be: having inside a bag a human body without legs you could say you have a man inside your bag; having an hand inside your pocket you can't say that you have a man in your pocket).

Psykers: big containers, normal humans: small containers, blanks: no container.

In this prospective i see taus as too small and so daemons even if they could wouldn't actually fit inside but only a minor fraction of their essence would be able to be stored in a tau, a small fraction that could not be considered a daemon.

if you assume that a tau can be possessed anyway i don't see how their belives can be alone a shield against possession: the avrage human in the imperium has a lot of faith and yet they are easly possessed and only a few humans with high mental fortitude can attempt to resist possession and usually they even need the use of arcane arts / psychic powers to increase their chances. From my point of view the ability to belive or disbelive in something with fervent passion is the trick to corruption. Corruption is infact portreyed often with a moral crysis, a subversion of how you percive the world and yourself, a contrast between what you think is right and wrong and the delusions created by the confusion of conflicting thoughts and passions. Those that have their convinctions shattered are swaped by their emotions and lost to corruption, if you belive in something and then you find it's a lie and react saying "well, wathever" then you are immune to corruption.

for the necron part: i was pointing out that they are machines like spaceships, spaceships do not mutate or become possessed even when lost in the immaterium, they become twisted and home to warp entities but they do not become daemon hosts or daemon engines.

if a tau cannot experience the same passions as other sentients why chaos should even consider them? they cannot be manipulated (infact there's no tau fallen to chaos), they cannot be controlled, i wouldn't ever empower someone that can actually do as he pleases with the powers i give him, i would choose to empower those i can control or at least those i'm sure will never go against me.

Why bother with taus that cannot be controlled and that are a small fraction of the galaxy and that are even without serious passions? Let them do as they please, they are beneath the Gods, they are of no consequence! And if they ever begin to become too powerfull then erease them from the universe, they aren't in the plans of chaos.

Do not forget that acting in the name of chaos and doing even great things does not guarantee the attention of the gods, many cultists serve faithfully without ever being noticed by the gods even if they do great things! Only those that actually pick the interests and excite the fantasies of the gods are considered and often not for long (abaddon the failer is the exception to the rule XD ). Given the nature of the gods imho they will never take interest in a tau, just like a KKK adept will never take interest in a tibetan cult killing black peoples (who cares?!?!?), if a tibetan cult has a white american leader then the KKK could consider a joint venture.

Psykers: big containers, normal humans: small containers, blanks: no container.

Blanks are more like the shotgun to the container. They aren't a container for anything daemonic at all and make the holes in other containers by their very presence. A powerful blank, it's been written in the odd book, will repel and sometimes exorcise a daemon in rare cases from a possessed.

A Tau though is different to a human in so many ways. One of the reason why a Tau is resistant to the warp though is not because of any specific advantage they have developed (I mean they are probably as physically resistant as any human) but because of warp indifference to them and their lack of evolutionary development to psychic potential. As far as the warp is considered, they lack a presence in the warp and most daemons are so aloof that it is not worth the effort needed to possess or corrupt them. Even if a Tau broke all of the greatest tenants of the Greater Good and took a billion worlds over in the name of a foul cause, it will never make their soul any more visible in the warp. Picking the Tau out in a crowd for isolation is like identifying their whispers in amongst the football stadium of humans screaming out. No matter what they do their soul will NEVER be of any value to a daemon at all and this is what protects them from the warp, their low value. They have no psychic potential which is what the main factor is for a human what makes them brighter.

All humans whether they be psyker or not have some level of potential even on a near non existent level but it makes them viable targets. Their physiology allows any human to (with the right manipulation) be a vessel for psychic powers in time and enough tempting. Tau cannot achieve this and there are no Tau psykers at all. Ever. They simply do not have the mindset or genetic make up to support this which is why they cannot achieve any more significance in the eyes of the warp. It is also this lack of psychic potential which has made all Tau resilient to being possessed. There is nothing for the daemon to be bound to anchor onto. At least with a human there is always a passive or innate connection to the immaterium which can be used but for a Tau there's just nothing there for the daemon to use or cling onto which means even an attempt at possession would be nigh on impossible and if somehow successful wouldn't last very long. I mean they can probably use Tau tech to enhance the body and mind but I don't think there's any way in the current universe to somehow grant someone psychic abilities when their physiology cannot support it. It's like trying to fit an nVidia graphics card brick onto a smartphone. Might be powerful in its own right but there's just no way of combining it.

Since Necrons also got mentioned, they are in the same boat. Their physical forms have no warp connection whatsoever, Necrons have no psykers and therefore cannot be possessed in any way, shape or form. Additionally if we go WAAAAY back to the old fluff, they were believed to be altered due to their purpose in the war against the Old ones to be highly resilient to warp and its corruptive effects as well. In order to possess a necron and their tech you have to be able to keep one intact and find a way to bind it. Most of the time their tech is hard to keep hold of since it warps away after being defeated.

I therefore restate, Tau Pirate Prince and the warp, I would have to say no in every possible count and he would never be worthy of anything from any of the gods no matter what he did, how he would do it or anything. A possession would, by rights, kill him in moments even if there was something for it to hold onto and the body could maintain it. It would never be worthy of being blessed with anything as to a daemon there is nothing to gain, they only grant boons if they get a corrupted soul at the end of it and who gives a **** in the warp about someone offering you a corrupted lettuce leaf?

Edited by Calgor Grim

Many interestings things over there.

if you assume that a tau can be possessed anyway i don't see how their belives can be alone a shield against possession: the avrage human in the imperium has a lot of faith and yet they are easly possessed and only a few humans with high mental fortitude can attempt to resist possession and usually they even need the use of arcane arts / psychic powers to increase their chances. From my point of view the ability to belive or disbelive in something with fervent passion is the trick to corruption. Corruption is infact portreyed often with a moral crysis, a subversion of how you percive the world and yourself, a contrast between what you think is right and wrong and the delusions created by the confusion of conflicting thoughts and passions. Those that have their convinctions shattered are swaped by their emotions and lost to corruption, if you belive in something and then you find it's a lie and react saying "well, wathever" then you are immune to corruption.

Agreed, faith is not necessarily enough. Tau are pheromonaly controlled (so their emotions too) by the ethereals and they are trained to think and have faith in the greater good, not individualism.

Mankind, on the other hand, can have a lot of faith, but regular human are very selfish/egocentric, which limit their capacity to use their overall faith as a protection. But you can see many characters in the 40k universe that have a faith strong enough, stronger than their individualism, their egocentrism and etc. resist possession. The Tau are, in my opinion, just as much protected in general.

for the necron part: i was pointing out that they are machines like spaceships, spaceships do not mutate or become possessed even when lost in the immaterium, they become twisted and home to warp entities but they do not become daemon hosts or daemon engines.

Well, there ar many ways where a machine is possessed...like all the tanks in 40k that you add the possessed ameliorations when you play Chaos Space Marines. (at least, In V3, V4 and maybe even V5, since I've stopped playing in that era).

(a more gruesome image could be: having inside a bag a human body without legs you could say you have a man inside your bag; having an hand inside your pocket you can't say that you have a man in your pocket).

Either case, you've not got a man in your bag/pocket, you've got a part of.

Do not forget that acting in the name of chaos and doing even great things does not guarantee the attention of the gods, many cultists serve faithfully without ever being noticed by the gods even if they do great things!

Because said cultist haven't done anything important or earthshaking. His cult leader, a puny human, that conquer a world and drench hundreds if not thousands or millions of people in their own blood, will get god's attention.

if a tau cannot experience the same passions as other sentients why chaos should even consider them? they cannot be manipulated (infact there's no tau fallen to chaos), they cannot be controlled, i wouldn't ever empower someone that can actually do as he pleases with the powers i give him, i would choose to empower those i can control or at least those i'm sure will never go against me.

Why bother with taus that cannot be controlled and that are a small fraction of the galaxy and that are even without serious passions? Let them do as they please, they are beneath the Gods, they are of no consequence! And if they ever begin to become too powerfull then erease them from the universe, they aren't in the plans of cha

1st: Tau aren't immune to the warp. If they can get hit by psychic powers, they can also be hit by the backlash of a non respected pact with a daemon and such, which have the same origins: the Warp.

2nd: you see the warp in a very limited way. It's not just mortal's passions, but symbolisms, shadows of the real worlds and so many other things.

If a Tau is making the universe tremble in alignment with the gods, they will be favoured, even if a little less. And if they deceive/lacks of faith to ap oint where the god would normally punish his champion, daemons and many other horrible consequences will befall on the poor tau.

Finally, not saying tau haven't fallen to chaos yet, is not a proof of them not being able too. Grey Knight haven't fallen to chaos, yet we very much know that space marines, psykers and faithful persons can all succumb to chaos.

On the table top game, you can even transform a poor tau champion into a chaos spawn by daemonic sorcery, which is an instant a brutal application of warp corruption on someone.

I agree, Tau are not humans, their symbolism and their souls have different tastes, they experience the universe in different shades and all of this has importance, but they can still be affected.

Edited by InquisitorAlexel