Seriously, their society sounds so overtly positive in the face of a preposterously hopeless and uncaring universe, there’s no way even the codex is telling the truth.
It’s like being stuck in a malfunctioning elevator with the Adoring Fan from Oblivion, or trapped in a burning home with Ned Flanders; the overt positivity just seems like it’s projection and there is a hidden darkness element somewhere waiting to come out.
The “Greater Good” religion simply sounds too good to be true. So they should all be destroyed, and their societies wiped from existence.
Edit: it looks like many people here don’t understand the obvious hypocritical irony and sarcasm written here…
The “Greater Good” religion simply sounds too good to be true.
It is too good to be true. If the Imperium is a parody of fascism, the Tau are the same for utopian socialism. On Earth in the 20th century, the sublimation of the individual to the greater good led inexorably to Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot. That aspect of the Tau seems like an interesting thing to explore.
Counterpoint: Tau were added well after GW had largely stopped with the topical political references, and were strongly unironically positive in their earliest appearances. The addition of gets-hot railrifles was a notably darker element in Tau at the time and was still lighter than the IoM.
Darker elements have been added, but the faction functioned without that element in their original form which has changed far less than other factions’ (due to the relative newness of the faction) so it’s not core to the faction’s identity.
Additionally, virtually all of the early dark elements in the Tau were either commonplace in the IoM or significant improvements over the IoM’s status quo. Through your suggested lens, this would have some interesting implications.
I mean, it depends on which version of the lore you take. Their culture is repressive, with less social mobility than the Imperium or the Eldar, thanks to the caste system. The Ethereal Caste are doing something hinky and mind-controlling to everyone else. The one General who said “hey maybe we should learn how to fight up close occasionally” was banished. There’s a lot of darkness there, and the disconnect between the Tau and the Warp makes those “little” things more notable.
Imagine if the Tau get eaten by the Tyranids or a Genestealer Cult. They might not cast the Shadow in the Warp, removing the one form of warning of their presence.
Less social mobility than the people with hereditary nobility? It’s not great, but the IoM are pretty poor at it. I suspect you misunderstand the T’au caste system; admittedly it probably shouldn’t be called that as it doesn’t really function like a real world caste system.
or a Genestealer Cult
If I remember my reading they discovered the cult on one of their colony worlds. Then they developed a cure and got on with life.
There may have been some “you will have the injection for the greater good” involved but quite frankly I’m fine with that.
I mean, getting a needle vs. turning into a Genestealer vs. a pulse carbine in the head? I’m not a fan of injections, but I would take that one!
Hot take there.
I feel like having more aliens that aren’t powered by evil is pretty important for the themes around 40k and the IoM.in particular. If all the aliens are as evil as IoM propaganda implies, it justifies their xenophobia, which is supposed to be baseless and reactionary fear mongering.
Exactly. And it’s funny how much it makes unironic Imperium stans rage out; it shows that for them it’s not about the righteousness of the cause, it’s about identifying with the faction that’s coded as conservative-Christian.
If T’au are that purely good, then it help justify IoM’s cruelty. T’au empire is so tiny that it can be squashed by any faction. That’s why you need to be cruel to survive.
The empire also proof that IoM is needlessly cruel, which make it grimdark as well. You need a light to know how dark it’s.
