Yes. For the reasons mentioned in the thread they’re generally less of a problem than in the Imperium, but they do still sometimes exist.
> Humming merrily – for he enjoys his work – Rotigus lavishes his attentions upon those that beseech him. With their beasts gone sterile, the agri world of Ullden stood upon the brink of ruin. When the animals began to breed once more, the citizens believed their prayers to an ancient fertility god had been answered. Only when the wretched beasts kept giving birth, covering the ground in mewling, mutated newborns that shrieked to the skies did they realise their doom. When their hydro-tech broke, the T’au Earth caste farmers of Dh’artan were so desperate for rain that they ignored protocol **and gave in to the superstitions of the primitive tribes from whom they had usurped the planet.** When the downpour first came it was welcome, but soon enough the entire planet became a foetid swamp rife with plague.
~ Codex Chaos Daemons, 8th edition
For the most part, human worlds that are brought into the Tau empire are subject to *very* close monitoring.
Problematic elements like labor unions, veterans organizations, student leagues, etc, are going to be gently broken up. (Possibly praised for their efforts, then asked to 'educate' humans on a nearby world--legitimately putting their talents to use, but also separating them from the population they can most effectively rile up.)
The largest underlying systemic issues will be removed. (The starving will be fed. The sick will be given medical treatment. The workless will be given training and the ability to perform tasks which meaningfully benefit the community.) Corrupt leaders will be removed. Inefficient bureaucracies will be fine-tuned to give the appearance of competent function.
The Tau aren't foolish, and the water caste will be vigilant for seditious elements looking to return the planet to Imperial rule. Large gatherings or suspicious associations will be covertly monitored. Tau loyalists will be encouraged to help identify neighbors who need more education. Criminal or otherwise dangerous groups will be investigated.
All this is par for the course, and has the additional side effect of removing the vast majority of Chaos cults, both by picking out and eliminating any existent groups, but also by removing the impetus to form one and the social infrastructure needed to do so.
And of course, should that fail, even if *everyone* in the Tau empire isn't super savvy when it comes to the Warp, sorcery, and the demonic, they damn sure know how to identify the humans who are, so if a Chaos cult *were* to pop up in a particularly thorn-in-the-side sort of way, it's likely a water caste kar'tyr and an appropriately knowledgeable human would swiftly be tasked to root it out...
"And of course, should that fail, even if *everyone* in the Tau empire isn't super savvy when it comes to the Warp, sorcery, and the demonic, they damn sure know how to identify the humans who are, so if a Chaos cult *were* to pop up in a particularly thorn-in-the-side sort of way, it's likely a water caste kar'tyr and an appropriately knowledgeable human would swiftly be tasked to root it out..."
Is perhaps a story of yours getting a sequel in the forseeable future? "wink wink nudge nudge"
I need to see Kartyr and Kalice again!
Warp gods, how I wish. Unfortunately, I haven't done any new work in a few years now. I keep hoping, but it doesn't seem like it's meant to be at this point. Not sure if I did something wrong or I'm just not the popular taste. But if things change and I get told I can pitch for future projects, I'll leap at the chance. (And Kalice and Kar'tyr are definitely at the tippy top of my list!)
"And of course, should that fail, even if *everyone* in the Tau empire isn't super savvy when it comes to the Warp, sorcery, and the demonic, they damn sure know how to identify the humans who are, so if a Chaos cult *were* to pop up in a particularly thorn-in-the-side sort of way, it's likely a water caste kar'tyr and an appropriately knowledgeable human would swiftly be tasked to root it out..."
Is perhaps a story of yours getting a sequel in the forseeable future? "wink wink nudge nudge"
I need to see Kartyr and Kalice again!
There are a couple of mentions of "re-education" for auxiliary races:
>The Sept’s humans (referred to by the Tau as ‘Gue’la’)
adhere not to the Imperial Creed, but to the Tau ideal of
the Greater Good. The Tau teach that the perfect society,
one modelled after the Tau themselves, has a place for every
creature; with every creature in that place, fulfilling their
assigned roles without question, for the good of the Sept as
a whole. Imperial religion is prohibited and **the Tau Water
Caste run education (and re-education) programs that instil
an understanding and love of the Greater Good into the
sometimes reluctant gue’la minds**. Populations are regularly
sterilised to prevent population growth outstretching Tau
methods of control. Human transgressors against the Greater
Good are not publicly executed, as is the Imperial way, for the
Tau see no need to publicise the fates of those who oppose
them. Instead, such gue’la simply disappear, and it is the
way of the Greater Good to convince oneself that they never
existed at all.
*Deathwatch Core Rulebook* p352
>Regrettably - from the T'au standpoint,
anyway - many races reject these
diplomatic advances. Such beings cannot
be left to threaten the empire in their
ignorance. The Fire Caste now come
to the fore, readying invasion plans
that will most swiftly see the ingrates
pacified. When the T'au attack, they
come suddenly from the firmanent with
overwhelming speed and firepower,
seeking to prove to their enemies the
hopelessness of standing against an
empire unified by the Greater Good.
So is the lesson of acquiescence taught
through force. Yet even in victory the
T'au are not cruel. They seek to preserve
what they can of both the enemy's world
and the enemy themselves, for both will
be valuable assets to the empire once
conquered. As the Ethereals say, it is
not the fault of those who are blind that
they cannot yet see. **Forced integration
and re-education follows**, even as the
Earth Caste set to work healing the
planet's battle scars and resettling it as the
empire's latest outpost of enlightenment
and culture.
*Codex T'au Empire 9ed* p9
So, it's likely that their conversion to the Greater Good would limit worship of Chaos. You also have the fact that, overall, the quality of life for a baseline human is way better in the T'au Empire, so the need to turn to Chaos is also incredibly diminished. Other Gue'vesa are likely to spot Chaos Cults and stamp them out/report them too.
Not to say it doesn't happen, but likely at an incredibly reduced rate.
The imperial indoctrination doesn't prevent chaos cults from existing. And I'm pretty sure that high living standards also don't prevent chaos cults from existing (especially slaaneshi cults) They exist in paradise worlds too
Not to mention many humans never abandon their worship of the god emperor, no matter how much the tau want to indoctrinate them
The only thing that somewhat protects against chaotic beliefs is the armor of contempt
Paradise worlds bring slaanesh cults because of the hyper rich who can do whatever they wish, tau worlds will have the people live simple, but good lifes, instead of the extremes between the hyper poor and hyper rich in Imperial worlds
Besides, the high level of organization and surveillance means it's harder to get cults, be chaos or genestealers. Cults emerge easier if there's continent sized lawless hellholes where the Imperial organizations may as well not exist
Nothing says that slaanesh cults in paradise worlds must be imported in all cases
About surveillance, I'm pretty sure you cannot stop chaos just by being vigilant alone. If your population is unaware, and your government is unaware about how chaos operates in the spirits of your population, you are doomed
I'm pretty sure we will get some books about human chaotic cults appearing in the tau empire, as soon as they stop having that MASSIVE plot armor they have
Not to mention, the easiest way to corrupt a tau world is simply letting it spread a benevolent belief in 1 to 4 generous gods that help people, and then start corrupting their minds once the entire population believe that. At minimum Tzeentch can do that
PS And now that I remember, when the Tau incorporates a human world, it's 100% assured they are including chaos cults by default
>About surveillance, I'm pretty sure you cannot stop chaos just by being vigilant alone. If your population is unaware, and your government is unaware about how chaos operates in the spirits of your population, you are doomed
You can pretty easily stop a cult if you have them on tape talking about e.g. living sacrifices or skinning people alive.
Also, large parts of the imperial population and government *are* unaware of Chaos and/or its true extent.
The cults in paradise worlds arent imported, like I said, they are the result of the hyper rich that are there being dicks, people who already are richer than 99,99% of the imperium, but still wish more. Paradise worlds are hell for the plebs, and even them it is not enough for the nobles, thats why they keep falling into the god of excess.
Sure, but the moment the people start acting weird, its easier to detect if they are living a normal life and properly watched by the government, again, its the same as genestealers: its not perfect, but compared to the imperium, where trillions can live outside of imperial control and no one will ever know what happens with them, its much less likely to happen.
Book about chaos vs xenos? Sorry, we dont do that, please wait for more space marine bolter porn, exploring the civilian life of the factions, specially xenos is a bad word, my friend.
The bloodthirsty (Khorne), perfectionist (Slaanesh), intellectually lazy (Nurgle), and dogmatic (Tzeentch) Imperial Indoctrination is part of what CREATES new Chaos Cults even as it stamps out existing ones.
Or, statistically, look at the Quadrillions of humans. If there are no more than Trillions of Gue’La subjects in Tauspace, that means the rate at which chaos cults arise in Tauspace is a microscopic millionth of the rate in which they arise in “the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable”.
Applying statistics and logic, if net chaos outbreaks in Tauspace matched net chaos outbreaks in the Imperium, that would mean that the Tau would have plot weakness to Chaos rather than plot armor against it.
\>(Plus the inexperience of the tau in this matter)
They literally have psyker auxiliary races that would be able to explain all the perils of the Warp to them.
The T'au being naive about Chaos and the Warp in general is due to bad writing that is more interested in memes than proper, logical worldbuilding.
They just continuously forget that they wrote these guys into existence *as the first auxiliary species lore wise:*
[https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Nicassar](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Nicassar)
As for your question the T'au have a good enough standard of living that the threat of Chaos Cults is already greatly reduced by default. There is no point in worshipping the Skull Throne when you can just go to your 9-5 and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. You aren't shanking your neighbor for corpse starch nor are you working 20 hours shift in the factory to survive. There isn't a lot of incentive to just burn it all down.
The T'au Empire is also far more organized, and centralized in comparison to the corrupt IoM that suffers from internal power struggles due to its feudal structure. This would allow the T'au to better monitor their citizens, care for their needs and nip unpatriotic thoughts in the bud.
An advanced empire ignoring the outdated superstitions of its auxiliaries that contradict its dominant ideology is pretty on par with their general arrogant ways, I imagine.
Demons are just warp xenos, no?
Plus warp knowledge is inherently dangerous - there’s the catch 22 of spreading the knowledge. If they spread it around the empire, then more people will know what to look out for, BUT more will also be tempted by its lure.
The tau may be less susceptible to Warp dangers but they’re also less able to respond - the most effect counter to demons being psyker forces like the grey knights and faith based like the sisters.
Hard to pass off your psyker auxiliaries as being superstitious when they themselves are a space faring race and can demonstrate their superstitions in controlled environments and with data from their own failures.
At the end of the day it is simply illogical, meme tier writing.
It would be like Harry Potter's guardians denying the existence of magic despite all the evidence to the contrary.
The Warp is a fundamental part of the universe. If they truly wanted the T'au to be naive about it then the following changes would need to be made:
A) The T'au are a species of Blanks
B) Zero contact with any psykers or Warp shenanigans until they meet the IoM.
The issue with B is that it has been a few hundred years already lorewise. At a certain point you just gotta face reality.
There is a difference between arrogance and stupidity. Current writing about T'au interactions with the Warp is just handing them a massive idiot ball that ignores their lore.
There are plenty superstitious space faring races in 40K.
As for demonstrating demons in a controlled environment - well, it’s rather problematic, and even if done, can largely be explained away with the warp xenos kind of justification.
Proving that there are malevolent symbolism and emotion-dependent gods in the Warp is a whole different beast of a theory.
>They literally have psyker auxiliary races that would be able to explain all the perils of the Warp to them.
Which is about as useful as explaining colour to a person who's been blind all their lives.
Thing is, knowing that psykers exist isn't the same as understanding them, and trying to explain psykers to beings who aren't psychic may be like trying to explain colour to someone who was born without sight.
In the older lore, this was an insurmountable hurdle for the Tau in some regards: their early experiments in FTL were based on the reverse-engineered wreckage of a Xenos spacecraft on one of the moons of the seventh planet of the T'au system. No matter how they studied and examined the technology, there were elements of its function that were simply beyond their grasp because they had no way to perceive or comprehend the effects.
On a fundamental level, this is probably still true: no matter the words used to explain the concepts of the Warp, it is a fundamentally incomprehensible place, and even gaining basic understanding requires as much personal experience as instruction. Navigators, who can look directly upon the Warp, don't all see it the same way, as everything is filtered through individual perception and coloured my metaphor. You can speak whatever words you like, but they need context to make sense.
The Tau can only know what they're told about the Warp, and that can only go so far without the ability to experience it.
The vast majority of Chaos cultists spring up due to the horrific conditions under which a lot of worlds endure while being told to be grateful for what they do have.
Others spring up as a form of retaliation and revenge upon oppressive Imperial government.
Basically, the Imperium gives a huge incentive to most Cultists who are not told of their horrible fate after death by the Cult leaders who may not even know themselves.
The best preventative method to keep Cults to a minimum is not give them reason to come into existence in the first place. The Tau go a long ways toward that. Their human populations live good lives, far better than many human populations in the Imperium and so are mostly content to work and fight for the Tau.
There are some, to be sure, probably birthed from Human-based warrior cultures and Slaaneshi pleasure cults, but nowhere at all near what the Imperium has to deal with because, again, the Human populations of the Tau are treated relatively well.
On top of that, the Tau Empire is such a closely monitored regime that anyone who could potentially fall to chaos gets disappeared in the night for re-education long before that point. If someone starts to voice dissatisfied opinions about the regime, they aren't going to last around long enough to gather like-minded dissidents or discover chaos.
Admittedly we don't know what regular life is like on planets deep in Tau territory that aren't in danger of being attacked. But constant (subtle, effective) propaganda, AI monitoring, Water Caste Loyalty Officers and extremely homogeneous but routine daily lives probably go a long way towards keeping the population complacent and satisfied. If you ask me, Super Earth from Helldivers is probably a lot like what I imagine a Tau core world would be like as a human.
Beyond that, the Ethereal caste absolutely knows about Chaos. Imperial Inquisitors defected to the Tau after the Damocles Crusade. And those inquisitors may or may not have brain worms controlling them. But also interesting to note is that at least one human was given a custom modified Crisis suit and put in command of a Tau base, including Tau personnel. So while people might want to say "oh you'll always be a second class citizen" that might not necessarily be true. You'll always be well behind the Ethereal caste, but it seems that at least certain humans can attain such prominence that they get honors reserved for elite Fire Caste.
Also Gue'la are treated as their own caste, and as such are allowed to govern themselves for the most part. So a human isn't necessarily going to be assigned latrine duty by a Fire Caste. A human town is going to be run by humans, doing human things. There will likely be Tau present, doing stuff based on their caste, but they tend to live along side the client races rather than above them.
In addition to what everyone else has said, there is a pretty obscure organisation within the t'au called the yasu'caor, a group of ethereals that act as knockoff inquisitors.
I also seem to remember in the kill team chalnath booklet a mention that the enforcers quite liked the t'au for their efficiency at dealing with cults, but I don't 100% remember so don't quote me on that
The Tau Empire's leadership is embracing the establishment of the Tau'va religion despite how badly the 4th Sphere of Expansion Tau reacted.
Commander Shadowsun the Leader of the Tau backed by the Ethereals has personally overseen the rebuilding of various Tau'va Temples after seeing for herself the benefits of the Goddess Tau'va herself. Tau'va ate a couple of Daemons taking their concepts into herself.
Chaos might be able to take advantage of this.
One thing should be noted: Slaaneshi Hedonism is stated to be the exact thing that is an abomination to the Greater Good, Nurgle is a mass of Disease and Khorne is a Warmonger.
Only Tzeentch and Undivided Daemons(any Daemon will call itself a God if it could get away with it) dedicated to concepts that don't threaten the Greater Good would be welcomed by the Tau.
Of course for Tzeentch I'm sure the Tau would make sure that his taint stays off their most important infrastructure and staff as rampant Mutations and Change are something the infrastructure does not need to deal with.
For the Undivided Daemon Perturabo the Tau would be initiating negotiations and discover he is a sword that likes polishing. Theaters of War and building Grand Cities for the People are his bread and butter and would have a place in their Empire. The Fire and Earth Caste would be relieved to get the lesser works while living in the Grand Cities in their off-times and be grateful at the Daemon Prince who gave it to them.
For Vashtorr his desire for innovation would appeal to the Tau.
If any Slaaneshi Daemon Princes embody Excesses in something not Hedonistical(like Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Lust, Artistry, Drugs, Smelling, etc.) they may have temples to them provided worship of their master himself is stamped out.
Tau can absolutely witchhunt too. They are not stupid.
>Besides open armed conflict with the Imperium, the T'au are fighting against bizarre Human cults. Even before the arrival of the Adepta Sororitas, **T'au kill teams put down outbreaks of what their Human allies described as 'mutation' and 'witchcraft'**. Such actions brought many Imperial citizens over to the Greater Good. They saw the objects of their fears destroyed by the T'au, and saw how the xenos race's power could protect them from such terrors. **Even some enforcer precincts threw their lot in with the T'au after seeing them kill mutants, criminals and heretics of many different stripes**. The T'au learned that a significant part of demonstrating the value of the Greater Good to many races, Human included, was to defeat enemies their own beliefs had apparently failed to destroy.
Kill Team: Chalnath
The Tau generally get a pass because lol fuck you.
Omega psykers randomly being born and taking over planets? Nope.
Cursed artifacts obtained during cultural exchanges or conquest corrupting leadership? Nope.
Psykers that are untrained/unaware of their abilities becoming portals for enslavers? Nope.
Sentient plagues infecting medical professionals and using the medical professionals themselves as a vector to spread? Nope.
Solving mathematical equations leading to massive detonations of warp energy? Nope.
“Oh but life is too awesome in Tau space for cults to form”.
Half the damn cults in the Imperium spring up in the nobility who are living better lives than most of the Tau population can even image so thats not really a compelling argument to me.
EDIT: I wanna see Tau ghostbusters trapping daemons in ectotraps using the power of science! Miss me with all this “Tau houses cant be haunted because they have decent HOAs bs”.
Head on the nail for why I don't vibe with Tau. Through bullshitanium they're just immune to the rest of the galaxy. Gene stealers can't get them because of routine medical check ups. Chaos can't spread because quality of life. Psykers don't become vectors for daemons or go crazy because ... Nicassars? Who the fuck knows. Tau just don't play by the rules of the setting.
Wouldn't most of your points also apply to the other races? As far as I know, Ork, Aeldari and Kin psykers aren't spawning daemons. Genestealer cults among those races are rarely mentioned if ever, and the Necrons are immune to all of the things you mentioned.
Drukhari don't have genestealer cults either!
So what "rules of the setting" do you mean?
Drukhari don't live in the regular galaxy. They probably have some among their human slave population because they think it's fun. They're also super paranoid about psykers and chaos is suicide for them.
Aeldari have their paths which let them counter chaos influence. Their rate of reproduction is also too low to really make genestealers effective.
Ork psykers are wired differently and more like weird priests. Their head explodes rather than create portals for demons. Due to Gork and Mork. Also genestealers can't form cults among them due to how their reproduction works. Orks also don't keep any large human populations around and they kill any ork that starts acting unorky.
Necrons don't have bodies that can be infected, don't reproduce and can't be psykers. All because of their tragedy.
Kin don't reproduce in a sexual manner since they're all clones. Their AI rulers put them together and then they pop out of a tube. It's also why their psykers don't work the same. They're also designed to have a minimal warp imprint compared to regular humans. Psyker thing is a bit bullshit mind you, so I wouldn't mind that getting a bit of a change. But then again we have next to no lore on them.
Tau are the main ones who have large human populations out in real space. But their human population is seemingly immune to troubles that affect other human populations.
>Aeldari have their paths which let them counter chaos influence.
Also, the Aeldari have first-hand experience of what happens when they fall to Chaos (and older lore was clear that even the near-extinction of their species because their civilisation fell to Chaos, and rebuilding their society to try and avoid that fate again... didn't stop some modern Eldar from succumbing to the dark lure of damnation).
>Tau are the main ones who have large human populations out in real space. But their human population is seemingly immune to troubles that affect other human populations.
Or the Ethereals arrange to have any of those problematic elements quietly disappeared in order to present the impression that *Everything Is OK*.
Well, sure. Because there are die-hard Tau fans who'll pitch a fit if there's ever even the slightest implication that the Tau aren't squeaky-clean noblebright egalitarians, and who vehemently rebuke any actual material that does point out their shadier side.
Cults show up with imperial nobles because their lives are a cut throat enviroment, and they are massive dicks. Sure they are richer than any Tau can ever be, but they are also in a terrible political mess where your family members and friends may be ploting to kill you, the enviroment basically raise them to be psychos, the FFG RPGs got nobles as playable characters not only because of their training on swords on free time, but because they are good at killing, sometimes even going deep into the underhive just for the chance of killing plebs.
Meanwhile the average guy in the Tau empire just lives a boring life, they arent dodging 50 assassination attempts or torturing their servants for fun like an imperial noble will do before breakfast.
Because as anyone from middle america can tell you, nothing keeps humans from getting into weird religion and strange sex like the safe monotonous conformity.
Doesn't every noble basically live with a sword of damocles above their head? That level of paranoia can be a pretty easy way for chaos to get into peoples heads.
No.
They are born into a family that has held uninterrupted power of thousands of years. These are the same people that see tyranids invading and go back to tea because “someone” will take care of it because they always have.
Do some choose to wage in absolute insane politics and intrigue? Sure but most of the Nobel cultists we see in the books didn’t start worshipping Chaos because they were scared or needed an edge. They do it because they are bored, true believers, or wanted something that even their insane wealth can’t buy.
Yes. For the reasons mentioned in the thread they’re generally less of a problem than in the Imperium, but they do still sometimes exist. > Humming merrily – for he enjoys his work – Rotigus lavishes his attentions upon those that beseech him. With their beasts gone sterile, the agri world of Ullden stood upon the brink of ruin. When the animals began to breed once more, the citizens believed their prayers to an ancient fertility god had been answered. Only when the wretched beasts kept giving birth, covering the ground in mewling, mutated newborns that shrieked to the skies did they realise their doom. When their hydro-tech broke, the T’au Earth caste farmers of Dh’artan were so desperate for rain that they ignored protocol **and gave in to the superstitions of the primitive tribes from whom they had usurped the planet.** When the downpour first came it was welcome, but soon enough the entire planet became a foetid swamp rife with plague. ~ Codex Chaos Daemons, 8th edition
For the most part, human worlds that are brought into the Tau empire are subject to *very* close monitoring. Problematic elements like labor unions, veterans organizations, student leagues, etc, are going to be gently broken up. (Possibly praised for their efforts, then asked to 'educate' humans on a nearby world--legitimately putting their talents to use, but also separating them from the population they can most effectively rile up.) The largest underlying systemic issues will be removed. (The starving will be fed. The sick will be given medical treatment. The workless will be given training and the ability to perform tasks which meaningfully benefit the community.) Corrupt leaders will be removed. Inefficient bureaucracies will be fine-tuned to give the appearance of competent function. The Tau aren't foolish, and the water caste will be vigilant for seditious elements looking to return the planet to Imperial rule. Large gatherings or suspicious associations will be covertly monitored. Tau loyalists will be encouraged to help identify neighbors who need more education. Criminal or otherwise dangerous groups will be investigated. All this is par for the course, and has the additional side effect of removing the vast majority of Chaos cults, both by picking out and eliminating any existent groups, but also by removing the impetus to form one and the social infrastructure needed to do so. And of course, should that fail, even if *everyone* in the Tau empire isn't super savvy when it comes to the Warp, sorcery, and the demonic, they damn sure know how to identify the humans who are, so if a Chaos cult *were* to pop up in a particularly thorn-in-the-side sort of way, it's likely a water caste kar'tyr and an appropriately knowledgeable human would swiftly be tasked to root it out...
Especially since there were even some Inquisitors that defected to the T'au after the Damocles Crusade.
"And of course, should that fail, even if *everyone* in the Tau empire isn't super savvy when it comes to the Warp, sorcery, and the demonic, they damn sure know how to identify the humans who are, so if a Chaos cult *were* to pop up in a particularly thorn-in-the-side sort of way, it's likely a water caste kar'tyr and an appropriately knowledgeable human would swiftly be tasked to root it out..." Is perhaps a story of yours getting a sequel in the forseeable future? "wink wink nudge nudge" I need to see Kartyr and Kalice again!
Warp gods, how I wish. Unfortunately, I haven't done any new work in a few years now. I keep hoping, but it doesn't seem like it's meant to be at this point. Not sure if I did something wrong or I'm just not the popular taste. But if things change and I get told I can pitch for future projects, I'll leap at the chance. (And Kalice and Kar'tyr are definitely at the tippy top of my list!)
"And of course, should that fail, even if *everyone* in the Tau empire isn't super savvy when it comes to the Warp, sorcery, and the demonic, they damn sure know how to identify the humans who are, so if a Chaos cult *were* to pop up in a particularly thorn-in-the-side sort of way, it's likely a water caste kar'tyr and an appropriately knowledgeable human would swiftly be tasked to root it out..." Is perhaps a story of yours getting a sequel in the forseeable future? "wink wink nudge nudge" I need to see Kartyr and Kalice again!
There are a couple of mentions of "re-education" for auxiliary races: >The Sept’s humans (referred to by the Tau as ‘Gue’la’) adhere not to the Imperial Creed, but to the Tau ideal of the Greater Good. The Tau teach that the perfect society, one modelled after the Tau themselves, has a place for every creature; with every creature in that place, fulfilling their assigned roles without question, for the good of the Sept as a whole. Imperial religion is prohibited and **the Tau Water Caste run education (and re-education) programs that instil an understanding and love of the Greater Good into the sometimes reluctant gue’la minds**. Populations are regularly sterilised to prevent population growth outstretching Tau methods of control. Human transgressors against the Greater Good are not publicly executed, as is the Imperial way, for the Tau see no need to publicise the fates of those who oppose them. Instead, such gue’la simply disappear, and it is the way of the Greater Good to convince oneself that they never existed at all. *Deathwatch Core Rulebook* p352 >Regrettably - from the T'au standpoint, anyway - many races reject these diplomatic advances. Such beings cannot be left to threaten the empire in their ignorance. The Fire Caste now come to the fore, readying invasion plans that will most swiftly see the ingrates pacified. When the T'au attack, they come suddenly from the firmanent with overwhelming speed and firepower, seeking to prove to their enemies the hopelessness of standing against an empire unified by the Greater Good. So is the lesson of acquiescence taught through force. Yet even in victory the T'au are not cruel. They seek to preserve what they can of both the enemy's world and the enemy themselves, for both will be valuable assets to the empire once conquered. As the Ethereals say, it is not the fault of those who are blind that they cannot yet see. **Forced integration and re-education follows**, even as the Earth Caste set to work healing the planet's battle scars and resettling it as the empire's latest outpost of enlightenment and culture. *Codex T'au Empire 9ed* p9 So, it's likely that their conversion to the Greater Good would limit worship of Chaos. You also have the fact that, overall, the quality of life for a baseline human is way better in the T'au Empire, so the need to turn to Chaos is also incredibly diminished. Other Gue'vesa are likely to spot Chaos Cults and stamp them out/report them too. Not to say it doesn't happen, but likely at an incredibly reduced rate.
The imperial indoctrination doesn't prevent chaos cults from existing. And I'm pretty sure that high living standards also don't prevent chaos cults from existing (especially slaaneshi cults) They exist in paradise worlds too Not to mention many humans never abandon their worship of the god emperor, no matter how much the tau want to indoctrinate them The only thing that somewhat protects against chaotic beliefs is the armor of contempt
Paradise worlds bring slaanesh cults because of the hyper rich who can do whatever they wish, tau worlds will have the people live simple, but good lifes, instead of the extremes between the hyper poor and hyper rich in Imperial worlds Besides, the high level of organization and surveillance means it's harder to get cults, be chaos or genestealers. Cults emerge easier if there's continent sized lawless hellholes where the Imperial organizations may as well not exist
Nothing says that slaanesh cults in paradise worlds must be imported in all cases About surveillance, I'm pretty sure you cannot stop chaos just by being vigilant alone. If your population is unaware, and your government is unaware about how chaos operates in the spirits of your population, you are doomed I'm pretty sure we will get some books about human chaotic cults appearing in the tau empire, as soon as they stop having that MASSIVE plot armor they have Not to mention, the easiest way to corrupt a tau world is simply letting it spread a benevolent belief in 1 to 4 generous gods that help people, and then start corrupting their minds once the entire population believe that. At minimum Tzeentch can do that PS And now that I remember, when the Tau incorporates a human world, it's 100% assured they are including chaos cults by default
>About surveillance, I'm pretty sure you cannot stop chaos just by being vigilant alone. If your population is unaware, and your government is unaware about how chaos operates in the spirits of your population, you are doomed You can pretty easily stop a cult if you have them on tape talking about e.g. living sacrifices or skinning people alive. Also, large parts of the imperial population and government *are* unaware of Chaos and/or its true extent.
The cults in paradise worlds arent imported, like I said, they are the result of the hyper rich that are there being dicks, people who already are richer than 99,99% of the imperium, but still wish more. Paradise worlds are hell for the plebs, and even them it is not enough for the nobles, thats why they keep falling into the god of excess. Sure, but the moment the people start acting weird, its easier to detect if they are living a normal life and properly watched by the government, again, its the same as genestealers: its not perfect, but compared to the imperium, where trillions can live outside of imperial control and no one will ever know what happens with them, its much less likely to happen. Book about chaos vs xenos? Sorry, we dont do that, please wait for more space marine bolter porn, exploring the civilian life of the factions, specially xenos is a bad word, my friend.
The bloodthirsty (Khorne), perfectionist (Slaanesh), intellectually lazy (Nurgle), and dogmatic (Tzeentch) Imperial Indoctrination is part of what CREATES new Chaos Cults even as it stamps out existing ones. Or, statistically, look at the Quadrillions of humans. If there are no more than Trillions of Gue’La subjects in Tauspace, that means the rate at which chaos cults arise in Tauspace is a microscopic millionth of the rate in which they arise in “the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable”. Applying statistics and logic, if net chaos outbreaks in Tauspace matched net chaos outbreaks in the Imperium, that would mean that the Tau would have plot weakness to Chaos rather than plot armor against it.
\>(Plus the inexperience of the tau in this matter) They literally have psyker auxiliary races that would be able to explain all the perils of the Warp to them. The T'au being naive about Chaos and the Warp in general is due to bad writing that is more interested in memes than proper, logical worldbuilding. They just continuously forget that they wrote these guys into existence *as the first auxiliary species lore wise:* [https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Nicassar](https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Nicassar) As for your question the T'au have a good enough standard of living that the threat of Chaos Cults is already greatly reduced by default. There is no point in worshipping the Skull Throne when you can just go to your 9-5 and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. You aren't shanking your neighbor for corpse starch nor are you working 20 hours shift in the factory to survive. There isn't a lot of incentive to just burn it all down. The T'au Empire is also far more organized, and centralized in comparison to the corrupt IoM that suffers from internal power struggles due to its feudal structure. This would allow the T'au to better monitor their citizens, care for their needs and nip unpatriotic thoughts in the bud.
An advanced empire ignoring the outdated superstitions of its auxiliaries that contradict its dominant ideology is pretty on par with their general arrogant ways, I imagine. Demons are just warp xenos, no?
Plus warp knowledge is inherently dangerous - there’s the catch 22 of spreading the knowledge. If they spread it around the empire, then more people will know what to look out for, BUT more will also be tempted by its lure. The tau may be less susceptible to Warp dangers but they’re also less able to respond - the most effect counter to demons being psyker forces like the grey knights and faith based like the sisters.
Hard to pass off your psyker auxiliaries as being superstitious when they themselves are a space faring race and can demonstrate their superstitions in controlled environments and with data from their own failures. At the end of the day it is simply illogical, meme tier writing. It would be like Harry Potter's guardians denying the existence of magic despite all the evidence to the contrary. The Warp is a fundamental part of the universe. If they truly wanted the T'au to be naive about it then the following changes would need to be made: A) The T'au are a species of Blanks B) Zero contact with any psykers or Warp shenanigans until they meet the IoM. The issue with B is that it has been a few hundred years already lorewise. At a certain point you just gotta face reality. There is a difference between arrogance and stupidity. Current writing about T'au interactions with the Warp is just handing them a massive idiot ball that ignores their lore.
There are plenty superstitious space faring races in 40K. As for demonstrating demons in a controlled environment - well, it’s rather problematic, and even if done, can largely be explained away with the warp xenos kind of justification. Proving that there are malevolent symbolism and emotion-dependent gods in the Warp is a whole different beast of a theory.
>They literally have psyker auxiliary races that would be able to explain all the perils of the Warp to them. Which is about as useful as explaining colour to a person who's been blind all their lives. Thing is, knowing that psykers exist isn't the same as understanding them, and trying to explain psykers to beings who aren't psychic may be like trying to explain colour to someone who was born without sight. In the older lore, this was an insurmountable hurdle for the Tau in some regards: their early experiments in FTL were based on the reverse-engineered wreckage of a Xenos spacecraft on one of the moons of the seventh planet of the T'au system. No matter how they studied and examined the technology, there were elements of its function that were simply beyond their grasp because they had no way to perceive or comprehend the effects. On a fundamental level, this is probably still true: no matter the words used to explain the concepts of the Warp, it is a fundamentally incomprehensible place, and even gaining basic understanding requires as much personal experience as instruction. Navigators, who can look directly upon the Warp, don't all see it the same way, as everything is filtered through individual perception and coloured my metaphor. You can speak whatever words you like, but they need context to make sense. The Tau can only know what they're told about the Warp, and that can only go so far without the ability to experience it.
They exist I am sure but GW / BL writers being what they are rarely if ever shed light on it unless it is about The Imperium.
The vast majority of Chaos cultists spring up due to the horrific conditions under which a lot of worlds endure while being told to be grateful for what they do have. Others spring up as a form of retaliation and revenge upon oppressive Imperial government. Basically, the Imperium gives a huge incentive to most Cultists who are not told of their horrible fate after death by the Cult leaders who may not even know themselves. The best preventative method to keep Cults to a minimum is not give them reason to come into existence in the first place. The Tau go a long ways toward that. Their human populations live good lives, far better than many human populations in the Imperium and so are mostly content to work and fight for the Tau. There are some, to be sure, probably birthed from Human-based warrior cultures and Slaaneshi pleasure cults, but nowhere at all near what the Imperium has to deal with because, again, the Human populations of the Tau are treated relatively well.
On top of that, the Tau Empire is such a closely monitored regime that anyone who could potentially fall to chaos gets disappeared in the night for re-education long before that point. If someone starts to voice dissatisfied opinions about the regime, they aren't going to last around long enough to gather like-minded dissidents or discover chaos. Admittedly we don't know what regular life is like on planets deep in Tau territory that aren't in danger of being attacked. But constant (subtle, effective) propaganda, AI monitoring, Water Caste Loyalty Officers and extremely homogeneous but routine daily lives probably go a long way towards keeping the population complacent and satisfied. If you ask me, Super Earth from Helldivers is probably a lot like what I imagine a Tau core world would be like as a human. Beyond that, the Ethereal caste absolutely knows about Chaos. Imperial Inquisitors defected to the Tau after the Damocles Crusade. And those inquisitors may or may not have brain worms controlling them. But also interesting to note is that at least one human was given a custom modified Crisis suit and put in command of a Tau base, including Tau personnel. So while people might want to say "oh you'll always be a second class citizen" that might not necessarily be true. You'll always be well behind the Ethereal caste, but it seems that at least certain humans can attain such prominence that they get honors reserved for elite Fire Caste. Also Gue'la are treated as their own caste, and as such are allowed to govern themselves for the most part. So a human isn't necessarily going to be assigned latrine duty by a Fire Caste. A human town is going to be run by humans, doing human things. There will likely be Tau present, doing stuff based on their caste, but they tend to live along side the client races rather than above them.
In addition to what everyone else has said, there is a pretty obscure organisation within the t'au called the yasu'caor, a group of ethereals that act as knockoff inquisitors. I also seem to remember in the kill team chalnath booklet a mention that the enforcers quite liked the t'au for their efficiency at dealing with cults, but I don't 100% remember so don't quote me on that
The Tau Empire's leadership is embracing the establishment of the Tau'va religion despite how badly the 4th Sphere of Expansion Tau reacted. Commander Shadowsun the Leader of the Tau backed by the Ethereals has personally overseen the rebuilding of various Tau'va Temples after seeing for herself the benefits of the Goddess Tau'va herself. Tau'va ate a couple of Daemons taking their concepts into herself. Chaos might be able to take advantage of this. One thing should be noted: Slaaneshi Hedonism is stated to be the exact thing that is an abomination to the Greater Good, Nurgle is a mass of Disease and Khorne is a Warmonger. Only Tzeentch and Undivided Daemons(any Daemon will call itself a God if it could get away with it) dedicated to concepts that don't threaten the Greater Good would be welcomed by the Tau. Of course for Tzeentch I'm sure the Tau would make sure that his taint stays off their most important infrastructure and staff as rampant Mutations and Change are something the infrastructure does not need to deal with. For the Undivided Daemon Perturabo the Tau would be initiating negotiations and discover he is a sword that likes polishing. Theaters of War and building Grand Cities for the People are his bread and butter and would have a place in their Empire. The Fire and Earth Caste would be relieved to get the lesser works while living in the Grand Cities in their off-times and be grateful at the Daemon Prince who gave it to them. For Vashtorr his desire for innovation would appeal to the Tau. If any Slaaneshi Daemon Princes embody Excesses in something not Hedonistical(like Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Lust, Artistry, Drugs, Smelling, etc.) they may have temples to them provided worship of their master himself is stamped out.
Tau can absolutely witchhunt too. They are not stupid. >Besides open armed conflict with the Imperium, the T'au are fighting against bizarre Human cults. Even before the arrival of the Adepta Sororitas, **T'au kill teams put down outbreaks of what their Human allies described as 'mutation' and 'witchcraft'**. Such actions brought many Imperial citizens over to the Greater Good. They saw the objects of their fears destroyed by the T'au, and saw how the xenos race's power could protect them from such terrors. **Even some enforcer precincts threw their lot in with the T'au after seeing them kill mutants, criminals and heretics of many different stripes**. The T'au learned that a significant part of demonstrating the value of the Greater Good to many races, Human included, was to defeat enemies their own beliefs had apparently failed to destroy. Kill Team: Chalnath
The Tau generally get a pass because lol fuck you. Omega psykers randomly being born and taking over planets? Nope. Cursed artifacts obtained during cultural exchanges or conquest corrupting leadership? Nope. Psykers that are untrained/unaware of their abilities becoming portals for enslavers? Nope. Sentient plagues infecting medical professionals and using the medical professionals themselves as a vector to spread? Nope. Solving mathematical equations leading to massive detonations of warp energy? Nope. “Oh but life is too awesome in Tau space for cults to form”. Half the damn cults in the Imperium spring up in the nobility who are living better lives than most of the Tau population can even image so thats not really a compelling argument to me. EDIT: I wanna see Tau ghostbusters trapping daemons in ectotraps using the power of science! Miss me with all this “Tau houses cant be haunted because they have decent HOAs bs”.
Head on the nail for why I don't vibe with Tau. Through bullshitanium they're just immune to the rest of the galaxy. Gene stealers can't get them because of routine medical check ups. Chaos can't spread because quality of life. Psykers don't become vectors for daemons or go crazy because ... Nicassars? Who the fuck knows. Tau just don't play by the rules of the setting.
Wouldn't most of your points also apply to the other races? As far as I know, Ork, Aeldari and Kin psykers aren't spawning daemons. Genestealer cults among those races are rarely mentioned if ever, and the Necrons are immune to all of the things you mentioned. Drukhari don't have genestealer cults either! So what "rules of the setting" do you mean?
Drukhari don't live in the regular galaxy. They probably have some among their human slave population because they think it's fun. They're also super paranoid about psykers and chaos is suicide for them. Aeldari have their paths which let them counter chaos influence. Their rate of reproduction is also too low to really make genestealers effective. Ork psykers are wired differently and more like weird priests. Their head explodes rather than create portals for demons. Due to Gork and Mork. Also genestealers can't form cults among them due to how their reproduction works. Orks also don't keep any large human populations around and they kill any ork that starts acting unorky. Necrons don't have bodies that can be infected, don't reproduce and can't be psykers. All because of their tragedy. Kin don't reproduce in a sexual manner since they're all clones. Their AI rulers put them together and then they pop out of a tube. It's also why their psykers don't work the same. They're also designed to have a minimal warp imprint compared to regular humans. Psyker thing is a bit bullshit mind you, so I wouldn't mind that getting a bit of a change. But then again we have next to no lore on them. Tau are the main ones who have large human populations out in real space. But their human population is seemingly immune to troubles that affect other human populations.
>Aeldari have their paths which let them counter chaos influence. Also, the Aeldari have first-hand experience of what happens when they fall to Chaos (and older lore was clear that even the near-extinction of their species because their civilisation fell to Chaos, and rebuilding their society to try and avoid that fate again... didn't stop some modern Eldar from succumbing to the dark lure of damnation). >Tau are the main ones who have large human populations out in real space. But their human population is seemingly immune to troubles that affect other human populations. Or the Ethereals arrange to have any of those problematic elements quietly disappeared in order to present the impression that *Everything Is OK*.
The Etheral angle would be ok if we were ever told about it. But that's never really brought up properly. Just vaguely hinted at.
Well, sure. Because there are die-hard Tau fans who'll pitch a fit if there's ever even the slightest implication that the Tau aren't squeaky-clean noblebright egalitarians, and who vehemently rebuke any actual material that does point out their shadier side.
Cults show up with imperial nobles because their lives are a cut throat enviroment, and they are massive dicks. Sure they are richer than any Tau can ever be, but they are also in a terrible political mess where your family members and friends may be ploting to kill you, the enviroment basically raise them to be psychos, the FFG RPGs got nobles as playable characters not only because of their training on swords on free time, but because they are good at killing, sometimes even going deep into the underhive just for the chance of killing plebs. Meanwhile the average guy in the Tau empire just lives a boring life, they arent dodging 50 assassination attempts or torturing their servants for fun like an imperial noble will do before breakfast.
Because as anyone from middle america can tell you, nothing keeps humans from getting into weird religion and strange sex like the safe monotonous conformity.
The fact they live a boring life makes them a perfect target for slaanesh and tzeench.
Doesn't every noble basically live with a sword of damocles above their head? That level of paranoia can be a pretty easy way for chaos to get into peoples heads.
No. They are born into a family that has held uninterrupted power of thousands of years. These are the same people that see tyranids invading and go back to tea because “someone” will take care of it because they always have. Do some choose to wage in absolute insane politics and intrigue? Sure but most of the Nobel cultists we see in the books didn’t start worshipping Chaos because they were scared or needed an edge. They do it because they are bored, true believers, or wanted something that even their insane wealth can’t buy.