Yeah it’s either the T’au or the new faction the Votann. Both are still flawed.
The T’au started out as good guys but over the years more and more lore was added that changed them to be more morally grey/ambiguous, which is a real shame. This was propbably done to appease the neckbeards who went completly balistic when the T’au first released because “NOOOOOOOOO THERE CAN’T BE A GOOD FACTION IN 40K. THIS WOULD MEAN THE IMPERIUM’S WAY OF SURVIVING IS NOT NECESSARY AND I CAN’T JUSTIFY FASCISM ANYMORE!”
It’s also really annoying from a pure narrative point of view. The T’au were always grimdark but it was another flavour of grimdark that went over the heads of most fans. Instead of the classic “owww they are violent and it sucks living in their soceity” the T’au followed a much more interesting concept. They were/are presented as a race that is very new to the galactic stage and while they have incredible powerful weapons and strategies to deal with most other factions their influence, territory and numbers are too small to survive a prolonged fight with any of the other major factions. They are also very naive. The T’au themself believe that they can survive in the universe and spread the Greater Good which will eventually lead to galaxy wide peace. They don’t know that the only reasson they still exist is because they are not enough of a threat for any of the other factions to wipe them out.
Having good guys that are too naive to know their existence is already doomed is a lot more grimdark than “le ebil communist fish people are ackchyually mind controlled.”
While we can all agree that a cast system is shitty it is understandable (still not good) why the T’au would use one since there are legitimate genetical differences between the casts which allow them to be better adapted to their jobs in T’au soceity.
The Votann are still very new so all of this might change and they become more evil in the future. The Votann are space dwarfs that form very close knitted communities were everyone is respected and valued no matter who or how they are. They also make use of AI and robots who aren’t treated as slaves but instead as full members of soceity like everyone else.
Now to the bad part: they are ULTRA selfish. If there are ressources on a planet and they want them they will take them with no concern for the inhabitants of said planet and they will fight you should you try and stop them.
This hunger for ressources is portrayed as a greed that grew out of initial necessisty since they live in the galactic core, which is a ressource rich but very dangerous region so every bit counts and could mean survival or death.
Eldar fall also into this camp of not necessarily evil but very selfish (depending on the Craft World this can vary, Biel-Tan would slaughter every other living creature in the universe if it would help them rebuild the Eldar).
Thanks for the in-depth explanation! From my limited exposure to the lore and the outline you gave, I love the T’au. It can be probably be said that they can function as a representation of a lib idea of a kind of “red imperialist” faction, but in a setting as fucked as Warhammer… let’s just say that I am more inclined to trust any T’au stans than any Imperium stans.
If I ever got into Warhammer gaming proper, you can bet that I’d be spreading the Greater Good to any and every chump that dared to worship a dead god lol. I adore the idea of this horrid universe spawning a naive people that seem to be trying their best. It’s what makes Grimdark great, not the overwhelming odds, but the people that stare awe-struck at the collapsing, unfair cosmos and plainly state “No.” Much more interesting than them taking some kind of purely evil turn.
Having good guys that are too naive to know their existence is already doomed is a lot more grimdark than “le ebil communist fish people are ackchyually mind controlled.”
This is huge missing opportunity out there, and it’s why i call all that shit “grimdork” since it’s dorky grimdark. Same was with primarch Vulcan, everyone though he is the single good guy in nazi imperium but then he got some books about him and boom, even worse and more stupid than some other primarchs.
Oh boy a chance to ramble about 40K:
Yeah it’s either the T’au or the new faction the Votann. Both are still flawed. The T’au started out as good guys but over the years more and more lore was added that changed them to be more morally grey/ambiguous, which is a real shame. This was propbably done to appease the neckbeards who went completly balistic when the T’au first released because “NOOOOOOOOO THERE CAN’T BE A GOOD FACTION IN 40K. THIS WOULD MEAN THE IMPERIUM’S WAY OF SURVIVING IS NOT NECESSARY AND I CAN’T JUSTIFY FASCISM ANYMORE!” It’s also really annoying from a pure narrative point of view. The T’au were always grimdark but it was another flavour of grimdark that went over the heads of most fans. Instead of the classic “owww they are violent and it sucks living in their soceity” the T’au followed a much more interesting concept. They were/are presented as a race that is very new to the galactic stage and while they have incredible powerful weapons and strategies to deal with most other factions their influence, territory and numbers are too small to survive a prolonged fight with any of the other major factions. They are also very naive. The T’au themself believe that they can survive in the universe and spread the Greater Good which will eventually lead to galaxy wide peace. They don’t know that the only reasson they still exist is because they are not enough of a threat for any of the other factions to wipe them out. Having good guys that are too naive to know their existence is already doomed is a lot more grimdark than “le ebil communist fish people are ackchyually mind controlled.” While we can all agree that a cast system is shitty it is understandable (still not good) why the T’au would use one since there are legitimate genetical differences between the casts which allow them to be better adapted to their jobs in T’au soceity.
The Votann are still very new so all of this might change and they become more evil in the future. The Votann are space dwarfs that form very close knitted communities were everyone is respected and valued no matter who or how they are. They also make use of AI and robots who aren’t treated as slaves but instead as full members of soceity like everyone else. Now to the bad part: they are ULTRA selfish. If there are ressources on a planet and they want them they will take them with no concern for the inhabitants of said planet and they will fight you should you try and stop them. This hunger for ressources is portrayed as a greed that grew out of initial necessisty since they live in the galactic core, which is a ressource rich but very dangerous region so every bit counts and could mean survival or death.
Eldar fall also into this camp of not necessarily evil but very selfish (depending on the Craft World this can vary, Biel-Tan would slaughter every other living creature in the universe if it would help them rebuild the Eldar).
Thanks for the in-depth explanation! From my limited exposure to the lore and the outline you gave, I love the T’au. It can be probably be said that they can function as a representation of a lib idea of a kind of “red imperialist” faction, but in a setting as fucked as Warhammer… let’s just say that I am more inclined to trust any T’au stans than any Imperium stans.
If I ever got into Warhammer gaming proper, you can bet that I’d be spreading the Greater Good to any and every chump that dared to worship a dead god lol. I adore the idea of this horrid universe spawning a naive people that seem to be trying their best. It’s what makes Grimdark great, not the overwhelming odds, but the people that stare awe-struck at the collapsing, unfair cosmos and plainly state “No.” Much more interesting than them taking some kind of purely evil turn.
Also, Tau got A LOT of flak for having hi-tech and kinda anime-like aesthetics, because most of 40k fashdom are anime haters.
They are just jealous because even weebs get more pussy/dick than 40k neckbeards do.
This is huge missing opportunity out there, and it’s why i call all that shit “grimdork” since it’s dorky grimdark. Same was with primarch Vulcan, everyone though he is the single good guy in nazi imperium but then he got some books about him and boom, even worse and more stupid than some other primarchs.