PodCaste Transcript - Help Creating a Sept

PodCaste Transcript

As we continue to try and bring improvements and ways to experience community articles we are now adding TRANSCRIPTS! By popular demand.

Recorded in front of a live audience on the Discord, you can now read what Calmsword discussed if that's your cup of t'cha (*tea).

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/podcastetau/episodes/Help-Creating-a-Sept-e22l3fe

[00:00:00.170] - Calmsword

So today we have a supplemental episode. I am in the middle of editing a very hefty Farsight episode which will which will be broken up into two different pieces that go over the most recent lore from the book. The review is already on NewsCaste, so you can read everything there. There's a part two that's going to be coming up this weekend. Happy Easter at the discord.

 

[00:00:31.130] - Calmsword

We used to actually have an event for Easter during one of our narrative campaigns where you would have to go around chasing a small white rabbit in games and if you managed to capture it or any of its eggs, you got relics and stuff like that. I'm really hoping that the new 10th edition that we're learning more and more about is going to allow for that kind of customization so, speaking of customization, today's episode is centered around sept building. We've had a couple mentions throughout the growing number of seasons of this podcast about Septs.

 

[00:01:19.990] - Calmsword

I think it's good for a refresher because we can talk about the enclaves a little bit more now.

 

[00:01:29.710] - Calmsword

So the word sept effectively means kind of the primary world, right? And the Tau Commonwealth is built up of many of these. It's become a more ambiguous number as the additions have gone on. But initially there were only a handful of these.

 

[00:01:52.390] - Calmsword

The 8th edition expansion and into 9th, especially 9th, really capitalized on the uniqueness of every one of these primary planets. And along with this kind of colonial, this colonial aspect where during our Crusade rules, you are colonizing more planets. What's interesting is that there is indeed slightly a contradiction of expectation, right? You are not building really a sept in your Crusade rules. You're incorporating new worlds into the greater sphere.

 

[00:02:33.410] - Calmsword

So maybe a good place to start might be with the first sept and maybe a loose description of the spheres. So let me just open this up and yeah. So Tau itself,  is the planet Tau, which possesses a large kind of singular supercontinent, very shallow oceans and several moons. Lu'val, for example, was the largest moon and was the first colony of Tau and is also one of the places where we discovered a warp drive. Now, obviously, since Kelly's retcon, we don't know how warp drives work.

 

[00:03:31.410] - Calmsword

I always like to reinforce this. There's absolutely no way that we could be an interstellar empire without faster than light travel. It seems in most recent publications that there's a double tripling and quadrupling down on the fact that we don't have faster than light travel. Yet in the descriptions, it's very obvious that we must because otherwise it would take hundreds of years, dozens of years, decades, or just straight up years traveling between stars, especially the Damocles Gulf. The Damocles Gulf is so vast, for example, that it takes anywhere between three to five months to travel it using warp drives.

 

[00:04:21.170] - Calmsword

Who knows how long that that would be going at sublight speeds anyway. So let's just assume that for the sake of this conversation that we have faster than light travel that works between a factor of five to a factor of a third the speed of imperial ships.

 

[00:04:45.610] - Calmsword

Okay? So moving forward, this first colony, Lu'val, could be considered the proto expectations of what a Sept would become. And if you look and reference the stellar cluster that the Tau Empire are in, you see kind of there are descriptions, especially in the Taros book, of how large it actually is, which is 300 light years across, of densely packed stars. And if you look at the map, you can clearly see that, yes, there are these sept, these bright points of light that each has a name. And then there are smaller star systems.

 

[00:05:28.400] - Calmsword

And if you look at those star systems, you start to see like, the outlines and the borders of a region. That's one of the reasons why some older Tau enthusiasts like myself often refer to the fact that a Sept is not a singular star system. If anything, it's much more like the more feudal system that the imperium adopts. So of the, I believe, 4 quadrillion, quadrillion? 4 quadrillion people are in the imperium of man. And I think about 80% of them or something close to maybe 70% of this is all done through fan math.

 

[00:06:15.360] - Calmsword

So I don't think any clear numbers have ever been given short of the 30K novel that involves the actual siege of Terra. But hive worlds constitute the major population zones for humanity. And these hive worlds brief description of them typically, I mean, a planet can have a hive or a proto hive, something that is on its way to becoming one of these kind of monolithic or megalithic structures that typically has billions of people living inside of them. Usually there's an internal ecosystem to it that isn't a nice place to live, if Necromunda is any indication.

 

[00:07:00.950] - Calmsword

But amidst these hives, there's an enormous amount of other planets, tributary planets, which then send goods, resources, bodies, people, all to hives. And the hives form a kind of nexus point for administration and control and potentially refinement. Necromunda, for example, is known for its bolter output. That's one of the reasons why the gangs are able to have them, that they're just readily available.

 

[00:07:38.610] - Calmsword

So so this tributary system is is actually very similar to the Tau, except the Tau do it in a way that's a little bit better now out of necessity. And again, this is a little bit long in the tooth discussion, but initially the Tau do not have readily available faster than, like, communication. They do have rare instances where they can use something called ansibles, which you can read about in Shadowsun, the last of Kiru's line, Kiru being her father, she is newly appointed to this position of commander and she crash lands on a world. And her pod, which has her suit and several drone configurations inside of it has a very rare ansible attached to it which she can then communicate directly to Aun'va. So it's that level of rare.

 

[00:08:38.630] - Calmsword

These aren't typically assigned to everybody. Who knows why? It could be for a variety of reasons. But let's just say that faster than light communication is expensive and rare. The Tau actually rely on the if you look at the messenger ship from Battlefleet Gothic, it's kind of like a system like the Pony Express where these ships do quick translations in and out of the warp, or, excuse me, skim off of the warp, arrive in a system, broadcast a series of signals, receive signals and then move on its way.

 

[00:09:13.990] - Calmsword

And it's part of a very vast and complex network. Sometimes way stations, sometimes actually, sometimes modified capital ships will have a similar suite of stellar communications. But it's not reliable. Right? Let's say if the Inner Empire, which is the first and second spheres and we'll get to that in a second is 300 light years across and we're looking at a factor of five.

 

[00:09:43.120] - Calmsword

Factor of three. For a Tau skip drive or gravitic drive you're looking at many months for information to circulate throughout that network.

 

[00:09:57.210] - Calmsword

What was created at the dawn?

 

[00:10:00.250] - Calmsword

The first sphere expansion. And this is after the Tau solar system was fully colonized.

 

[00:10:10.450] - Calmsword

And this would also be after the first contact war with the Niccassar which were discovered at the edges of the system.

 

[00:10:20.210] - Calmsword

Actually one of the few examples we have of just Tau straight up going ah, kind of reacting and and we don't know very much about the conflict other than we know it was a miscommunication of some kind. It's very vague in the Battlefleet gothic book but after that conflict, Tau'n, which was I believe is the closest habitable system to Tau itself, was highlighted as a place to colonize. The Orks were in the way the Orks from the onset have always been kind of the nemesis of the Tau, the entire region, the stellar cluster that the Tau Cohabit and to a lesser extent remains to be still kind of infested with Orks. Obviously in more recent decades Shadowsun has resoundedly defeated them and kind of broken their influence in the area. But we still have a quarantine zone just at the southwest of Tau.

 

[00:11:30.430] - Calmsword

But Tau'n, which by the way means basically second Tau or if you extrapolate that kind of new Tau had to be campaigned for, it had to be fought for and those initial colonizers had to really struggle in those earlier years, maybe even generations.

 

[00:11:59.830] - Calmsword

But what it does is that because even at that point, Tau'n was so a certain distance away and unable to directly communicate with Tau for instructions, as you would kind of in any regular sci-fi science fiction universe, communication is key because they didn't have that and because of a combination of other limiting factors that the Tau experience. Everything that they send out into the void to colonize, to explore, to fight, to conquer, whatever, all of it has to be relatively self sufficient and we see evidence of that across the range especially. And I always highly recommend and I've mentioned it a couple of times read the Taros book that actually goes into describing how individual Fire warrior units and pathfinder units are able to operate in the field. Kind of it's probably being a little bit hyperbolic, but indefinitely they are able to rely on devil fish which they have moisture evaporators, they have field rations and kits, their backpack, for example, recharges the battery cells for their weapons, things like that. They  are very good at long range excursions and no less than the ships themselves.

 

[00:13:35.580] - Calmsword

In fact, at this point in the Kor'vattra each ship is kind of an individual Tau'n almost. I think the easiest comparison is actually Star Trek where the Federation ships have nurseries for children and they do have weapons decks and things like that, but then they also have hydroponic farms and entertainment. There's all sorts of things on a Federation ship and it seems that is loosely described for the Kor'vattra and because of transit times and probably the greatest limiting factor and that is that the Tau lifespan itself is really between 50 and 60 years. The number gets thrown around a lot. But what we do know is that they age quickly into adulthood.

 

[00:14:30.380] - Calmsword

So a period of, I think, a decade and they're more or less fully grown again. There's a little bit of contention there because you have novels like Fire Warrior which state that Shas'la Kais was 18 on his first outing. But then you have a couple of Xenobiologist books and stuff like that that describe very quick adulthoods and then pretty healthy lives. The Tau are known to be able to assimilate, like, poisons and toxins into their system very well. Their heart is also a liver.

 

[00:15:15.030] - Calmsword

And then the Water Caste themselves, get further upgraded in order to handle hostile environments, food and obviously poison, because they're the diplomats.

 

[00:15:26.070] - Calmsword

But at the end of the day, the Tau kind of are expected to there's a cultural retirement age of 40. Whether or not everybody takes that is up for debate.

 

[00:15:40.170] - Calmsword

But they, generally speaking, only live for about 50 to 60 years, let's just say, for at least for the purposes of this episode. So Colonial efforts, expansion efforts, have to be done at a self sufficient level and that is extended to the sept system. So a sept can't really just be formed. We're seeing more evidence of that, obviously, as we get into the third, 4th, fifth and rumored 6th expansions. But at least at this early stage, growth was slow.

 

[00:16:15.610] - Calmsword

And that's because once the initial colony was seeded it would then take time, right, to grow big enough to then have supporting tributary installations and colonies. So in the same way that Tau relied on its moons and outlying planets so would Tau'n and then so on and so forth as we stretch further and further out. Now, why is that similar to the Imperial system? Well, the Imperials do the same thing. Now, the Imperials do have faster than light travel and faster than light communications.

 

[00:16:53.970] - Calmsword

But it's unreliable. Ships arrive before and after they leave a system. There's vagaries of the warp. People can get lost. It's not as bad, it seems.

 

[00:17:09.290] - Calmsword

There's a lot of areas of reliability. Two human star systems that have regular trade between each other start to form these kind of currents as ships kind of use the same tract of warp over and over. So it makes like a groove. So travel becomes a little bit more reliable between human traveled star systems. But a hive planet, in order for it to get there typically means it's the sacrifice of the ecosystem.

 

[00:17:39.400] - Calmsword

And again, you look at Armageddon, you look at Necromunda, you look at Agrellan all of these are miserable places to live. And the hives really take their toll on the planet itself to the point where you can't really live outside of a hive. And living in a hive is unless you're living at the very highest levels pretty miserable as well. So it doesn't really seem like they have reliable farming techniques or food generation. Obviously, everybody knows about the extent of human cannibalism in Warhammer 40,000.

 

[00:18:19.470] - Calmsword

Any one hive world probably needs between two or three or more agri worlds. And agri-worlds are kind of harvest hellscapes where both animals and kind of freak plants that have been modified by the Adeptus Mechanicus are kind of let loose on an ecosystem. The description in the rulebook of an agri-world is actually pretty frightening. Similarly, you have outpost planets, which are very often military and orientation resource worlds, mining planets, especially. A hive world is very much like Rome, right?

 

[00:19:06.590] - Calmsword

Where Rome had all of these. There are people that describe going to Rome and that you could smell it before you got there and that you would see these pits and these mines on your way into Rome that were just filled with slaves and this kind of stink coming up from the earth as they dug it open. I think that that's the inspiration for hive worlds, that they're terrible places that draw on a lot of resources in order to survive, in fact. And again, keeping it within the scope of the Tau faction. Shadowsun's relatively simple plan to topple hive worlds because a hive world is also unimaginably defended.

 

[00:19:55.560] - Calmsword

I mean, you have the raw numbers of its population, but then you also have tribute kind of regiments of Imperial Guard or Planetary Defense forces and very often probably a close relationship with any number of the different factions within the Imperium.

 

[00:20:14.690] - Calmsword

Attacking a hive world is suicide. Ghazghkull has attacked Armageddon twice and I think rumored a third time, Angron before that.

 

[00:20:29.930] - Calmsword

It's no easy feat. And yet you look at the Tau, and we've taken, I believe, two hive worlds within the span of a decade. And that's because Commander Shadowsun kind of just it's rip'kya right.

 

[00:20:46.590] - Calmsword

It's a death by a thousand cuts. All she does is attack, like a mining world, like Taros, perhaps, perhaps a resource world like Typha-Four, which had extensive Prometheum refineries. All you have to do is attack the belly of the Imperium and it starts to turn against you. Well, or turn against itself. So where that differs from the sept system is that a sept builds up over time, generations typically.

 

[00:21:21.690] - Calmsword

And in its buildup, it makes sure that it is self sufficient because it has to be. It can't rely on transports coming from in this case, from Tau to Tau'n. It can't rely on a convoy because that convoy could come under attack by Orks.

 

[00:21:41.630] - Calmsword

And so a sept very much like a far flung colony in in, you know, the age of antiquity. Or or take pick your pick. Your human historical age starts to develop its own culture. And that culture is distinct and very indicative of the necessities of their new surroundings.

 

[00:22:08.170] - Calmsword

When thinking about a sept, you have to think about that aspect. How did it get colonized? How? How did you know what? What kind of resource were expended?

 

[00:22:16.980] - Calmsword

What sphere is it part of? Let's talk a little bit about spheres. The first sphere of expansion was launched, like I said, to grapple with the Orks and was successful. And as it escalated and started bringing into it by the way, this is around millennium 37 502.

 

[00:22:47.900] - Calmsword

Millennium 37. So to give you kind of like an idea of what's going on in the rest of the galaxy the Imperium is dealing with, I believe, the Moira Schism. It's a very schismatic time for the Imperium. Probably the greatest since the Horus heresy. Internally, that is.

 

[00:23:06.830] - Calmsword

The Imperium is very much turning against itself. It's just gotten over the Gosh van Dyers takeover, the expansion of the Administratum and then the counter expansion of the Ecclesiarchy. So it's a rough time for the Imperium, which is probably, again, why the Tau go largely unnoticed as they're in their weakest phase. But this first sphere of expansion lasts for a little bit over 1000 years. And in that time, you have the Septs of Tau'n D'yanoi Bork'an Dal'yth Fal'shia Vior'la Sa'cea.

 

[00:23:45.930] - Calmsword

All of these are founded. And we do know that, for example, Vior'la has several tributary several tributary worlds or systems. One of them being Vior'la, but another of them being Arku'nasha. All of these systems and worlds, we as a community have tried to track them. I believe the last number that we came to, let me just check, was somewhere around 185 unique descriptions of different planets mentioned in Tau lore.

 

[00:24:25.270] - Calmsword

And obviously, not all of these are Septs.

 

[00:24:31.030] - Calmsword

They are smaller colonies. Now getting into kind of the Kronos era of lore. This would be around when Tau were introduced to dawn of War and the white dwarfs leading up to it. We also then get introduced to the fact that there are phases, colonies that start as a phase one might have an outpost, typically Earth Caste or water Caste who are kind of feeling the place out. And those phases, just like the Caste, go up to five.

 

[00:25:02.690] - Calmsword

Phase two might get a garrison. Phase three might start getting actual like, might start getting actual civilian buildings. And phase four seems to be the largest in which during which time all of the castes are present. At least let's call it the non ethereal castes are present. And Kronos is a great example of this.

 

[00:25:29.960] - Calmsword

Kronos, initially colonized during the second sphere was a pretty bold initiative when you look at it in retrospect because it was a colonial effort that was done with an existing major power on the planet. Well, and later we would discover several major powers. But the Imperium had actually already claimed the planet and the Tau chose to try to coexist with them. With the imperials being on the east part of the northern continent and the Tau being on the west side. Of it.

 

[00:26:08.220] - Calmsword

Trade was fairly common. The population boomed. It seems to have briefly had an ethereal on the planet to perhaps oversee the initial seeding. But then there is a 200 year period where there is not. And during the events of Kronos the on that is traveling with Shas'o Kais is the first ethereal that's been on the planet in generations.

 

[00:26:41.950] - Calmsword

So that's something to be said as well. It doesn't seem like an ethereal presence is risked probably for good reason. Many of the examples that we have of ethereals being captured be it the Dalamar incident which is the events that take place in the game Fire Warrior but also the Xenologists nadrassi that is captured ethereals go out into. And I've referenced the Jedi, you know, kind of the traditional Episode One style Jedi before there are Ethereals that kind of go on these walkabouts and they don't seem to travel with very big retinues.

 

[00:27:30.590] - Calmsword

Potentially based on the Aun'shi book they potentially actually go kind of in hiding or at least mask who they are or aren't always obvious about who they are as they move about the Commonwealth. Aun'shi, notably, has a cowl over his head and he hides the nasal ridge that denotes him as an Ethereal while he's with the prisoners in Comorragh. But these ethereals then go on kind of review and they look at these outlying colony worlds but there doesn't seem to be a Set pop, there's not a set moment where ethereals become fully involved until you get to what is presumably phase five which would also be the number associated with the ethereals. At this point in time, a planet will become a major world even with its own tributaries, its own colonial support. And then it's unclear as to how that colony then emancipates itself from its parent sept and becomes a sept onto itself.

 

[00:28:45.450] - Calmsword

I have in my own works all fan theories, conclusions, hypotheses warning right now. But I would assume that a sept might not necessarily want one of its more major systems to become unique, culturally independent, right? In the same way that Canada might not want Quebec to break off or the United States doesn't want to see California or Texas go away england doesn't want to lose Scotland and so on and so forth. These real world examples just help set a precedence. I'm not believing meaning or judgment, but but I think that that a sept might might in in many cases not want to lose a major, you know, something that they've invested a lot into.

 

[00:29:39.800] - Calmsword

But then you look at some of these planets and some of them it just makes sense because of distance. Dal'yth, for example, of which we know the most about in terms of the list of worlds connected to Dal'yth we know, I think, over 16 unique different worlds and colonies. That's probably because there's been the most imperial contact with Dal'yth. But Dal'yth also became a major colonial motivator for the third sphere. And I'm sorry, I've gotten ahead of myself again.

 

[00:30:18.440] - Calmsword

So the first sphere of expansion let me rewind, please. My apologies. The first sphere of expansion lasts for a little bit over a thousand years 502 millennium 37 to nine five, six millennium 38. And in that time period, you have all of these worlds become prime worlds and they are strong enough to then motivate. The first fear stops because of a lack of population and then likely they hit some kind of cultural wall which happens.

 

[00:30:55.330] - Calmsword

You can't constantly be expanding. Expansion requires a time of solidifying, right?

 

[00:31:09.750] - Calmsword

And then as it catches its breath, it then can go again. So the second sphere of expansion, which is the most famous and is associated with the hero Puretide, for example, has kind of a monumental filling out of the stellar cluster and is associated with the new Septs Au'taal, N'dras, Ke'lshan, Elsy'eir, Tash'var, Vash'ya and Tol'kul. So these are added to the fold. But also, more importantly, there are a lot of strong fourth sphere or excuse me, fourth phase colonies which can which can be added to that list which would be Kronos, north of Dal'yth beyond the Damocles Gulf, as well as Sha'draig, which is actually in the Ke'lshan sept. Unfortunately, they will in a few years, just a few decades will be hit by high fleet gorgon and sacrificed as the Tau pull away and it eventually becomes the zone of silence.

 

[00:32:35.570] - Calmsword

But also we have these interesting periods where Tau colonies actually kind of appear all over kind of a halo beyond the Damocles Gulf, beyond the Purdue rift.

 

[00:32:57.610] - Calmsword

That's why it's important to kind of understand that it's not always a sept. And these planets never become Septs, not not truly. They remain in kind of the state that they're in or eventually they get kind of exterminated or lost due to war.

 

[00:33:16.590] - Calmsword

So these spheres are ages, remember. So the second sphere of expansion takes place starts at the beginning of millennium 39 and goes almost to the close of millennium 41. In fact, the reason why it ends is because of the Damocles Crusade. So obviously, I'm always extolling the virtues of our faction and how we absolutely and totally curbstomped the expectations of an Imperial Crusade fleet. And there are episodes dedicated to that forcing the imperium to come to the negotiating table with an alien species.

 

[00:33:56.090] - Calmsword

I really do wish more imperial players would realize how monumental that is because it's kind of never happened other than, I guess, with the Eldar. And that doesn't really count.

 

[00:34:08.590] - Calmsword

So in this, we have this idea of ages of expansion and time periods of heavy colonization and associating your sept. Let's say you wanted to design a sept. If you're in the first or second sphere of expansion that means that you're part of an older culture, especially the first sphere these cultures have now. I mean, if we want to put it into kind of human terms. Let's see.

 

[00:34:43.520] - Calmsword

Right. Like it's several thousand years. 3739-4041. So, yeah, about 4000 years of continuous habitation. There's no country that we can really point to as a frame of reference in the modern age that has that kind of pedigree consistently.

 

[00:35:03.990] - Calmsword

Right. So these systems are, by our reckoning, as real world participants in this hobby that is older than everything that our modern age has. So it would be like if the empire of Egypt, we're still building more pyramids in the surrounding area. It's impressive. It's impressive.

 

[00:35:28.960] - Calmsword

And a sept that especially a new sept, should have a little bit of explanations of why Arku'nasha was recolonized after Farsight was pulled off of duty and sent to Mount Kenji. It was retaken, it wasn't lost. And yet we don't have the Arku'nasia sept. Right. We don't have the Vior'la sept.

 

[00:36:00.130] - Calmsword

None of these major conflict zones have ever really been mentioned again other than that they were recolonized. So why does your sept this is the purpose of this episode is to try to help you form a cohesive and strong identity for your sept. And if it's going to be part of the first or second one you owe it to yourself to breathe in that kind of historical meaningfulness. It would be like if you're in the United States, it would be like if a new state were to form out of between, I don't know, New York and Massachusetts. Right?

 

[00:36:41.030] - Calmsword

Some of the two oldest places colonized by the Europeans. Why does there need to be a new state? And I encourage anybody to give that opinion or create that opinion, create that opportunity for lore. So let's get into the third sphere because the third sphere and I feel the third sphere is actually the most tragic sphere because it got its own book. Actually, it got a couple of its own books.

 

[00:37:08.970] - Calmsword

The majority of our lore actually takes place in the third sphere. Fire Warrior is kind of the match that lights it. The Aun'o Kathalan declares the Treaty of Dal'yth, a ceasefire of Dal'yth to be void as a result of the consistent kind of saber rattling and ultimately discovered to be manipulations of chaos. But all of that is kind of the inception of the third sphere. Now, when we got our second Codex, we imbued that initiative with Aun'va and Shadowsun.

 

[00:37:52.950] - Calmsword

We're going to take the fight now to the Imperium because we don't want to take it anymore. After 250 years of these brush fire wars, you finally have the Tau ready. And now, again, in the act of wanting to make the Tau a more full bodied and, let's be honest, kind of grim, darker faction. It's kind of eluded that this was done by design. And I'm all for it.

 

[00:38:19.870] - Calmsword

Shadowsun plans after being awoken and after her victory during the War of Confederacy she turns her eye to start figuring out, like, okay, how are we going to attack the Imperium? And she takes years to do it.

 

[00:38:36.630] - Calmsword

And the best way that she knows how is not the concerted frontal assault that Farsight would be known for. Let's call that the Mont'ka. Right? She approaches it with Kau'yon. And Kau'yon works just so incredibly.

 

[00:38:51.510] - Calmsword

On the Imperium, you can find a map of the third sphere expansion, but you can see all of these arrows going outward from a kind of central core and revisiting regions that the Tau used to be in engaging with older relationships that they have with other races, but also rogue traders. That's another thing that's a Ksi'm'yen is alluded to have have been taken without a shot. This is one of the third sphere Septs because of a human. It doesn't say who that is or what it is, but we know in later publications such as Kau'yon, the book dedicated to Commander Shadowsun attacking the hive world of Agrellan, we know that there are rogue traders. And once you read the anthology, the Chassau anthology inquisitors, who have turned over onto the Tau side of things and see things from perhaps their perspective or maybe an opportunity in the case of the rogue traders.

 

[00:40:05.890] - Calmsword

So the third sphere is just packed with narrative, but it's also the first time, first of all, it's the shortest expansion age, I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong or forgive me, there are kind of conflicting timelines, but basically somewhere in the ballpark of seven to 15 years is the third sphere. And that's just because this is where the timeline gets wonky and the official retcon jumps in and all sorts of things. But basically the third sphere is responsible for some of the quickest developed steps and it's good to mention those right now.

 

[00:40:58.530] - Calmsword

So to begin with, let's talk about Fi'rios. And Fi'rios is one of those unusual Septs because it is very specifically conquered. It was taken from the Orks.

 

[00:41:16.390] - Calmsword

It's an Ork world. The Fire Caste came in, lost a lot of people and ultimately rested control of it. Now, even though it's just kind of like a blurb, and it does run counter to other timelines, including Kelly's. But at this point, Shas'o Kais is brought into the picture and he is responsible for kind of paving the way, at least for this set. So let me just all right, going to have to going to have to edit out some of that typing apologies.

 

[00:42:02.960] - Calmsword

I just had to open up one of my other documents a little bit older. Okay, so during Fi'rios taking or the war for it, that kind of creates the culture that's going to go into it. And it's very similar to Vior'la, actually. And I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of the three major steps that contributed populations to the northern push of the third sphere was Vior'la and Sa'cea as well as Dal'yth. So these very entrenched and sizable populations are kind of cut loose to go find kind of a new home in this beyond.

 

[00:42:53.030] - Calmsword

And Fi'rios becomes very much like Vior'la in that it's against the Vior'la defines itself a lot by its initial invasion by Orks. It's a really rough period during its time, its cultural history, even, even to this day. Vior'la go out and hunt Orks that might might have survived during a period called the Time of Fire, where the planet passes between its two sons and the planet is kind of wreathed in these plasmic storms. Typically it kills everything. Everything on Vior'la lives underneath a dome as a result of this.

 

[00:43:34.260] - Calmsword

But the Orks, being what they are, they're a hardy race. The fungal spores of their corpses stay kind of embedded in the Earth. And so every now and again Vior'la have to go out there and find them. It helps define that, not just the hot blooded aspect, but it gives us something more than that, right? Like it gives us a cultural identity that they are a War culture.

 

[00:43:59.150] - Calmsword

And Fi'rios is very much the same thing, perhaps as the result of so many people dying in the creation of this sept. That is why it becomes a scept kind of the moment that the war is done. Perhaps this is an honorific because of the blood spilled. And we do know that the Fire Caste, because of Farsight, the Fire Caste has a very close association with literal sacrifice for the greater good. Now, the ethereals are constantly curbing that as we see in Hive Fleet Gorgon, the Water Caste is a little bit frightened of it.

 

[00:44:35.830] - Calmsword

The earth Caste. I think the Earth Caste is actually the closest culturally to the Fire Caste and that's one of the reasons why they invent things that could blow up in their faces, but they do it anyway. Maybe a little bit like the Orks as a result of that. Just that let's see if it works and if it doesn't, boom. Well, there you go.

 

[00:44:58.910] - Calmsword

But the Fire Caste has a very close relationship with sacrifice for the greater good. In fact, Farsight being the most extreme version of this in which he promotes martyrdom in the enclaves and dedicates a whole planet to those who have sacrificed themselves for the greater good. He is the embodiment of the Fire Caste interpretation of the greater good. So Fi'rios gets its own and it's very small again, look at the territories on the map and Fi'rios is very much one of the smaller. Then you have Ksi'm'yen, which is which was taken again with without a shot.

 

[00:45:42.590] - Calmsword

Lots of subterfuge. In fact, two thirds of the gains. And I believe the numbers that are generally considered in what I've seen, if there's about 80 to 100 Tau worlds in total for the first and second sphere, never mind Septs, just worlds, then 33% of that was added during the third sphere and two thirds of that was taken without a shot. Really, the third sphere represents the Water Caste way of engaging and even though we associate Shadowsun so much with the third sphere, it's actually the water Caste that did it. So remember there's two third systems worlds, either perhaps alien in origin or more likely human that turned over to the Tau without a war that we know about again without shots fired.

 

[00:46:45.430] - Calmsword

So that gets overshadowed obviously when Agrellan which is a hive world, is chosen to be kind of the let's call it the guinea pig of the Tau interpretation of all out total crusade type war. And I've dedicated a couple of episodes in the past of how stupid that was. The blame entirely goes to Aun'va who showcases new technologies but also it's unbridled to technology and all kinds of atrocities happen. It's actually a really great book. I know a lot of people don't like the Kau'yon and Mont'ka books because they're written kind of flat, but that's because they weren't written in the style of Forge World's Taros book where you really get into camouflage decisions and like a coherent calendar of events but with Agrellan is a mistake.

 

[00:47:47.240] - Calmsword

But it becomes Mu'gulath bay. And now to contrast with the other two most famous steps of the third sphere, Mu'gulath Bay is first of all, we know it comprises of several systems Perfectia which was a fortress world that was taken by Shadow. Sun is part of it, along with a couple other. Technically I believe Medusa Five would have fallen in the territorial footprint of the third yeah of Mu'gulath Bay, I'm pretty sure. But all of these worlds are now more spread out, right?

 

[00:48:31.030] - Calmsword

 These systems aren't. It's not the densely packed stellar cluster that the first and second sphere enjoy. These are far flung. Right. So Mu'gulath Bay over the course of a very bloody war in which a new crusade is launched by under, you know, the the authority of terror itself and exterminatus is eventually committed against it.

 

[00:48:59.310] - Calmsword

Mu'gulath Bay still exists at the end of the book, the hive primus of the planet survives the conflagration that the Adeptus Mechanicus unleashes the major population center is saved. However, if you note in later books it gets a little contradictory because sometimes they say the former sept, but then they'll also describe that the people of Mu'gulath Bay specifically hate the imperium and that is another aspect of culture that is important to incorporate in your understanding of the Septs. Obviously we know about the first and second spheres Septs that have animosity toward other aliens. Tash'var for example, is a frontier sept. It's also kind of strung out pretty wildly.

 

[00:50:05.070] - Calmsword

There's a lot of worlds mentioned in the Tash'var sept, and they are considered kind of frontier people, and they go up against the Orks and pirates a lot, and that really defines who they are with Mu'gulath Bay. Their experience with the imperium. Really? It taints them almost right. That word hate comes up again.

 

[00:50:27.870] - Calmsword

And the ethereals are always kind of preaching against don't hate the alien. Aun'shi is. Probably the most famous in doing so because you can't work with hate. Hate nullifies the ability of cohesion working together. But don't tell that to somebody from Mu'gulath Bay.

 

[00:50:44.790] - Calmsword

I think if somebody were to create their sept, Mu'gulath Bay is one of the most interesting places to put or really the third sphere in general because you have such variety. You have a world that fell in a day because of smart marketing, good diplomacy, and paying the right people off at the right time. On the other hand, you have hardcore Ork fighters who bled so much that they were given their own sept. And then you have Mu'gulath Bay, which had billions and billions of human beings come into the commonwealth. But then it also is stained by a very recent history of major atrocities.

 

[00:51:24.230] - Calmsword

I believe one of the events that happens is that the Earth Caste kind of overplays their hand and destroys one of Agrellan's moons, resulting in an entire continent being just almost wiped out by moonfall. So you have so much diversity there. And on top of which, because it's in the greater galaxy and the stars aren't as densely packed, you have more reasons why a sept would be able to grow faster because it has to rely on itself even more. Additionally, it's probably only one star system because it's surrounded. I mean, the third sphere is deep comparatively into imperial space, more so than Farsight's reclamation would have ever been.

 

[00:52:11.820] - Calmsword

But let's talk about Farsight's worlds briefly because sometimes I see people ask, are the four planets of Farsight Septs unto themselves? Now, on paper, yes, the four of them are Septs.

 

[00:52:28.030] - Calmsword

And you can see that in the most recent arcs of Omen book, there's kind of a casual mention the Farsight Septs. And we only know about four worlds, I think five, actually, and that's how they're referred. However, in practice, I would like to briefly make the argument that they are smaller than Septs to begin with. Farsight has doubled down on the caste system in that each world is mostly dedicated to one sept or another. That is not something that Septs generally do.

 

[00:53:10.670] - Calmsword

Now, just like the spheres, which have associations with have associations with a Caste and I've talked about this before, but the first sphere is definitely the Air Caste the Air and the fire Caste sphere. That's where they come into their own. The Air caste suffers enormously trying to I mean, imagine the Orks being more technologically advanced in almost every engagement with another species. And that's what the Kor'vattra had to fight through. The fire Caste realizes, okay, after hunting the mega-predators of Tau, now they have to go up against a sapient race that just is everything.

 

[00:53:54.430] - Calmsword

They kind of abhor about ways to wage war. No quarter the thrill of combat versus the kind of cold and calculating state that fire warriors typically want to be in. They don't always stay there, but you know what I mean. Then the Second Sphere is a combination of the fire Caste and the water Caste. But the water Caste greatest failing takes place during the Second Sphere, and that is that they weren't able to subdue the Ork.

 

[00:54:26.460] - Calmsword

And it's the first admission of the Ethereals that the greater good is not for everybody. And that's a big cultural blow to such a bright eyed and bushy tailed species as the Tau. The Third Sphere, as I've said in this talk, is very much the water castes kind of return to the main stage. Major victories all over the place as a result of their work, the conversions of billions. I've said this again before, there's probably more humans in the Tau commonwealth than there are Tau at this point.

 

[00:55:04.450] - Calmsword

And of course you can say that the Third Sphere could be some of the Fire Caste, although I actually like to give it to the Ethereals. The Third Sphere is the Ethereal's first big outing leading from the front, and it ends in disaster. Obviously spoiler. Aun'va is assassinated, although I'm not sure if they're going to keep that anymore because of the more latest arcs of Omen book, where, well, man, that's another episode for another day. But anyway, and as we go forward into the Fourth Sphere, the Fourth Sphere is just a failure for the caste system in general.

 

[00:55:46.980] - Calmsword

And the fifth sphere is most definitely the fire Caste. Really the Fifth Sphere is there's no question diplomacy fails largely. The Air Caste kind of plays second fiddle to the Fire Caste initiatives and so on and so forth. But Septs also adhere to a flavor of caste Vior'la, obviously and Tash'var both rely heavily on their warrior culture, as does Sa'cea, while D'yanoi associates strongly with the Air caste. Tol'ku and Bork'an are both Earth caste oriented septs, while Tau itself is the only place where the Ethereals, like, congregate in vast numbers in the White City.

 

[00:56:38.990] - Calmsword

But that said, every sept has its divisions, has populations, regardless of emphasis in the enclaves, those worlds are almost completely one caste or another. And so that's why I don't like to call them Septs. They are something else. If anything, I think that the easiest thing to be would be to come up with a word for the Farsight enclaves, which could be something like Shoh'va Shiru, which would be Farsight Fortresses, or perhaps even Shoh'va or Ord Shoh'va, which would be Worlds of worlds of Farsight.

 

[00:57:25.550] - Calmsword

You could have a word like that. And these four, five major worlds that we know of, I keep saying five because there's also a gue'vesa world, but it doesn't indicate if it was Christ or Garris or if it's a new thing. It's just kind of slapped on there, similar to New Catachan in the Leagues of Votann book. It's just like, oh yeah, and humans are here too, really. The enclaves are their own sept, in my opinion.

 

[00:57:55.050] - Calmsword

But on paper, the individual planets orbiting four different star systems sorry, are individually Septs, so that's the third sphere, the fourth sphere, like I said before, is largely a failure. Although, again, the people that are taking most advantage of the fourth sphere are actually game developers. The Gladiaus game, for example, the fantasy flight card game, to a lesser extent, actually, the Leagues of voton book even has this out there. And does the Blood Angels Codex, where you just have it's kind of a carte blanche, taking advantage of the idea that the Tau fleet was scattered while in the warp and came out at different times and different places all over the galaxy. So, yeah, you could absolutely have a Tau Colonial fleet.

 

[00:59:02.970] - Calmsword

And remember, every single vessel, with the exception of the smaller escorts, are self sufficient, so you could be blown off course and arrive to a place. I mean, the Tau of Gladiaus, for example, believe that there's a possibility that they are the last Tau in the galaxy, potentially, which opens up really interesting narrative possibilities. So, yeah, I guess everything that the fourth sphere does, you could say, is a sept, no problem. Either way, the fifth sphere catches up with them sometime later. And I will say that they do clear that up in the Chalnath books, as well as the Arks of Omen and even the New Shadowsun book, which I don't recommend, but review forthcoming.

 

[00:59:59.070] - Calmsword

There are indications that there's going to be a little bit more room rather than just a big fleet entered the warp and then exited the warp because of the intervention of a certain greater good goddess, something of which I just for the record, am diametrically opposed to. But here we are. The fifth sphere, of all the spheres, is the most like, kind of in a weird way, a blend of the third and first in that it's so far away. And if you consult your 40K galaxy maps, just so you know, it is between the Ultima segmentum's, I guess, former capital, which is a place called a night world called Karduniash, and kind of in between there and the Red Scar Nebula, or Ball, where the Blood Angels are. That is the location of the Nem'yar Atoll.

 

[01:01:03.750] - Calmsword

And the Nem'yar Atoll, it seems like it's in a densely packed area. There's lots of stars. There's already several Septs that are there, and they are forming the Hubs as they push outward. But very much like the third sphere, it is becoming less, and this is probably by narrative design, but diplomacy is not working. The gene stealer cults that are kind of active in the region have duped the Tau several times.

 

[01:01:37.500] - Calmsword

And as I've stated before, the best counter to Tau are sisters of battle because they actually convert Gue'vesa back into loyal imperial citizens, even if they're going to be hung as traitors later. But you have like a three way war of ideology in the fifth sphere. And so you could absolutely take the opportunity to make a Sept out there. However, I kind of caution against it just because that is the bleeding edge of the timeline and I find it odd that a Sept be formed in a year.

 

[01:02:19.370] - Calmsword

Obviously if we had kept the old timeline where it was like 112, 14 years in the future that that was the original timeline, what they were going to keep, I would be much more open to all sorts of things, not just Tau stuff, but also Primaris stuff. It would make more sense that a century of the most insane galactic spanning conflict creates all sorts of new opportunities. But since the Retcon and since now we're only about twelve years in the future, I do find sept creation a little bit like just feels a little bit cheap now. Same thing kind of goes for new Space Marine chapters. I don't like the idea that the Primaris are woken up and then like a couple of minutes later they have their own chapter.

 

[01:03:09.990] - Calmsword

I mean, maybe that's an unpopular opinion, but one of the reasons why I like 40K is it's always steeped in this really rich and nuanced history and if we don't get that, then I feel like it's cheap. It's one of the reasons why I don't have an opinion on the leagues of Votann. If they're adopting all of the Demiurg lore, great, but if they're not, you got to give me something because right now just a bunch of stunties showing up on the border means less than nothing in terms of lore. They need their own book and it's probably just because they're going to hopefully, hopefully we're all going to get big slabs of lore in 10th edition. That's really my hope and I'm excited for it because the rule system also looks really cool.

 

[01:03:57.450] - Calmsword

But that's a general overview of Septs spheres. And my recommendation again, and I've talked about this before, is instead of thinking so hard about a sept because a Sept shouldn't be it shouldn't be just a garrison, right? It shouldn't just be one Commander's Sept. The kinds of people that are like that are Puretide. Puretide is the reason why places like Tash'var exist.

 

[01:04:30.710] - Calmsword

I don't even really think the Commander Shadowsun is attributed with any other Sept other than really Mu'gulath Bay. I think Shas'o Kais with Fi'rios, it's a big deal. A Sept should be a really big deal. So as an alternative, I always offer somebody, when they're saying, hey, can you look at my sept lore? I always just say maybe this is an opportunity to revisit your Commander.

 

[01:04:58.070] - Calmsword

Because I believe that Games Workshop should have put that in the creative soup.

 

[01:05:06.930] - Calmsword

I think that people should have taken time to build the character and personality of the leadership of their cadre in the same way that people do it for chapter masters. Because the ideology of a Shas'o, which we know there are at least seven mentioned meta strategies, but let's just say Kau'yon and Mont'ka. They have philosophical debates as to what is better. But even more interesting, you can even have commanders like Brightsword back before he was assassinated, where his ideology matches Commander Farsight's, which is or was used to be be hyper aggressive. The imperium is a giant is a giant behemoth that we have to start shiving as we try to survive out here.

 

[01:06:08.010] - Calmsword

We have to keep stabbing it until it hopefully bleeds to death. And that's what Brightsword was going to do. He was going to ignite a war before from one perspective, before the Tau are ready and another in a way that would have exacerbated the problem. And the imperium could have come in with another crusade and hit and that's why his assassination was orchestrated.

 

[01:06:35.470] - Calmsword

I would take a moment and really think about your commander. What are their thoughts on conflict and war, where's their philosophy and ideology stand. Shadowsun is starting to get acolytes in the same way that Farsight has always had acolytes.

 

[01:06:57.750] - Calmsword

The Ethereals, for example, are someone like Aun'shi is getting more warlike. Aun'va made the misstep of being more warlike and it got him murderated or whatever it is that Cullexus assassins do to you once they get you in their midst. So I would recommend, obviously if you're going to jump into the deep end of creating a sept, start with the spheres. And that'll inform a lot. I think the hardest to justify is the fifth and first spheres in terms of a brand new sept, and then that's the hardest.

 

[01:07:42.360] - Calmsword

And then the easiest is the third sphere and then of course, the fourth sphere. And then the easiest is the second sphere. Just because Tash'var is still a frontier sept and is still pushing outward and dealing with stuff, space is big. It's always good to remind yourself and there's a lot of opportunities for those border second sphere Septs to be dealing with stuff. Bork'an is raided by Death watch.

 

[01:08:16.860] - Calmsword

And as much as Tash'var is like bumping up against elements of the realm of Ultramar so there's opportunity in the second sphere. Yeah. So I think that that might be a good place to stop and I would love to open up to any questions for those who have come here. We're about an hour and so, as usual, this short episode became long. I'll be doing a couple more of these to cover things like individual units.

 

[01:08:54.070] - Calmsword

The next one will be about breachers and then the Riptides after that.