- "Prosperity come to all those who work hard. The Tau who works during the cold night whilst his apathetic kin sleeps in the warm may be unhappier - but his rewards are twice as sweet!"
- — Aun'O D'serra, the Sept's idolised Lead Ethereal
The Kar'das Sept is a Tau Sept settled during the Second Sphere expansion renowned for its ruthless Tau-nationalist culture and impressively disciplined Tau population. The Kar'das state has since the founding days been unambiguously dogmatic and authoritarian, with a particularly oppressive system of rule for its non-Tau inhabitants. However, the world still follows the Greater Good to an admirable standard, and in many ways is a much more hospitable and liberal environment for humans in comparison to sheer brutality that hallmarks a countless number of Imperial worlds.
Climate and Topography[]
Kar'das orbits a powerful and unstable binary star, completing an orbit around its suns once every 4.7 Tau'cyr. It is the only surviving planet in its system, and the furthest away from its gravitational influence, with the other five having crumbled apart by the twisting gravity of its dual suns.
As an ice world, Kar'das experience a seasonal average maximum temperature of -1 degrees centigrade, with the winters often reaching as low as -90 degrees.
Society[]
The Planet is governed jointly by its Ethereal Caste oligarchy and Fire Caste high command, with fiscal and social policies implemented in a manner similar to that of authoritarian socialism. Every class of citizen of the world all live life with the same level of income and duties to their world, with only the Ethereal caste and high-ranking members of the four other castes being granted access to additional privileges. Tau children are brought up in this militarised regime taught to praise the Greater Good above all and to despise the Emperor, Chaos, and all others that tarnish its serene purity.
Subjects of positiveness about other races, and in some cases even other Tau Septs, are almost non-existent in official discourse. An illustrative example is that of the Sept Au'taal: In Kar'das sources the world is not even labelled as a proper world capable of producing a military, with Kar'das authorities seeing their laziness and affiliation with the artistic as being unacceptable. Gai'kal, a sept whose inhabitants rebelled against their authoritarian ethereal rule, are largely portrayed as a backwater sept with limited militaristic capability and a stagnant culture. Another - more mainstream example - is the rebel Farsight Enclaves, with no written history whatsoever existing on this world that recounts their original descendants (Serving under the main Empire itself) playing a crucial role in the Second Sphere Expansion.
Any records of Kroot simply label them as primitive non-Tau incapable of defending themselves from the Empire that were only spared due to their usefulness as mercenaries. Treatment of intellectual property regarding Vespid and other races has been little different.
Conscription[]
Military service is compulsory to all fire caste men and women once they turn the age of 14, entering a rigorous training regime of two years before being sent onto the field. Some participants as young as ten enter training, consequently having a long six years of training, an act of self-sacrifice that very highly regarded. Typical terms of service range for 5 years for females, and 8 for males, however often male fire warriors are not called back from duty for up to fifteen years.
The other castes aren't spared from this conscription. The Ethereal and Water castes enter schooling from the age of five, and are required to participate for thirteen years before graduation. Air caste and Earth caste citizens are drafted in a similar manner, where at the age of ten they become apprentices, be it craftsman or pilot trainees, graduating at the age of 18-20.
Treatment of Xenos[]
The Sept's methods of treatment towards other races is often a topic of controversy throughout the Tau Empire. When encountering other races, the Sept follows its duty and allows them to live under the banner of the Empire, however only on their strictly defined terms of what constitutes acceptable non-Tau. If their terms are accepted - often at gunpoint - the Sept allocates them high-security, minimal cost housing facilities, as well as performing random sterilisation procedures to one out of every two 50-person colonies to hinder their growth. It is apparent that the Sept monitors the colonies with bugs and hidden cameras to weed out rebellious elements.
Refusal can result in a captured population's imprisonment and deportation to the Kar'das penal colony Em'shi, or in outright eradication.
- "....Refusal will result in adequate punishment!"
- —A section of the rehearsed speech given out to captured alien races through water caste officials
Symbology[]
Combat Doctrine[]
Force Size[]
The Kar'das Uash'o. Kar'das cadres (Kau'ui) are traditionally three teams (La'rua).
- 83334 Hunter Cadres, usually heavily armed.
- 5,000,000 Fire warriors
- 60 per cadre, 10 per squad
- 1000 Armored Cadres
- 9 per Cadre, 3 per squad
- 9000 Battlesuits
- 500 Hammerhead cadres
- 18 per cadre, 6 per squad
- 9000 Hammerhead gunships (Occasionally fitted with SMS and/or Ion Cannons when the mission demands it)
- 1 Elite Cadre (Shas'O Mokthan's personal retinue)
- 10,000 Kroot
- 3000 Gue'vesa
- 5000 Vespid
- 360 Barrucudas
- 100 Tiger Sharks
- 400 Mantas (active, a further 100 on standby)
- 500 Orcas (for planet side military transportation)
- 3 Or'es El'eleath-class Battleships, flagship "Aun'or'res (Great celestial power)"
- 20 Lar'shi'vre Cruisers
- 2 Bastion-Class
- 30 Kir'shas'vre Escorts
- 6 Nao'sak'oraes Missile Cruisers
- 9 Kir'la Escorts
- 60 Security Orbitals
Quotes[]
By[]
- "Their brutality, their narrow-minded... romanticized ideals of the Greater Good, and refusal to accept what they cannot fully control can only be likened to that of the Gue'vesa themselves. It's almost frightening. Knowing that this is what the horrors of our war-stricken galaxy are turning us into."
- —Shas'O Ko'vash, deputy commander of a Sept currently under the irrevocable control of Kar'das, Oresh'uan.
About[]
- "Truly epitomises, in the eyes of the bastard Ethereal elite of the Greater Empire, what it truly means to be a Tau"
- —Anonymous Shas'la, Gai'kal Sept, 901.M41
