Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.deals/gaijingoombah - Enter promo code GAIJINGOOMBAH for 83% off and 3 extra months for free! THANK YOU EVERYONE for watching and thank you Panc for joining me! Be sure to check out the Tau video we did on his channel too!

A star walks into a black hole but doesn't seen phased. The black hole then turns to the star and says, "I don't think you understand the gravity of this situation."

I'm loving the 40k arc in the Gaijin Goomba anime

As someone fairly big into 40k, I can indeed confirm Tau is Chinese. Meanwhile, if you want Japanese... That is actually Craftworld Eldar. Who everyone always claims is "just space elves", but are actually pretty good for Japanese analogues. Also as a Canadian, Letterkenny is insanely good and everyone should probably go watch it.

Interestingly enough, the t’au’s government is actually closer to Plato’s Republic which also has a caste system ruled over philosopher Kings (similar to the ethereal caste)

As a T’au fan, this video has honestly left quite stunned. I never thought of them as Chinese because of the Mech Suits and Samurai Aesthetics, however the explaination that T’au sounds like Tao, and how the caste system reflects similarly to Taoism makes me even like the T’au than I used to. Huh, you learn something new everyday.

Tau aren't weebs. The Eldar are. I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL.

Tau:"these 'dark eldar' seem trustworthy let's trust Thier demands and send them hundreds of tau as cultural embassadors." Drukhari raiders: *laughs dickishly in evil knife ear*

I think it would be accurate to say that the T'au are Oriental inspired, based on the fusion of Chinese and Japanese themes and designs along with their political system. There is a lot of China in there for sure, but there is also a ton of Japan added into the mix too. Hell, I'd even argue you get some Vietnamese and Korean in there with how different the interpersonal relationships and social structures are in the different castes.

I absolutely love this and you know what this needs. Another crossover episodes about the Craftworld Eldar because out of every faction in 40k they are the most Japanese. They have Mechs, they have a literal path of the warrior which are basically Samurai and Craftworld Lyanden’s symbol is a literal Torii Gate

Would you be interested in making a Which Ninja covering the Skaven clan Eshin from Warhammer fantasy? They’re a clan of monstrous rat-men who seem to be heavily inspired by ninjas of history; working as scouts, information gatherers, sabetours and assassins in service of their ruling council. I think it could be interesting to see how close (or horribly off) the sneaky rats come to being realistic ninjas

Speaking of Chinese upheaval. I have read from some historians that there was a period of about 400 years where a new rebellion cropped up about once every 9 minutes. Which given the size of chinas territory and population I believe it.

Literally everyone in the 40k fandom: "I'll just ignore that. . .", FR tho this is gonna be great.

I always loved the idea of a Space Marine chapter based on the Samurai; the veneration of the emperor carries well to the worship of The Emperor of Mankind.

I'm not gonna lie, at a surface level, the T'au feel like a mash up of the Covenant and the UNSC of the Halo franchise. Also, the T'au Sept symbol looks almost exactly like the Reclaimer Symbol. I'm not sure if the Forerunner symbols have similar influence to Sept symbols, but that specific one is an interesting similarity.

I knew it, I’ve been saying it ever since I learned about the Tau but nobody believed me

So many times my mind went to the thought of "and this is why China was one of the couple of superpowers in the Old Earth That Was in Firefly/Serenity, and why everyone speaks Chinese along with English"

The picture of the T’au warrior on top of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang made me giggle

I like to think the T’au are simple Asian styled in general as they tend to feature more than just Chinese. I mean heck Japan also had its fair share of civil wars between the many Clans until Oda Nobunga wanted to unite all the clans under one banner.

Man I didn't expect this collab, love both channels and the Tau of course

Of course they aren’t. Eldar are the weebs.

They've also declared Space Marines to be incompatible with the Greater Good alongside the Tyranids and Dark Eldar, but that's because they view SM as weapons and not people

idk if you're interested, but there are some fan-made models of orks with japanese samurai junk armor. also, i'd like a deeper dive into this topic like you did with the orks (if that's what you want of course) keep up the good work!

As a Donghua watcher Chinese stories are indeed insane which only makes me sad for the people over their even more their creations are so fun

I didn't know you'd gone THAT far into the Ork side. My inner Big Mek is impressed.

Really enjoying these 40k lore vids. Hope we get more later down the line.

Does this make the Farsight Enclaves Taiwan?

God I would love to see your take on the Necron. As an expert on the Ancient lords of the universe, I wanna see what you think of their connected lore with the Eldari and the Orks

Tens of millions starved to death, untold others executed and murdered.... "Years of hardship"

You ain't Orky until you've painted all that gray shame Goomba me old mate!! ;)

I had my suspicions that the Tau Empire was more Chinese-influenced culturally than Japanese, but thanks for putting this together to further solidify that point. I also want to add something as well - but keep in mind that these are from third-hand, fan-based information, so I cannot say their validity. Regarding the unpleasant aspects of the Tau Empire, as far as I know, some of these were more recent additions. Back when they were first released, their whole shtick was 'standard human-like sci-fi aliens in the 40K universe'. While the likes of planetary sterilisation were things they did, as seen on Dawn of War: Soulstorm (2008), these was modest actions compared to every other faction in the game. However, many veteran 40K players despised them for their over-idealistic depictions (and other things), thus leading to retcons such as the Ethereals' literal brainwashing powers to better fit the grimdark setting. Whether that worked is a discussion best left alone. I was also thinking to compare the Farsight Enclaves to that Titan-sized diplomatic headache that is Taiwan, but I think that parallels are very few considering differing circumstances. That, and just mentioning that island makes me feel like I have just been added to China's Great Book of Grudges.

OOO MY DUDE, The pancreas is a cool man dude

While modern T'au lore is based more on China these days, they were originally designed for the Japanese market, specifically mimicking Mecha anime in more recent times, but started with the Japanese caste system and in some ways Samurai.

Two videos released about the tau at the same time? Nice, my day has greatly improved

Tau are reflective of traditional Asian society in general- including India! Caste system, paternalistic relations, a sort of karmic system, and strict confucian hierarchy

hatred of Tau increased by +50 deploying to relevant War hammer forums...

This is an interesting attempt at interpretation, but I firmly disagree with nearly every point, as it seems to either lack certain context of Japanese history, or outright ignore it. (TLDR: There are far more direct corollaries to Japanese culture and history with the T'au than any of the largely tenuous associations made in the video.) In the first part about T'au origins, you specifically refer to the pre-etherial era as that of "warring states", yet don't draw the direct corollary to the "Sengoku Jidai" (literally translated as "warring states period") which predated the rise of the monolithic Tokugawa shogunate? Yes, China is known for its cycles of unification and division. The epic narrative of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" literally opens with the line that "The empire long united must divide. The empire long divided must unite." But it's just that in Chinese history: cyclical. There is little to no indication of that cyclic nature in T'au lore. There was a time of great upheaval followed by a time of intensely authoritarian unification. This links so much more directly to the Sengoku Jidai being followed by 500 years of shogunate rule. Following on from that, your point about the strict caste system also ties directly to that same shogunate rule. Japanese culture and legalisms during the Tokugawa period were unbendingly strict. Carrying forward, there were four distinct castes. Warriors, artisans, merchants, and farmers. While not a direct 1:1 to the T'au castes, it's a lot closer than anything you'll see in Chinese history. Going further, there was a recognized fifth caste, which was the divine imperial bloodline, which was the "official" highest caste (the de facto highest was the warrior caste). This brings us to your tenuous link of the T'au castes to Chinese basic elements. This isn't a terrible link, but a much more adept one would be Miyamoto Musashi's "Go Rin no Sho" or "Book of Five Rings". This was a series of books on martial style based on a type of mysticism and something akin to the "four humors". The books were Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void. Each of these books is depicted as equal in virtue and importance, save one. "Void" (anglicized as "empty space", which has a tangential link to the enlightenment concept of the space outside of the earth, which they called the "aether") was the book about the right ordering of things in the mind in order to best control the body. Which is exactly what the Etherial caste does in T'au culture. Also, "Tao" is pronounced with a "d" sound at the start. Easy mistake to make. Your next point on the Hukou is salient, but I can again point to the Tokugawa era's extremely strict population control measures. Official checkpoints dotted every major and a lot of minor roads, enforcing the control of travel from one region or holding to another. Only those with proper permission (typically merchant or warrior castes) were allowed to leave their homelands AT ALL. Most people born to a small farming village lived in that village forever, under legal threat of violence if they refused to do so. Your point about T'au advancement brings me to the Meiji era of Japan, wherein the Japanese became the ONLY FAR-EASTERN EMPIRE TO FIND ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL PARITY WITH ANY EUROPEAN POWER. Unlike their contemporaries, Japan advanced from a literal agrarian feudal culture to an industrialized nation faster than anyone anywhere thought possible. Dan Carlin's podcast "Supernova in the East" goes into much greater detail on this, and it's fascinating. Meanwhile, your comparison to modern day China, while apt, is out of its place in time. The rise of Chinese economic power takes place literal decades after the same was described for the T'au. It literally could not have been a causal link, as it hadn't happened yet. It's merely vague coincidence. You then move on to comparing T'au diplomacy to that of China's "Belt and Road". This comparison, again, can only hold so much water, as "Belt and Road" was initiated in 2013, again literal decades after the same was described for the T'au. The closest historical analogue to the T'au method of diplomacy that I can think of would probably be the soft power exerted by the powerhouse economy of the Persian empire at its height. There is, however, a valid comparison to Japanese diplomacy during the height of their military conquests. During WWII, the Empire of Japan's foreign relation and diplomacy referred to their outer holdings (not the home islands) as the "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere". Those within this sphere were officially recognized as Japanese citizens, simply of a lower class than those who were "actually Japanese". This very closely mirrors the way that the T'au treat and consider their auxiliaries: officially under their protection, but lesser in class and status than any of the casted T'au. There's also a strong correlation of nomenclature between the co-prosperity sphere and the T'au's various "expansion spheres". The following points about the overbearing authoritarianism of modern China are far more indicative of authoritarianism than they are specifically Chinese. Everything you describe can be linked to any other oppressive authoritarian regime. Hell, many of them apply to every government ever exercised in human history. Your examples of reeducation camps, political assassination or "reassignment", and destruction of minority cultures to occupy their ancestral holdings can all be seen in the consolidation of power of the USSR, the westward expansion of the United States, and the entire history of 16th century colonial expansionism. Your final point is your strongest one, but not for the reasons you illustrated. How did you not mention Taiwan at all? You literally talked about Chiang Kai-Shek in the earlier part of the video, and yet you don't make the very strong correlation between him and Farsight, or between the Enclaves and the Kuomintang and later Taiwan? This is one of the few points where you have a REALLY STRONG argument in favor of your thesis, and yet you instead point to a generic and vague "sense of rebellion" among the younger people of China. A sense of rebellion which is, once again, common in every single authoritarian culture in history. I'm really disappointed in your argumentation here. As someone who literally refers to yourself by a Japanese term, I would have expected you to understand a great deal more about Japanese historical contexts than this. And if you do understand those contexts, but simply chose to ignore them, then I'm disappointed that you'd argue in such bad faith in favor of such a spurious thesis.

Loved the vid Gaijin but if I may intrude a bit, I disagree on the Tau Cast Systems being based on the 5 Chinese Elements, not just because the names don't match but because of the nature of the relations. It seems to me that it was actually based on Greek Philosphy, which stated that the universe was comprised of 4 Elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water) alongside the 5th element: Aether, that filled the Universe in the absence of the other three. Aristotle called it the quintessence, classifying it as a "pure" element that made up the stars and cosmos, in contrast to the "earhly" elements, which were imperfect and corruptible.

"Nobody invented the Internet" Laughs in AdMech

These guys thinking you would be a Tau fan forget you are a Goombah and would pick your spore siblings da Orks. They might be some fun guys, but they are also some tough truffles.

The Farsight Enclaves are a clear reference to Taiwan.

I realized something. If the Imperium is 1984 (everything awful with extra awful on the top with a side of awful, hold the nice), the T'au is Brave New World (an overtly utopian state, but with something intrinsically wrong beneath the surface).

Would love to see you go over the inspiration for the Druhkari and the various legions of the Astarties.

It's worth noting that the T'au were cavemen a mere 6,000 years before the current time of 40k, and that was before the Ethereals ever showed up, so their ridiculously fast development is most likely quite unnatural. In the book Xenology, which is still canon, it's hinted that T'au might be a result of genetic engineering by way of the Eldar creating the Ethereals from the normal T'au, using a Q'orl queen to do so, a species renowned for their horrifically fast development, unmatched coordination, insurmountable dedication to their people, and rapid lifespans. The Q'orl queens also utilize a crustalline organ to communicate with their workers and warriors using pheromones, a feature the Ethereals also share, with their crustal organ being visible on their heads, an arrangement that indicates a sensory role, possibly a sort of olfaction, the prime sense used to detect pheromonal signals (Though T'au primarily rely upon their mouth to smell, their forehead slit is a homologous structure to the Ethereals' crystal organ, and is likely related to its function). These are all traits that the T'au have embodied in their modern history, post-Ethereals, and while the T'au are herd based ungulate equivalents, essentially goat people, and the Q'orl are eusocial insect equivalents, the Eldar are reptiles that a bunch of primordial reptile/amphibian beings altered to resemble apes, so the genetic technology in 40k is ridiculously advanced enough that these entirely unrelated alien lifeforms could be genetically melded. T'au development was so rapid that it didn't even involve hundred of thousands of years where one T'au species outcompeted the others into extinction, like how H. Sapiens outcompeted the other species of Humans on Earth, which is a pretty natural result in many cases on Earth besides us, which further hints that the T'au have taken a very unnatural turn in their development, skipping the growing pains of most of the other lifeforms in the Milky Way.

The T'au are Chinese? Does Liberty Prime know about this?

I don't think it's necessary to fit Tau in one single cultural influence box. They're a fictional race of aliens, created by a British company to sell plastic models. They were developed as a faction over many years, with many different people contributing to them and having a hand in saying what they're about. As such, they take cultural inspiration from many different places. First brought to market in the 90s, during the height of the initial fascination of the West with Japanese culture, it's obvious the Tau were created partly to appeal to Giant Robot fans. (Insert side-by-side image of a Tau Crisis Suit and a Gunpla figure here). But as this video demonstrates, there's plenty of Chinese influence worked into it, intentional or not. Heck, one of the faction's original creators said the Tau were as much a metaphor for _NATO_ as anything else. The Tau are more of a vehicle for exploring aggressive, expansionist, imperialist states - and how they combine technology, hard power, and soft power - than a one-to-one analogue for any single nation.

Please tell me who came up with the Chitty Chitty Tank Tank image. I want to shake their hand.

It's because of you I have surfshark, and I love surfshark. Also, I would like to formally request a video on Harlequin 40k lore.

Farsight Enclaves Hell yeah!

The Tau also kind of remind me of the Duros from Star Wars...at least, blue skin-color, facial structure, and red eyes.

That vpn ad was smoooottth. The Imperial Guard Approve.

The orks being British is the most British thing ever seen.

No wonder why kitten hates them so much

Shouldn't water caste also hold most lower to mid ranks in the civilian tau government? They can't all just do diplomacy because the 40k is quite hostile, someone has to run the bureaucracy

You forgot to mention Farsight's greatest connection to China: That the Farsight Enclave is essentially Taiwan, a breakaway nation of people who fought the communists running to a small Island free from commie influence. What was established in the Enclave is probably the most Lawful Good faction in all of the 40k setting with the grimdark realisation that they're much, much smaller than even the T'au, who are already a small faction to begin with.

My take away the Tau empire sounds a lot like Halo’s Covenant.

Plot twist: tau are Chinese, Eldar and Dark Eldar are weebs. Latter's Incubi are literally samurai.

This finally helped me figure out why I so dislike the direction GW have taken the Tau. Every other faction save perhaps the craftworlds are irredeemably cartoonishly evil. And then there is the Tau, the realistic evil. It makes them feel so much worse that the others, despite the fact that they are much much better. Sure, what the imperium does is nightmarish, but I don't have a frame of reference for that. Surveillance, propaganda, re-education, or eugenics; that I can imagine. I wish that the writers would stick to unrealiticism, either unrealistically good or unrealistically evil.

A lot of people do tend to confuse Japanese and Chinese especially. Korean also gets confused with both of them, too, but I don't think quite as much. I know that personally, I'm able to get the difference between all of the languages and know at least some Mandarin Chinese and Japanese, but I don't know any Korean still. In their writing systems, though, I can find no differences between Japanese and Chinese, but I know that Korean writing tends to use actual squares and ovals, which are nowhere in Chinese and Japanese writing. But given that of course Japan's writing system did originally come from China, is there any actual difference between their writing systems in design?

Awesome seeing more 40k stuff. While I doubt there's anything beyond the very obvious, I'd like to see what you make of the Imperial Knights. Perhaps there's some interesting cultural inspirations for specific houses or Freeblades.

This video was a banger for some interesting history, and tickling my sci fi writer brain

This was a great video and it briefly touched on some modern subjects that need to be discussed. I learned a few things today. I made a homebrew order of battle sisters based off the Trung sisters of Vietnam history. They hate the T'ao. The Chinese connections you pointed out in the video make my decision even more apt.

So the farsight enclave is Taiwan.

So Little G, what you're saying is "It's time to get orky"? Taka has great friends.

This is gonna be an interesting analysis

Playing as an imperial agent sent to kill tau water caste on fringe imperial worlds sounds like a fun time.

Definitely would love to see you cover the Necrons if you have the time. Nothing like looking at evil robo space Egyptians!

that was way more interesting than i first thought. gj!^^

9:30 if there will be a wood and metal casts i think they're roles will be medics/surgeons and police force respectively

The Enclaves also have an interesting parallel with the mandate of heaven, the age-old political system of Ming and other chinese dynasties. According to this the emperor was mandated for absolute power, not unlike but far more complex than euro-christian feudalism. Whenever losses, natural catastrophes or invasions plagued the land, many would become convinced that the mandate was lost. Whole provinces could rise up because of that and many times a dynasty would be obliterated. At this point in time there most often already was weakness in bureaucracy, obliviousness in leadership and corruption in place. The rest was just the turning point it needed to spark the all-destroying wildfire. When the ethereal caste lied to Farsight he got convinced that there was rot in the system. Ethereals could do what they want, could witheld critical information for their own good or for manipulating the rest. But the ethereals had a role, they had a mandate to rule and govern. It wasn't a privilege like the born-in lordship of many european realms, but a holy role for the Greater Good. Let me put it like this: In the understanding of tau philosophy the ethereals don't own the Greater Good. They're merely it's greatest servant, mandated with rulership. Under Farsight's own eyes he could see how the mandate of heaven got lost. The ethereals weren't worthy anymore because of all they did and not did. That they also died is quite the nice symbol for the whole thing. And so the fire started. First with the fire caste that could see no evil in Farsight and thereby nearly got the same conclusion like Farsight. Something isn't right here - and with each day the wildfire grew and the mandate crumbled more. So yeah the whole founding of the Enclave had a lot of mandate of heaven-vibes for me. The Greater Good seemed like a mixture of this old system with the new chinese-communist one.

My Top 5 Fav Races in 40k 1. Craftworld Eldar/Exodites/Harlequins 2. Tau( Farsight Enclaves ) 3. Necrons 4. Orks 5. Tyranids

Eeeeeyyy. I love the collab. Recommend you listen to Baldermort if you have a chance. Dude is.... a heartbreakingly beautiful narrator. His best is discussing chapter foundings. But there are just so many stories. So many treasures.

I admit, T'au got me into the 40k universe. They'll always have a special place in my heart.

Two of my fav channels doing a Collab? Yes!

‘A bias for mechs and optimism’ sums up the Tau perfectly.

Love seeing Dave from tabletop times sakura stealth suit at the end, great vid

8:46 I was NOT expecting a chitty chitty bang bang reference in… well, anything ever. Thanks for letting me know that other people saw that movie

I'd say it's a bit of a stretch to compare the Tau expansion to the Chinese economy. That comparison ignores how China was the center of the world for nearly 1000 years.

I might not be a WH40k Officinato but Humans were pretty damn scary before She Who Thrusts (i.e. the youngest of the Reality Cancers) was born. Basically, they had some _serious_ tech but the problem was that She Who Thursts was born and caused the intricate logistic systems that fed to this techbase to collapse. Even the old Eldar Empire wasn't keen on trying to fight humanity at this time (sure, if it came to blows, it would be basically War in Heaven 2 in terms of destruction, but that says a lot of just how powerful mankind was). A ship from this time period basically pulled a time-manipulation device out of thin air just because it was pissed that an Eldar warship managed to avoid getting hit by the ship's _black hole gun_ and then rewound time so that Eldar warship gets hit anyway. The Imperium is basically working with what humanity considered _farming equipment_ and _scout/light tanks_ back during this period. In addition, humanity lost the ability to reliably communicate between systems after She Who Thursts was born, as the STC (Standard Template Construct) hasn't been rediscovered yet.

I would love to see more warhammer vids Like the Egyptian connections of necrons and thousand sons

Let's be honest here GG, they're not Chinese or Japanese. They're the villagers from Hot Fuzz. ;) For the greater good! (.....the greater good.....)

I love the fact Pancreases is a doge with an Eldar helmet

Good to the the pancreas broke man here for one of these.

Love the green tide! Any chance for a future video to see progress of the painting?

I think farsight compares nicely to taiwan, Kaichek fought the Japanes out of China and then had to exile himself with the rest of the ROC on Taiwan when Mao won the civil war

17:43 -- The Ethereals rarely get their hands dirty but they do. First obviously is Aun'shi, a warrior ethereal. Second, the ethereals will sentence their subjects to capital punishment. In a Farsight book there is a female water caste who fails the ethereals somehow and is summoned to a private meeting. The ethereal commands her to draw her honour blade and kill herself with it, which she complies.

This is a really good comparison that I hadn't considered. I always thought it was weird that the Tau were thought of as "weeby" (giant mechs aside), since none of their culture really lined up with Japan. Fantastic video, I'm loving the 40K content done through the scope of a cultural analyst! Those greenskins looking kinda gray though :P

I freakin' lost it at Shooty Shooty Bang Bang, if only cause I ended up watching that movie SO MUCH as a kid. Hoooooly crap.

Don’t forget they gave a blood feud with the white scars who are inspired by the mongols.

few missed details on the castes you can move up, just not sideways, a fircaste footsoldier can become a commander if hes good enough, he can just never start a hobby of pottery the aircaste is also the messengers of the society yea its mostly replaced by drones and radios these days but its still the traditional role they held long ago when they could fly without planes in their cavemen days so they still hold that title history correction it was not a 4 way war the war was mostly between the earthcaste fortifications and the firecaste nomads trying to steal the cool stuff they built the watercaste was happy trading the earthcaste food for firecaste weapons to the opposing side while the aircaste was hired by all 3 to deliver news you dont shoot the messenger, especially a neutral one, or else only your enemy knows whats going on

"It's seems i'll never get away from Japan" Well, the world is round, so trying to father away just get you closer in a different direction.

That image of the Sisters in Tau armor is really neat. Is there some wacky lore for it?

This is very interesting to know.... thank you for the knowledge

A video about the Admech would be cool, they are a kinda insane combo of multiple ideas and beliefs and are one of the most "40K," factions in the series.

I’m a Fan of the Farsight Enclave Sept.

love to hear you two talk about such an interesting clan

Seeing you get deeper into 40k lore makes me wonder if there's any culture to be gleamed from the forces of chaos.

The T'au are Protoss with mouths, change my mind. Blizzard developed the Protoss _before_ the T'au were created. Like the T'au Protoss have castes. Different movements and ideas let to the founding of different Protoss Tribes and so on.

The Tau have long since reminded me of Dauism..... In space!

The Tau not having beam sabers or heat hawks are a tragedy.