Adeptus Ridiculous - FARSIGHT | Warhammer 40k Lore

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousShas'O Vior'la Shovah Kais Mont'yr, aka O'Shovah or Commander Farsight, is alleged to still be leading the Farsight Enclaves, although this would mean that he has lived for at least three centuries, considerably beyond the ordinary lifespan of T'au Fire Caste members. It may be that another has taken up his mantle, or that the real Commander is extending his lifespan through some technological process. One thing that is certain is that the breakaway Farsight Enclave maintains a strongly martial tradition closely based on the Vior'la Sept (lit: "hot-blooded"), O'Shovah's birthplace.Support the show

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Adeptus Ridiculous Podcast. My name is D.K. Diamante's. His name is Bricky. And oh, hey, look, it's Karioth. But before we get into that, if you want to support the podcast monetarily, because you enjoy us so much, feel free to head and over to Patreon. Patreon. Patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous, where you get access to the Discord, bloopers if they happen. $15 tier gets you access to all of our posters in crispy, wonderful, gorgeous, HD, whatever digital form it is. it's great, it's lovely, patreon.com slash adeptus ridiculous. And now Bricky will talk to you about things.

I will. As a reminder, there is a massive, massive sale going on currently in the Orchidate store. It is linked down below in the description. There is probably a QR code on screen as well. Make sure to check it out is up to 20% off if you buy up to three items as well. well, there is also someone who says they bought like six items and a ton of posters. I see the image. That looks fantastic.

Thank you so much. Good show. Sale is going great. You have until the end of September. And remember, if you buy over 100 bucks with a stuff, you get a free Natura pine pouch. Use code Bricky or AdRick, most likely AdRick on that one. I slipped too deep into my original.

Okay. Use code adRick on that. If you ever want to. get stuff for the chirup high. But it's, you know, first hits free. First hits free. Try out some flavor. Toothpicks are damn good.

And, uh, and, yeah. I've been really into the watermelon flavor lately, actually. You know, I'm, I'm not some of a fruity guy personally. So I've always, I'm always really big on the mint and the cinnamon. Uh, though I think peach and watermelon are some of the most popular, crazy enough. Oh, love the peach too. Is there a meat flavor? Is there a meat flavor?

Not yet. Okay. Barbecue short rib flavor toothpicks, please. Barbecue short rim Yeah, it gets you some of that Carolina hog, brother Oh, dude, I tried to get a Carolina hog before And it gave me the clap Oh, so Kiroath, how are you doing today, brother?

How's it, uh, how's that, how's that going? Significantly worse now, but up until that point, absolutely great. Significantly Okay, I've got a quote for you here. and I need you to get the quote so that I can share with you the title of this of this document

prepared lovingly by Possum so you're going to have to get the quote in one okay I've seen things you wouldn't believe Blade Runner I'll try it again okay we're doing the thing

we're doing the COVID podcast thing where everyone stops talking to each other Okay. I've seen things you wouldn't believe. Entire worlds in flames. Chains of supernovas on the edge of nothingness. The great hole in space. I am changed and outcast now. Hmm. Um, I mean, uh, is it, is it about the person speaking or is it about the thing they're talking about?

It's about the person speaking. Well, what are you giggling about? I don't know. It's just a Blade Runner quote. Like, it's just the Blade Runner quote. Can I, can I get a, can I get a repeat? Is it actually a, it's not actually a Blade Runner quote, right? It's not.

The beginning is. It's clearly inspired by the Blade Runner. Yeah. Yeah. Because I've, because Games Workshop, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Are you about to say you've never seen Blade Runner? Well, I saw it.

I've tried to watch it a couple times, but my brain is so smooth that. I usually get bored with like the first little bit and don't make it to the like, you know, tears in the rain part that's like very iconic. So in fairness, Blade Runner 1 is a bit slow. It is slow. Yeah. You've got a power through to be fair. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. The episode's not about Blade Runner, but like, it's not. So I've seen things you wouldn't believe. Entire worlds in flame. Chains of supernovas on the edge of nothingness. the great hole in space. I am changed and outcasted now.

As a, is it like a, is it like a chaos guy because he is like in the, it's like the outer rim. It's not a chaos guy. But it, it is a guy who was profoundly affected by chaos, though not taken over by it.

Man, Corvus Corvus? It is not Corvus. I tell you what, it's not him. It's not Imperium. It's not Empirium. It's not chaos. What? That's unfortunate because immediately with like the outcast stuff, I was thinking chaos and I was like, you know, Belichor is kind of an outcast.

He's kind of like on the outer, you know, he's kind of, but, but it's not chaos. Is it, um, the Silent King or like maybe Farcite? Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Of the two. Like that idea. Like the Farcy. I tell you what. I tell you what. Let's just let's just have Shy cut the first part of that answer out. You are absolutely correct.

It is Farsight. She's not going to edit that out. No way. No, no, no. No, it's Farsight. That's a good call, Bricky. Well done. Well done.

Thank you. I think maybe there's a sleeper agent part in me that woke up because I do know what some of these episodes are going forward because we discuss what episodes to do. And I just forget which ones are which. So I think I pulled that one out of the hat of the deep recesses of my mind. So you cheated. Good to know. Well, someone's got to get the quote right.

It's true. Ouch. That's the important bit. Ow. Just because it's true doesn't mean you have to say it, Bricky. Okay. So Farsight, why does he taste like? Is it like corn syrup?

You know what? Parson didn't put that in, which, I mean, if anything, that's a bit of an owing. oversight, if you will. Taste like... I'm going to have... Actually, yeah, that fits. Mm-hmm. Oh, okay.

Before we start, can we acknowledge Possum for a second? This crash out was hilarious in our DMs. I just read the first message. Oh, okay, yes. The desire to do an episode on the towel, especially far-sight, was such a monkey's poor

because I genuinely forgot how exhausting Phil Kelly is as a writer. Wow. in which shy responded in which I responded with Oof, is he just dry or what? And then immediately POSSOM goes into three separate paragraphs

with a screaming cat image. It's, yeah, then it came up, it did come up whilst I was talking to Possum about this as well, that he's perhaps not a fan, is the way to phrase it. I mean, I feel, that's a nice way to put it.

I feel like the Tao, much like early Eldar, one of their unfortunate sins was the fact that the actual, like the quality of writing of some of their novels was not the best, which actually led to them being less interesting than they could have been until some, until they kind of started doing a bit better later on, you know? Mm-hmm. And also, I hate elves. Screw you, pancreas, you're not here. the immediate pivot towards the elf hatred all right so i'm going to have to give you the name of the document here because as scripts go this is one of my favorite titles that possum has ever laid down which is near sight far sight wherever you are sight

poetry that's absolute poetry king of the world Awesome, king of the world. That's a dope cover for a book, though. Like, man, that crisis suit? Is that what does Farisite use? Yeah. Is it, is it a crisis suit or is it like a

cold star or like a commander battle suit? I think it's, I think it's crisis, but it's also been like altered as well because it's not like standard. Oh no, okay, it's an XV8 crisis battle suit. So it's the classic.

It's just fancy because it's Farsight. It just wants to look different for no discernible reason. Imagine if all 40K books were as good as the covers. Wouldn't that be amazing? Anyway, I've done. Do that cover rips. That's a great color. It really does.

All right. So, Commander Farsight, a relatively newish character? How long has he been around? Oh, he's been around a while now. Has he? I always feel like Tau stuff is just new even when it's not. Yeah. This is the thing.

The Tau, for some reason, the Necron's, don't feel as new as the Tao, even though they were introduced roughly around the same time. They were both a third edition, like, addition to the game. So, like, Tao have been around since early 2000s, but for some reason they don't feel like that. I think because they're so shiny compared to everything else, it's like, they must be new, but they've been around. The Necrons were released around the same time as the Tao, really? Yeah. I thought the Tao were well.

way after. I thought there were two actually. And I feel like I should know this. Same edition. I still have the first Tao Codex and it's the same edition as the first Necron one.

Those are two very admittedly. They've changed a lot less. But yeah, that is true. Okay, Fariside's 24 years. Holy hell. Screw everything I said. Never mind.

Good God. Yeah. Jesus. Well, I'll tell you what. Let's start up by giving you his full name. which, I'll be honest, I have stumbled over pronouncing, I've practiced this today because I knew this was going to be a pain. You know I can't talk anyway, but town names are a whole other thing.

So, you've got Chazzo Viola Shova Kaizmontair. Yeah, I know. Yep. Yeah, yeah. Close enough, right? That's roughly what it is. So you might be asking yourself, oh, God's set. Kiriath, you esteemed.

to Grandee, what the hell does all that mean? Which, it would be a fair question. Like all town names, it's organised in the following manner. So you've got the cast with the letter at the end denoting rank, the Sept, which is the home world, the true name, and then the titles. So the name is effectively read out as Firecast, Shaz, Commander O, of Viola, the planet, which translates to hot-blooded, Shover, which is skillful,

Kais and Blooded slash veteran Montaire. Or you can just go Oshava for short. Or you can just call him Commander Farsight, or, as we're going to do for the rest of this, just Farsight, because to hell with all of that. It's just too much.

It's too much. Farsight's way easier. Everybody knows who Farsight is, for sure. Yep, 100%. So, Farsight, he is a centuries-old veteran at this point, and I live legend in the Tao Empire who once stood as the pinnacle of the greater good. But with time comes knowledge, and some of this knowledge caused Farsight to break from the

empire and form his own schism that exists to this day. His unnatural age has resulted in many believing that Farsight is not a Tao, so much as Farsight is a title, but those within his inner circle know that the far sight of today is the same one as the one of legend. So we're going to go over Farsight from his early history within the empire, his break from tradition with the enclave that he established far from the Atherials. And for the safe of simplicity, we're just going to call him Farsight. We are also going to briefly mention the eight. They are very important to Farsight. But this is farcite focused. So the eight aren't going to play a huge role in this episode because frankly Possum would. was, like, they were pulling the hair out just trying to get this down to a length that wasn't eight hours long without the eight. So, we know they're there. I guess we have 24 years of lore to work through.

Yeah, I guess it does make for kind of a long episode, doesn't it? Oh, there's a lot. There's a lot. And from the, like, occasional message during the writing process, quite a lot of it, contradictory, which makes things interesting. So. Classic. Classic Warhammer fiction. It just changes as they go and which bit's right, who knows. So for his early life and early career, Farsight was born on Viola, a world that was found during the Tao's first expansion.

The exact year he was born is not really known, but it can be assumed that he was born close to 700 M41. Viola is fairly well known within the Tao Empire as producing some of the fiercestine. and well-trained warriors the Empire has ever seen. The aggression of those warriors is reflected with their bright red armour, emphasising their hot-headed nature. So it should come as no surprise that their Fire Warrior Training Academies are some of the most highly regarded institutes in the Empire. And from a very young age, Farsight was fully absorbed in his studies

and spent his time doing countless war simulations in the Mottaya Battle Dome and analyzing everything around him to hone his military technique. That is such a solid bit of art. Oh, it's so good. Man, every time like your Fire Warrior now, there's just a slight tinge in my brain

that just won't go away. Not a big fan of the game? It was a game. It was, in fact, a game. It was a game. So Farsight fully memorized the Tao Code of Fire, which is the honour code that guides the fire warriors, in no time, and he even began to decipher and analyse the secret codes and signals used by superiors around him

as a means to fully understand everything that was happening around him. Despite being notably younger than most of the other Tao in the Battle Dome, Farsight was outmaneuvering and outperforming his classmates at every step of the way. and his prowess during this time caught the attention of, at the time, the greatest living Tao warrior commander Peortide who watched his progress with a lot of interest. Oh my God. Black and, I'm not going to read that out.

Yeah, you shouldn't. Someone else can read out that message. Nope. Nope. No, no, no, I'm good. I'm good just moving right along. Yep. Hey, for your information, shy, black and red makes me come in my jorts. well there we go what a wonderful morning we're all off to black and red is like the coolest color combination ever

what do you mean it's like it's shy hell divers automaton's come on come on he has a point shy it's it's not just a warframe thing it's not just the stalker thing it's everybody loves black and red they go really well together really makes the red pop armored core cool mech looks at you single red light Mm-hmm. Yeah.

I mean, you're right. Mm-hmm. Black and red is the, is the, well, apart from, apart from that, apart from Shadow the Hedgehog, black and red is excellent. What do you mean apart from the Hedgehog? What do you mean apart? What do you mean a part? What?

Repeat your statement immediately. Okay. So, Commander Farsight, huh? Continue on. I'm going to back away from that as quickly as possible. I've never, I've never seen a crowd turn so quickly. After graduation. So, after graduation, Farsight gets inducted as a firecast warrior or Shazler, if you're using the town name,

and was immediately deployed to the Western Vale, where hereina the other graduates faced a threat posed by the Arishan. The Arishen are a bug-like species with blade-like legs, but sounds nightmarish, that fight with deadly martial arts, which sounds kind of dumb, but that's just me. No, no. In a sense, it's just knife fighting. They've got to spike your sharp legs. You got blade legs. You got to use martial arts, right?

They're just inhabitants of London. I'm allowed to say that. It's my country. Oh, look at that. Straight off. I was exactly the same joke. Oh, dear. During this conflict with Hornet from Silk Song,

Farsight was very vocal. and it was a prime motivator for the firecast troops, and that combined with his martial prowess rallied the other tower into an overwhelming victory. Most of his former teachers watched how Farsight performed and felt that he had incredible potential, while others just could not stand him. They thought he was arrogant, filled with bloodlust,

and felt that something had to be done about him. So a mutual decision was made. Every time a deployment was to be done on the Western Vale, far sight would be at the front line every single time. If he really was a true hero in the making, he would easily handle these horrific challenges. And if he failed, then he would be skonged and nobody would miss him.

That's such an imperial way to do that. That's a very imperial way. All right, well, we'll see if the only difference is that instead they would be like, we'll see if the emperor really loves you. Yeah. You know, that's a very like space marine. chaplain type of thing right there. Speaking of Space Marine Chaplain, look at that dude, he's going in.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that sounds like one of those things where it's like, oh, yeah, if the emperor loves you, you'll survive. But if you die, well, that's okay, because that'll be the repentance for all of your sins. And then you can go be with the emperor in the afterlife. And it's like, oh, great. My options are so, so massive, great. Hell yeah. I want to know who that chaplain is. There's no answer to it, but I want to know, because that is the definition of leading from the front. Look at that, amazing. Okay, so for four years, Farsight's constant deployments gave the empire win after win, after win,

not only because of his own actions, but also because his tactics and battle plans were the ones used by all the other troops deployed. But that ended up having a negative effect. Some of his instructors that were on the fence began to get really bothered by his arrogance. At this point, though, he got lucky because it was promotion time. Four years being on the line means you get a chance to get a neat new title, and there's only one way for a TAL Firecast member to rank up, which is the Trial by Fire. The Trial by Fire is, most of the time, a standardised, advanced combat simulation exam with a non-discussed win scenario to test the will and might of those who take it.

This test can be adjusted by those who administer it, and it's different from cast to cast, rank to rank and from test taker to test taker. Because the people who were administering this test were the same ones that really didn't like Farsight, they decided to give him a bad time. And by a bad time, I mean a live fire bullet hell exercise that was essentially the Tao version of the Kobayashi Maru. And during this exercise, he faced an incredible amount of unexplainable monstrosities and was just having a bad time of it all round. Farsight saw a downed teammate and went to save him amidst the combat,

and this resulted in Farsight being killed during the test. That's it, but not really, right? Because, you know. No, no, no, they, they Starship trooper at him. You guys, you got shot during the live fire test. Well, it do be like that sometimes. Wow, they really... See you next week, everyone.

I didn't realize they hate this dude so much. They really didn't like him. They were not big fans. And there we go. That's it. And no, so it was a combat simulation, obviously. Farsight woke up after he died in the simulation and was informed that his selfless act was actually the way to win the exercise.

So the Shaslow died in the game would be promoted to Shazwe, which is a veteran. and Farsight got his title. But he also got something far cooler, which was the ability to pilot a battlesuit. He was assigned to a broadside battle suit, and he was sent back to battle against the Arishan, where he first met Shazri,

Obletai, and also Commander Dornstone. At this point, that conflict was reaching a fever pitch, and the Tao were trying to make their final advancement against the Arrishan, and to help this push Farsight, who passed yet another trial by fire, and was now not only a Shazri but was also piloting a crisis battle suit, put his training and experience with Oblissai to the test. And despite the horrific conflict that resulted in the loss of one of Farsight's legs, they were victorious.

And Farsight was given the rank of Saz Nami, close protection officer slash bodyguard of Dornstone. After the strategic assassinated, of the trinity of arishan leaders, the grasp that the insects had on the Western veil was lifted, and the Tao could claim victory. You just...

Curiot, these aren't... Kiriard, these aren't words. These aren't words. After the battle of Shasari, fighting off the... with Oblatai and... These aren't words. I'll be honest. The names are giving me grief.

I'm just. doing my best here, but it's, it's not easy. Okay, Shai says Bricky's being casually racist. Shai, I am a 40K player. I'm competitively racist. Oh, boy. That is, I have, you know. Also, I didn't realize that he lost a leg.

Because I, like, because every time, I feel like every time Farsight is talked about or you see imagery of Farsight, you don't actually see him. It's always that crisis suit, which, fair. Fair enough, the crisis suits are amazing, especially blazing red ones with really cool swords and, like, cherry blossom trees behind them and stuff. But, like, I don't know that I've ever seen a picture of, like, just Farsight, Farsight, out of his suit. You don't need legs to combat a, a battle suit, it turns out. Just don't need them. I mean, fine.

Really? There's no pedals. It's just a joystick? I don't know. I have no idea how they work. Isn't one of the eight, like a vegetable, if I recall correctly? I thought one of the eight was literally... I've only just recovered from trying to take a drink when you made the competitively racist remark.

You can't drop that straight afterwards. Jesus. I don't know, man. There's that really hilarious clip of that one dude who is like a quadriplegic. And he's going around Costco with his mom and he's like, are you stealing mom? Are you stealing? She drugs me to keep me a vegetable. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Oh, no. It's great. It's a great clip. But jumping on that, I thought that one of the eight was like actually like kind of sort of A-I-ish because their pilot... Oh, you're jumping ahead. Oh, well, sorry. Back off, bro.

Sorry, sorry. See, you don't need this episode. You already know. You already know all of this. I just vaguely remember some of the stuff about the eight. That's all. Because I used to think, well, I mean, I still think the eight are just the coolest thing that's ever existed because I'm a big Gundam nerd. But, um, yeah.

I just vaguely remember that. Go on, Kyrios. They are pretty cool, to be fair. So, the Tao are, effectively, they've won. They're sorted. They're happy. But Dawnstone wanted one final mission against the Arrishan

and decided to dock with one of the cocoon ships of the Arishan to wipe out any further interference. Bad idea. Bad idea all around. The Arishan Skittlings had begun to hatch. They started to swarm the Tao ranks and the flagship. Seeing that Dawnstone is in trouble, far sight springs into action, blocks the doorway so Dornstone Anderades could escape. He held the line for as long as he could.

But, unfortunately, he then died a second time. What? Yeah. But this isn't a simulation, right? This is dead dead. Oh, you say that. But the room he woke up in, very similar to the room that he woke up in the first trial by fire because it was another simulation.

I hate it here. This is... Okay. Yeah. That is the perfect gift. Oh my God. Yeah, it was another one. They trialled him again. This one was set up by Dawnstone personally to test him and his devotion to his peers. He passed with flying colours, obviously, and this came with a truly remarkable honour.

He was made a disciple of Commander Puredide himself, but, But he was not alone. Two other Tao would join him alongside Commander Purity, Case and Shazara, who is better known as Shadow Sun. As you can probably imagine, being a disciple of the greatest tower of all time, was not easy-peasy lemon squeezy. Well, even with all of his training and experience beforehand, he was pushed to the limit under the brutal training provided by Purtide, and this resulted in farcite becoming a notable master

in the military doctrine known as Montcah or the killing blow, which specifies for close combat. Yeah, I know Montcah. That's the one where they're close and fast, whereas Kaoyun is the one where they're slow and far. Sick. You don't need this either. Shadow Sun mastered exactly that one,

which is also the patient hunter, the art of ambush, and Case mastered the Monat, the lone warrior, which is apparently a doctrine with very limited law that seems to be an emphasis on fighting independently. Peleotide offered something else to his disciples that was not only rare but also something that the ever-obsessive far side loved, the ability to master and study every aspect of the Tao art of war, which included, quote-unquote, relative freedom,

to explore the inner workings of the Earth-cast. Now, the Earth-cast is the industrial and agricultural caste of the Tao, due to their like prowess with science and engineering shouldn't be a surprise to learn that all of the weapons and tech the tau use are made by the earthcast Farsight attended every presentation slash TED talk put on by the earthcast and was able to learn the ins and outs of every weapon and battle suit the earthcast had to offer

his obsession with this was so extreme that it could be argued that he was running the risk of being slapped with the Vashya or between the spheres label, which is, of course, heretical, because of course it is. Too much knowledge is a bad thing even for the Tao, apparently. I was going to say, this is going to make him a huge problem when he is not fighting for the Tao, knowing the ins and outs of literally every piece of weaponry

your place has. No wonder he's such a problem. Jesus Christ, I assume that half of the annoyances that are being divvied up upon him are, well, okay, I'm assuming we'll get to the ethereal soon. Oh, we have to, right? I don't know why you'd assume that. I'm just, I don't know why you'd assume that. I'm just making sure because I get, I get the sneaking sensation that, you know, the whole, oh, He knows too much is coming up a little bit.

He's a loyal, like, servant of the greater good. He's here to help the people. How could you possibly? So was Titus. Yeah. Oh. Oh, poor Titus. Okay.

You've actually, weirdly provided a sort of segue. Because Titus is a space marine, space marines to the Imperium. So now we get to the Damocles goal. which is every time I hear the Damocles Gulf, I see the same discord meme of all the Black Templars dabbing. So only a few decades prior to this, the Tao had made first contact with a few of the more rogue and backwards fringes of humanity. The planets that far from terror had regressed quite a bit, many of which had no memories of their history and the Tao Empire was making their way through these worlds, either peacefully adding them to the empire or by, you know,

full force of the greater good. However, during this time, it was determined by the empire that these were the fringe worlds of a massive galaxy-spanning empire. So the whole like full force of the greater good aspect was put in a hold and diplomacy was prioritised above everything else. Roughly around 742 M41, the Tao Watercast had made their way closer along the fringe of the Imperium and made contact with more directly imperial frontier worlds. The Tao, super friendly, super agreeable, they offered goods, technology, and it seemed like a really good deal to all those backwater planets really far out. But as they were starting to encroach more on imperial grounds, the Inquisition caught

wind of it. And of course, they handled it in the extremely reasonable way that the Inquisition is known for. They know how to read a room. They know how to negotiate. So of course, they decided that the correct course of action was full-scale war against the world's tainted by an obvious Zenos threat. We could be here for hours talking about the Damocles Crusade. Like, it's quite big. There's a lot that went on. I got to be honest. It feels like it could be its own episode. That's for another day, 100%. But I got to be honest, I am super. interested in a Cuban Missile Crisis-style

like fearful negotiations type show or like movie involving this like I don't know you get like an imperial world that hasn't been brought back into compliance yet all the way from the heresy era and then you know you catch wind of like an imperial rogue trader scout vessel

and you have to have like a bit of a negotiation and be like oh god that's the Imperium, we gotta be careful type's thing. I don't know. I think, I think not like, that would be fun. I just think like the, even from the Tao perspective of like, the initial conversation with people from the Damocles Gulf area could be a really neat, like kind of this winding of the tension.

Like who are we really dealing with kind of thing? Yeah. Imagine being the Tao and trying to negotiate with the Imperium at all, period. Well, they don't know. Yeah, they don't know yet. But oh man, that first conversation probably does not go over well. We have reason to believe the Tao have WMDs. Oh, no.

No, not again. There has to have been like some proper culture shock in a way because they found some of the like more off kilter or like isolated planets first. And it's like, oh, these people are, I mean, they're different, but they're fine. they can join the empire and then they finally reach a planet where like the switch flips and they're like that didn't go well that's weird this doesn't feel right

and then like two weeks later there's a space marine standing in front of them going I'm going to feed you to your own family why we didn't know you were here no no no you don't understand not because of what you've done just because you exist

that's it because of what you are yeah yeah See, the image above is the real thing. It's like two days later, that chaplain is full steam ahead, jump pack directly into your lines. And you're like, how did we even get here? We didn't even talk. We gave one of these planets a boatload of weapons and armor three weeks ago. What the hell is happening?

What do we do? We traded for food. Come on. Oh, it would be. I mean, it would be great. Hard to pull off, but great. So, yeah, the Damocles Crusade, it would take a long time to go through, but Farsight had a significant impact on it. His, like, military attack and just general aura was a massive morale boost to the troops on the front line, and he immediately caught the attention of the imperial forces as a notable threat, which I think is

fair enough. One thing to note is that the tower's impression when it came to the Imperium, including the space marines, was overwhelmingly negative, but Farsight didn't want this to cloud their vision. So if you could do the honors, D.K., Ooh. I heard they were much like armored crout apes, said the pilot, strong, but stupid. Not so, replied Farsight.

Amidst the sound and fury of their main assault, they are sending a covert strike team to counterattack via our own reinforcement channels. In doing so, they have demonstrated a dangerous intellect. I see, but they will fall. They will. Nonetheless, it is sound strategy. Presumably, they hope to locate our high command.

By force against us to shield our body, they hope to strike at our exposed throat. With the greatest respect, Commander, I feel you give these brutes too much credit. Very sensible approach. Yeah, very sensible. A little, what's the phrase? a little too into themselves, definitely. A little bit, a little bit. And, I mean, to be fair, he did also, you know,

get the absolute shit beaten out of him by the Imperium, but he did make a lasting impact on them. One of the space marine chapters that faced the brunt of far sight was the Scarlords. Second founding chapter, we have no idea who they came from, we don't know what their heraldry is, but their chaptermaster, Calos, attempted an ambush on a Tao flagship

to catch them off guard and to try and reclaim worlds in the Gulf. The conflict was bloody, but ultimately Farcite saw to it that Calos took a massive spanking. He didn't care for this, and he came back for more, which we'll discuss in a little bit.

But the too long didn't read of the entire conflict was the Tao having a lasting impact on the Imperium. as the Imperium was massively underprepared for this conflict, and the impending approach of High Fleet Bayamoth amidst massive losses on both sides resulted in a negotiation and a ceasefire. I feel like ceasefires when it comes to the Imperium,

not all that common, you know? I feel like it doesn't happen all that much. Yeah, it feels like if there's a ceasefire in the Imperium, it's because it's a civil war and they're tired of everyone dying and they need to go kill Zenos or something. Yeah, it's normally like there's something else worse in another. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, High Fleet Bayamoth.

Yeah. That's a worse. That's pretty bad. Yeah, that's not great. That's substantial. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

A hundred percent. Big old High Fleet. Yep. Yep. Yep. Do we deal with these idiots who were trading with a bunch of our inbred cousins or do we deal with the aliens that could have conjure. assume half our kingdom.

I was going to say, yeah. We should probably deal with the other ones. The swarm of death coming to eat us and turn our planet into a soup bowl. Maybe we deal with that first. Yeah. Oh, God. That picture of like the tendrils of High Fleet Bayamoth is just insane. It's just like what the hell is happening.

How do you even stop it? Well, with a lot of blood and death and horror. So the horrific con. conflict of the, yeah, you just have to be the ultramarines and then it's fine, the horrific conflict of the Damocles crusade rattled the Tao, which again, fair, and the atherials believed that there needed to be action taken to rebuild the ruined part of the empire and kind of rekindle hope amongst the people. Farsight also thought there was work to be done immediately in the aftermath to re-establish borders of Tau space. That would ultimately result in the Farsight expedition

taking place. That expedition, which was the brainchild of the ethereal Al-Var, would have Farsight and his heroic crew leading a massive Tau fleet across the Gulf to reconnect and re-rally the Tau whilst also expanding the empire further than it's ever gone before. Due to the longevity of this trip, Farsight and his crew were to spend their non-combat time in cryostasis to prevent aging. Part of that is down to the nature of Tao space travel, which, okay, I'll be honest, I should have looked this up. I still don't know whether they have, like,

FTL or not, the Tao. Because it feels like they didn't have it. Then they did. Now they don't? I thought they have FTL, but they're just not as fast as diving into hell and back out. I remember specifically in some of their excerpts, like in Arks of Omen Farsight,

their biggest fear was they were being assailed by the orcs and they needed to go back to warm people and in doing so they were like well if we you know if we go back the orcs are going to outrun us because they go through hell so i don't know it's kind of weird but they travel a lot like classic sci-fi like in aliens where it's just like yeah get in the cryobed and then the computer wakes you up when you get there type of type of deal yeah they go into cryostasis so they don't age during the travelling, which actually, to be fair, I quite like that in contrast to

the dip in and out of the nightmare dimension. The fact that there's a group that's like, okay, we need to travel a long distance. We are going to have to sleep for it whilst other like other people in this galaxy are like, quick,

raise the shields in case the murder demons rip us to pieces whilst we try and get from A to B. It's a really nice contrast. Okay. Shai says that the compared to typical

Imperial warp speed TLDR, Tao drive is slower by a factor of five. So, however, it is consistent.

So while it is slower by a factor of five, you may not go back in time, you will maybe not have your whole crew eaten by demons,

etc. However, you know, Imperial fleet of 60, 60s, um, ships flying in and cutting you off with 53 remaining is acceptable losses.

And you also don't need a psycher to be dreaming reality around you either and possibly going insane and just, you know, crunching the ship apart anyway. Still one of the craziest lore realizations I've ever had. Yeah, the revelation of what the Gellerfield is drove me. Not insane, but it was a wild thing to learn about. I love the idea of weighing up the pros and cons where it's like, okay, we are slower, but on the upside, we're not at risk of being permanently and eternally tortured by demons if one dude on the ship has a migraine. So I think we're good. Fair trade. I feel like we're winning on this one, you know.

I'm with the towel on this one too. Like if I was in 40K, I would want to travel the way the Tao do, not the way the Imperium does. Feels like it's the contrast between driving at a hundred miles an hour on the motorway and risking, like, hitting something and passing away. Or, do in a calm 60. Just do a calm 60. It'll take a while longer. But, you know, there's less chance if he's spinning out and being thrown all over the side. Like, it feels like a fair trade.

Yeah, except the BMW is spinning out that gets their first is, uh, once you arrive to them, is standing there with a gun. That's true. You saying BMW specifically reminds me of coming back from a journey having done a battle report with winters and it was raining so hard and so heavy that every rear-wheel drive car,

mostly BMWs in the UK, was on the hard shoulder. And I was like, why is everyone on the hard shoulder? And then I saw a BMW M3 do a full 360-degree spin and then very slowly pull over and stop. And I was like, oh, that's why. Absolutely terrifying.

I was like, I would never drive again if that happened to me, but okay. Also, Shai said, no joke, Tao captured an imperial ship. They reverse engineered the warp drive, used it without understanding the Gellerfield, and it resulted in basically the plot of the movie Event Horizon. Yikes. Great movie? Great movie. Love it.

We're going home. They got to experience a classic. Yeah. So, they go on their journey. They're into cryosleep. It was ultimate, like this expedition was ultimately a, you're going to be on your own for this one kind of deal, as the distance was going to be substantial.

So there was no reinforcements and nothing could be spared to help. But to help with spiritual morale and also for order, three ethereals, went with this Farsight expedition. Before he went off, though, there was some business that Farsight needed to finish when it came to the Tao Sept of Viorlos. This particular world a bit further out

was of both strategic importance to Farsight and physical significance. The surface of the world was remarkably similar to the Tao home world of Tao. The planet, however, was lost during the Darmocles Crusade and was held by the Adeptus Mechanicus, and they were busy handling the population. And by handling, I mean they were quite literally throwing tau into volcanoes

to power the geothermal generators on the planet. And possum stresses that they are not making that up, that's exactly what they were doing. Standard Imperium bullshit. Salamanders would love that. A classic. Oh. The fact that the planet was lost bothered Farsight a lot, and he learned that this was a bit by design. So he learned that the bulk of the Tao forces had fled the system, and resistance was not really considered.

The ethereal's willingness to give up on the world was one of the earliest crises of faith that Farsight had, but he was not going to let it go. Vioros was going to be reclaimed. Farsight gathered a very small bunch of forces, and started to engage in guerrilla warfare with the Imperials. This combined with him being able to broadcast calls to arms on the surface of the planet resulted in a massive rebellion that resulted in the Mechanicum calling for help. And the help that they called for turned out to be Calos and the Scar Lords. He came back for round two, this time round Farsight engaged with Calos in one-on-one combat in one of the energy farms on the planet,

while other members of his circle worked on sabotaging the magma power generators of the planet to throw it into disarray. It turns out, if you mess with magma power generators, that can cause all sorts of nonsense, like all the volcanoes on the surface erupting. But the good news is that this resulted in Calos being swept away in the lava and Farsight claiming a win. Before Calos became a schmour, he was able to send an order for the Scarlord's ship

to commence exterminated procedures to prevent the planet from falling to the Tao, but Farsight knew this was going to happen and he had preemptively sent Oblutai up to the Scarlord ship through a macro cannon barrel. At that point, the virus bomb that was waiting to be launched was destroyed by Oblattai and the ensuing explosion erratory.

The chapter entirely. Ultimately, Sorry, go on. I'm sorry. How did you say he sent Oblite up to that ship? Yeah, remind me that one again? Yeah, he went through the barrel of a macro cannon. Why?

So he quite literally shot him out of a macro cannon to the ship? No, no, into it. He entered the ship through it. He went up into, he like flew up, then went into the ship, via a macro cannon barrel. Oh, I, okay, listen, I don't know if my brain just hasn't woke up enough already. I assume there was a macro cannon somewhere and that Farsite had hit fire and just sent him

screaming out of a cannon like a bullet into the ship. Sorry, my bad. My bad. The guy gets to the big cannon. They light a fuse. He gets launched out of it into a big net. I thought he was being a Hume, a tau bullet. I'm, okay, cool.

This is why I needed to reassure myself about what we're talking about. He entered via the macro-cary. Think like, think sounding, but for a tau and a gun. Oh, God, Kirioth. I got a step back for just a second, brother. Kieri-off, that's the kind of shit I would say. Ain't no way you told me to just think about sounding for this, brother. What's going on?

We did it. I was going. with the doom eternal like you can't shoot like a hole in the mars fire him out of the cannon thing I call on this thing take the rod and get out of here I really wish that I was recording video for this because I said it and then I put both hands over my mouth like I'd done something unacceptable like I I shocked myself with the color in class there is a part of me get to the soap there's a part of me that's disgusted and there's a part of me that is just so proud of you, Kerioth, because the corruption of Adric on Karioth is complete.

We have fully broken this man. You go back like six months and not in a million years would I have said that? Nope. I've been, I've been poisoned. Absolutely corrupted. I love it. Well done. Anyway, continue.

Oh my God. I'd say can we cut that out, but it's not going to happen, so I'm not going to ask. Oh, that's staying in, dude. The Scarletor's get wiped out. Calos is submerged in lava, and at the end of all of this, ultimately, Vyolos would become the capital of the far-site enclaves. During the early part of this expedition, the, oh God, I hate this word, Arcanasha War broke out.

Look, I think I'm there, but for some reason I really struggle with it. Yeah, the Arcanasha. Yeah. It's, I don't think anybody's going to judge you on your pronunciation of not only 40K terms, but like Tao terms, which are like the epitome of, yep, those are letters that make a word, I guess. So, yeah, you're good. You're good.

It vaguely sounds like something. That'll do. So that war broke out in the early part of the expedition. The conflict involved the orcs and Farsight was able to take advantage of the predictable orcs at every step of the conflict. Delt a massive blow to Warboss Tooth Jaw, great name, and his massive wah. His conflicts with the orcs saw Farsight prioritising close and aggressive combat with the greenskins, but despite his best efforts, the orcs kept coming and this had to stop.

The focus that Farsight had on the orcs was a bit bothersome to the Atherals. They felt that the expedition needed to be prioritised beyond measure, and the aorks needed to be left to their own devices and just ignored. By this time, there had been quite a big effort in the empire to build up Farsight as a hero, and his stagnation was something they felt was unbecoming of all the statues, all the heroic stories that they told of him. In a move that deeply rattled the atherials, Farsight declared that the orc threat needed to be completely eradicated

and that their destruction took priority over the reclaiming and expansion of further worlds. This was the first time a tau of any notable rank outright disobeyed a direct order from the Council of Etherials. I mean, he's right. Yeah, I mean, what would happen if you left them? They would just get bigger and more kind of ingenious, and then they would start launching rocks, and like, you can't just leave orcs. That's not how it works.

Farsight was dead on the money with this. I mean, leaving orcs is how you get more orcs. Do you want more orcs? That's how you get more orcs. Yeah, well, I mean, yeah. I mean, the Imperium giving up on exterminating orcs, they just do strategic strides to slow them down. Yeah, but could it be said that the Imperium are just quitters compared to Farsite? No.

I mean, it could. Yeah. No. I've seen enough, I've seen enough Pyrrhic imperial victories where they win after killing, like 98% of their people to know that that's not the case. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, I think, shy, are we suggesting that when it comes to full? Farsight is the ultimate racist.

Is that what we're going for? Pushes up my glasses. Incorrect. That would be Zerick, the Silent King. He's the one who, he is the original racist. Yeah. The original. Wow.

Yeah, you know, he was like, he was like, I'm going to genocide these space frog because it won't make me immortal. Yeah. Also, I don't like the way they're not. look and eat food or something. I don't know. This has been a journey today, folks.

The question is, did he ever say, some of my best friends are space for, anyway. That's crazy. Anyway, so far sight, orgs, huh? Oh, my God. Pass a message earlier and said,

I hope the recording goes okay. don't know what I'm going to say to them now. You're going to tell them it was the best recording we've ever done. Okay, so further into the Farcite expedition, Farsight would encounter a rather annoying and unrelenting orc war chief known as Grog Iron Teeth, great name, again, who initially was able to take the upper hand with Farcite because he just underestimated him.

That pissed Farcite off. and he went into seclusion for a few months just to meditate about how he could beat this orc. After he finished doing the whole Piccolo aura farm thing, Farsight was able to get the upper hand and broke apart the orcs by defeating Grog Iron Teeth. Things would take a bit of a turn, however, when Farsight would go to the world of Arthus Mollock

while hunting remnant orcs. This is where things get real funky and where Farsight might pick up a fairly important piece of war gear. So, upon arrival on the planet, Farsight and his soldiers will encounter a massive amount of orcs within and around a strange structure, a massive temple with eight pillars that the aircast called the Great Star dais.

Di, I think if it's D-I-A-S, I think it's a dais. Okay, we'll go with that. During the conflict with the orcs, The temple would emit a large disk of light that would shoot to the sky, and with each dead orc the disc would crackle. The sky disk would eventually erupt, and horrors beyond anyone's comprehension, would tear through it. This would be the first tow encounter with demons of the warp. These demons quite literally tore through the orcs at the front line with little to no effort,

and the impact they had on Farsight was notable. I believe it's your turn, Bricky. Ooh, okay. Farsight ordered the retreat, commanding his forces to fall back into the skies as quickly as they could. They acted without hesitation, leaving the surreal nightmare of the great star dais behind him without a second thought. Oshova himself was the only one to look back.

As he gazed down into the crackling disc that world above the dais, the portal gazed back. It seemed to him that some Titanic voice, A rip in the fabric of reality of mind-boggling scale had torn the heart out of the galaxy. Within it, writhed a trillion terrible deaths, each calling out to him by name. In that moment, Oshova was changed forever. God, what a thing to look back at you. Good Lord.

Sick man-made horrors beyond my comprehension. Ah, sweet, Lois. Yeah, Jesus. Holy. That being your first introduction to the warp is awful. Like, it's not even like, oh, there's some weird stuff coming out of that cave. No, no, no. A big tear in the sky.

Demons just murdering everything. What an intro. Absolutely horrific. Yeah, that's, uh, whew. And then just being like, oh, yeah, what am I looking at? trillions of terrible deaths that are calling out to me. Just another Tuesday. Just that,

just that sentence of a trillion terrible deaths each calling out to him by name. I mean, that's, that is, it's beyond hardcore. That is just instant insanity, no reasonable response.

Like, what would you even do? Well, I mean, he fainted, but. What would you even do? Give up. I was going to say, I think fainting is actually quite a strong response.

Like that shows a bit of internal strength. Probably if that happened to me, I'd just die on the spot. I don't think I'd be able to withstand that. I wouldn't go, oh, tragic and like fall over. I would just, you know. In that tone exactly, right? Oh, tragic. Oh, tragic.

Yeah. He literally did the dyes of cringe meme. Yeah. I think my brain would, like, explode if that happened to me, and I just wouldn't wake up. Yeah, it wouldn't be great. It would be, like, blood out of your head, and then that's it. You're gone forever. But Farsight, Farsight only fainted.

He fainted with fear, which is, honestly, quite nice to read when he used to space marines. But he fainted. with fear and if it wasn't for the life support systems in his suit, he probably would have fallen into a coma. Again, totally justified. No judgment on it. No judgment here. When he came to, he was back on the flagship. He rescinded the order to retreat and decided that no matter what these creatures were, they had to be stopped. And since the Tao somehow awoke them, they had to stop them. He devised a plan. Part of the soldiers would be focused on the remaining Orks and the rest that he led would be a direct assault on the demons and the temple itself.

I mean, that is some genuinely heroic stuff. I've seen things that have ruined my soul beyond comprehension. I'm so scared I nearly went into a coma. I'm going to deal with this now. I mean, I'd probably do the same. If I had like a home invader and I passed out and I woke back up and for some reason I was not dead and the home invader was still there. I'm like, I got to deal with that home invader.

I will be honest, I was kind of hoping you were going to say, yeah, he fainted. And when he woke up, he realized it was all a simulation that he was in. It was another test. Oh, my God. I don't know if that would have been better or worse. Maybe both. Worse, way worse. If it was another simulation that they were like, up, you fainted at the demon portal thing that we program with a trillion deaths.

Tisk, tis, tis. you're demoted. That would have been way worse. We have learned how to simulate deep existential horror. So, not only was he dealing with the horrors of the warp and the greenskins, he was also dealing with his ranks buckling due to the fear. He worked hard to reorganize the efforts and keep morale up during the fight. And as the conflict continued, he was able to work out a few things that would be quite handy going forward. Firstly, he noticed. that the demons were actively avoiding strange hexagramic glyphs outside of the temple. He sent a team to collect as many glyphs of this shape as they could,

so that he could use them in a weaponized sense against the demons as a whole. The second and more pressing thing was that the blood spilled on the dais was fueling and expanding the rift. He ordered any troops that suffered an injury to flee the dais so more blood could not be spilled, and he ordered groups of battle suits to burn the blood on and around it to dry it up and potentially close the rift. I can ever tell if flaming blood is better or worse? Well, in this case better, right? Yeah, dry it off, just, you know, dry it off, scrape it up, all sorted. Just flaming blood and corn kind of, you know,

Kind of go together. Yeah, hand-in-hand. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's fair. So the demons weren't happy about this, funnily enough, because his tactics were resulting in their strength weakening. During the advance on Farsight himself, he became desperate fighting them off, utilising anything he could find.

And as a bloodthurster attacked him, in case you were wondering what sort of demons these were, Farsight pulled a blade from the hands of a fallen, statue to deflect the oncoming attack. The power of the blade parried it. The blade overwhelmed the bloodthirsts with ease, and despite filling far sight with rage and aggression, he overcame it and sealed the deal. He combined the might of the blade with the gathered hexagramic symbols around the temple and caused a massive sigillite smite that shattered the disc, knocked even the mightiest of battlesuits into the ground, and more importantly, removed any and all.

demons on the planet. The Sigillite smite, very good callback. Yeah. So his trademark sword is just a sword from a statue? That he just was like, damn, things are getting tough. I need something. Oh, that statue's got a sword. I'll grab it, and it turned out to be like a relic weapon?

I mean, yeah. Huh. I thought there'd be a little more to it than that, honestly. I thought it was like, I don't know what I thought, but yeah. Okay. So normally, at this point, it would be the cause of a massive victory celebration, right? But there was nothing to really celebrate. The losses were substantial and among the dead were all the ethereal's that came with the expedition. The loss of the ethereal's in conjunction with the horrors that Farsight saw haunted him.

there was something beyond the normal scope of space and time that was way more threatening than anything the Tao had ever faced. Farsight and his crew returned to his general planetary base of operations, and the news of the dead ethereal really freaked the Tao out. Those who had survived referred to what they encountered as the Molokites, a dangerous, newly discovered alien race, nothing more. but the more Farsight thought about it, the more it bothered him. The rift the demons shot out of was very similar to the tears in space the humans would appear out of during the Darmacles Crusade. Dude's smart. He figured it out real quick. It's like, oh, all the humans came out of these horrible rifts in space.

Where did all of these awful enemies come from? Oh, no, it's the same thing. Oh, this sucks. I don't like this. Turns out the Imperium are just doing drive-bys past these things instead. Yeah. I imagine the realization. Do they know they're passing through hell?

Because if they don't, that's a scary amount of ignorance. And if they do, that's a scary amount of just absolute hubris. Which is better? I don't know. It's a scary amount of recklessness, right? Yeah, either way. So the more that he ruminated, the more some things came to mind. To him, it was clear that the Atherials had known about these creatures and this Rift,

but they kept it as secret. And not just that, but he also felt that the Atherials were doing other things that not only cemented this secret, but potential other ones as well. I've got a little quote for you to read, D.K. Oh boy. The more Oshova thought about it, the more he recalled incidents where Tavre, had acted with unnatural obedience in the presence of ethereal's. Even the fundamental myth of Fyotan, where the atherials appeared from the stars to burger peace

between the warring casters over the course of a single night, spoke more of an external force acting upon Tao society than an internal resolution. Heresies reeled through Farside's mind, taking him to the edge of panic. For him to reveal these terrible truths would shake the Tao Empire to the core. So this is where he's coming to the realization that the atherials are maybe doing a little bit of the brainwashing, huh? This is where that comes from? Yeah. Yeah.

I don't remember where we stand on the whole brainwashing pheromones thing. I don't fully remember that because, like, I just don't. But I know that without a doubt, the authoritarianism, the secrets of the world are definitely a, definitely ethereal thing, right? Yeah, they've definitely got some form of control. Whether it's like what they say, they just know best, or whether it's a proper borderline mind control thing, they're still being relatively cagey about,

but it does feel like it's closer to just, the ethereal's can control the towel. And that's it. It's like, I don't know. Okay, so Shai says it is, fact that the Imperium dissected an ethereal and found no proof of mind control organs or whatever, but they seem to do something somehow and we just don't know how they're doing it. So there's something going on.

Might not be pheromones, might not actually be a mind control thing that they have. It's just they have a way to control the populace's opinion. They have ways of making you talk, basically. just somehow they can do it. So does asthma dying. Oh. You don't want that one. Just en masse.

Yeah, let's go. So Farsight has worked this out, but he believed that if he was to spill this information, the Tao would be reversed to what they were before the ethereal's, a fate that Farsight felt was worse than the creatures of the warp. Ultimately, he made the decision, to stand back a bit. His mere existence was a bigger threat to the empire than anything else in space and he had to protect the core empire from himself more than anything. But during these ruminations,

Tharsight did notice something. The worlds that he claimed with his expeditionary force were pretty sufficient on their own, despite the lack of ethereal's. The worlds were fortified, they were secured and prospering. Each of the worlds that was held, was perfectly suited to each respective cast and with that there was a degree of hope though he did not encourage it the worlds would become known as the Farsight Enclaves but

it's where he starts to get like yeah he's done the thing he did decide initially the enclaves would exist without him so after the enclave was established Farsight made it clear that he was going to into exile due to the experience at Arthus Mollock. He left the leadership duties to his advisors and opted to wander the deserts of Vyallus alone. No battle suit, no creepy overpowered

sword known as the Dornblade. They were left with his Confidon Ovesa whilst Farsight left with nothing at all, which was probably for the best because his actions at Arthus Mollock caught the attention of the dark gods, who began to actively seek him out. Farsight's ultimate hope was to die of natural causes away from everyone else, which is so sad.

Yeah, but all things considered, he probably figured that was best for the Tao, right? Yeah. You know, still thinking about everyone else. He's seen existential horrors that no one else knows about, and he's like, I will simply have to die alone.

Wow. Guys will do anything but go to therapy, right? Crazy, Farsite, geez. Take up the phone, dude. This episode is sponsored by a better know. So communication between Farsight and the core of the Tower Empire, eventually cease and probes just stopped returning. Eventually, enough time had passed that Farsight was believed to have died either due to age or conflict.

His loss was mourned in the empire and the mighty hero who fought to bring the greater good across the stars had flickered out. Decades later, an outrider probe would pass by the enclaves and slingshot back to the Sept worlds. The Atherials thought this would reveal the ruins of the expedition and perhaps the last location of Farsight, himself, but what they got was not that. They were not expecting to see a thriving Tao society with their own shiny new colour scheme as well as a pile of dead ethereal's. The ethereal saw a group of Tao that were able to function and flourish on their own without their oversight and they did not like it one bit. So the supreme ethereal during this time in the empire should be familiar. It was Al-Nvar. The same Al-Nvar who said the expedition was a good idea in the first place.

He was very angry. He could not believe that the heir of the empire would abandon it as well as the empire's teachings. He made it his personal mission to destroy every single bit of influence from the hero that he helped make years before. Like that scene where Patsy the pirate destroys all of his SpongeBob memorabilia after he watches the lost episode. I've seen that clip. I know this meme. I know this meme as well. And then they rewind it because they're like,

oh yeah, here's the real episode or something, right? And he puts it all back. I'll take your word for it. I get the SpongeBob meme. Continue. All memorials were destroyed. All images of him were hidden and the area of space where the enclaves were located

was renamed the Forbidden Zone by Alvar. It's so petty and spiteful. The only memorial that remained of Farsight was on his home world of Viola outside of the Battle Dome of Montaire. But instead of marking it a hero, it now stood as a warning.

Even the most passionate fighters of the greater good can stray from its light. But Farsight's impact was very difficult to remove. The people still loved him and though some abandoned him in public, They still held support for him in private.

His passion for the greater good had impacted the towers a whole, and that could never be truly hidden. At this point, like, Farsight has faded into history as a mythical hero would, as a century would come and go. During this time, the Tower of the enclaves had encountered the tyranids and had faced them further away from their homes, but in 997 M41, things change. High Fleet

This bit always gets me I'm sorry The hatred for Phil Kelly Comes through fairly strong here High Fleet Cracken All Gorgans tendrils Ask the editors of Phil Kelly's new book Which one he meant

God Almighty I promised I wouldn't complain about him too much But what Christ Almighty I'm not his editor But I kind of wish I was Was reaching out And Violis was in its way

So it could be High Fleet Cracken, it could be Gorgon, Phil Kelly doesn't know, the Editors don't know, and Possum's very angry with all of them. God bless you, Possum. God bless you. Poor guy. The pain they went through to deal with this. Yeah. And especially Possum loves Farsight. Possum loves the Tao.

This is a labor of love made. more difficult by people not knowing what they're doing. And it's not that possum doesn't know. It's that the people writing it don't know. And that's infinitely more tragic. Yeah, that's brutal. Oh, well. So, the Tao engaged with the oncoming storm of tyranids.

The sky would turn purple and pulsate with an evil glow. And in the wastes of the planet's desert, the hermit known as Farsight, would watch with interest and fear. Despite wandering the wastes of Vyolos for long beyond the life of a regular Tao, Farsight had hardly aged a day. He didn't know why this was, but the Dornblade is the key. The sword that he once held was an ancient relic older than the Imperium of Man itself. The Dornblade draws the natural lifespan of whatever it strikes down and adds it to the user's life. He, to this day, has suspicions of the blade, but he does not truly know its origin or its power. As he watched the storm in the sky, he also saw that the cactiing creepers, which provided him

water and sustenance and all this time, began to morph into horrific versions of themselves. Something horrible was not only attacking this world, it was also changing it. So Farsight rushed and returned to civilization. The new Farsight model, by the way. So good. It's insane. Oh my God. It's so good.

It's also way too big. And I don't care. Yeah. Doesn't matter. When it looks that cool, hey, whatever, it bend the rules,

don't. That's so sick. So Dawnblade, if you kill something with it, it takes the lifespan of that thing and gives it to you. Yes. Yeah,

remaining lifespan, which makes it sound dark age or necrone-coded. or chaos-coded. How would you know the lifespan? He killed a bloodthor with that thing, didn't he? I mean, yeah.

Don't worry about the immortal. Don't worry about it. Yeah, he's not dying in an old age anytime soon. He gained both the lifespan of a billion years and a one second at the same time because of the stupidity

of chaos. Essentially, cool sword makes live long time. That's it. Don't think too deep about it. Okay. So at this point, like, Farsight knows things are going bad. So he barges his way into the Great Violis Museum and starts to loudly proclaim that he was, in fact, Farsight, and that he needed his suit and his sword, which were both in the museum in his memory. Now, one would think if someone, like, if some sweaty old hermit ran into the National World War II Museum.

and screamed, I'm General Patton, where's my car at the top of his lungs? Onlookers would probably call the authorities. The Tao, they didn't really know what to do. Farsight submitted himself to genetic testing to prove it was him, but it was actually his old colleague Ovesa, who was kept alive with microdrains that he invented. That's all I've got here. Don't ask me any more questions. He recognized Farsight and said, yes, that's the guy.

Farsight was given his suit, his weapons, and more importantly, his enclave. So he was able to repel the Tyrannid forces and re-established his presence successfully. Of course, this is the point at which we need to reintroduce or introduce the Eight, the elite war council that was led by Farsight himself. Outside of Farsight, the eight includes Commander Bravestorm, Oveser, the Stone Dragon, the clone commander brightsword Shavasos who has a neurochip of puretide implanted in him and an AI Ngram Oh my God

of Obletai, Aricon and Torchstar So you were spot on with the AI comment Let's go! You were there well early There's three of them And I mean they're just great They're so cool But there's no actual like rules for them anymore is there? You don't actually roll the eight.

You just roll the suits and you get to pretend they're the eight and they get no special rules, right? Not even that. It's just like not even that. No. It's bullshit. Let's let's call it what it is. It's bullshit. Yeah.

I mean, the problem with the eight as a concept is that especially in, in 10th edition, it just doesn't work. Because there are a whole bunch of varying types of models and things that normally go, in squads of other models. The riptide goes by itself. The broadside goes by itself. But the XV8s go in stuff, but some are regular. Some are characters. It's a whole thing.

Oh, so you literally could really roll them together because it just doesn't work that way on the tabletop. If you wanted to do it better, you would either make them all their own character, not going to happen. You would either you give them like, made them all one

giant unit. Okay, sweet. That's 1,300 points. Do that. Do it. I'll do it. That's the best call. That's the best call. You gonz ghosts it, right?

Yeah. The difference is gonz goes to 100 points. And it doesn't include a fucking riptide. I was going to say, 1,300 points. That's like almost the entire army, right? Yeah, that's fine. Just do that and then fill out the rest with random battlesuits.

Who cares? You get into field the 8. No one's sitting. They're going, okay, but the only way I'll ever play the 8 is if they're like competitively viable. No one cares. Don't give us a shit. Just let us put them down on the tabletop. No, I agree.

I agree, Krioth. But I'm not saying that they need be available. I'm saying they need to work as a function. Well, yeah, that's also fair. They do need to actually, you know, work as just a thing. I need them to not be horribly jank. That's all I use. That's fair.

I'll give you that. I would love the. You know what I want. You know what I want, I want to bring back, I want to bring back ninth edition, uh, points upgrades for characters and models, like, um, how you turn witches into Hecatruch's Blood Brides and stuff like that. Just, just give me a rip time. Slap on 25 points and call it what's his fucker and then, uh, and then give him like a rule or two. That's all I need. My favorite member of the eight, Mr. What's his fucker.

Hell yeah, brother. Yeah, it's the best one. What we've built up to. It brings us to close to the arcs of Omen and thus to the modern times, but there's one last thing to briefly go over that will eventually tie us in with a future episode about another notable Tao. So in 999 M41, the third sphere of expansion was well underway within the Tower Empire, and this was being overseen by Farsight's old friend Commander Shadow Sun.

The Tao had recently defeated the Imperium in two notable conflicts, the first at Muglath Bay and the second in Perfecture, both of which were closer to the border of the eastern fringe. The Tao believed that the Imperium would get over these losses. Insert always sunny title card, The Imperium doesn't get over these losses. The second agrelling campaign was a massive imperial front that included guest appearances by the Ravenguard

and by the white scars. The invasion of the Imperium caused, the towel by surprise due to how massive it was, but despite the massive numbers, Shadow Sun was able to rally her forces planet side and was able to hold off the Imperium with an impressive counter-attack. They did not provide any form of resistance to the Imperium, but the sheer brutal might of humanity began to wear down their lines. But in their time of greatest need, the crimson might of the Farsight enclave cracked the sky. For the Imperium,

they felt this was just some new flashy Tao ambush that was a bit more aggressive than the last, but the Tao were far more surprised. Viewing on a drone captured video, Commander Shadow Sun and Alvar shared an incredible, incredulous

look, because to the Tao, the red-armoured warriors meant only one thing, which was that Commander Farsight, the prodigal champion turned outcast had returned. Farsight showing up out of nowhere had a real like Joe Hendry

at WrestleMania vibe that hyped up all the Tao forces beyond measure. That's my favorite reference in the whole thing. I'm just ready on reference. Don't worry. Yeah, as I'm as well as I say, I've never seen Curia. I was just reading a reference without understanding it so that DK could get it.

Oh no. Oh, did you get it? Oh no. I practiced deadpanning that bit because Joe Hendry showing up at WrestleMania to face Randy Orton is one of my favorite things that's happened in wrestling for years. Wait, are you a wrestling head? I used to be that I stopped and now I very much am again. Yeah. I, look, how did I not know this?

That's, that's like, that's like, guilty pleasure. Okay, yeah, I can't start because if I start this episode is going to go for two hours. You continue about the Tao. That's fine. Didn't know. tell me more about Farsight showing up. I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to let them have their time shy.

I just want to know if Bricky believes in Joe Hendry or whether he... What do you mean believes in him? He's not the Easter Bunny. All right. Okay. Don't say his name. That's the answer my question. He will appear.

Okay. So, as you guessed, presumably, one of theory was very upset about the whole thing. This was intensified when Farsight. Farsight walked into the Tauk command room and met Alvah in person for the first time since he'd left the core world. He said Farsight's name and welcomed him with clipped severe tones, a reproachful father speaking to his wayward child. Here you go, Bricky. Oh boy. Okay.

Always observant. Enva noted that many in the control room followed his lead, nodding to the red-cloked commander. Some, however, bowed too low, showing too much for Anva's liking. It was important that all knew he was in charge. Anvaa immediately adjusted the tone of his voice. Respected warriors of the high command. High advisors, this is Commander Farsight. Once a great pupil of Puritide, now he is my greatest disappointment.

Just like my parents said to me. Onvah's a dick. He's always been a bit of a dick. Yeah, that's crazy disrespect. God damn. I can't help but notice that Alvar seems to have a giant symbolic dick on his throne. Oh, wow. The hive mind is real.

So Farsight responded to this by bowing and saying, as you were mine, Alva, which is excellent reversal, and said that he had not come to fight, but had come for the war council. Alvah began to open his mouth to chastise Farsight again, and Farsight just yells, enough, save your manipulations, we must work together for the greater good, because he's a legend. Before proceeding to go over tactics, all the while Alvair is stood there with Maltha Gap and stunned by the whole thing. To the point where Shadow Sun had to step up and provide tactics in his place,

dude was shook. So before heading off to the conflict, he had one final interaction with Alvair. Farsight told him that once the battle was concluded, he would return to his enclaves and had no illusions of returning. Alvar said that though Farsight had lost his way, he knew his word to be true, and that said that once he remembered what it truly meant to be a fire warrior, and that he would one day naturally return to the empire. Ultimately, the Tao would rally, the imperials would waver, but they would deliver one devastating blow before they left. Vah would be stranded and assassinated by a Colaxus assassin. Despite his death, though, holograms were played through the empire of him, alive and well, declaring victory for the Tao.

Farsight knew that he had to leave, and Shallow Sun made sure of it. D.K., you're up for the last quote of the app. The Ethereal High Council will soon order me to capture you. You are to face a trial of judgment. Of course, he already had that information, but he did not know why his one-time comrade would reveal such a thing to him. Farsight assumed Shadow Sun had decided to disseminate this information herself, a bold move. I think you returning here to aid the Empire was a noble act, a deed worthy of the greater good.

It deserves to be met in kind. Shadow Sun paused as if carefully weighing each word. I suggest you leave now. And what will you do if I do not? he had asked her, I follow orders, was her only reply. And at this point, Farsight would leave,

return to his enclave, just before the ethereal high council reached the conclusion that Commander Farsight had to be captured and tried for treason. And that's where we are. There was a, to add a small bit, there was an arcs of omen clip,

or episode, the book of Farsight, And basically this whole thing was about to be destroyed. This whole like Farsite Enclair was about to be destroyed. B, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Crazy orcs, things back going bad. Vashtor being a weirdo, you know, the usual. And during that period of time, he's, uh, Farsight sent out a message to On Va to be like, yo, I know you hate me, but like these are still Tao, you know, and if, and if you send

us reinforcements to help us, we, I will surrender officially to you. And then on Vah sent like, a little hologram was he's dead. Like a little hologram over the higher ups and the hologram of VonVar basically saying, you made your choice, sucks to suck. And he just left him. Yeah. I remember that part and I was like,

damn. Oh. God. Crazy. Yeah. That was the AI that was filled with memories and personality of Alvar, not the man himself. And even in death, he is a giant asshole.

Yeah. He sucks a dare. Even the AI recreation of Anvaz like that. It's like, wow, that man is a spiteful douche. Even his AI programming is wickedly awful. Even his memory's terrible. Yeah. So, Commander Farsight doesn't just like, oh yeah, I'm just going to do little raids on the Tao here and there and hopefully dismantle corrupt system.

He kind of just sticks to his enclave, eh? Yeah. He's pretty much, like, defending his people. and that's what he's there for, which honestly is pretty noble for 40K standards. I guess in my head, I kind of thought he led the Farisite Enclave with the 8, and they would just kind of like slowly chip away

at like the corrupt Tao Empire until maybe they like saw the error of their ways or something, and that was like his whole schick. But that's really not what he's doing, is it? You got to go in, murder all the ethereal. I guess. I think it's a case of like, well, I mean, they're still tau. They're still tau.

Yeah, true. Like, I'm not arguing with them. So it seems harsh to go in and start, you know, adding their, their lifespan to my own infinite or half a second amount that I got off that bloodthirster. Yeah. Yeah. Before this episode, that's kind of how I, like, envision the far side enclave was this sort of almost like outlying rebel faction that was going up against the evil empire. and was constantly doing like hit and run attacks and really taking out like key facilities and stuff until they could like topple them. But damn, that's enlightening one might say.

When things go bad, he's still willing to help. In their darkest hour, he still came swooping in and helped the towel. He's still doing the great good thing. He's just not necessarily on the same side all the time, which is honestly. I mean, again, for 40K, that's very refreshing. It's a rarity and a half. Yep. But yeah.

And he's still got the best colour scheme. Yeah, he's so sick as hell. But yeah, I'm assuming that's Farsight, yeah? That is. That's Farsight. And then there's, we're still got to do the Eighth and the Damocles Crusade and Shadow Sun and so on and so forth. But there's a lot for Parson to get dug into. But Parson was very excited for Farsight.

So. Hell yeah, brother. Hell yeah. Possum being a Tau fan is hilarious to me. I just, I don't know why. I just don't know why. There's something about it. I'm just kind of like, huh, fascinating, you know?

Yeah, I kind of figured Possom would be, he would just have some chapter that was his favorite, you know, like a, I don't know which one, but I just kind of figured his thing would be like some chapter, some space marine thing, you know, probably had some really deep, cool lore from way back, and, yeah, I wouldn't have guessed how. despite Phil Kelly's influence on it.

Yeah. Well, anything left to add, Kuryoth? That's it. That's that. There are a few things to note. One, Farsite, kind of a cool guy. Two, it was always a simulation. He's died again.

He's just waiting to wake up from the next simulation. Yeah. And last, but most importantly, Shai says, Brick, you remember that Ark of Omen that gave Farsight too much, so much grief they started turning to Korm? Well, after the events of Arks of Omen, that arc, the unhollow, was boarded by three Ork war bosses and then killed everyone on board and now argue over who actually killed the demon prince. So Blue Bros. We Orks got your backs. We avenged Arthus Mollock. I don't think that's how that works, but all right.