Adeptus Ridiculous - Farsight's Bitter Rival: Commander Shadowsun | Warhammer 40k Lore

Episode Date: April 29, 2026

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousIn this episode, Kirioth takes the wheel to teach Bricky and DK all about the Supreme Commander of the T'au Empire: O'Shaserra, better known as Shadowsun! From her early days training under the legendary Commander Puretide alongside her bonded rival, Farsight, to earning her famous moniker by assassinating Ork leaders under an artificial eclipse, Shadowsun is an absolute tactical powerhouse. We're diving deep into her mastery of the Kauyon (Patient Hunter) warfare doctrine, her brutal campaigns across the spheres of expansion, and that time she completely humiliated the Imperium by cutting Raven Guard Chapter Master Corvin Severax in half. Plus, things get seriously weird when the T'au's Fourth Sphere Expansion gets swallowed by the Warp and encounters a terrifying, multi-armed Warp Goddess of the Greater Good.Support the show

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Adeptus Ridiculous podcast. My name is D.K. Diamantis. That's Bricky. We've also got Kariath here. Shy is on a much-needed vacation, so Possum is handling all the off-screen nonsense. Did you need to know that? No, but I'm telling you anyway. You should also, if you enjoy the podcast, maybe check out our Patreon at 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. just the most immaculate form you can imagine in digital. And yeah, patreon.com slash adeptus ridiculous.

Bricky announced things. Yes, indeed. Announce things. First things. First, there's a little cool note here that we have released our first ever 3D animated ad direct clip this past week on YouTube. We would very much like ideas for short clips. Like, you know, while we all have our opinions on some, Warhammer lore shorts out there.

We do like the idea of just doing like little animated versions of things that came out on the podcast. And it looks goofy and fun. And so if you have any particular moments from the podcast that you really recommend, please let us know so we can kind of work into that.

And also we're going to wink, wink a little bit over to the Patreon because getting the 3D models were not cheap. And, uh, Hey, we have a suggestion section of the Discord that you can get with Patreon access. It is any dollar amount you'd like jump to the Discord and chat about it. So we appreciate that a ton. Thank you all very much. And check out patreon.com slash that's ridiculous or buy the merch.

Both the merch. Fine options. Fine options. People have been sending in pictures of the coins and they look great. Yeah, the coins are finally shipping. Dude, it's been. it's been a nightmare. Oh, no.

Yeah. That's like, right? No, so, so I mean, this is an acceptable losses, but acceptable losses, we're about like halfway through all the bundles because like, you know, we had a pre-order time. And then the new year came around. And it was like, okay, things are going. And then there were some issues with the coins. So I sent them back to get them redone because I want, they want better, et cetera. Sure.

And then Chinese new year happened. And I was like, okay, this is, you know, it's what's. fine, it happened, you know, you got away a little bit, but we'll get it done. And then, um, for lack of a better word, um, some stuff happened in the Middle East that really wrecked shipping lines for a while. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah.

Certain straight, not opening up. Both of my hands up in the air, my bad, I guess. Um, but, uh, no, genuinely that's just been a cavalcade of annoyances, delaying things. but to be fair. They're on their way out. There's a good few things there that simply aren't your fault. You can't plan around disastrous world consequences. I know, but as an American, I kind of want to do the thing where I'm be like,

ah, my bad guys. Yeah, I will say, though, outweighing all of that, making sure people get quality stuff. Like, a delay because you're like, this is not good enough. It needs to be better. That is a customer of anything. I'm right about it. First time doing coins, you know? Yeah.

First time doing coins. Thank you, Kiroth. I don't like your compliments. Actually, I might actually don't mind. Kiryoth, you need to be angrier to me. You need to be meaner to me. Yeah, it's clearly Bricky's fault. He did everything wrong.

You could have on the Hellhammer, Bainblade thing like 20 minutes ago, and you let that just sit there. Favorite comment was he's collecting so many else he can play Tetris. Love it. God damn. Like I said in the, like I said in the chat, the thing is, I'm outnumbered by Americans. And the fact is that you are louder and therefore more persuasive. That's how that works. I'm not equipped to deal with this.

We, as a nation, the UK exists on uncertainty and self-doubt. And frankly, we are not equipped to deal with being told something is not the way it is, Because we'll just go, I didn't think that was true, but I guess it is. And then, eventually, with a bit of prodding, you can sit back and go, now I knew you were wrong. That's how we've existed for generations at this point. So you go home and then you're like, oh, clearly he was wrong. I'll tell him next time kind of thing.

Yes. And then what you do is you meet that person, you know, a couple of days later and never mention it again. Because that would be confrontational and you don't want that. The classic coming up with the comeback. eight hours too late. I got to be honest, Keriah. I didn't pal around the UK for very long, but I did pal around a lot of different areas.

And I don't think the Londoners would wait for a chance to tell me I'm wrong. The South, the southern people in Britain, I don't think would wait for a chance. In my experience, the Londonist just wouldn't talk to you to begin with. They would rush past and tell you to get out of the way. And then that would be your only interaction. that's my experience going to London anyway. I had one moment like that on the escalators and I never made that mistake again.

Oh, you didn't stand on the opposite side. I got a good move out of the way, mate. And that was that I didn't ever since then, you know. I know my mistake and here we are. I don't know why, but when you said escalator, my brain was just like rolling to Pomona ima escalade. and I don't know where the wiring in my brain is today. I'm thinking of the SpongeBob Eels and Escalators type thing.

Oh, yeah, that works too. Anyway, before this turns into a non-Warhammer podcast, Kiri and what's up today, buddy? I genuinely was afraid that this might be a half-off topic episode. It seems like it's already happening. So I'm going to give you a quote. Oh, no. Can we go back to London?

Look. Words never said. Said no one ever, yeah. Including people who live in London. Look, I'm afraid this isn't acceptable losses. You have to have a quote and you've got to guess. That's how it works here. So you've just got to man up and get the answer first, straight away.

No hesitation. Let's go. So, Karl Korsaro, I presume. she said in Gothic, her voice amplified by her armour's voxcasters. I am Corsaro Khan, master of the hunt and sword of the Khan, and I know who you are, he said. My fame precedes me, she said. He thought that that had been a joke. He shook his head. A hunter knows his prey. Her armor was heavier than his, but not as battle tested. And a huntress knows hers.

As the white scars? I was going to say, you mentioned the Khan, hunting, prey. It's either white scars, a named White Scars character or Jagatai for some reason. Wrong end of the interaction. Oh, well, why don't you just tell us? That's not how this works. I did say Huntress. Huntress, would that be like a, well, the other person spoke, so it wouldn't be like a sister of silencey thing?

Nope. Is it some kind of inquisitor, dude, dad? It is not an inquisitor. I'll give you a hint. It's a Zenos. Oh, Huntrits. Eldar or a Tao? Oh, there we go.

Oh, it's Tao? Is there a Tao thing? It is. What's going on with that? A Tao white scar? Is it like a battle of sorts? It is an engagement between the white scars and the Tao

where a Korsara Khan meets a very specific character. Oh, is it Shadow Sun? Yeah, nailed it. There we go. Okay. Shadow Son. Wait, have we,

Oh, we never have done that. Wait, happened that episode, Shadowson? Or have we talked to her in relation to Farsight? I think we've, I think we've definitely talked in relation to her with Tao and all that, but I don't think we've ever done a dedicated episode on her. Yeah, we did, with Farsight, yeah, we definitely talked about her a little bit, but I don't, yeah, I guess we never did a dedicated. Yeah, it's another, like, Yarrick situation of orbiting around her.

And she comes up a few times, but there's not been a full dedicated. this is who we're dealing with app. Yeah, the Tao Wifu, right? This is a Yarek situation. I keep my mouth fucking shut. I don't want to eat me from last week. No, no, please. That was Omidy Gold.

I need to be careful. No, I mean, Shadow Sun, okay, everyone take a look at that official GW art. Notice the lack of breasts. Well, it's because the armor. Shut, shut your ass. Once she's out of the armor, those things, Those breasting boobly, you know?

Yeah, no, it actually, Pawsom makes a great point here. Let's talk about Shadow Sun's Hellhammer. I've never been more uncomfortable than hearing breasting boobly out of D.K.'s mouth. I don't know why. You never heard someone breasting boobly down the stairs? Oh, I know the meme. I just don't, I don't know why it doesn't sound right. I just don't be.

There's a lot of reasons why it doesn't. Hey. It's one of those HR calls, man. All right, all right, all right. Shadow Sun's hellhammer. It's like Schrodinger's cat. So, sitting proudly with the title of Supreme Commander of the Tao is Shadow Sun. Her training under the legendary commander Peortide has sharpened her military might to an almost unstoppable degree.

Easily, one of the most strategically sound blue ladies in sci-fi this side of an Asari Huntress, but with a lot more reasonable firepower. Like how Captain and Yala in Mass Effect too is somehow, using an M300, even though it's allegedly only able to be used by Krogan's due to how crazy the kickback is. That's so true. Captain Yara did have a Krogan-Klaymour shotgun. And then she shot Neket, Miranda's friend person that was trying to smuggle her sister out.

And you can't stop that. It's very shocking. You're like, what the hell? And then Miranda makes the stupid jaw-drop face. Even in the multiplayer, the kickback on the Claymores is like, You have to mod against that. You can't just roll that thing. It's chunky.

Oh, yeah. It's a killer, though. I bet you're super impressed that I came up with that reference all by myself for the sake of the being a couple. Oh, yeah. You totally didn't have a script that told you all about that reference, eh? No, no, no. And POSM does not also have the Mass Effect autism like we do.

Of course. None of that. All made. Anyway, Shadow Sun has been referred to as the true disson. of Commander Puredide due to the betrayal of Commander Farsight. This betrayal not only cut deep for the core of the Tower Empire, but the impact it had on Shadow Sun drives her to this day. As they trained together in their youth, they were friendly rivals and close comrades. Now, even though the respect remains in some sense, Shadow Sun stands firmly within the empire that Farsight betrayed as a shining

example of the might of the greater good, and the empire has endured remarkably due to her prowess. So today we're going to talk about the long history of Commander Shadow Sun, from her early training and bonding with Farsight to the imminent sixth sphere expansion and an encounter with what is likely a brand new deity in the warp. Her story is prolific and it continues to this day. And also it's a Tao episode, so POSM is very happy, even if it meant reading a few Phil Kelly books, which as we've already established is generally a bad time for a possum.

It turns out, yeah. Actually, that's actually a great question. we got possum here. How were the Phil Kelly books in this scenario, Possum? Were they any better? Or are they equally problematic? Okay, there we go. You write Shadow Sun so much better, he says.

Yeah. So as someone that hasn't read a lot of books, is Phil Kelly not of the highest renown amongst Black Library authors? It's particularly Tao. Yeah. Yeah. For the most part, he's pretty well regarded, but it seems some of the Tao stuff is not, not his strongest work, I think is probably the nice way of saying. Yeah, yeah, okay.

He was chose to write like an anime-based type thing, and he chose Farsight, Weird Shonen and Shadow Sun Sundare. Is that, that's the, that's the vibe we're getting here? That's unfortunate. Okay. That's an interesting vibe. I'm, I guess. So as Shadow Sun is a Tao, she has a very long, true name. And even though we're going to call her Shadow Sun for the duration of the episode,

we'll go over a full name and how she earned said name. So the whole thing is as follows. We've got Chazzo, Viola, or Tao, Shazlenra, Mien, Shazera. So there. Yeah, sure, dude, whatever, man. Yeah. There you go, just so you can appreciate the text form. I do like the fact that there's an or in there.

That's, I mean, that's not Possum's fault. That's just inconsistent writing from the authors. But it is kind of funny to me that or could be in someone's name. So, we've got Shazzo, which is her cast. So Fire, that's the Shaz bit, and Rank Commander, so that's the O bit. Then we've got Viola or Tao, which is her sept. Some contemporary sources, like the most recent novel by Phil Kelly on her, state that she's from Viola, but others, like the 8th and 9th edition Tao Codex books,

states that she's from Tao herself. The colors of her armor imply that she's from Tao because they are not the red of viola, but this is up for debate. That really just sounds like someone somewhere was not paying attention when writing the bits that came after the code. Like, unless it's an intentional, oh, mysterious past thing. God.

Imagine someone comes up to Shadow Sun and ask for, like, her autograph because I'm such a big fan, can you sign this? And it's like, don't make me. please. That's kind of like with the custodies. Because the custodian increase their names based on their deeds. And it's just like, please write your full name here. That's how you kill the custodies.

How many of them have got two different place names just in case? Because they can't remember where they're from. Maybe that's what it is. Not even Shadow Sun knows where she's from. Truly tragic. And the last bit, Shazlen Ramien, deeds deserving of a name. so cautious warrior unforeseen.

Shadow Sun's focus military doctrine-wise is that of Ceyon, which is the patient hunter. This is, to put it bluntly, ambush warfare, where the Tao lures an enemy into a meticulously prepared area where they can land a killing blow. And the last one is Shazera, which is her personal name, Shadow Sun. She would earn this name on Cresh during a conflict with the Orks. Shadow Sun would lead a stealth catter into the heart of an orc encampment, and then she would time her strike to coincide. with an artificial eclipse, and with the usage of low-flying orcas, her entire cadd would jump jet into the camp,

silently assassinating the orc leaders one by one under the shadow of a natural darkness. With the leaders of the orcs torn apart, the orcs would collapse, and by the time the sun rose, the battle was over. With that feat, she had earned the name Shadow Sun. To be fair, that's kind of badass. Oh, that is. There's no kind of about it. That is extremely badass.

Well, you know, Tau. Oh, wow. Wow. The way you said that like it was a slur. Jesus, dude. Good old racism. Never failed, baby.

God, damn. All right. Well, that is pretty, that's actually a good. Yeah, it's dope. That picture's really dope, too, that posse. Yeah, also, I love the Tau helmets. They look really weird. uh in a lot of ways but there's something about them that makes them look really unique and also as a big armored core fan

anything that just says that that points and looks like red dot on mech is cool as shit so uh you'd love a you'd love a solid zaku or uh or um a goof from gundom then yeah i know some of those words this is no zaku boy i know i know possum gets it but um i think we're the only ones. Sorry. I'm trying to be a wee, but it's not working. G-O-U-F?

Yeah. It's badass, too. Goofy name, one might say. No. You can't be starting puns this early. You're having so many times in the last death.

I can't, I can't mentally prepare for it. Yeah, I get it, but I'm leaving you out to dry. Thanks, Possum. You're really doing a great shy impression. That is peak shy behavior. Love it.

Commander Shadows Son then was born several hundred years ago on viola or Tao, but the majority of her youth was spent on Dalith. She would have two sisters, Shazel Arumi and Shazel Therese, and her father was named Kiru. He was, by all accounts, a magnificent warrior, so much so that he was granted leave so that he could raise his family himself, which is rare.

One of the major steps of the Tao Empire at Dalith was the homeward of the legendary commander Peortide, and her time there consisted of intense study. In the academies of the firecast, she proved herself to be a prodigy at a young age and caught the attention of Puretide, who wished to take her on as his youngest pupil. Now, as we've discussed before, she was not alone in these studies, accompanying her with two other students, one who would be known as Commander Case and the one who would become Commander Farsight.

Now, even though we talked about their training under Puretide before, figured we'd have a bit more room to discuss the intensity of it in this episode, as the three not only trained together, but they were bonded together as well. So the Tao have a ritual known as the Talisera, and it serves as the closest thing to familial unity that the Tao have, and involves a blood oath. The Tao cut themselves with a shared blade, which mixes their blood together, signifying an eternal bond to one another.

Case, Farsight and Shadow Sun shared this bond whilst training, and Shadow Sun holds the bonding blade to this day. even with the bond aside there were few bonds stronger than the one that Shadow Sun and Farsight had together while training Case was to put it bluntly a bit of an odd duck compared to the other two

his focus was on the combat style of Monat which is the lone warrior style so he was off doing his thing for most of the time leaving Shadow Sun and Farsight to train together bit of a third wheel it sounds like imagine imagine making a blood bond with two other people and being like

yeah I'm going to study the lone blade Like, really? All right. A bit of a dick move, yeah. Yeah, right? It's kind of weird. It reads heavily as, I've been told I have to do this, but I don't really want to. Doing the, doing the whole oath and then just dipping for the majority of training.

It's like, not cool, dude. Like, not going to say, it's kind of like the warrior equivalent of choosing the cuck chair. Like, all right, you can, but like. Is it? Is it that? Yeah. I'm not sure if I fully agree with this metaphor here. Well, you know, I threw it out there and I try and, you know, it is what it is.

Yeah, well, you know, at least Shadow Sun doesn't have a Hellhammer, so. She might do. It could be Schroding his Hellhammer. We don't know if she does or not until we see evidence of it. The idea of a Shadow Sun hellhammer, now like a towel converted, actually sounds really cool. God, there's genuinely a part of me that hopes that at some point later, Shadow Sun steals like a Bainblade, and it comes full circle and brings like, not again,

not Shadow Sun's Hellhammer that's actually a bane blade. See, I've immediately gone to, okay, but if you built it similar to the Stormlord, or not the Stormlord, the Shadow Sword, and you took, what is the name of that massive, like, three rail cannon assembly, you get on the back of the forge world Tao battle suit. Oh, the Tao Supremacy Armor? That's the one.

Like, you could totally, I think you could get the big railhammer array off the back of that and mount it in a Bainblade chassis. I think that's absolutely doable. And I sort of want to do it. But that's also horrifically expensive for a throwaway joan made an episode of Adwreck. and much though I enjoy kit-bashing projects,

I feel that one would be somewhat hard to justify. Yeah, I'm not allowed to talk about rail cannons anymore. Court order or not. So an example of their joint trading sessions, I don't even know what that means, involved all three of them hunting one another on the steep and frigid cliffs of Mount Kanji. Case went out across the peaks out of sight,

while Shadow Sun followed Farsight, who thought he was being a bit more tricky by traversing a more dangerous path. The hunt went for the entire day, and his night fell they needed to find shelter. She thought she saw movement and threw rocks at a nearby cluster of boulders, and Farsight clapped and pointed an imaginary rifle at her, and they made shelter together in the cold and talked more freely.

But they needed to stay warm as the fire was not enough. VK., do you want to read some... I was going to say some smut. It's not. I'll read some smut. Hell yeah, brother. Let me see that roll that beautiful bean footage.

Oh, God. What? What? You know, like, anyway, it's, I'm doing, I'm doing,

I'm doing a quote. You're doing a quote. What fuck is bean? You've never seen that commercial with the, with the, with the, roll that beautiful bean footage for the, no.

Really? That's a, that's a very popular saying. It's a common commercial. Thank you. Possum gets it. He points to the camera and they literally roll bean footage. Don't you give me what is that curiosity.

You're an accomplice to whatever the hell this is. I don't know what the bean footage is. Anyone here who should know what the bean footage is. He pointed to a giant part of bush bake beans. Now that's the bean footage. We're pointing to the footage. We have Heinz. What's Bush?

No one's going to have hines. beans, beans. Oh, we've got real beans. Excuse me. I'm trying to read a quote over here, and y'all are just full of beans. It's true. We are full of beans. We're all full of beans here on that.

The mountain has its own spirit, said Kion Shas into the night. It's a place where destinies are born. That much is true, at least, said show. Master Puritai fashions us new fates as easily as he gives us. new names. But he is not here tonight, she said. She turned to him, treating him to a rare half-smile, and I have my

own destiny in mine. Monarchais will never let us forget it if he catches us. We should sleep. Then let us do so in comfort. Moncacheau sighed, closed his eyes, and rolled into her warmth. Nice.

Oh my God, they were roommates. Well, despite the whole, oh my God, their roommate's aspect of them being very close to one another during a freeze, one of the thing that Shadow Sun mentioned is important here, spirits. You see, Shadow Sun talked quite a bit about ghosts and spirits in her youth, and she was kind of teased about it by the others. She does have a justifiable reason for believing in ghosts, thanks to a botched training that Pure Tide Center on that we'll talk about much later, but her spiritual focus would become a bit more pointed in later years.

Like most Tao, she followed the Taover, the greater good, quite heavily, but it could be argued that she may have followed it more than most. Through the training, all three of them would not only be fully accepted by Pure Tide, but they'd also embody his training in skill better than any other warriors, and a friendly rivalry that Shadow Sun and Farsight had would become more intensified. But at the time, it was out of deep respect and admiration. However, Farsight was ultimately his most successful pupil and Shadow Sun would become his subordinate. Now we get on to first contact, well it's not really contact, but it is first major conflict,

the Damocles Gulf Crusade, which is the first true conflict between the Tao Empire and the Imperium of Man, and saw the Empire holding off attacks from a wide range of Space Marine chapters, ranging from the Nova Marines and the Sides of the Emperor to the Ultramarines and the Black Templars. For a very quick, too long didn't read about this, the Tao Empire reached the outskirts of the Imperium and began to work on converting derelict imperial worlds over to the greater good and opening up for trade since they had been virtually abandoned. The Inquisition was very much like, excuse me, about the whole thing,

so the Imperium struck very hard and very fast due to the nature of it being a new threat, but they were also in a tight spot due to the forces of the Imperium already being spread a bit thin since the tyrantids had showed up. Is this the crusade? I keep seeing the meme from with a bunch of dancing black top bars and it has that song that goes like, do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do that one. I would not be able to place that song.

That is a specific. enough pull that I don't know that I've seen the reference, so I'm not sure. Hold on, I'm looking it up. Damocles crusade meme. He's doing his research. Oh, I'm so good. I'm so... This makes it for everything.

I don't think it does. This makes it for everything of last episode. Okay, I'm playing it. I'm playing it for myself. That's the song you were trying to hum. Yeah. Do do do do. Do do. Do do. Do do.

do do too too okay those are not black templars though those are just there's just guardsmen but okay yeah i i see it now anyway i get it nice nice ball rhythm was there yeah yeah yeah i had the beat correct yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure all everything has been forgiven bricky yep good good good excellent no more no more hellhammers you pay me too well to it's her Arras you this much. I, yeah, sure. We'll say that for now. Oh, possum.

Oh, love it. We're of the same, my, excellent. Shadowson strategies were simple but smart and was showcased brilliantly on Dalif. She would lure the imperial forces into drawn-out maneuvers, and as their lines thinned, Tharsight would sweep in and deal the killing blow. The thinning of these lines was imperative as it forced the Imperium away from more populated areas, maximising the death of imperial forces and minimizing civilian casualties. Though he gets the recognition for the victory, Farsight's Montcar tactics would not have been

possible without Shadow Sun's Keyon strategies. Though there would be a Tao victory during this conflict, the Empire would still feel a pretty heavy loss. Commander Puredide would die, and there was an extreme concern about what to do after his death. Pior Tide was, to put it bluntly, the guy when it came to the Tao's military training, and there wasn't really a good substitute or heir apparent. The Earthcast attempted to capture his mind with technology that could preserve it, but it was not certain if this would work. The ethereal would decide to have his brightest pupils put into suspended animation so that they could be awakened to support the empire in a time of need, while Farsight would be selected personally by Ornvar to lead a mission beyond the Damocles Gulf to help

raise morale for the empire. That still like it feels like such an insane response. We've lost the guy who is the best at training stuff and best at military stuff. What should we do? Freeze our commanders right now. Yeah, we'll take our remaining

best soldiers and put them in cryosleep and hope it works out. It's like what happens till then? Like who who leads your forces if something else happens? Absolutely panic move. people who are not as good apparently. Yeah.

Maybe freeze those second best in case something happens to the best best that need to like hold the fort now, right? Imagine that being the way you find out that you simply don't have your boss's real confidence. Because all the people the boss really likes got put into suspended animation and you were left out. You thought you were one of the boys. It turns out no. No. You did not have that Riz. Now, the relationship between the bonded trio had strained and buckled over the years,

and during their training, the bonds between them would begin to give out. Farsight would go to make amends with Shadow Sun before she was put into stasis. Case had already been put in stasis, so he missed his chance. Farsight would try to speak kindly to Shadow Sun, and she would tell him to focus on his mission. As the Earthcast technicians would approach to begin the Stasis' process, process, he would make a sign to turn them away and place his hand over Shadow Sons. Here go, Bricky. There's a quote for you this time.

Yipi! As you wish then, I shall make you proud, Shas. Remove your hand, she said, cold and urgent. It is unseemly. Too shocked to do anything else. Farsight complied and stepped back. The earth cast scientists, each offering the sign of contrition as they passed him, surrounded her once more. Ovesa placed an oblong mask across Shadow Sun's mouth and olfactory chasm. Oh, wow. Her eyes, yeah, yeah, olfactory chasm is a very strange way to talk about a nose, but I guess it is like a slit, so.

Yeah. Her eyes slid over to meet Farsight's. The emotion in her gaze was as plain to him as it was visible to the technicians fussing around her. Goodbye, Commander Shadow Sun, said Farsight, his voice thin. I shall never forget the lessons you have taught me. And then they honk Shua and sleep on that thing. Dear God.

That's, oh boy. That's, no. I dubbed the unforgiven. The Damocles cannot forgive you for all that. Damn, we're now in the unforgiven bricky territory. Yep, I dubbed the unforgiven. Yeah. Turns out the hellhammer-Bainblade thing isn't going to go away.

It came back. We need more hellhammers. I cannot get past how deeply unpleasant a phrase olfactory chasm is. And I don't know why that's... Why would you do it? Like, surely they... If it's written from the perspective of the Tao, I'm assuming that they've got a better name for it than...

Like, what do you even say? If you're a Tao, oh, you're sorry about that. I've got a bit of a cold. My olfactory chasm is weeping. What the fuck is weeping? Imagine having a runny nose. with that thing too. Like, golly, their tissue paper's got to be the size of a fucking towel.

Also, I've never... I don't say that. Don't call it a runny chasm. That's bad. I don't like that at all. Also, I never really, like, looked in detail at, like, a towel's face. I didn't realize that their olfactory chasm went up into their forehead. We've got to stop.

Yeah, it's a big why. Yeah, I guess I never, I guess, I don't know what I thought it was. Like, in my head, I guess I was thinking their face was more like, um, he who shall not be named from that series that shall not be named. Um, God, I didn't realize it went that far up their freaking head. I gotta be honest. I clearly have like, I've clearly on, what is it? Um, uh, I've, I've recovered.

I've been healed because I didn't know what the hell you were talking about when you saw a series that shall not be named. before realizing it wore the beasts. Sure. I just want to point out that Possum did a very good play

on words here, which is towel, but it's spelled T A-U-L. For your runny chasm. Nice.

Nice. Yeah, you got to put that in the episode when Shai gets this making an editor's note to put that in there because that's nice.

Lovely work. So Shadow Sun would be placed in suspended animation awaiting redeployment. She knew this time would eventually come and she would be ready to serve the greater good when she woke up, even if it took a millennia. Fortunately for her, it was about seven years or so. I'm sorry, I just, I love the idea of resign.

Seven millennia? Seven years. Oh, God, I don't know why. Okay. Seven millennia would be crazy. Yeah, my ears and my brain are not connected today, apparently. So, sorry about it. I do like the idea of you could be in here for a thousand years.

Are you prepared for that? Yes, I am prepared. Seven years later. Like, come on. Why even bother at that point? What's the point of Freester for seven years? So, shortly after the far side expedition, things were a bit rough in tower space.

The Great War of Confederation was a grueling conflict between the Tao, the Orks, and eventually High Fleet Gorgon. The initial emergence of the orcs in the Western Vail Nebula wasn't truly believed by the Tao. The number of ships in the reported our minds, seemed inaccurately high and the Tao believed it to be a malfunction. Unfortunately for them, this is exactly how the orcs work, and they would unleash orkish hell across various sets.

Ornvar would amass a solid amount of forces to spread the ork fleet out, and it was fairly successful. Each time they would break apart the amassed fleet, the orc front would spread out and follow their own goals, breaking it down from a fully organised front to various other wares. The Tao would fight very strong and stubborn defensive campaigns, this time, because it was their belief that if they kept the orcs from having a single foothold, they could disband them even more. With the stalling of imminent destruction assured, Orn Vale would believe that it was time to initiate the next phase in his military plan,

eradication of the orc threat. To do this, he would wake up Shadow Sun. She would be placed immediately in control of the Empire's forces, and her tactical prowess would break the stalemate effortlessly, effortlessly, oh my God, effortlessly, dead effortlessly too. Yeah. It's the worst word. It's the worst one. And allow the Tao to advance rapidly.

She'd stride through combat zone to combat zone and would defeat the orcs without remorse and it was because of her efforts that she was deemed worthy of the title of Supreme Commander. I glanced over and saw effipously in the chat,

which meant I couldn't provide. Oh, I got help. Stop. Poor Curia. podcast hosts can't talk. Oh no. Oh, no, what's happened. An enemy of anemone.

No, I said it wrong too. Anyway, it's fine. There was a reason for this, as she would find out shortly after the conclusion of the conflict. A terrible truth. Farsight had defected and betrayed the greater good, and this was the last straw in a series of losses that tore her down. At some point before the third sphere expansion, Shadow Sun and her crew would crash land on the planet of Deeper 3. Believed initially to just be a regular old outpost, it turned out to be an exceptionally holy planet to the Imperium. With the assistance of a human

soldier who saw the inevitability of the Tao winning a potential conflict, she was able to survive and was able to make contact with Ornevar. The ethereal would then inform her of something tragic. While she was stuck on the planet, all her siblings had died. Oh, sick, dude. Jesus. Did she like her siblings? Because it might be a win. She, she,

I get the feeling she'd like to them more than disliked them. That's unfortunate. And they didn't even pay anyone to bully her. So it hasn't even got the comedy value of, you know, a Yarrick situation. True is not the same clearly. Well,

boy, that cover image of her is, yeah, she's not a happy camper. Wow, that looks awful. Yep. I'm sorry.

I do not like that. artwork at all. Yeah, that's um, am I crazy to say she looks like a like a like a like a like a monkey? I mean kind of screaming. I'm getting like I'm getting like screaming goblin vibes off that. Yeah. I'm getting the yeah goblin kind of like an ape yelling type thing. I don't know why. I hope I hope this whatever I just said is not insensitive but it's like I don't know. I mean. sure our Tao fans here will be very normal about it. The definition around the mouth is just really weird and exaggerated.

Yeah. In the way that none of her other artwork is, which makes it stand out. Other problem I have is there's just a couple strands of her orange hair blowing in her face, and it kind of looks like it gives her like a unibrow a little bit, and that's definitely not helping. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it covers up the olfactory chasm, though, so that's not a bad thing. God damn you.

It really doesn't plays her chasm. Truly, truly it does. Her olfactory chasm is not as on display as it should be. You're right. You're right, Pussam. Shai's never going to let you do this again, Puss. You better get in all the hits while you can. She's going to find a new writer in Shenner.

I don't say, Shy might not let us do this again. I don't think it's going to be all directed to potso. I think it's going to be, we're going to get it as well. So, yeah, her siblings are dead. Her sister, Chazelle Therese, had died during a peace delegation that went sour, and her sister, Chazelle Arumi, was slayed by dark Eldar pirates. Shadow Sun was the last in her line, and for a brief moment, she considered defecting herself.

The weight of tragedy was heavy on her shoulders, but she felt ultimately that it was best to stay and live up to the expectation she had for herself, and the expectations of her father's legacy. Driven by anger and heartbreak, she would make her first address the supreme commander at the Montaer Battle Dome, which was the same Battle Dome that Farsight himself trained at, and experienced simulation upon simulation upon simulation. She would stand at the Battle Dome with a prototype XV-22 battle suit. She would unload her weapons at the last statue of Farsight that stood there, obliterating the last standing effigy to the hero of old, that now,

now stood as a traitor. She would then outline her plans, including campaigns the empire, was soon to embark on, and would reinforce the important law of the Tao Vah. Every fire warrior in attendance would shout in one voice, fully ready to follow their new commander. Haza! Extremely healthy approach of dealing with trauma by simply getting on with it and pretending it didn't happen. Oh, yeah. Very, many such cases in our...

in our good old world here. Yeah. Shadowson, how did you deal with all that trauma? I just got over it, loser. Oh, all right. What do you mean I seem unnecessarily aggressive and permanently sad? Shut your face. Get away from me.

Yeah. Jesus. Too real. Saddust. I'm doing everything except going to therapy. Yeah. Sometimes you bottle it up and then eventually you tie. Words to live by.

Do not live by those words. No, don't do that. Shadow Sun was instrumental in the third sphere expansion, and though the Imperium's forces were spread thin due to the tyrannids and orcs attacking on all sides, a victory was a victory, and Shadow Sun would score a decisive battle at Mughlath Bay. In fact, it was the most decisive Tao victory over the Imperium yet,

but this came at a heavy mental cost. During this conflict, Kossaro Khan of the White Scars would be brutal, against the Tao forces and would inflict indescribable casualties onto Shadow Sun's command staff. Her normally stoic demeanour would be driven into an almost blind fury, which resulted in a horrific defeat at the Battle of Voltorus. Her personal retinny sacrifice is the only reason she would survive. She would not let those who sacrificed themselves to die in vain, and her debt efforts would be doubled in the Prefectia campaign, which the Imperium would dub the Fall of Prefectia.

Ravenguard chaptermaster Corvin Severax would launch a mission to ambush a Tao convoy over the world of Prefectia and would successfully destroy ethereal Orndo's orca. Though managing to eject safely, a rush from both sides to find him on the surface began, and Shadow Captain Solak would manage to find him. Before landing a killing blow, Orndo was able to activate a force shield and was taken to safety, pissing off Solac thoroughly. The Tao would begin to strike the world surrounding them, in an attempt to bottleneck the Imperium,

while Kavan Strike and Corsaro Khan would reinforce to not only strike Perfectia directly, but also, hopefully, assassinate Shadow Sun herself. The Space Brain's... Oh, what legend. It's so good. Love as many. Go on. It's the best.

Oh, I don't know that I've seen that. I've seen that artwork before. That's very cool art. Hell yeah. which is a big fan of, to be honest, seeing Ravenguard and White's scars in anything because boy, for a while there, it felt like Games Workshop had forgotten they existed. I'm going to say,

it's probably the only artwork where you see Tao in melee range and not being like, oh, yeah, she's dead. Yeah. Well, in fairness, she's damn close to being dead. She is, but if anybody's going to survive in melee range, probably Shadow Sun. A few boo-boos. I would think Farsight may be actually.

Oh, well, yeah. Yeah, but this is a Shadow Sun episode. I'm trying to glaze Shadow Sun. Not wrong words. When we get the lore for the Twin Lance, because the Twin Lance actually kind of rip in melee. Yeah, I want at least a book, a full book, because

those two models are incredibly good, and I love them. Not much, attempts me to play Tao, but Twin Lance, yeah, that actually does it. It doesn't look really cool. The space marine attacks on the surface were met with heavy resistance and was subject to a series of well-planned Keyon traps established by Shadow Sun, dwindling their numbers. The White Scars would attempt to rush and overwhelm the forces with pure speed, but the cunning of Shadow Sun was unexpected. During the conflict, she would strategically collapse her own tide-wall defenses with stealth suit teams onto Casaro and his flee. of Terminators hampering the efforts. The wall was keeping Shadow Sun on the move, and it was

not like her being there was a secret. In fact, she wanted the Imperium to know that she was there. Severax became obsessed with hunting her down by this point, and his pride had already seen an extensive list of victories. Word would be received by him that her battle suit was seen near a dried-up riverhead east of Aquilon, and the chaptermaster would go there personally to succeed where the men of the Khan had failed. Seeing her, he would descend rapidly and with his thrice blessed talons, he would turn her battle suit from white to filthy red, cutting it to ribbons and laughing in a hollow manner. I've got another little quote for you here, D.K.

All right. I'm assuming there's a little more to this than meets the eye. The laugh echoed longer than it should have. Something skimmed at Severax's flank. Something with a tread so heavy it felt it threw his power armored souls. There was a blaze of light, and Severax was suddenly halved at the waist, groping in horrified denial at the black armored legs that kicked and squirmed some yards in front of him. The last thing the chapter master felt was a blast of fire throwing him into the trench. His visions faded as his half-multant remains thudded into a morass of cooling human corpses.

Well, we'll even say it's a chasm of cooling human corpses. Nope, wouldn't say that You wouldn't say that You wouldn't say that? Gosh I wouldn't No Nope

Nope So A ravine of Calling human corpses They're similar on the surface But they have specific Differences that only the truly nerd you would appreciate So he got

He hit by the unforeseen warrior Right? He got got got He got proper shanked Wow Yes Proper shanked Yeah

Proper shanked Yeah He got the Yeah He got the London greeting or whatever Um What did you have to Okay

All right I'm allowed to say things like that I'm from this guy I guess we're all just using words now It's true Having seen strong thoughts Blindsided. Peaky blindsided.

Okay, pinky blindsided's pretty good. It's pretty good, yeah. Having seen the strike force, Shadow Sun suspected that the superior officers of the space marines would be lethal, but she wanted to know if they were still susceptible to her tactics. And as the chapter master cut a decoy in half while she watched in the shadows, she was glad to know that they were. Just as a side note, presumably this means that some poor bastard.

was like, sure, I shall stand here in the open, in your armor, and we'll see what happens. I really hope that I was a person who really's got a name, you know, a little bit of, a little bit of something. Yeah, probably. I mean, that's not the first time there's been someone that is so devoted to their commander that they're like, oh, yeah, I know I'm going to die. This is a sacrifice for the greater good. You're going to get Severax while he thinks that, you know, I'm you. And so yeah, that, that tracks for like devoted Tao casts, yeah. It's true.

I just, I just really hope, you know, they at least got to shoot someone before it happened. You know, you're in the- In Shadow Sun's armor, yeah. Yeah, just, you know, just, you know, let a couple of shots off so you've done something before you get absolutely butchered for the sake of finding out if space marines are also flawed beings. So Corvin Severax, had he known that it was Shadow Sun and killed him, him may have been impressed. The morale of the space marines would begin to shudder

and despite Shrike's efforts to exact revenge on Shadow Sun, she could not be caught. The Tao had only become stronger and day by day the imperial strongholds would fall. Profectia would be a victory for them. In fact, the victory was so exceptional that some of the Tao were naive and believed that the Imperium had fully retreated from the area. Oh, sweet summer children.

Oh, no. Don't worry, we have more victims to throw. I mean soldiers. These poor souls were met with the shock of a lifetime when the Imperium came back with a catastrophic counterattack, as the Imperium had tactically taken their forces away from this region to focus instead back on Mughalath Bay. The second battle of Mughalath Bay, or as the Imperium calls it, the second agrelling campaign, would begin with cataclysm, as the scale of the imperial invasion over the planet was not expected, and the orders to open fire with orbital battery was almost too late. The Imperial Navy would eventually gain air superiority, and the newly appointed Ravenguard Chapter Master Kavan Strike would be, surprisingly, one step ahead of Shadow Sun for a good portion of the conflict's opening.

Oh, the talent sacrifice to self was named Shula. Pull one out for Shula, good work, well done. That's a damn Shula. No, you tried. Yeah, I wasn't that good. It's not better my minds. Yeah, I've been there, I've done that. It's all right. It happens to all of us.

Ricky's been hell hammered again. It's okay. I said roll that beautiful bean footage earlier. You're fine. He had studied her moves quite heavily in the prior conflict and fueled with revenge, wanted to cut her down any way that he could. She would set traps as the Imperium Western spearhead began to move onto the Tao's massive military complex on Agrellen, and though they'd spring and be sort of successful, it was clear that they were not up to her normal standards, and the hastily assembled manner of them made it very obvious

that the Imperium was not going to be stopped. This was until the skies above the planet turned red. Aware of the imperial movement, and anticipating that the Imperium was going to head back to reclaim this world, Commander Farsight would shock both the Imperium and the Tao by triumphally returning to Tao space and leading his enclaves on a surprise blitz, through the Imperium lines.

The Imperium was not prepared for a counter-assault of this magnitude, and any attempts for them to break through were swiftly cut down by Farsight. Victory was in the Imperium's grasp, only for it to be taken away. Yay, we love Farsight, or at least I like Farsight, and the eight, who you can't actually play as. I mean, I guess you theoretically could, but... Not really. Like you can... Yeah, that's right.

That's right. You wouldn't even put them together, would you? Like, you wouldn't even, like, put them on the same team. Yeah, yeah. That sucks. That's unfortunate. I don't know why they haven't done like a detachment or a special box, to be honest. Yeah.

That would sell like hotcakes, I feel like, right? Actually, I don't really know. Yeah. I mean, a detachment especially, but no, no, no, we need two more space marine detachments. Yeah. Exactly. I don't even play the tabletop and even I'm like, that's absurd. Do space marines have more?

have more detachments than I think Drukari has data sheets. It's insane. It's sad. It's that's, it just sucks. That sucks. Oh, yeah. The deflated way you said that,

Kariath, is just gold. I just, I want people to have fun stuff. And I know space marines make up most of the sales, but like, also if you only give space marines stuff, it's more likely people will buy them,

because they'll look at, say, Dracari, it'd be like, wow, they have no fucking units and no, they don't have anything. It says self-fulfilling prophecy. Yeah. Yeah. It's the thing of the constant cycle of, oh man, space marines are a bit bloated.

We're going to shift a load of stuff over to legends, but we'd better replace all the stuff we shifted over because otherwise people won't buy space marines as much. And then they just end up just as bloated as before, and everyone else gets, fuck it. I'm going to stop. I'm just going to stop. We're going to carry on.

Reinforcements for the... I could genuinely go on like that for like an hour, but I'm not going to. Whole different episode. Yeah. Reinforcement for the Imperium would pour in from the south and the numbers advantage the Tao had would diminish. Imperial Knights would make their way to take out Farsight by flanking him and Shadow Sun would come to his aid by deploying her own forces to stop them.

As the conflict continued, Shadow Sun would keep rallying the forces as best she could until she was attacked by an assassin. The Caledus assassin disguised itself as ethereal Orn-Kar, and if it had not been through a force of Pathfinder bodyguards, she may have been killed. Less fortunate was Ornvar, who was successfully killed by a Colexus assassin in his bunker, though the truth of his death would remain a secret.

In a final act of desperation, the Imperium would fully evacuate before unleashing a degree of planetary devastation, not fully seen by the Tao before. exterminators would be conducted on the planet killing millions of Tao as well as any remaining humans as she recovered from her injury she would have one last piece of business to attend to Farsight

Classic Imperium Well if we can't have it No one can Yeah We did want the planet But you know you're really stubborn and we can just blow it up So enjoy And uh

A little bombardment go Enjoy and fuck you So she knew that the Atherials would order her to capture him So that he could face a trial of judgment So she went out of her way to meet with him first When they spoke he'd already had an idea that this would happen But didn't expect Shadow Sun to be the one telling him about it It was in his eyes fairly bold

She would say to him that his return was noble And was worthy of the greater good And it deserves a reward in kindness That kindness being hey, you should probably go now. Farsight would ask her what she would do if he didn't, and she said she would follow orders. Inevitably, the High Council would conclude

that Farsight must be captured, but he managed to slip away and avoid capture. Shocking. Yeah. Shadowson would once again be placed into stasis awaiting another time to do the empire proud, but it would not be for the fourth sphere expansion. It would be for the fifth sphere,

and to understand why, need to talk about what the hell happened to the fourth sphere. So the fourth sphere expansion was built out of insurmountable ruin. The Damocles Gulf was a hellish nightmare. High Fleet Gorgon had been running a mock and the Sautek dynasty was in full swing. Even worse, the galaxy just ripped itself apart thanks to some shit on Kadia and the empire was fractured as a result of it. The ethereal's needed to find hope and the earthcast may have figured something out. A new device was fashioned by lines in cruet and imperial tech. The AL-38 slipstream module would create a bubble of antimatter

around a ship and propel it fast enough to pierce the skin of reality. Tests initially were successful. The Tao who invented it, Fiova Cabuso, was very cautious about this whole thing. Quote-unquote Ornvar pushed the concerns of the inventor aside and amassed a new fleet to begin the fourth sphere expansion. It would start at the numinar point and the armada would engage their slipstream devices as one. In fact, this was such a big deal that the launching of this armada

was being actively broadcasted across the empire on all stations. Never a good idea. Don't ever do that. Did you say this tech makes a bubble of antimatter that's as big of a ship for them to travel in?

Yeah, it propels it fast enough to pierce the skin of reality. Uh-huh. That seems very dangerous. That, that does not seem safe at all. I don't, I don't, I don't like this tech. Sir, this is an M203 grenade launcher. Ah, potato potato, five. It goes real fast, though. You got a, you know, the boom, one of these things malfunctioning or gets hit wrong. It sort of very much reeks of we accidentally built like warp travel without knowing what the warp was, which is not necessarily ideal, especially if you're actively broadcasting your entire fleet's departure across the empire on every available station. But you know what?

If it all goes well, it's fine. what followed was a cataclysm beyond the understanding of the Tao I just knew very good curiosity solid delivery solid delivery yep yeah a cat I'm sorry I'm sorry one more time

a cataclysm beyond the understanding of the cat of the Tao yes beyond the understanding oh great a man made towel made horrors beyond my comprehension They've never comprehended a cataclysm like this in their history. We have no idea what went wrong, but we know it very, very much went wrong.

I don't know what happened there, but it was bad. Yeah. The entire expansion fleet was swallowed and a vortex of unreality was left in its wake. At the time, it was believed that they were fully lost, and the ethereal's would put in overtime to scrub the broadcast as best as possible. And, you know, with this loss, the final shred of hope that the empire had was kind of lost as well. I bet. Just a little bit. We've got this great, guys, we've got this amazing fleet.

We've got this great plan. Watch this. Nuclear explosion. Oh. Oh, shoot. Those antimatter bubbles weren't a great idea after all. But then after a decade there was a signal. A single drone beyond the zone of silence was orbiting a wormhole

and transmitting the ident codes from the fourth sphere expansion. Someone had survived. What is this video? What is this? Sorry. Oh no, I know what that is. Okay. After dealing with things we'll talk about in a bit,

the fourth sphere arrived at an unknown location. Led by Commander Shore Strike, they would colonize worlds nearby the wormhole and heavily fortify the area around it. You see, the fourth sphere, or what was left of it, was dispensed all the way in the Chalnath expanse in Ultima Segmentum. The terran reality where the fourth sphere went through would stabilize and would form as a direct connection between the Sept worlds and the worlds colonized by the fourth sphere. The wormhole would be dubbed the Star Tard Nexus and the defensive zone that surrounded it on the other end in imperial space was called the Nemiar Atoll.

Shadow Sun would be taken out of stasis to command the fifth sphere expansion which was to launch directly into the Star Tide Nexus and connect with the fourth sphere directly close enough, welcome back Deep Space Nine Not wrong, pardon, not wrong on that one So Shadow Sun and her fleet would make contact with the fourth sphere after travelling through the Nexus and would meet the remnants of the fourth sphere numbers-wise it was about two-thirds of the original fleet,

so the numbers were pretty good overall, but something was a bit off about them. And by that, I mean, they were actively killing the Tao auxiliary that only briefly stopped after the fifth sphere arrived. So that's kind of a problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just a little bit.

They experienced something unusual while they're in the Nexus, and some people, including the auxiliaries, were worshipping the Tao Varn not as a concept, but as an entity, and even those who didn't believe it, like most Tao, would see an entity in their dreams. The xenophobic and violent actions of the fourth sphere would disgust Shadow Sun, and she would call for an elemental council to go over what happened to them. During the council meeting, Shore Strike would say that as they were trapped in a horrific dimension, they would be attacked by creatures impossible to perceive.

Yay! Oh, yay! Yeah! Things horrific beyond the comprehension of the crew. On the brink of defeat, something saved them, something familiar, but not entirely tau-like. It had many arms and no facial features that were claimed to be Ta-Var itself made manifest.

So here you go, Bricky, this is for you. All right, as foul as that false idol was, it was the entity's appearance that precipitated the appearance of the worm, appearance twice in that sense of the wormhole that allowed us to escape nightmares take on substance in that other dimension we thought them behind us but it appears the creatures of that interstitial realm are not done with us yet there is another dimension behind our own and it is hostile all those tainted by it or who taint our culture with it must die there can be no peace amongst the stars yeah that's that that's that's a, you know, that's a, that's a fair reaction to what they witnessed. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of taint in that quote, too.

Just making up for the lack of, um, olfactory chasm in the, in the entity. So true, besties, so true. The council would be rocked with anger and frustration and Shorestrike would say that it was not the Tao who brought the evil or benevolent manifestations onto the ship. The Tao had done travel many times. this had never occurred before. And when they were attacked in the warp, the entities attacked the crafts of the non-Tau auxiliaries first. It was the theory of the fourth's fear

that the auxiliary forces are the weak link and are corrupted by moral decay. And when the auxiliaries were deployed in subsequent engagements, they made sure that they did not survive. All right. I do. I like the idea of, we're not sure why your ships specifically were getting

absolutely obliterated by demons, but I can only assume it's because of your moral failings. It's definitely... Now you must die for sure. Yeah. Look, the only reason you were attacked by that lion is because you had impure thoughts. What you mean?

We're talking about? It's not how that works. Though punished, they were not removed from service as there was a bigger threat on the horizon in the form of the death guard. Several months after the start of the fifth, sphere expansion, the fleet of Lord Eratius Glutox, what a name. All right, very good.

Death card, you say, no way. No, I can't believe it. Would begin to make their way to the atoll in an attempt to connect directly with the Star Tide Nexus. Shadow Sun would lead a strong assault against them, and as she did, she would find statues on the worlds taken over by the fourth sphere, statues of Talvaa erected by the auxiliaries. They looked familiar to her, but she brushed it off, destroying them and ordering the earth cast to tear down any tower of our temples they found during the battle. Her fascination with the entity and the desire to learn more bothered her, and she would channel an unfortunate amount of focus onto it.

This, however, was viewed as way too distracting and unbecoming of her, so much so that this combined with an injury she sustained would result in her being relieved of command and replaced with Shore Strike by Orn-Lah. frustrated by this, she would not only seek to learn more, but would also see to it that she would continue fighting for the greater good. She would gather a crew of auxiliaries and lead an attack on Glutusk's flagship, the Nephilim. As they boarded, the auxiliaries would pray loudly to Taubar, which just by itself is like, are you sure you want to be with these people, Shadows, son? You sure? Is this the plan? Yeah.

Though not a substantial effort, the impact of this would actually come. cut the morale of the deathguard quite a bit. Their sorcerer, diminus Thurglan, Jesus Christ, would essentially begin to see visions of imminent destruction if the deathguard continued their pursuit. Shadow Sun would fight valiantly on the ship and, as guided by an unseen force, she would turn and attack a wall behind her, causing part of the void ship to rip open and blow a metric ton of enemy soldiers into the void of space, along with her well-armed cadre of auxiliaries. Oh, goody.

God damn. Did she just have a deity's voice in her head being like, turn around, attack the wall. Okay. Like, so weird. I'm just seeing, I'm just seeing Kermit in the hood. Just go do it. That sounds like that's a little.

Solid reference. Be it divine intervention or pure luck, Shadow Sun and her crew would be saved and the conflict would end in a strange manner. Most of the deathguard vessels would withdraw from the atoll entirely and flee, thanks to the concerns of Thurg Lane, but others would not, including the damaged Nephilim. Those ships would enter the Nexus, but the Tao who were warned about it on the other side never saw anything emerge. The ships would be mid-transit through the wormhole when an entity would stop their movement and appear. before them. The entity would claim that it was the goddess Tauvam and Gleotosk was to scream, no,

she wasn't a god, the Tao are godless. The entity would say, but their allies are not, before grabbing the ships. Each talon was the length of a strike cruiser. She would hold the ships in place, and Gleotos would scream until his mind came apart.

Wow. What that, Pauls. To get a death guard, to scream until mind broke? like damn. That's pretty, that is pretty hard call. That's not.

That's worry. Didn't think, didn't think the mind break tag would get added to the death guard, but here we are. I was really hoping you wouldn't say that. Like, I,

a little part of me had like the solid snake exclamation point over my head when you put a sentence. And I was like, all right. Yeah, yeah. Tags here.

Mind break. Casum, taint. Yeah, we got a lot of weird. tags on this episode. You're welcome. This is just becoming the weirdest, like,

track list of an album I've ever seen. I don't even know what genre that would be, but... We got to keep awesome away from the episodes. This is... Yeah. Shy, you can't let this happen again. No more vacation. We can't be doing this anymore.

While recovering, Shadow Sun would remember a training she had while she was still under puritized. She was told to find a stone that was placed in a labyrinth under Mount Kanji. Initially, she was under the impression that solving the labyrinth would be her test, but a tide of water would sweep through it. Her test wasn't to enter it, it was to escape. This task proved to be exceptionally difficult for Shadow Sun, and after several days lost in the depths of the labyrinth, she would begin to break.

The water was pouring through the walls, and she was knocked around so many times that she was bloody. She would fall unconscious in the water, and she would see an apparition. Initially believing it to be a ghost, she would ask what it was. The entity would give her an amphora with, wait, would give her an amphora filled with air

and would tell Shadow Sun that it was a communality of species and destiny. Possum, what's an amphora? I don't know what that is. Weird. It's weird. It's just whatever it is, it's weird. Well, I just mean this whole situation with, um, with her and this this entity and and yeah for oh yeah I was I was kind of assuming

it was like a weird little vial I wasn't sure I didn't want to be like oh yeah it's this and then poss and be like no you dumbass it's just a bubble or something I don't know I just had one of those moments where I was like if it's a real thing it's probably something simple but if it's not a real thing and it's a 40K thing it's going to be stupid and I'm not going to know which one it is unless I ask so so sort of jug. I'm going to keep my mouth shut. Shadow Sun, funnily enough, denied this claim,

claiming that it was a ghost and nothing more, before the entity said, set against the cosmos, I am nothing, it is true. Though even a seed cast to the wind can flourish, if you will let me, child of hope. The waters would calm around Shadow Sun and she was able to see her surroundings. She asked how she could repay this entity,

and the entity responded by saying, I simply wish to exist, child. She would escape the labyrinth, but she would chalk this entity up to nothing more than a ghost. Nothing more than a ghost, eh? Hmm. Just a ghost. Nothing to worry about.

Yeah, not a ghost that gave you a vial of air or whatever. And, oh boy, all right. Sure, sure, sure, sure. Until now, obviously, because the entity itself looked much more like the statue she destroyed while fighting the death guard. and from her hospital bed, she would order the earthcast to cease their destruction of Taver shrines. The town needed some form of hope, and maybe this was it in some way. When she recovered, Shadow Sun's title was restored, and she was able to continue the fifth sphere expansion.

In the Chalnath expanse, she would secure many victories, and would be the mastermind behind system-wide campaigns, some being subtle, some being a show of overwhelming martial force. Following the victory at Astorgias, Shadow Sun would turn her attention back to the Orks, who were drawn to the violence in the Chalnath expanse and would seek a good crump in. They would invade through the Fulna Nebula with a whole lot of invasion fleets. The systems of Faxril, Rietov and Barreleer would be barely pacified, and there would be violent conflict on at least six other fronts. Shadow Sun was not going to let the Orks ruin her expansion in any way.

She would deploy her forces utilising a very complex web of positions throughout the systems, and her focus would be with the Keyon philosophy at the heart of it. She planned to bleed the momentum of the orcs dry and crush the threat posed, especially considering that the beginning of the sixth sphere expansion was almost inevitable at this point. That's where we are. We are fully caught up with Shadow Sun, and her we is, maybe not her, but... What do you mean? Maybe not her?

Oh. I was like, Shadow Sun definitely a her. I don't know what you're talking. Okay. Just random doubt cast right at the end of the end. No reason whatsoever. How long ago was this, like, this part written? There's a question.

So what, what's the published date on the, uh, on the shadow, But 2024 book. Oh, this was recent. Okay. Yeah. That introduction of an orglarice for the Tao is crazy. I'm genuinely shocked.

I haven't heard of this. I mean, it's nameless if I'm unmistaken, right? Oh, sorry. Possum says 2022. Even more surprised we haven't heard of it then. Well, that's the, that's the thing. It's like it's technically yes, but also no, because it's, it's, the Tao of us. So it's like it's it's kind of nameless but it's also not because it's just the greater good

but personified. Yeah made manifest almost and it's like grabbing death guard ships and making them go crazy which is a crazy thing to do. If it was just like warp hallucination shenanigans it would be like oh okay that's kind of that's a bit wild because it you know the auxiliaries are definitely prone to be affected by the war but it's clearly not a hallucination because it's grabbing death guard ships and wrecking them. So it's obviously got some significant power. And also isn't in any way aligned with chaos as a whole because, I mean, well, I suppose chaos, you know, constantly in fight, but randomly crushing some death guard idiot who would

have been killed as soon as they left the wormhole anyway. Theoretically, it could be aligned with chaos because we don't know entirely what this thing is, right? It's just some nonsense in the warp that said it was like a seed that got cavern. aside, right? But he's inch action. All right. So here's the thing that Possum just posed to him.

The survivors appeared hunted, especially in the presence of non-Tao. It was only by the insistence of the atherials that Shurstrike allowed alien auxiliaries to board the gate. Even then, his warriors trained pulse rifles on them constantly. What had become of the fourth sphere's own auxiliaries was a mystery, though dark whispers spoke of forced exiles and even mass liquidation. Some theorized the force-sphere Tao had witnessed something pure, being corrupted beyond countenance, and now placed the blame at the door of those aliens inducted into the Tao Vah. Weird. Hmm.

Yeah, that's so strange. It adds, like, this sort of creepy mystery around it that's kind of cool, actually. Yeah. And also, it kind of, you're sort of told a lot when it comes to, 40K books that the warp is like a weird reflection and, you know, at least a reflection of like emotion and all that sort of thing. And I mean, if they've invented something that effectively allows them to travel through the warp without realizing that's what they're doing and didn't know the warp was really a thing and their ships are full of humans and they don't

know about Gellerfield. Things are going to get weird on the ships, but they're being this whole separate thing of there being such a strong connection to the great. greater good for the auxiliaries that the warp mirrors that and creates like the entity of the greater good. So they've sort of birthed their own chaos god because they actually made their way into the warp even though they don't. Because normally the Tao, do they cast anything into the warp? They don't, right? Well, I think everything with a soul does. I think Tao have like a very, very small amount.

Yeah, because there's still a sort of newborn-ish. race, right? I believe that's because they don't have proper souls because they've got an olfactory chasm. That's set up. All right. Here we go. Yeah, also not being a particular religious

type to like deities. They've got souls. They got holes. Right in their olfactories. Yeah, yep. But I guess once they go into the warp, I guess that that can be made manifest, their greater good stuff, right?

So they could have just birthed the chaos god. I mean, I don't know if it was enough tau. Like literally, I don't know there's enough tau. Yeah. Well, the thing said it's a seed. Like, it didn't say it's a big, braw-w-rah-rah-rah-rah. They'd said it's just a castaway seed, right?

Yeah, but I mean, I guess. Maybe it's why it's so small. Because, I mean, like, yeah, there are other warp entities out there, you know? And it's not surprising that could be the case. It's just, I don't know, the tau it just feels like, well, the problem is that there's not enough. Yeah. We don't have enough information.

Yeah. Yeah. We're going off a few lines from a relatively new thing. What Possum said there is kind of what I was thinking as well, where it's like, it's not, it's not the Tao that are doing it. It's the auxiliaries that are doing it. But the auxiliaries believe in the greater good and a soul, like, passionate about it, that it's manifesting as something.

that they actively want to worship, which to be fair, if you're looking at like, especially human auxiliaries for a start, if they're brought up in the Tao Empire, then they will have known nothing but the greater good. And if they are defectors from the Imperium, they have been raised to worship the emperor and have been presented with an alternative that, for the most part, is probably a bit better. So instead of having the one thing to focus on worshipping, they're given an alternative and told, well, this is just how things are. But there's got to be ingrained habit

or like an ingrained need or want to, you know, perform worship that's going on that then just manifests things where things can be affected like that in the wall. And I mean, it's not even just humans, is it? For all these other ways, there's the crew as well. There's a couple of different species. there are a lot of species that are like almost extinct but like there's still a bunch of them that are auxiliaries for the tau.

Yeah. Like how many vespis are there? Do vespids worship stuff? I don't know. Their minis are so cool. I like the vespits. And possums, right. We did say that like the goddess said to the death guard, it's not really the Tao.

It's the auxiliaries that are doing it. So, yeah. I guess it's the whole, God, I was about to say the whole brundle because the teleport episode. But yeah, it's the whole bundle. like it's not just Tao, it's the Tao and everything under their umbrella. Ah, yes, mindbreak, chasm, and brundle. Brundle fly, you know? Yeah, I mean, not, now is the thing of I kind of want to know more,

but I also like the idea that we don't know that much. Oh, yeah, I kind of hope it stays a mystery, and it's just sort of this, you know? We don't always need to know every detail. I'd like a few more details. I think there's a middle ground. That's fair. bit more details on that. Yeah.

Don't tell us everything, but just give us a little bit. A little bit more. It'll be nice. Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. That's that shadow sun from the start to where she is now. And with any of you look, when the next book is written, it will follow more in line

of the shadow sun side of things and not the far side of things, because that way Possum will actually enjoy reading it. Oh, poor Possum. Has to read all the wolf books. I've changed my mind. There ain't no poor possum anymore I'm After this episode

I've seen T is the problem Oh poor possum Come on Yeah Showson Shadows is like a big roller coaster of ups and downs in it Boy she's Yeah Definitely

Peaks and valleys To the to the nth degree Like crazy Peaks and castle Oh no Just end it Just let's get out of here. Send us home.

Yeah, fuck you.