In the wake of the Imperium's failed Damocles Gulf Crusade, the Fire Caste commander Shas'o Vior'la Shovah Kais Mont'yr, whom the Imperium names Farsight, led a mighty expedition across the perilous gulf to reclaim the colonies the war had severed. What began as a campaign of reconquest became something the Ethereals never sanctioned. Upon the dead artefact world of Arthas Moloch, Farsight's host battled a nightmarish foe, and every Ethereal accompanying the expedition perished. From that day the commander grew quietly certain that the Aun ruled by means darker than wisdom alone.
Rather than return meekly to the Empire's fold, Farsight established four heavily fortified colony worlds on the far side of the Damocles Gulf and declared them free of all Ethereal oversight. The Enclaves' capital of Vior'los is a volcanic hell whose furnace-heart powers the realm's forges, and from its strongholds Farsight's warriors keep to the martial traditions of old Vior'la, placing their faith in the battlesuit and the blade sooner than in any spiritual master.
The wider Empire brands this territory the Forbidden Zone and its founder a traitor to the Greater Good, yet the Enclaves endure, shielded by some of the deadliest commanders the T'au have ever produced, chief among them the elite war-council known as the Eight. Strangest of all is Farsight himself, who has led his people for three centuries and more, far beyond the span of any ordinary T'au, a mystery bound up with the crimson blade he carried out of Arthas Moloch.
T'au Empire
Order of battle
The Farsight Enclaves field the units of the T'au Empire — a detachment from the roster:
Kindred formations
Other T'au Empire formations
Bork'an SeptBork'an is the foremost seat of learning in the T'au Empire, its systems crowded with universities, laboratories and the deep-void observatories of the Earth Caste. From this scholarly sept came breakthroughs such as the stasis field and the first piloted battlesuit, and its Fire Warriors march to war bearing the finest experimental armaments the Empire can produce. Its cadres fight with cold, measured patience, trusting that a lesson learned in the laboratory will be repaid a hundredfold upon the battlefield.
Dal'yth SeptDal'yth is the beating heart of T'au commerce, a First Sphere world whose culture is dominated by the silver-tongued merchants and diplomats of the Water Caste. More cosmopolitan than any other sept, its worlds teem with aliens of a hundred species who trade, treat and dwell alongside the T'au. It was Dal'yth's envoys who bound the Demiurg to the Greater Good, and its markets are counted among the Nineteen Wonders of the Empire.
Sa'cea SeptA sprawling and populous sept whose vast manufactories and shipyards keep the empire's war machine supplied.
T'au SeptThe homeworld sept and spiritual capital of the empire, birthplace of the Ethereal caste's founding vision.
Vior'la SeptA volcanic frontier sept renowned for producing the empire's most aggressive commanders and battlesuit pilots.