Commander Farsight

"Each must find their own way. If those in our heartland had witnessed the savageries of the void as have we they would know this. The hand of each of the great starfarers is turned against the other, none will join their strength together just to see their ancient enemies prosper. Neither should we."

- Commander Farsight

Shas'O Vior'la Shovah Kais Mont'yr, also called O'Shovah, but better known to the Imperium of Man as Commander Farsight -- the Hero of Vior'la, Protege of Puretide, and The Bane of Greenskins, is the Tau Commander alleged to still be leading the break-way Tau colony worlds known as the Farsight Enclaves in the Segmentum Ultima, although this would mean that he has lived for at least three Terran centuries, considerably beyond the ordinary lifespan of Tau Fire Caste members. It may be that another Tau warrior 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 Enclaves maintain a strongly martial tradition closely based on the traditions of the Vior'la Sept (literally "hot-blooded" in the Tau Lexicon), O'Shovah's birthplace within the Tau Empire.

History
"Learn to shorten your reach! If your foe can come close enough to negate your striking power, all stratagem is lost and when all stratagem is lost, the battle is lost."

- Commander O'Shova

There is no figure in Tau history as divisive as Commander O'Shovah. The most famous Tau warrior ever to emerge from the Vior'la Sept, Farsight's greatest victories were against the Orks on the oxide-deserts of Arkunahsa. There, clad in his battlesuit, he led a masterful campaign that defeated armies numbering hundreds of times greater than his own loyal troops. Farsight's training, much of which was under the direction of Commander Puretide himself, had taught him the use of terrain and the importance of a bold, decisive stroke to cripple his enemies. Preferring to eschew long-ranged firepower, O'Shovah encouraged the aggressive spirit of the Fire caste in his warriors, and they won many bitter battles at close range. It was O'Shovah's tactical brilliance that earned him his famous title 'Farsight'.

Along with the forces of another of Puretide's pupils, Commander O'Shaserra, Farsight's Hunter Cadres were instrumental in holding off the advance of Imperial forces on the sept world of Dal'yth during the battles that raged back and forth across the Damocles Gulf. His attacking style left Imperial forces reeling, unsure where the next hammer blow would fall. Although victorious in eventually driving the forces of the Imperium from the face of Dal'yth, the Tau Empire was facing a time of great disconcertion.

The Tau, always so assured of the superiority of their cause and of their abilities, had been swept away from dozens of newly colonised planets and even suffered an attack on one of their sept worlds. The Ethereals named this period the Nont'ka - the time of questioning. Realising that some were beginning to doubt their message of superiority, the Ethereals sought for a new hero to rekindle the spirit of expansion and to firmly re-establish the Tau's rightful destiny - the ultimate triumph of the Greater Good.

In the wake of their victory on Dal'yth, the Ethereal Council ordered vast reclamation attacks to reconquer their recently lost colonies. Many successful Commanders were considered to lead the spearhead, but in the end, it was Farsight's flawless battle record and his flair for dramatic victories that earned him a formal ceremony of recognition from the Ethereal High Council. The Water Caste's top propaganda efforts were put behind Commander Farsight's Coalition - perhaps the largest fleet of warships, ground troops and colony ships yet assembled by the Tau Empire.

However, there was no need for embellished accounts, for in the ensuing battles O'Shovah truly established his greatness. The bulk of Mankind's forces had been conscripted to fight a menace in another sector, and the Tau quickly re-established rule over planet after planet. With a skill bordering on prescience, Commander Farsight knew when to attack brashly and when to employ skilful manoeuvres and ambushes. Not since the peak of Commander Puretide's triumphs had the Tau Empire been so united by the deeds of a single warrior.

The Farsight Expedition, as it came to be known, ran into unexpected difficulties with Orks who had taken advantage of the Tau's war with the Imperium. With no opposing military power in the region to stop them, the Greenskin forces were free to expand their territorial raids, subjecting many of the nearby planets to the brutal whims of their cruel overlords. O'Shovah abandoned his recolonisation efforts to confront the Orks, drawing his forces far from their assignments and eventually into a decade-long war across multiple star systems. The battles raged far beyond the borders of the Tau Empire, yet Farsight was wholly absorbed by this new campaign. Although claiming many victories, Commander Farsight grew increasingly embittered -- he felt that his Coalition was not receiving the continued support from the Ethereals that it deserved. The loyal warriors beneath him, a dedicated troop of acolytes, strongly agreed.

Back on the distant Tau homeworld of T'au, the Ethereal Council debated their next move, for many had grown wary of the strong-willed Commander, feeling a growing breach with their appointed leader that had nothing to do with the great distance between them. Even as Aun'Va came to the conclusion that the wayward Farsight must be relieved of his command and recalled, a new disaster struck. It happened at the periphery of the Damocles Gulf during a battle on the world of Arthas Moloch, a deserted world save for strange monuments and ruined shrines of some long-forgotten culture. All of the Ethereals in Farsight's expedition were slain by an unknown enemy in the course of the conflict on that world.

Undaunted, Farsight weathered the savage attacks of the unrelenting foe after discovering a weapon, the Dawn Blade, in the ruins of Arthas Moloch that aided him in driving back the enemy incursion. After defeating the strange foe, Farsight pulled his forces back from Arthas Moloch's ruins in the hope of learning more about the strange, demon-like fiends that had attacked his forces before launching a retaliation. Soon, however, the mysterious beings disappeared with the same suddenness with which they had arrived. With the world of Arthas Moloch apparently cleansed, Commander Farsight pushed ever onwards, pursuing the Orks lest they make good their escape. He did so in strict disobedience of Tau protocol, for without the guidance of any Ethereals, it is a Fire Caste Tau Commander's duty to immediately report back to the Ethereal High Council and await new orders.

Before long, Farsight was beyond the reach of even the most advanced communication relays and was no longer operating within the bounds of the Tau Empire. Years went by and no messages came back, until it was eventually assumed by the Ethereals that their never-defeated Commander had, at long last, been vanquished -- dying on a distant planet, far from the stars that lit the Tau Empire. All castes on every Sept bowed their heads low when the loss of this revered hero was broadcast across the Empire.

Yet Commander Farsight was not dead. Obstinately choosing to press on with his personal crusade rather than return to the bosom of his Empire, Farsight instead established a string of heavily fortified strongholds across the frontier space on the far side of the Damocles Gulf, a region long forbidden to the Tau. Even now, sporadic signals from long-range probes are received by the Ethereal High Council, which confirm the continued existence of the Farsight Enclaves. There has even been evidence -- unique signature signals from his personalised early-model Crisis Battlesuit and a few far-ranged visuals -- that Farsight himself still lives. This is, itself, a great and confounding mystery, for it would mean that Farsight has lived for at least three centuries, considerably longer than the ordinary lifespan of any Tau, save only the unknowable Ethereals.

It may be that O'Shovah is extending his lifespan through some technological process or that a series of successors has taken up the mantle of Farsight. Regardless, the Ethereal High Council has labelled O'Shovah a renegade, and has forbidden any communications between the inhabitants of the Tau Empire and the rebels of the Farsight Enclaves.

In truth, the root of Farsight's defiance of the Ethereals lay in the Battle of Arthas Moloch. The terrible bloodshed that had marked the purge of that world's Orks had served as a sorcerous conduit which had opened a portal into the Warp. The result was a sudden incursion by the Forces of Chaos. With the aid of recovered alien artefacts, the Tau sealed the Warp rift, but not before the expedition's Ethereals had been slain by the daemons and other servant of Chaos that had come pouring through the rift. During that battle, Farsight had received a vision of life within the hellish Eye of Terror and in the aftermath of his victory came to realise the threat that Chaos represented to the Tau and all thinking beings in the galaxy. He now understood that the underpinnings of the universe were not orderly and rational as proclaimed by Tau philosophy and the Greater Good. Farsight also came to the realisation that the Ethereals as a caste knew something of the reality of Chaos but had kept this terrible truth from the Tau. The more he thought on the Ethereals involvement in such obfuscation, the more his midn focused on thouhts that would be considered heresy within the Tau Empire. At first he merely thought that the Ethereals' leadership of the Empire was flawed, that the other castes would be better off seeking harmony with each other without the oversight the Ethereals provided. But the more Farsight thought on the matter, the more he remembered instances where obedience to the Ethereals had been taken to illogical and foolish extremes. Worse, many of the actions taken under their guidance, which had seemed both wise and necessary at the time, in hidsight seemed only deplorable and ethically suspect. The inevitable conclusion, that the Etherals' control over the Tau species extended beyond simple logic and loyalty to something darker, drove Farsight to experience a sickening panic. The truth he held about the Ethereals could dissolve the hard-won Tau Empire and drive the Tau back to the time of the Mont'au, a time of disunity and constant violence between the various Tau factions, which would be a fate far worse for the Tau species than the enforced tyranny of Ethereal rule. Unable to tell any of his allies within the Empire the truth for fear of bringing about the collapse of the Empire, but unwilling to pretend or forget what the Ethereals were doing to his species, Farsight had chosen exile over obedience, and founded the Farsight Enclaves where his people could forge their own destiny, free of Ethereal control.

Motivations
"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, an outcast now..."

- Commander O'Shova - Personal Recordings

O'Shovah's true nature and intents were some of the most debated subjects within the Tau fan community. Some believed he ultimately acted in the interest of the Greater Good. In fact, a few even believed, correctly as it turned out, that he discovered a terrible secret about the Tau Empire, in particular the nature of the Ethereal Caste 's rule over the Tau Empire and end of the Mont'au period. Others held him to be tainted by Chaos or another dark force as a result of his corruption by the (supposedly) daemonic blade he now wields in combat. This would also explain his long life. Indeed, a report filed by Inquisitor Artelles of the Ordo Malleus states that the Dead World of Arthas Moloch where Farsight discovered the Dawn Blade and fought the Forces of Chaos once housed a large population of Heretics and mutants, ruled over by the Traitor Marines of the Alpha Legion. The planet was cleansed by the Scythes of the Emperor Space Marines. According to the Scythes' history of that action, there were non-human structures to be found on the planet as well, before the cleansing.

So far, the answer of what changed Farsight's behaviourlies in the regression of Farsight's mind to the natural Tau state through a lack of Ethereal pheromone control following the battle on Arthas Moloch, which freed his mind to begin thinking clearly once more. Though he still acts for the Greater Good and for the Tau Empire, his allegiance is based on a developing understanding of the personal choice a Tau would feel while separated from the dominance of the Tau caste structure and the psycho-chemical means of control used by the Ethereals to control all of Tau society. O'Shovah has done some things that are unacceptable within the Tau Empire. The source of his perceived taint, however, is debated within the Empire. Some Tau claim he now fights for personal gain rather than for the Greater Good. Others hold that the name Farsight is simply passed on from Commander to Commander in the Farsight Enclaves over the decades rather than being the same individual who has lived an unnaturally long lifespan. The truth of these matters, which remain unknown to all but Farsight himself and perhaps his closest companions, has been documented above.

The Eight
Commander Farsight does not possess a conventional bodyguard for a Tau Commander of his elevated status. Rather, he draws from a band of warriors known as The Eight. The Eight are notable for having a number of Fire Warriors of the rank of Shas'o, rather than the normal rank of Shas'vre which defines the Tau Fire Warriors who usually comprise a Tau Commander's bodyguard unit. The Eight also includes an XV88 Broadside Battlesuit that is completely controlled by an advanced and fully sentient artificial intelligence, a Tau Fire Warrior who has been sealed within his Battlesuit as a form of life support in a manner similar to that of a Space Marine Dreadnought, and even a member of the Earth Caste who has proven to be a skilled pilot of an XV104 Riptide Battlesuit that has been modified to accommodate the skills of its unusual pilot.

Name
Farsight's name in the Tau language or Tau Lexicon is broken down thusly:
 * Shas (member of the Fire Caste)
 * 'O (Commander, highest rank attainable within the Fire Caste)
 * Vior'la (the Sept, or Tau colony world, where Farsight was born)
 * Shovah ("Farsighted," the core concept of his name)
 * Kais ("Skillful")
 * Mont'yr (Blooded ) (literally, "seen battle")

Wargear

 * XV8 Crisis Battlesuit
 * Dawn Blade - The Dawn Blade was found by Commander Farsight in the ruins of a pre-human civilisation on the Tau Artefact World of Arthas Moloch. It flickers with unknown energy when he swings it, and cuts a swathe easily through most types of enemies and even armoured vehicles. Unknown to Farsight, its blade is forged from Chaotic chronophagic alloys which can absorb life force and add a slain foe's remaining natural lifespan to that of its owner. This is the secret of Farsight's remarkable longevity for a Tau, though he is unaware of this effect and would be appalled if he knew the truth of the weapon's origin.
 * Plasma Rifle
 * Shield Generator