First Sphere Expansion

The First Sphere Expansion marks the rise of the emergent Tau Empire as a dominant species through massive colonisation efforts and exploration, pushing the boundaries of their ever-expanding empire and establishing new "sept worlds". This period of expansion occurred in the late 39th Millennium following an unprecedented period of rapid change heralded by new inventions and great leaps of advancement in many fields, including space travel. The notion that the Tau's future lay in the stars was keenly grasped by all castes. Therefore, the Tau began to push their realm outwards at an explosive rate.

History
The rise of the Tau can be seen to develop through three distinct phases, periods of intense growth known to the Tau as "Spheres of Expansion". Each of these waves of colonisation is marked by a long building up of resources, after which continual waves of exploratory missions are launched, followed, where needed, by military campaigns to solidify territorial gains. Once a colony transforms itself into a stable settlement, it then serves as a jumping-off point for the next expansion. By the end of the millennia-long First Sphere Expansion, as it later came to be called, the Tau Empire had unfurled across the heavens and consisted of eight fully settled systems known as septs. Named after its prime or "sept world", a sept can include any number of additionally colonised planets or moons, as well as other holdings such as listening po ts, sensor fields, shield satellites, orbital cities, and mining operations. Everything is connected, both by a series of space stations and a massive net of communications and sensor relays strung between major locations. Although it might take many generations to establish itself, each sept is unique, with its own cultural nuances and varying proportions of the different castes and alien populations. [[Category:F]]