Farsight
- – Jack Churchill, or "Mad Jack", British Army officer during WWII
- – Farsight moments before an Ark of Omen steals the show
O'Shovah, better known as Commander Farsight, or Shas'O Vior'la Shovah Kais Mont'yr, or Da Red Komet, is owner of the longest (xeno) name in the galaxy as well as the closest thing the Tau have to a stone-cold badass and is the only Tau /tg/ can respect since he lacks the usual naive, obnoxious and arrogant attitude of his kind. This is largely due to being the only known Tau to opt for a bloody great sword and shield over the clinical sub-atomic-pulse-plasma-ion-rail-blaster-rifle-cannons his race are famed for. His fearsome reputation is most widespread among the Orks. Oh, and his name is a fucking pun (all T'au are nearsighted and don't have good vision without their gear).
He is also a clone of the Gundam character Char.
Farsight most resembles some sort of hybrid of Char Aznable (Red Battlesuit, separatist philosophies, arch-rivalry with a White Battlesuited ace pilot), Oda Nobunaga (Ruthlesss pragmatism, scorched earth tactics, close range firearms tactics), Hojo Tokimune (Rallying the troops against an unstoppable horde of barbarians), Big Boss from the Metal Gear series (having had to kill his mentor at the behest of his leaders, and now leading a resistance group against said leaders) and Kambei Shimada (Get it? The Eight? Seven Samurai?).
This gets complicated...[edit]
Like a good chunk of 40k, Farsight's lore has been iterrated, expanded, and revised over the years. So let's go over that, shall we?
In The Beginning[edit]
- – Attr Commander Farsight 765.M41
Originally, Commander Farsight was a very notable Tau Commander who gained earned his name in the Arkunasha War. In the arid rust-deserts of the world, Farsight won his first and most-notable victories against Orks when the Greenskins threatened the Tau colony there. Against forces many times his own number, Farsight led masterful defences; he would use the canyons and gulleys to great effect, tricking the Orks into chasing down shadows in order to split their forces up, and destroying isolated elements when they were boxed off from the greater force. It was these actions that earned him the name of 'Farsight'.
These strategies were novel in dealing with the Orks, but ultimately they failed when his fire warriors were besieged and forced to hold out in the Argap highlands. With his own defensive tactics and the natural fortress provided by the mountains, Farsight's forces were able to hold out against the Orks' assaults for months until the last remnants were evacuated.
Curiously, while Farsight was very successful in diminishing a force multiple times his own size, he was ultimately unsuccessful in defeating the Orks on Arkunasha. Why this is the case is up for debate: perhaps he simply didn't have enough Fire Warriors to begin with given the size of the enemy force, or perhaps his tactics were simply ineffective given how the Orks reproduce. Killing off small pockets of Orks does nothing but help spread their spores, and soon every destroyed Greenskin will be replaced by several more. After Farsight was driven off, the Orks were left alone on Arkunasha for a year before his replacement commander arrived and managed to scatter them.
Farsight's defeat, and in his first campaign no less, ended up having a profound effect upon his psyche. He became embittered during the months-long siege, and seemed to blame others for failing to break out of it. This is the point Farsight seemingly decided it wasn't enough to specialise in breaking apart his enemies strategically, he would do so physically. He denounced the traditional Tau way of training in long-range warfare to the exclusion of all else, and began training his warriors heavily in hand-to-hand combat. It would be the first sign of division between him and the wider Tau, one that would only grow after he was chosen as one of the commanders to be sent out to reclaim the lost colonies on the planets that had been 'cleansed' during the Imperium's Damocles Crusade.
Keep in mind, Farsight back in these editions was one notable commander among many, and if it wasn't for what happened when he left the Empire as a whole, he might have been more of a footnote. As the expeditionary fleet went about reclaiming their worlds, Farsight came across an 'Artefact World' later known to be Arthas Moloch, and it was here that he fully broke away from the Tau Empire. Arthas Moloch itself was home to a large Chaos cult, until it was eventually purged by the Scythes of the Emperor, and while he was down there, Farsight's forces fought an unknown enemy, one that was so foreign that while they reported they'd engaged a foe, they did not describe what the foe was. During the battle, the Ethereals accompanying Farsight's forces were all killed, but it was never stated by what. Fans were free to speculate, as the suspects could've been anyone on the planet, ranging from Daemons accidentally summoned by the artefacts they found, to Farsight himself.
After the disastrous engagement on Arthas Moloch, Farsight's own expeditionary force came across an Ork incursion into Tau space, and immediately he abandoned the reclamation effort. A decade-long campaign ensued whereupon Farsight pushed into Ork-held territory, into an area the Ethereals normally forbade ships to enter, and it was here more discrepancies emerged between Farsight's group and the wider Empire. Seemingly having lost patience with fighting the Orks, Farsight inflicted Exterminatus on the Greenskins (though how he did so is not stated). This marks him as the first Tau Commander who led a campaign not for the Greater Good, but revenge, and also the first who committed xenocide across multiple worlds.
When Farsight was well beyond the reach of Tau space, he chose to build multiple heavily fortified stronghold colonies instead of returning to the Empire. This would mark the formation of the Farsight Enclaves, as they came to be called, in approximately 760.M41. Bereft of the leadership of the Ethereals, the Farsight Enclaves were in danger of sliding back into 'Barbarism', as the Tau put it, where one Caste sought to dominate the others. The fire caste certainly appeared to become the most prominent within the Enclaves, as they became a martial society geared for battle: three years after they'd established their fortress colonies, they set out to work as mercenaries.
This was an event that the wider Tau Empire lamented; the Farsight Enclaves would offer and take work from everyone, regardless of allegiance, so long as they paid the materials that the Enclaves asked for. This even extended to fighting the Tau Empire itself, and even to the Imperium the water caste would mourn the result, saying that a society run by the fire caste would want nothing but war all the time, but despite the urgings of the other castes, the Ethereals have not ordered the Tau Empire to directly engage with Farsight's people.
In their time as mercenaries, the Farsight Enclaves were most active in the years 770-820, a fifty year timespan where they were likely still establishing their foothold over their new territory, and after that sightings drop considerably. Rumours abounded that the Enclaves were seen fighting beside Kroot (not surprising at all) to Tallerians, Human renegades, Eldar, Traitor Legions, and even Orks (the most unlikely, given the Enclaves' history with them). Despite the fact Farsight fought the Imperium in the Damocles Gulf Crusade, his people seem to hold no ill-will because they've been recorded making offers even against terrifying odds, such as when they offered to help in the evacuation of Aleph Sigma when Hive Fleet Harbinger bore down upon the populace. It's also suspected that a number of free captains have established trade routes into the Farsight Enclaves, however such activity was never verified.
Exactly what caused Farsight to break off from the Tau Empire, either on or after Arthas Moloch is unknown. The Ordo Malleus suspects that Farsight became influenced by the Ruinous Powers when he arrived at Arthas Moloch, as it's entirely possible he could've come across Chaos aretefacts, while the Ordo Xenos suspects other, more material influences. They postulate that the Farsight Enclaves have fallen to the infiltration of another Xenos faction, such as Genestealers, or more obscure parasites, vampires or symbiotes that now control their actions. The Ordo Hereticus has chosen to believe a far simpler answer: that Farsight had a crisis of faith, and became disillusioned in the Ethereals themselves. The Hereticus believe that he betrayed the Ethereals, though whether he acted from revenge, power-lust or disgust, is unknown. They assume this is why the Tau Empire is reluctant to deal with the Enclaves, as ideas themselves can be contagious, and if more Tau were exposed to the Enclaves' ideology, it is possible they might have more dissidents. This seems to have merit, as the Enclaves have some sympathisers in the Tau Empire, though the fire caste who speak about them claim that Farsight is still operating under the Greater Good, even if it's in a strange form.
Perhaps the strangest theory, is that Farsight didn't actually branch off from the Tau Empire at all, and is instead pursuing some strange agenda from the Ethereals, much like how some commanders were known to take on the mantle of pirate lord, mercenary, or renegade to achieve some end for their masters. This seems unlikely, given how the Farsight Enclaves have existed for hundreds of years now, and there's seemingly no benefit for when they fight the Tau, and it ruins the morale of any Tau who discuss it.
Farsight himself seems to still lead the Enclaves, having lived several times past the normal Tau lifespan, though whether it is the same person having extended his life somehow, or a successor who took on his mantle is also unknown. In the end it likely doesn't matter, as by the end of 999.M41, Farsight is a virtual non-entity for the majority of Tau; they remember him as an old soldier who went off into the depths of space and never came back. This makes him one among many who've seemingly vanished from the public consciousness, and interestingly enough, the Imperium is worried his Enclaves might be a greater threat than the entirety of the Tau Empire, IF he and his people have been corrupted by some sort of outside influence, especially if it's Chaos or Tyranid in nature.
Fourth edition would add in some new details, such as the existence of Commander Puretide. Whereas before Commander Farsight's teaching was not mentioned, now he was listed as one of the many students of the great Teacher. Though Puretide tried teaching every aspect of war he'd mastered, few (if any) understood the full extent of his teachings, and most of his students would become focused on a single aspect and worked on it to the exclusion of all others. Entire schools cropped up with this mindset, and Farsight was no different; he too would choose to study only a single avenue of war under Puretide. 4th Edition also introduced his rivalry with Shadowsun, and established that they'd both chosen to study vastly different subjects under Puretide, with their differing views leading them to inevitable conflict down the line.
Suddenly 6th Edition![edit]
6th edition would offer some more drastic changes. Farsight was now suddenly a favoured protege under Puretide, while Puretide's teachings were now suddenly offered to only the greatest students. This turned Farsight from one Commander among many who had a novel solution to dealing with Orks, and who splintered off from the Tau due to unknown reasons, to somebody who was a near-perfect soldier even before he donned a battlesuit. Puretide taught him all of the tactics he would later employ on Arkunasha and Farsight was now written to be one of the most instrumental commanders in holding back the Imperium when they attacked the Dal'yth sept world. This also marks the start of when the Tau are no longer written to have a whole network of Commanders working alongside one another in the wider war, to single Commanders taking charge of world-wide campaigns, to the point that it seems if both Farsight and Shadowsun died, the rest of the Tau would've been left helpless.
Notably, 6th edition entirely removed Farsight's defeat at Arkunasha. His battles on the planet are mentioned, but his loss is completely excised from the codex, and it doesn't seem to have had any effect on him whatsoever. His entry lists him as having a "flawless battle record", he is given the credit from driving the Imperium from Dal'yth (even though they left to go fight Hive Fleet Behemoth), and he was also put in charge of the entire effort to reclaim the worlds lost to the Imperium's Crusade. In the past, he was one among many who led their own fleets to reclaim the planets, but now the entire reclamation was balanced on him, and the book states that the Tau Empire itself was "united by the deeds of a single warrior".
In this new version, the Orks expanded into Tau space, into the planets the Imperials 'cleansed' during the Damocles Crusade, and Farsight ended up chasing them into Arthas Moloch, which is an odd reversal from past events where he came upon the planet first. In this version, Farsight launched into his decade-long campaign even though it ran contrary to the instructions the Ethereals had given him, and he waged his personal war far beyond the boundaries of the Empire's borders. Sometime after he'd abandoned his original mission, Farsight began to bitch and moan that he wasn't receiving the support he used to from the Ethereals, unfortunately nobody told him "no shit Sherlock".
Back on Tau, the Ethereals were beginning to grow worried that their chosen commander had gone AWOL FOR TEN FUCKING YEARS and they decided that he had to be relieved of command, but then Farsight finally made it to Arthas Moloch. Here it's made more clear that he was not only fighting Daemons, but it's outright stated his Ethereals were killed by Daemons. Apparently, Farsight didn't give a shit at all about the fact all his Ethereals died (an event that should have left every Tau in the expedition emotionally crippled) and continued his war on the Orks as if nothing at all had happened. Eventually he'd gone so far off-course that the Tau lost all communications with him, and after years of absence, the Ethereals declared he'd died.
Sporadic probes from long-range probes eventually proved that Farsight was not dead however, though he and his Enclaves needed to fight without the Tau's rapid advancement in technology, with a few exceptions (possibly thanks to sympathisers sending them prototype designs), as it's mentioned that Farsight still fights in his early-model battlesuit... assuming that the person wearing it is still the original Farsight that is.
Funnily enough the book itself retcons the aftereffects of his disappearance in the same page it brings it up. Farsight goes from being a hero (despite being AWOL for a decade) who tragically passed away, to a living legend known by the wider Tau Empire, and who still has supporters within it, despite the Ethereals attempts to crack down on them. This also flies straight in the face of canon, as throughout this entry you'll notice the Tau have openly defied the Ethereals at almost every turn when it comes to Farsight.
6th edition also marked the total end of the Farsight Enclaves acting as mercenaries, and now Farsight's group would occasionally show back up to help the Tau in their time of need (despite the Ethereals forbidding any contact with them). Of course the books themselves do not get into how the fuck Farsight and his warriors manage to do this. Facts like their lack of communication with the Empire, the distance between them and the rest of the Tau, the fact they have limited resources and don't exactly have a good amount to spend on lengthy trips across space (which would leave their own worlds undefended) are all ignored to paint the Farsight Enclaves as an altruistic group that cares, even for the people who abandoned them. The Farsight Enclaves even manage to fight off a splinter of Hive Fleet Kraken somehow.
A Wild Phil Kelly Appears![edit]
For several years now, Phil Kelly has been the lead writer for most of the material involving the Tau, and all material regarding Farsight. Phil Kelly's contributions to the lore have had a... mixed reception to say the least. While his books have given Farsight a lot of cool moments, he's also changed a good chunk of preestablished lore that has lead some veteran Tau fans to become mildly irritated. What doesn't help is that at this point, Phil Kelly is really the only writer for Farsight (and Tau in general), so love him or hate him, we're stuck with him until someone new comes along, or Tau starts outselling Space Marines.
So... to start off, it should also be mentioned that Phil Kelly hates the Ethereals, hates them to the point where he turns them into mustache-twirling cartoon villains, and this is immediately apparent in the Farsight Enclaves. The supplement opens by bringing up how total their control is over the Tau, and the example it uses is an Ethereal telling a Tau to commit suicide, and how their command would be obeyed on the spot (a plot point he'd later use in a novel he wrote). This is very important, because a great deal of the supplement is presented as a Cold War between Ethereals, and Farsight, the "one Tau who has challenged their rule and lived to tell of it." Yes, that's the book's opener.
Supplement: Farsight Enclaves makes such sweeping retcons, it might as well be talking about a different faction, and we'll try to speed through them before we get into the new characterization of Farsight. For starters, the Farsight Enclaves are no longer stronghold conclaves, but instead: "each world a triumph of science and artistry blended into a perfect meritocracy." This might sound odd to anyone who expected them to retain their limited resources, however the supplement does mention this is still a factor, and they demonstrate this by allowing the Farsight Enclaves to field battlesuits as Troops choices.
Each world is also stated to be of vital importance to the Tau living there, since they have very few planets, except for no fucking reason, the Tau living there will spend their resources on aesthetic improvements, like transforming a planet into a D20. Seriously. The planets each of the castes now live in on are also laughably on the nose: the Earth Caste live on the world full of earthen spires, the Fire Caste live on a firey geothermic planet, the Air Caste live far above the ground on the D20 planet, and the Water Caste live inside a bunch of floating water that is apparently struck by meteorites on the regular.
This section is also going to be much longer than the others, since the supplement and Farsight novels have a much more detailed history on Farsight's life. To prevent micro scroll bar syndrome, the following sections will be presented in collapsible form.
L'il Farsight[edit]
Born to unknown parents, Farsight was a true prodigy, eager to learn in the academies as soon as he could walk. In his first cycle of enrollment, he broke into the enrolment centres of their training academies, and when he was caught he demanded entry. Despite being punished and thrown back, he would proceed to break in several more times, until the instructors relented and decided to allow him in three years before he was due, setting him on a journey that would supposedly nearly destroy the Greater Good itself (don't ask how, the book never explains).
As he was trained inside Battle Dome Mont'yr, Farsight's physical skills were noted as being well above average for his age, something that's attributed to him being an "accident of birth" (rather than a planned birth, no the book never explains why this makes him better physically), but it was his mind and capacity to learn that earned the most interest from his instructors. This is because he now has an eidetic memory, so the young Farsight was like a sponge, absorbing any and all he'd read, even even managing to decipher the combat codes and signals his superiors used. Training simulations became the highlight of his day, where he could use his perfect memory and knowledge of tactics to figure out the correct course of action within seconds. Aside from his perfect display of tactics, he had an unprecedented low casualty rate, and he always escaped being tagged by the ghost-sims the training programs used, even in the notoriously difficult trials.
Farsight would eventually meet Puretide at his graduation ceremony, before the veteran Commander became wounded so badly he was effectively immobile. When asked how Farsight could consistently defeat even the greatest traps in the simulations, he told Puretide that he just thought about how he'd have made the simulation if he was a tutor trying to test the students, and worked out how to disable the traps from there.
Despite his military acumen and prowess, Puretide decided to wait and see how Farsight handled himself in battle before tutoring him further. Despite the fact that the Commander he was assigned to was a dickhead who was upset Farsight had beaten all his simulations, the fire warrior survived being posted to the most hostile warzones over the first four years of his career. He used his eidetic memory to learn then use his knowledge of the enemy's battle doctrine to great effect, and soon he would know his enemy's martial capabilities almost as well as he knew his own caste. He was also known for using his pulse rifle at extreme close range, allowing him to force back the more melee-focused creatures he'd been fighting (instead of dying horribly like Tau are known to do).
By the end of his tenure, Farsight was informally commanding the unit, with his superior hanging off of his "suggestions". When it came time for Farsight's promotion, he and his squad were sent back to Vior'la for their Trial by Fire, where again he faced opposition from assholes. The supplement suddenly states that Farsight was inadvertently responsible for the fall of some of the instructors' colleagues (how he was responsible, and what the fuck that means is never explained), so they decided to test him even more harshly, resulting in a traumatic experience.
Farsight and his team were put in a pitch-black live-fire war dome where they faced innumerable horrors that defied description, and where even his knowledge of military tactics were of limited use. In the end, Farsight passed the test by throwing himself in front of a tentacled horror when it bore down on his Shas'Ui, and was in turn cut apart by the beast.
When he was brought back out of the coma he'd entered to go into the simulation (yes, that's new to this book), Farsight was told that only the squad mates who'd died actually passed the test and he didn't learn what happened to the ones who'd survived the test. It bothered him, but he pushed past it, because now he could pilot a battlesuit... after a short stint as the Commander of a fire warrior squad that is.
Surprisingly, Farsight didn't enjoy using a battlesuit as much as he thought; he enjoyed being up close and personal, but his superiors didn't like this attitude, so they put their military prodigy in a Broadside Battlesuit to be used in a support role. Farsight privately lamented at this, but the reassignment taught him a measure of restraint, and soon he was using a Broadside better than the Shas'vre.
Four years and one more Trial by Fire later, Farsight was finally allowed the rank of Shas'vre and a Crisis Battlesuit. After losing most of his left leg, he was promoted to the rank of saz’nami. If you're confused what rank that is, that's fine, Phil Kelly made it up as the bodyguard to the Shas'O, a position that was already filled by the Shas'vre, and when Kelly would later write War of Secrets, he'd state that saz’nami was the name of the Ethereal Honour Guard, so flip a coin on which one is true and go with it. After the campaign he was on was over, Farsight unknowingly passed another Trial by Fire, and was promoted from the rank of Ethereal Honour Guard to Shas'el, and it was only now that Puretide agreed to train him.
Farsight's training with Puretide is notably different. To play up the stereotype of old Chinese martial arts movies, Puretide now meditated atop a mountain that one needed to pass many trials just to climb, and once he'd reached the apex, Farsight saw he would be training with only two other students, the future Shadowsun, and Kais from the videogame. All three ended up training in a different style of war, Farsight's drive led him towards the Mont'ka, Shadowsun's patience led her towards the Kauyon, and Kais went towards the monat in a desire to become the perfect lone warrior, a rather odd choice considering that Kais was given a character prior to this in a comic, where it was his dream to just be a part of a bonded fire warrior squad.
Some highlights of his training including getting caned by Puretide for failing tasks given to him, and Farsight having a pretty close relationship with Shadowsun. Reportedly, Little Kitten was displeased when he learned about this.
Of the three, Farsight scored the highest, but the other two were always close behind as Puretide trained them to near superhumanTau levels, and though Puretide tried to teach them every aspect of way, none of his students gave a shit about anything but their chosen path.
Arkunasha[edit]
In the supplement, Arkunasha is revealed to be a world that previously suffered Exterminatus, which explains its rust deserts (they were the remains of metallic cities the size of mountain ranges), although it weirdly chooses to retcon the arrival of the Orks. In this version, the Greenskins were a WAAAGH! that arrived from the Warp in Roks which slammed into the planet. This is because Arkunasha is suddenly the first time the Tau have ever met the Orks planetside, and this is later used as an excuse for why Farsight isn't able to adequately counter them.
As a quick aside, something Phil Kelly loves doing with the Tau is having them either realise or guess info they cannot possibly know or suspect at the time, and it will become readily apparent in Arkunasha, starting when Farsight realises that Orks grow bigger over time as they fight, something he learns from pics taken of the distant WAAAGH! His first thought of how to deal with billions of Orks is to spend a year killing the biggest from afar, and let the rest fight among themselves. His disruption and predictive strategies finally gave him the namesake O'Shovah, or far-sighted, and he was at least able to ferry supplies to Arkunasha's people.
Eventually Farsight had to confront the fact there were more Orks than ever before, but thankfully a bigger Mary Sue than him showed up to offer his support: O'Vesa. The genius scientist simply guessed at how the Orks reproduced, and despite none of the Tau witnessing it for themselves or having hard data supporting his theory, O'Vesa not only gets their method of reproduction 100% right, but everyone immediately believes him.
This presented a problem, as not only had Farsight taken losses in his year-long ineffective strategy, but the super-evil Ethereals declared, for no fucking reason, that they couldn't give Arkunasha any resources. With this in mind, Farsight changed his tactics.
Since the Orks loved to charge in to combat, Farsight chose to train his warriors to lay down supporting lines of fire, how to use their pulse rifles at extreme close range, and even to beat the Orks to death with the barrels of their guns once the Greenskins had been blinded by photon bombs. This was a reckless strategy, one that is called out even in the supplement since a blind Ork is still an Ork, yet somehow this sort of works. Over the following years he was able to reduce the WAAAGH! to a quarter of its size, right up until the Meks invented Kustom Force Fields, which forced the Tau to engage too close, and cost them dearly as a result.
The biggest retcon of Arkunasha comes when it brings up Farsight's defeat. Instead of being besieged in the Argap highlands, the Ethereals decide to just cut their losses and call him a loser. To this end, they send Aun'Shi, which is impressive since this story takes place several centuries before Aun'Shi should've been born, but he's the only Ethereal Phil Kelly likes, so he's here now anyway. Even weirder is Aun'Shi is presented in his perpetually near-retirement state, which is odd, since he is known as a veteran for fighting Orks, which according to this supplement, didn't exist on Tau planets before Arkunasha.
After arriving, Aun'Shi explains to Farsight that he'd come on behalf of Aun'Va himself... even though Aun'Va by this point was just another Ethereal who had yet to obtain real power over the others. After calmly giving him Aun'Va's message: "get fucked", Farsight's new orders were to just sit there while the planet evacuated. This change makes it so that Farsight's defeat isn't actually his fault, and the book is very quick to point out that they could have easily won, if only the evil Ethereals had listened to the perfect commander...
The evacuation itself took a year, and notably Farsight obeys the Ethereals not out of any sort of hold the Ethereals hold over the Tau race, but just because he knows he's supposed to. This also goes for some other Tau close to him, but why this is the case is never explained. In the end they are sieged by the Orks, leave, and other Tau show up to mop up the Orks a year later, but the supplement is quick to say that it was only because of Farsight's efforts that they were able to do so, in an attempt to salvage the loss and fix his perfect record.
The Damocles Crusade[edit]
The Damocles Crusade has gotten rewrite after rewrite as the editions have gone on, and Phil Kelly seemed eager for his turn to redo it. To start, the early features are that Aun'Va is retconned into a rank that previously didn't exist, and would cease to exist after this supplement, and the Tau ships are stated to have engines that allow them to travel at near-light speeds... though it's best if you forget that, as the Tau might as well be teleporting wherever they need to be from here on out. The space battle isn't important anyway, as the Tau ships are presented as being too nimble to hit (because Kelly forgot about lances), and the Imperial ships are presented as being invincible. This is done to make both into ineffective players for the ground conflict.
Immediately Farsight declared humans to be scum, although he was impressed when Space Marine aircraft attempted to slam right into the Tau aircraft. Fortunately, Farsight and all of his necessary troops were positioned in the perfect spots even before the Imperials landed, and everywhere they touched became a kill zone. Foreknowledge from previous battles allowed him to equip his battlesuits with the right weapons, and they managed to wipe out an entire Space Marine landing force without sustaining a single listed casualty. He'd later meet an apothecary recovering the fallen gene-seed of the dead marines, and immediately guessed at what they were doing and why.
Out of nowhere in the middle of the book, Farsight begins carrying a sword around when he's not in his battlesuit, for no fucking reason. He also creates his own Space Marine chapter: the Scar Lords, and he gives them the signature trait of hating helmets. Seriously. Every piece of Scar Lords material in 40k is written by Kelly (starting with this supplement), and every single time he does so to mock the idea of featuring a character without a helmet, as it allows the Tau to gun them down in droves with little to no effort.
Eventually the Tau were still pushed back since Shadowsun and Farsight are the only Tau Commanders worth a damn, and to Farsight's horror, the Tau wheeled out a new innovation: implanting neurochip prototypes containing the recorded strategies of Commander Puretide so that lower-ranking Tau could benefit from his brilliance and serve as impromptu Commanders. If you're wondering why Farsight is horrified, it's never explained or justified here, the only explanation comes much later in the story and it's impossible for him to have known it at the time.
The tide of battle eventually turned when Farsight converted an art gallery into a mile-wide EMP bomb somehow, and Kroot ate the Guard while Farsight watched then rewatched the display multiple times (that's not a joke). This caused enough casualties that he and Shadowsun were able to hold back the Imperials until reinforcements came from another sept world, and then Hive Fleet Behemoth arrived, so the Imperials left. Farsight briefly attempted to encircle and kill them all, but the Ethereals told him not to, and then he received a brief nudge from the author about going his own way. All the Puretide engrams that had been used on the warriors were also surgically removed, a process that left their former user effectively braindead, and it's never answered why they didn't just let them keep the fucking chips, especially since the Tau are now killing their own troops while they have a severly depleted military. Presumably, the Ethereals either view their commanders disposable (probably, especially under Kelly's writing), and/or all the commanders were suspected of being disloyal to the Greater Good (which would be strange there's no evidence of any Tau directly disobeying an Ethereal before Farsight). But we all know the real reason is because of GRIMDARK.
The end of the conflict also marks the first time Farsight lies to an Ethereal directly, as one of his friends had the chip, and he told Aun'Va that they had perished in the battle. Again, the control the Ethereals are supposed to have over the Tau is just gone, and Aun'Va leaves. Later it's revealed Aun'Va plans to ruin Farsight's reputation, because nothing says Greater Good more than ruining your competent subordinate's career! Has Aun'Va been taking leadership lessons from the Imperium?
Tau Trek[edit]
As in 6th edition, Farsight is made out to be the greatest hero in the Tau Empire, however the supplement goes one step further watby having the Tau all given Farsight pics or holo-miniatures to remember him by, while the Earth Caste make statues of him. When he left to retake the planets, Farsight also comes up against laughably strong odds, considering the forces that should be left to him in the immediate aftermath of the Damocles Crusade, and the book just breezes right on past him taking down planetary defense garrisons that are 100 million strong. In this version, he also successfully retakes nearly every system before the Orks reappear, the worlds he's retaking start getting referred to as enclaves, given that they are located across the Damocles Gulf.
Then when the Orks show back up well outside of Tau territory, Farsight chooses to go after them for no fucking reason. The book doesn't even list or imply revenge or bitter hatred as a motive, he literally declares he'll kill them all for no given reason. Also, all the Tau in his fleet listen to him even though this contradicts direct orders from the Ethereals.
The fight against the Orks in the supplement is a much more protracted affair, with Farsight fighting for far longer in Tau space before he leaves to pursue the Orks, and now the worlds he's retaking get referred to specifically as "Farsight Enclaves" which means the book retcons not only the location of his Enclaves, but also the fact that Farsight formed them under the Ethereals, and before he'd officially broken off from the Tau Empire, which contradicts the codex this is supposed to be a supplement to.
Finally, Farsight ended up on the world of Arthas Moloch, where he'll finally get the Dawn Blade, the weapon that extends his life. In case you're curious, at this point in the story Farsight is likely between 67 and 70+ years old, which makes him remarkably old for a fire caste member since they're lucky to make it to 50. This isn't so much a fault with the story as it is with Phil Kelly, since he'd invent their lower lifespan in a later novel and just didn't account for any earlier work, even though he was the writer of said work.
In this supplement, the book makes it explicitly clear that Farsight's forces are attacked by Daemons, drawn out by murder when he butchers the Orks near a Chaos dias. As expected, the Daemons immediately begin fucking up the assembled Tau, although when Farsight looks up at the Chaos portal, he instantly understands it leads to another dimension full of otherworldly Daemons that wanted nothing more than to enter the materium, and it's the greatest threat to the known universe. Like Horus, he also gets a plateful of a horrible future where his people are enslaved to his now demented god-like boss(es). Unlike Horus, he decides that daemons from space hell are indeed bad, and like orks, must be killed on site. Goes to show having a semi-decent father figure who doesn't leave to buy milk is enough to defeat chaos.
After staring at the warp portal for a bit, Farsight gets the vapors, and passes out. Plot armour dictates the Daemons do not touch him while he has his nap, and eventually he wakes up in the medbay of his ship, although how he was rescued from the Daemons while the rest of his forces were retreating is never answered. Instead of running away, Farsight demands they stay and fight the Daemons for no fucking reason, and the Ethereals not only agree, but insist on being present even though there's no good reason for them to go down there. The novels sort of imply that the Ethereals sort of know about the warp, and have (probably bad) ideas about using it.
When they return to the planet, it's just in time to see Bloodthirsters and Furies emerge, and the Daemons prove surprisingly vulnerable to Tau weapons immediately after having emerged from the warp. Farsight gets jumped by a Bloodthirster and hilariously tries to negotiate with it, offering it friendship and bribes. The Bloodthirster is predictably uninterested and instead decides to launch Farsight into some ruins. Somewhat conveniently, or not he gets knocked back into a statue holding the Dawn Blade, though when he picks it up and tries to fight the Bloodthirster, the Daemon evades the strike and flies off to butcher other Tau.
While Farsight was getting his ass kicked, it didn't take long for the Ethereals to die, and in a desperate bid to save the situation, Farsight was hit by a sudden inspiration Daemons avoided a statue, so if he went to that statue, grabbed the medallion it held and brought it to the dias, obviously that would solve the problem. Acting on instinct rather than thought (yes, that's how it's described), Farsight figures out "it would take more esoteric means to defeat this new and inexplicable foe." He also guesses that blood summons the Daemons directly, he guesses that they're not actually material creatures, and so he proceeds to burn the blood off from the dias, before tossing a medalian onto its surface would make them go away.
A final mention of Arthas Moloch: it's here that the book explains how the Dawn Blade lengthens Farsight's life. Thanks to the alloy it's made of, every time he kills somebody with it, their lifespan gets added to his own, and if he ever learned this "dark secret" he'd likely commit ritual suicide.
After this the book retcons the codex it's a supplement to again, in that Farsight doesn't have any more Orks to chase once they kill the rest on the planet, instead he goes back to space to sulk.
Finally, Enclaves[edit]
At last we've reached the actual Enclaves: all the Ethereals are dead, and the Tau are effectively going to cut themselves off from the rest of the Empire, although in this story there's literally no reason for them to do so. They have nothing to gain by cutting themselves off, and stand to lose everything. For a time, Farsight was really bothered by what he'd witnessed on Arthas Moloch, and he abruptly guesses the nature of the warp, he guesses how the Daemons live within it, he guesses how interstellar travel for every other race works, he guesses that the gods the races worship both exist and live in the warp, and he guesses the Ethereals knew about the warp. He guesses all of this with 100% accuracy (arguably barring the Ethereals), even though he still has no fucking reason to suspect the Ethereals knew about the warp at all.
This in turn led him to think that the Tau would be better off without the Ethereals entirely, and he decides to isolate the tau colonies from the rest of the empire. After setting up the government for the newly autonomous Enclaves, Farsight is offered the leadership of the enclaves, but he decides to flee into the wilderness and live as a hermit, fearing what he witnessed on Arthas Molech would lead him down a dark path. Notably, Chaos is mildly upset by his actions, as they lost their chance to make Farsight a Blueberry Horus. Eventually Aun'Va would learn the Farsight Enclaves existed and the book abruptly forgets that he'd wanted to ruin Farsight's reputation to allow him to get very upset at the audacity of Tau living without Ethereals. Because Farsight has essentiallly created a giant middle finger to the idea that the Tau need the Ethereals to prosper, the Ethereals do their best to erase all knowledge that Farsight ever existed, and paint him as a traitor and renegade. They also wake up Shadowsun and Kais early so they can fill in the gap left by Farisght. Kais doesn't seem to have much of a opinion on Farsight's desertion, while Shadowsun has decided to show Farsight the error of his ways... with fusion blasters.
Meanwhile, the Enclaves have been chilling for the past few centuries, until they encounter some Tyranids. Seeing the attack, an incredibly old Farsight guesses how the Tyranids work, and that they've shown up to eat everything on the world and leave it a barren asteroid. In fighting the Tyranids, Farsight found it impossible to conventionally counter the bugs, but fortunately O'Vesa was still alive, as not only was a genius roboticist, a fantastic Ork xenologist, he was also a miraculous Tau biologist who invented literal reverse-aging drugs. A brief, unnamed period of time was all he needed to study the Tyranids, and he managed to create a perfect disease that killed the entire Hive Fleet when they consumed the planet. This is an extremely impressive feat considering Nurgle's own Daemons attempted to do this same tactic, and they found the Tyranids cannot be killed entirely through diseases, there's no affliction they cannot adapt to.
Also, O'Vesa turns out to be a better Riptide pilot than a fire warrior who trained for years (possibly decades) to use the suit. Who needs experience when you can cheat?
After out Nurgling Nurgle, Farsight was inspired: he chose to live believing in the principle of sacrificing yourself for the Greater Good of others and decides to assemble a new team of elite battlesuit pilots, The Eight, to defend the Enclaves and stand opposed to the mysterious power the Ethereals held over their brethren. Ironically they would later be known for reinforcing the Tau Empire in the last campaign of the Third Sphere of Expansion.
Farsight Enclaves[edit]
For more information, see here: Farsight Enclaves
Where is he now?[edit]
Some minor incidents have happened to Farsight in the aftermath of the aforementioned events. For one, he assisted the Tau Empire during the rematch in the Damocles Crusade, however the events of that debacle are best covered there. His involvement is pretty extensive, and if we were to write out how there is no physical way for him to know or intervene in the conflict given the distance and Tau FTL travel, this page would be much longer.
At some point in the early 42nd Millennium, Farsight made a journey back to Arthas Moloch alone. He stays there for 30 days before returning to the Empire to summon a war council, and... that's all we've heard from the Enclaves in 8th Edition. This was happening during the Death Guard's assault on the Tau Empire, and it was theorised that Farsight is preparing a relief force to deal with Nurgle's armies, however the Death Guard eventually just leave on their own after the writers realise it would be really bad if they made any headway at all into Tau space, and this whole plot point is forgotten about.
Come 9th Edition, the Enclaves became targeted by Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub's "War of Dakka", where the Orks mass-adopted firepower in the hopes of blasting the Tau at their own game. Luckily, this came at a time where Farsight managed to get a new update to his Battlesuit, now dubbed the Supernova by O'Vesa, who made it (because of course he did). Unluckily, this was also happening during at the same time as the Arks of Omen saga was going on, meaning that the war was interrupted by one emerging within the Enclaves while he was being guided back to Arthas Moloch by visions.
In the end Farsight managed to defeat Nazdreg’s army after luring them to that world by unleashing a shitload of Khornate daemons sealed away in Arthas Moloch. This was something which almost caused him to fall to chaos in the process, but the power of friendship (yes, seriously) allowed him to stave off Khorne's corruption and come back to his senses. Once the Orks were mostly dealt with he proceeded to smash the damn altar the daemons were coming out of which not only stopped them in their tracks but also caused life to return to the planet... somehow. Unfortunately he failed to stop the guys from the Ark who managed to locate an artifact they were looking for and escape with it.
The Eight[edit]
Farsight's band of battlesuit aces. Think Seven Samurai, except with mecha and one more samurai. The Eight consist of:
- 1. Sub-Commander Torchstar, a Tau Empire deserter and the youngest member of the team (she joins in 997.M41), this volatile pyromaniac female Tau has flame tattoos on her body and pilots an XV8 Crisis suit. She even fights with dual flamers and a couple of marker drones. A blue-skinned Chandra in a mecha Hot enough for ya?
- 2. Shas'vre Ob'lotai 9-0, an AI-controlled XV88 Broadside battlesuit armed to the teeth with twin-linked smart missile systems, twin-linked, high-yield missile pods, two missile drones, and a seeker missile. Created by O'Vesa, and based on the brain of Farsight's long-dead superior Ob'lotai, who was murdered by an Ork in an Earth Caste experiment gone wrong. After this, the AI is directly killed twice, though the 9-0 moniker shows this is the 9th version of him, meaning he could have been killed 8 times before:
- The first written death is in the Black Library novel Farsight: Crisis of Faith when he flies directly through a battle barge's void shields at over 200 kph, isn't picked up by Imperial sensors or shot down (either by the ship or its fighter craft), somehow isn't fried by the EMP burst the book states the shields do to battlesuits, flies directly into the barrel of a battle-barge's cannon and then shoots the warhead inside to blow up the entire battle barge. This also ends up wiping out the Scar Lords Space Marine chapter, but since nobody wrote about them besides Phil Kelly, nobody cared. Funnily enough too the novel that this happens in establishes well before this point that all of this would be impossible, and that if anyone were to try doing exactly what he did they would have the same result as a fly hitting a windshield (even before we forget about the EMP burst). He manages to come back to life because he wirelessly downloads himself down to other computers on the planet, because Kelly forgot how his own character worked.
- The second time he gets destroyed was in the events of Mont'ka, when an Eversor assassin punched his camera so hard, it fried his computer chip... somehow. Being an AI they just made a new one and slapped his engram in a new XV88 body, which of course brings up the question: why the fuck don't they do this for all of their battlesuits?
- He also gains the ability to wirelessly transmit himself from one battlesuit to another in Farsight: Crisis of Faith, presumably because Phil Kelly forgot that he needed his chip to be plugged into a suit to control them and that he couldn't survive without his chip (and this happened before the Farsight Enclaves were even formed). He can also be considered a troll, screenshotting marines with no helmets taking a missile to the face. And then proceeding to send said picts to Farsight as memes. While he's cool with the AI now, Farsight was initially angered by the Oblatai AI, believing it to be a mockery of his old friend. Side note, the original O'blatai pioneered the use of the Heavy Rail Rifle as opposed to the twin rail guns originally featured on the Broadside Battlesuit.
- 3. Commander Sha'vastos, an old comrade of Farsight and one of the commanders who was the first Tau to be equipped with a Puretide engram neurochip. It was a prototype, however, and rapidly began to degrade, so Farsight put him in stasis and smuggled him out of the Empire. Sometime before 997.M41, O'Vesa was able to recalibrate the degrading chip so it wouldn't harm him, and in gratitude Sha'vastos fights alongside his friend and leader in his XV8 Crisis battlesuit, outfitted with a plasma rifle, a flamer, and two gun drones.
- 4. Farsight, leader of the Enclaves. Has very dark and cracked skin thanks to exposure to heat and flames, as well as a mechanical replacement left leg. He piloted an XV8 Crisis battlesuit equipped with his trademark Dawn Blade, a high-intensity plasma rifle, and a shield generator mounted on one arm. Before finding the blade he used to mount a twin-linked fusion gun. Farsight's battlesuit was notably of an archaic design, as it was hundreds of years old, but constant upgrades and crafty Earth-Caste maintenance kept the suit on par with current sleeker battlesuit designs of the rest of the Tau Empire. Why the hell we couldn’t field him in a Coldstar suit is a mystery, because he was literally the first one ever to pilot such a suit, however it doesn’t matter anymore anyway. He was later given a one of a kind brand new suit dubbed the XV86 Supernova Battlesuit, made by O'Vesa.
- 5. Honour-Shas'vre O'Vesa, the technical expert of the group, O'Vesa isn't a Fire Caste warrior at all, he's the Earth Caste member who is progressively give more and more credit for all of the Tau's technological development. He's also about as old as Farsight, but he's kept alive by microdrones (because Phil Kelly forgot that he'd previously said he was kept alive with reverse-aging drugs), and given the honorary title of "Shas" to denote his position as a warrior. As a Shas'vre, he pilots a massive Riptide with excellent targeting arrays, an ion accelerator, a twin-linked fusion blaster, and a pair of shielded missile drones. He also pilots it with greater skill than Fire Warriors who train their whole lives just to get to this point.
- .6 Commander Bravestorm, a very old Tau who was burned and scarred á la Darth Vader and cannot leave his iridium-plated (2+ Save) XV8-02 Crisis battlesuit after taking down dozens of Imperial tanks with an experimental weapon. The lore flip-flops on this point, because by all rights he should be dead since in Farsight: Crisis of Faith his suit is ripped apart, but he tricks the Marines ripping him open into believing he's dead by not moving once they open the suit up (it's just as stupid as it sounds), so he actually can leave his battlesuit, he just chooses not to. Before you ask, no, how he's managed to live for centuries is never explained. Incredibly brave (duh) he fights with the last remaining Tau power fist-equivalent, the Onager Gauntlet. Too bad we don't actually know what it looks like and his official image doesn't depict it... he also uses a plasma rifle, a flamer, and a pair of gun drones. (Re)Built to last, he also has a shield and stims injectors.
- 7. Commander Brightsword, supposedly a generational pilot who inherited the title from the previous Brightsword(s), this was retconned so he was actually a clone. Brightsword was also abruptly stated to be a 'pupil' of Farsight's during the Damocles Crusade, but this must be an honourary title since not only did Farsight meet him when Brightsword was a Shas'vre, but Farsight did not have any downtime to take on pupils during this time. He possesses a scarred and pock-marked XV8 Crisis battlesuit that was also passed down, and fights with two fusion blades, which are melta swords that can also be twin-linked fusion blasters, and a shield drone. Brightsword was killed during the Arks of Omen Campaign on Arthas Moloch, having been blown up by a missile barrage while leading a counter-attack against Chaos and Ork forces to buy time for his forces to retreat.
- 8. Commander Arra'kon, a Tau born in the Enclaves who served as supreme military commander during Farsight's hermetic absence. He's an expert strategist, and damned good in a fight, especially against infantry. He pilots an XV8-05 Enforcer battlesuit armed with a plasma rifle, a cyclic ion blaster, an airbursting fragmentation projector, and two gun drones.
Possible Psyker?[edit]
Phil Kelly's Farsight novels have been revealing quite a lot of details about the Tau Empire (whilst contradicting almost every other book about the T’au), including this rather...odd implication. In previous lore, his name came about due to him studying Ork psychology to an extreme degree, to the point where he could predict their psychological reactions to everything. This then carried over to the Imperium when he studied the Codex Astartes and was able to predict Imperial strategy because of it. However in the Kelly books, Farsight demonstrates multiple instances where he literally sees the future and what his opponent will do. Yes, by the way, this ability shows up before he found the Dawn Blade, implying that he might be the first Tau psyker, a "new type" of Tau if you will.
This is... confusing, to say the least. There's no precedence for this and the Tau are a race with very little warp presence, so how in the hell do they suddenly jump from that to "manipulate the very warp itself with mere thought"?! To make matters worse, this only appears in the books, he has no psychic abilities on the tabletop, nothing seems to have come out of it and it's contradictory based on what happens in those books as this would also mean he gets all of the benefits of being a psyker, without having to put in any of the work or deal with any of the downsides, such as being detected by other psykers and also being extremely vulnerable to both Daemons and other denizens of the warp.
Or he's just Char, one of the best Gundam better mobile suit pilots who develops newtype abilities, assuming you want an explanation better than "Phil Kelly loves having Farsight learns info he cannot possibly know just by making an assumption he has no basis to believe is true".
That's the fluff, here's the crunch[edit]
3rd and 4th edition[edit]
While popular fluff-wise even among non-Tau players for his badassery and general backstory (though this has certainly been changing the more somebody keeps retconning him), Commander Farsight wasn't actually all that useful on the tabletop at first because he came with a shit ton of limitations. See back in ye-olden-times to access additional rules we would call a 'sub-faction' you had to either have a supplement to give you those rules or have a special character whose rules let you mess with how your army functioned.
In Farsight's case, his changes made it so you could have no auxiliaries, you were allowed only 0-1 tanks or Pathfinders, he cannot bring Ethereals and so on, in exchange he provided a unique upgrade that gave all Tau +1 WS/I, which put Fire Warriors on the same level as Guardsmen, and allowed Crisis teams to be fairly effective in melee combat. This was to demonstrate his limited resources, and unique way of waging war.
Fourth edition only gave him minor changes, he kept a lot of the negative qualities, and Crisis teams were made into a 1+ unit like Fire Warriors are.
6th and 7th edition[edit]
These limitations got removed as of the 6th edition codex, however, and Farsight can now even bring Ethereals with him (even though fluff-wise Aun'Shi is the only Ethereal he'd associate with). His limited resources were also done away with entirely in the Farsight Enclaves supplement, where he can take Crisis suits as troops... to represent limited resources... it makes no sense but it's what we've got. In both 6th and 7th, Farsight, along with his retinue of samurai battlesuit aces, is now a beatstick. He can bring a unit of non-scattering bodyguards with him and give them all meltas, plasma rifles and target locks to allow the squad to fire at several tanks with meltas or blast the enemy MEQs and TEQs on turn 2. Moreover, Farsight can now be taken in a game of any size. Although with 7th ed he isn't needed for a massive blob of mechas to rain from the sky, he merely provides the means of entry, and beacons can do the same already.
Farsight is one of very few Tau units who you actually want to be in an assault as opposed to shooting; everyone else will be hard pressed to keep up with him. His Tau-standard plasma rifle and BS5 are merely supplements meant to soften the enemy up before he charges in (or, rather, jetpacks in) to get to slicing and dicing with the Dawnblade, which is pretty easy with WS5, S5, I5 and 4 attacks. He's also pretty durable; basically a Space Marine captain with an extra wound: T4, W4, 3+ Save and a 4++ Invulnerable with his shield generator. Surprisingly, despite having a sword that eats souls and adds their would-be lifespan to Farsight's, he doesn't have eternal warrior, leading to him getting his face smashed in by anything with Str 8. He's not meant to be a one-man (or one-Tau) badassery show though, keep him with his bodyguard.
Surprisingly, Farsight himself is rarely taken in Enclaves armies, mostly because his giant Crisis deathstar really benefits from the standard Tau relics systems.
8th Edition[edit]
He's the only unit with the FARSIGHT ENCLAVES keyword (aside from the Eight who are now a Lord of War choice, although of course you can pick Farsight Enclaves as your wildcard Sept for most other units), and he buffs the melee abilities (and, if they're targeting ORKS, shooting too) of all nearby Farsight Enclaves units. He's also still a beast in melee, with Strength 8 now! His incredible accuracy (WS2+ with reroll 1's) and a decent number of attacks that will see him happily carving up units whether they're armoured or not though, and if he gets in over his head he's always got the ability to Fall Back while shooting thanks to being able to FLY. He does have limitations, no Ethereals for instance, but re-rollable 1's to wound with an Y'vahra and Breacher Teams are nothing to sneeze at (though they are pricey), and a stratagem that actually makes Crisis Suits accurate (with or without markerlights) really helps you get the most mileage out of them.
All in all he is fluffy, but in modern meta high risk isn't compensated with high reward, because for reasons unknown crisis bodyguards are still short-sighted and look like downgraded aggressor primarines on jetpacks.
9th Edition[edit]
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With the new Codex, Farsight lost his Supplement and with it came a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare: no more fusion blades. Otherwise the subfaction is awesome! You get the classic "Markerlights within 9 inches" and a single wound reroll per unit. In addition you get to bring 2 Suit Commanders, one of which can be good ol' Farsight himself. Your relic, The Talisman of Arthas Moloch, is an auto take if your opponent has any psychic prowess with its free DtW with an innate +1 once every turn. The strategem is also phenomenal with the full rerolls it grants to Crisis Suits that Manta Strike. Lastly, Master of the Killing Blow is a fun alternative to Precision of the Hunter as it grants -3 AP with a wound roll of 6 and makes it impossible for your wounds to be ignored.
For a brief but glorious moment, the FSE were even one of the more broken subfactions, mostly because of how broken Farsight's preferred philosophy of Mont'ka was: rerolling wound rolls of 1, additional AP, and being able to count yourself as stationary for the first three turns gave them a considerable advantage, especially when you consider that Kauyon players had to wait til turn 3 before they could even get started. GW quickly nerfed them to force some variety in Tau lists, but FSE are still quite good despite it all. Currently one of the best Commander builds right now is a Commander with a special-issue 2D flamer that can act as a melee weapon, with all of those attacks being extra to your Onager Gauntlet (which isn't limited to 1A anymore!). One of these Commanders, fully-kitted out with complementary guns and WLT, can be a wonderful distraction to keep the heat off Farsight for once.
| Heroes of the Greater Good | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethereals: | Aun'Shi - Aun'Va | |||||
| Fire Caste: | Commander Farsight - Commander Puretide Commander Shadowsun - El'Myamoto Longstrike | |||||
| Dawn of War: | Shas'O Or'es'Ka - Shas'O Kais | |||||
