#guevesa

T’au Faction

Gue’vesa

“Once got an ork square in his head with this pulse rifle, that’s how I became Gue’vesa’ui. Technology. It saves us all in the end.” —Shas’gue’vesa’ui Edyth Yorscht

The Gue’vesa are found in regions of the galaxy where words of the Emperor ring the most hollow, and where swathes of guardsmen were sent yet never brought home. To those souls, the T’au Empire, their leaders, and their technology, ensure safety and reliability. Gue’vesa are often descended from lost regiments of the Imperial Guard; deployed far too quickly, to establish beachheads that could never hold, left stranded in hostile territories, saved by the T’au. They may not feel much difference between governance of the Imperium and that of the T’au, yet the heavy thumb of anxiety lingers should the Imperium see their treachery in full.

For the most part, Gue’vesa are absorbed into the Fire Caste of the T’au, human helpers serving as yet more bodies that can be thrown at a problem - for some Gue’vesa it is a continuation of the Imperial Guard duty they once left behind. However, humans may receive a place amongst other castes, should their T’au masters recognise their skill in other fields: those born on forge worlds or trained to repair their vehicles in the Astra Militarum may be given a place in the Earth Caste, Administratum officers and regimental quartermasters find places among the Water Caste, and Imperial Naval crew may serve the Air Caste as envoys and ground crews, as the Kor rarely set foot on any planet.

Few, if any, are granted a duty serving the Aun—Celestial Caste—for such a role carries its own heavy burden of responsibility within the T’au Empire. Gue’vesa serving the Ethereals may have been zealots of a faith that long since failed them, now tasked with preaching the Greater Good that saved them, on orders of the Ethereal Supreme and the Ethereal High Council to all other Gue’vesa.

Despite millenia of holding xenocidal doctrine, the Imperium has its uses even for those who have strayed, for their lives are no less expendable than those of the loyal. Within the Imperium, the Gue’vesa may not interact with the Imperium’s authorities in the same way as others, being distrusted at minimum, though most often outright viewed as traitors, for any influence of or loyalty to Xenos is heretical. By contrast, some few souls may see the Gue’vesa in a more positive light, an indicator that the technology of the T’au can prove useful, or at the very least that uniting forces can thwart a worse threat.

How did you become a Gue’vesa? Were you born from those guardsmen, isolated and running out of supplies, found by the T’au? Did you seek your own freedom from the brutality of the Imperium? Maybe it started with the sight of a swift death held off by a fire warrior rather than an Imperial guardsman. How do you see the Imperium — do you hold it in any particular regard, based on your time with the T’au? What of those who are more removed from the Imperium than you, do you regard them with any more empathy than those under the Emperor's light do? Maybe you see camaraderie among humans and Xenos as a path forward, together as a united force, or it could be that even the thought of it hits you with the same unease that is usually sent your way. Regardless of your origin or thoughts on the Imperium, you trust that despite its galactic dominance, you have a duty to further the Greater Good, a duty that their antiquated faith in a dead god cannot dull.

Gue’vesa Benefits

You gain +5 Fellowship, +5 to either Toughness, Ballistic Skill, or Intelligence

You have 5 Advances to spend on Tech, Ranged, Intuition, Dexterity, Lore, and Discipline.

You gain the Greater Good Talent.

You gain +1 Influence with T’au Empire

You gain +1 Advance in Forbidden Knowledge - Linguistics (T’au) 

You gain a Knife, Survival Gear, an EMP Grenade, and a Pulse Pistol

You gain your choice of a Pulse Rifle, Pulse Blaster, or a Markerlight

Duty

You can choose one of the following duties to quickly create your character. Additionally, you have +1 Influence with the T’au, the Greater Good Talent, a Knife, Survival Gear, an EMP Grenade, and a Pulse Pistol.

Shas’gue’vesa (Fire Caste)

Your duty is to engage in ranged combat wielding T’au arms, a responsibility placed upon those trusted with weaponry akin to the Shas’saal—the T’au equivalent of cadets.

Characteristics: +5 Perception, +5 Ballistic Skill

Skill advances: Intuition (2), Reflexes (1), Ranged (2)

Equipment: A Markerlight and a Pulse Rifle

Fio’gue’vesa (Earth Caste)

Your duty is to ensure the running of machines, infrastructure, and the cultivation of food. Rough hands come with a pragmatic view on tasks and years spent maintaining technology.

Characteristics: +5 Intelligence, +5 Toughness

Skill advances: Logic (2), Tech (1), Fortitude (2)

Equipment: A Drone, a Drone Controller, and a Fusion Torch

Kor’gue’vesa (Air Caste)

Your duty is to deploy where the Kor T’au do not, being sent down onto planet surfaces as an envoy or ground crew for the T’au Navy.  

Characteristics: +5 Willpower, +5 Intelligence

Skill advances: Linguistics (2), Tech (1), Ranged (2)

Equipment: Dataslate and a Micro-Bead

Por’gue’vesa (Water Caste)

Your Duty is to flow and bind all living things via diplomacy, establishing trade routes, and accompanying others from the T’au Empire to secure a functioning society.

Characteristics: +5 Fellowship, +5 Willpower

Skill advances: Rapport (1), Linguistics (2), Discipline (2)

Equipment: Dataslate and a Writing Kit

Aun’gue’vesa (Celestial Caste)

Your Duty is to guide the others under the T’au Empire, a sovereignty among the ranks. T’au born Aun produce pheromones, giving them latent control over the other castes—while a Gue’vesa doesn’t have this, your true belief for the T’au Empire and all it stands for carries the same authority.

Characteristics: +5 Fellowship, +5 Intelligence

Skill advances: Linguistics (1), Lore (1), Logic (1), Rapport (2)

Equipment: Laud Hailer and a Micro-Bead

Talent — The Greater Good

Requirement: Can only be taken during character creation. You cannot have the Ignorance Is My Shield Talent.

The T’au Empire welcomes all species who don’t resist their expansion, for it serves the Greater Good. You gain +2 SL to any Test made to influence a member of the T’au Empire or +1 SL on Tests to influence Xenos.

T’au Technology

Gue’vesa are allowed a privilege few others are—access to pulse weapons created by the T’au. These weapons are not only deadly and reliable weapons, but a status of trust from the T’au Empire. Gue’vesa are to use what is given to them wisely and with care, for questions of their discipline and worthiness of service will be raised if they fail to do so.

Pulse Weapons

Examples: Pulse Pistol, Pulse Carbine

These weapons, while similar in some ways to the plasma weapons of the Imperium, are refined to the point of optimal functionality by the T’au. While usually seen in the hands of frontline Fire Warriors, they are often also entrusted to non-T’au auxiliaries, from Kroot to Gue’vesa.

Pulse weapons deal high damage and have the Penetrating Trait.

Grenades, Missiles, and Explosives

Weapon Trait—Haywire

When you use a weapon with the Haywire Trait to target a Zone within range and make a single Ballistics Skill (Ordnance or Thrown) Test, depending on whether the weapon is a Launcher or a thrown Grenade. There is a major disruption to all technology within the target Zone for the next Round, any Tech Tests suffer a -20 penalty.

All characters in the target Zone must make an opposed Reflexes (Dodge) Test versus the result of your Test. If you win the Opposed Test, the characters that fail become Deafened, any Augments they have Haywire for a number of Rounds equal to the difference in SL. This means that some characters in the target Zone may be affected more than others.

EMP Grenade

EMP Grenades are specifically designed to send out an electromagnetic pulse, disrupting or outright frying circuitry to a point of disuse.

EMP grenades make the target Zone go Haywire. If deployed successfully, any vulnerable electronics—dataslates, machinery, even augments—are momentarily disabled. This duration can be extended or shortened depending on the individual electronics, an eye augment may return to use before that of a console for example.

Weapon Modifications

Markerlight

A Markerlight is a laser used to pinpoint targets, giving its user an exact distance between the Markerlight and the target. Others (including the target) may notice an incredibly small blue dot, revealing the shooter’s presence should they know what this is.

While attached, a Markerlights user can make a Routine Ranged (+20) Test to mark the target for 1 round, any character making a ranged attack against the marked target gets +1 SL to the Ranged Attack Test. Targets can make an Opposed Dodge (Reflexes) Test to try and avoid the Markerlight.

Exotic*—All these items are Exotic within the Imperium. To obtain new versions of these items you must make contact with T’au Envoys.

Tools

T’au Drone

Much like the Servo-Skulls of the Imperium, T’au Drones (Kor’vesa in the T’au language) fill a similar role with one key difference: unlike Servo-Skulls, made with the minds of loyal adepts forever in service to the Emperor, T’au Drones exclusively make use of artificial intelligence rather than to pick apart the remains of those who’ve passed; a trait that inspires revulsion by Imperial doctrine that deems an use of so-called “abominable intelligence” as a grave heresy.

These disk-shaped drones carry equipment or technologies such as sensors. Drones can even wield T’au weaponry, though Gue’vesa are rarely equipped with weapon drones.

Additional Rules: A Drone hovers at roughly a foot above eye level and unless instructed otherwise keeps near its operator. Each Drone has a specific ability as described below:

Illuminator: The Drone has a plasma-fueled capacitor within itself that it can reveal and diffuse through thick glass. This acts as a glow globe or stablight (see Imperium Maledictum page 148).

Surveillance: The Drone is equipped with a singular video recorder, being used to subtlety record the movements of anyone or anything within the area, transmitting recordings to its operator’s Drone Controller.

Utility: The Drone has a mix of tools to aid in mechanical tasks, which acts as a combi-tool (see Imperium Maledictum page 146) for a character at Immediate range.

The quality of drones can vary the abilities of any implanted devices,or can have other effects such as it hovering erratically or drifting away from the character at times. Greater designs might anticipate their user’s needs, or be able to carry out more complex commands.

Drone Controller

A Drone Controller is an electronic device used to control the T’au Drone. These controllers are usually attached to the pauldrons or helms of T’au armour and battlesuits, but may be modified for handheld use.

Fusion Torch

A Fusion Torch is a T’au tool used with an intense beam created via nuclear fusion, making a short-ranged, high-powered cutting tool that not even the thickest metals can hold out on.

A Fusion Torch can be used in combination with Tech (Engineering) Tests to cut through solid objects such as bulkheads, vault doors, or walkways.

T’au and the Gue’vesa

“There’s much out there the T’au have faced. Many here would fear to face those threats. The Imperium still has much to learn.” —Hans Al'Scoth, Aun’gue’vesa’vres

The T’au Empire sits comfortably within the Ultima Segmentum, yet after a T’au Fortress Station bestowed the name T’olku El'Myam'thun—the Skystrider of the T’olku Sept—fell into a warp storm it was left dazed by stars it hadn’t glimpsed before. Clueless to the true workings of the warp, the station now lies in the Macharian Sector of Segmentum Pacificus far to the West of where it originally set off.

In the Macharian Sector

Having scanned the skies finding the pulsar stars that point thousands of light years to the east toward T’au—home—the T’au on the fortress station understood they were stranded. Bewildered by how they travelled such an extensive distance finding themselves within the Macharian Sector, their task now is to connect with the T’au Empire in some capacity, while also seeing this as a prime opportunity to invite more races into the Greater Good, and establish a T’au force within the western sections of the galaxy.

The Flow of Power

Within the T’au Empire the flow of power is simple: lower ranks answer to higher ones, answer to the highest rank, answer to the Ethereal Court, answer to the Ethereal Supreme. While the Ethereal council, who oversee all castes and aspects of expansion, is the governing body of the T’au; here in the Macharian sector the link to the highest part of the hierarchy, the elevated members of the council and the Aun’o, is severed. The Aun that were aboard the T’au Fortress Station maintain their leadership, unwavered by the uncertainty thrown upon all those onboard after such a leap through the warp.

Seat of Power

The Ethereal Supreme holds authority over the entirety of the T’au Empire, and fills a similar power role to that of the Emperor for the Imperium. This role, however, is passed down from one ruler to their protégé, for example Aun’Wei passing the role of Aun’o to Aun’Va. However here in the Macharian Sector the T’au answer to the highest ranking member of the Ethereal caste onboard the fortress station—Aun'Ui T'olku Vior'Vah, Prelate Farstone of the T'olku Sept. They do not act as a replacement for the Ethereal Supreme and Master of the Undying Spirit who resides within their home sector, but rather as a leader continuing the roles T’au have followed for millenia.

Whispers

Word from voidships far outside of the Macharian Sector have spoken of seeing more T’au Orbitals appearing within the region, maybe other T’au ships entered that same warp storm, being scattered much like those who found themselves here.

Patrons

As a Gue’vesa, your Patron is likely a servant of the T’au Empire, or, in a rare show of fragile trust between the T’au Empire and Imperium, you serve an Imperial Patron. 

T’au Patron

Your Patron is a member of the T’au Empire, seizing their chance in this new territory to establish a beachhead and secure alliances. Unknown to the everyday citizen of the Imperium, the T’au would appear to be just another Xenos threat, yet your Patron hopes with a helpful hand that Imperial systems will slowly come to see the higher truth of the Greater Good. The looming presence of the Imperium is ever in your Patron’s mind, forcing them into political engagements that are beyond complex.

Influence: Your Patron has +2 Influence with the T’au Empire.

Duty: Your Patron is either a Shas’o—A Fire Commander—or a Aun’saal—an Ethereal Lord.

Shas’o (Fire Commander)

Your Patron holds the highest rank within the T’au army, similar to that of a Commander. While many within the fire caste see this as the only way of leaving the T’au military aside from death, others seize it as an opportunity for control. Your Patron not only understands warfare, but has seen it up-close at a scale like few in the Fire Caste let alone the T'au Empire have been unfortunate enough to witness.

Free Boon: T’au Firepower

Your Patron is able to procure T’au weaponry with little interruption. You have Advantage on Availability Tests for T’au technology, T’au technology becomes 2 steps easier to obtain.

Aun’saal (Ethereal Lord)

Your Patron is a high-ranking T’au, a lord in their own right, and not one to mince words. Their word is law, and those words can prove inspirational. Your Patron is studious, knowing words can cut like a sword; and that negotiation is just as powerful as any gun.

Free Boon: Ethereal Caste

Your Patron’s rank within the T’au Empire allows them certain sway over all who are under them. Should it be needed, a message from your Patron can be shown to others who serve the T’au Empire. When you provide this message, you can choose to force anyone who is aware of the T’au to make a Hard (-20) Discipline (Composure) Test or capitulate to following any commands given to them. You may assume that anyone who shares a Faction with your Patron knows of their rank, while it is up to the GM who else is aware of it.

Anything marked with an * is listed below, all others listed are found within the Imperium Maledictum Core Book.

Boons

Auxilarist

Your Patron can call on a small squad of Kroot Mercenaries that can be found within the Macharian Sector. Once per mission, your Patron can put a number of Kroot Mercenaries (page 349) equal to the number of characters in the party under the party’s command for a day. The Kroot Mercenaries are under the control of the Gamemaster, and have been instructed to aid the party.

T’au Firepower

Your Patron is able to procure T’au weaponry with little interruption. You have Advantage on Availability Tests, T’au technology becomes 2 steps easier to obtain.

Fire Warrior Surplus

Your Patron is willing to equip you with surplus T’au Infantry supplies. You may start play with any one option from the list below. Additionally, you may spend a downtime Endeavour to claim an additional item.

A Pulse Pistol, a Pulse Rifle, or a Longshot Pulse Rifle.

3 EMP Grenades.

Any one piece of Xenos Mesh.

Either a Backpack, A Respirator, a set of Survival Gear, a Slip/Drop Harness, an Entrenching Tool, a Grapnel & Line, a Fusion Torch, or a Markerlight.

Water Caste Archive

Your Patron has collected strange and extensive knowledge of all who have joined the T’au and even those who have not. They are willing to give you access to this archive, potentially giving you information on your targets and enemies, and giving Advantage on Lore Tests.

Ethereal Caste

Your Patron’s rank within the T’au Empire allows them certain sway over all who are under them. Should it be needed, a message from your Patron can be shown to others who serve the T’au Empire. When you provide this message, you can choose to force anyone who is aware of the T’au to make a Hard (-20) Discipline (Composure) Test or capitulate to following any commands given to them. You may assume that anyone who shares a Faction with your Patron knows of their rank, while it is up to the GM who else is aware of it.

Rogue Travel

Rogue Traders: +1 Patron Influence

Your Patron has forged alliances with a Rogue Trader dynasty, and is able to arrange passage for you aboard one of their vessels. During each mission, you can undertake up to two voyages on the Rogue Traders’ vessel, including Interplanetary (Warp) travel, as well as hiding you from Imperial Authorities whilst aboard. Your accommodation and meals are of Standard Quality for a week, after which your Patron’s agreements do not cover the expense of further accommodation and rations.

Water Caste Envoy

Any one Faction: +1 Patron Influence

Once per adventure, your Patron gives you a direct line to a Por’el—a Water Caste Diplomat—granting you the right to an audience with a member of the Imperial nobility or high-ranking military on any world, with the Por’el joining you on mission, under orders of your patron to facilitate negotiation.

T’au Air Support

Your Patron can always secure you Good Quality Planetary travel on atmospheric craft. Additionally, once during a mission you can call in a focused air strike or close air support of either Imperium or T’au make, which can be resolved as three attacks of either Frag or Krak Missiles with a Ranged skill of 60. At the Gamemaster’s discretion at the exact nature of the air strike may change, for example a flyover from a Barracuda Class Fighter may consist of two attacks by Pulse Blasters and a single drop of an EMP Grenade and a Ranged skill of 60.

Liabilities

Redundant Observer

Your Patron wants to know exactly how you operate, and has entrusted a Drone to acquire that information. Your Patron deploys a Drone equipped with only a Video Recorder to document your exploits. These obsolete observers will occasionally hinder progress in missions by getting in the way, making noise, or otherwise bumbling around.

Background and Influence—T’au

If your Patron has positive Influence with the T’au they have likely worked alongside the T’au towards a common goal. They may have joined forces, organising a pushback on a Tyranid swarm, or perhaps some Gue’vesa aided the escape of your Patron from an oncoming Waaagh! of Orks, maybe the Patron themselves worked closely with the T’au.

If your Patron has negative Influence with the T’au they will likely have interfered with T’au plans, most likely through serving the imperium directly in conflict with the T’au, though may have had a more indirect effect such as preventing T’au technology being spread to the Gue’vesa within the sector, or maybe your Patron had some hand in warning a settlement the T’au originally targeted for the Greater Good.