Do tau fug or they still lay eggs

Iirc the tau they dissected in xenology was female and had nothing indicating there was any breast tissue. Tau don't nurse or even watch after their own young. Eggs would make the most sense since it allows the females to spend less time pregnant and more time doing their caste specific duties

There is nothing that states that they lay eggs or don't have breasts. The xenology is dubious canon since the "female" image has plenty of mistakes and most notable is the I-slit.

A recent novel "Blades of Damocles", showed that majority of the Tau are reproduced in a method similar to the Dark Eldar minus the hyper accelerated growth and pain sponges.

It's worth mentioning that Kor'sarro Khan recognized that Shadowsun, who was in full armor and wearing her helmet, was a female by his examining her movements.

How did he deduced this?

Like Sherloc Holmes deduce things. Author know this, so his character also know this.

Seriously, with that explanation every alien men and women can be sexy to corrupt honest guardsmen of the watch.

Even other guardsmen

>With Sicarius so keen to take the vanguard, Numitor took stock of his surroundings, the better to watch for potential ambush. He paused at one of the porthole windows as he walked past and peered inside. The sight beyond filled him with an unnameable loathing.

>A quartet of wide pillars rose up to a cloud of ivory-hued vapour. Girdling them at six evenly-spaced heights were wide, splaying wheels with spokes that leant gently downwards, each turning slowly in contra-rotation to the one below. Upon each spoke was a curving, glass-fronted pod. Inside each was the barest flicker of movement. Something tiny was twitching inside each of the containers.

>Incubator carousels, each with an infant tau lifeform inside.

>Four pillars, four castes. Presumably the geometric markings adorning each pillar corresponded to the elements that made up the tau race. Their newborn were engineered, then, rather than raised from childbirth by natural parents. Just like these tau to pervert the miracle of life into an automated process, thought Numitor, no doubt as far removed from their own natural life cycle as they could possibly make it. To a warrior from the traditionalist arcologies of Calth, the notion was disgusting in the extreme.

>One of the nearest pods revolved so it sat directly in Numitor’s line of vision. The tau inside it was no bigger than a bolter clip, its thin limbs crossed across its chest like the relief sculpture upon a Blood Angels’ sarcophagus. Unlike a human infant, its head and limbs were in perfect proportion to those of adult tau life forms. Humanoid, but so very far from a true human that it made the sergeant feel sick to look upon it.

>There was other movement too, in the back of the chamber, a flash of white in the far reaches of the room. Numitor itched with the urge to act, his blood singing as his augmented nervous system dumped a fresh batch of stimulants into his veins. Out of the ivory mist came a disc-like drone, larger than those he had encountered at the reservoir. It had underslung manipulator limbs, scopes and syringes, somehow reminding Numitor of an Apothecary’s narthecium and reductor. One of the appendages contained a milky fluid that dripped from a long valve-tipped pipette.

>Numitor half-saw and half-felt a blue line of light flicker across his features as the drone’s sensor array scanned him for an identity match. His hand was already reaching for a grenade when the machine’s alarm rang loud, its limb-apparatus jerking in automated panic. The infant tau in the pods started squalling as one, their meditative repose replaced by clawing, thrashing frenzy. They hammered tiny fists on the glass fronts of their incubators, the sound rolling together into the far-distant rumble of wars to come.

-"Blade of Damocles"

Here is an excerpt of marines tumbling on a Tau nursery.

No mention of eggs.

>The universe groaned as scything waves of light emerged from the praetorians’ covenant rods. Weeping humans, eyes and mouths wide, desperation spewing from their wretched faces, erupted into clouds of burning ash. Other bodies were dragged out of buildings by unthinking, unfeeling warriors and lined up in rows for incineration. It was endlessly fascinating, Anrakyr mused, that life always followed the same paths. They were fleshy and pink or brown, all colours drawn from the same palette. Some were tall. Others were short. Female and male. But they all followed the same template.

>Two legs. Two arms. One head. How unbelievably common. The universe tried to impose order, from the eldar to the necrontyr to these human dregs. Two by two. A curious coincidence or evidence of some great plan? That it all led to entropy and disruption, to chaos, was an eternal shame. Only the necrons had refused such predestination, electing to take a different path rather than walk down the road that led to destruction.

-SOB: Devourer

Humans, Eldar, and Necrontyr seen to be drawn from the same template.

Two eyes, two arms, two legs, and 2 boobs

Why would the Tau be different?

>-"Blade of Damocles"
fuck that book and the guy who wrote it

You wot mate I will cut ya, I will.

Phil Kelly is a worse writer than Matt Ward. At least some things Ward touched were good, Phil Kelly just shits up everything.

Presumably because the hips are aligned and shaped differently in Tau females, to allow a sensibly sized birth (or, given the thing about "do Tau lay eggs?", egg) canal. This, much like it does in humans, will force a different gait and distribution of mass.

Basic anatomy, that.

So,they are viviparous,but turned to genetic engineering for reproduction. I can see our own civilization going that same path,honestly.

The Old Ones did it,though 40k has shown a number of non-humanoid species,like the Laer or the Sslyth (though the latter have arms). Not counting Tyranids here 'cause they're extragalactical.

oh, shit, whats the website that sells these, i always forget.

Why would Khan know about this stuff?

Space Marines know a great deal about most arts of war, including how to properly dissect information about the opponent's biology and technology from observation in movement.

I don't like it as much as the next guy, but remember that all Astartes actually have improved mental capabilities and can simply be hypno-indoctrinated with basic information in a tenth of the time it would take to learn normally.

The Laer are chaos-touched though, so might have been more humanoid in the past

>enter xenos detention facility
>see this
wat do

Embrace greater good.

execute the traitor

do the emperor's work

no mercy, no respite

Vat grown clone race.

Her head is exposed, she's a female Fire Caste and thus incredibly weak, and as Tau she has poor eyesight and reflexes.

Break her neck or die trying, For the Emperor.

20 credits on the thin one

Faliure is not an option

Give her the big load of micro missiles to the chest.

Fucking lesser races.

rant and rage over not having any armor to protect her vitals
but hey at least it's not boob plate

>Bolter
>CLIP
Author discarded

How do they do it?

Huh?

Look up test-tube babies

Bolters use magazine the user is a /k/ autist

...

>Only the necrons had refused such predestination, electing to take a different path rather than walk down the road that led to destruction.

Oh the irony.

Similar way we can do it. The technology exists, it just isn't used (with possible exception of some secret lab in China) because ethics & cultural tradition.

>because ethics & cultural tradition
Well, that and because it's pretty much unnecessary. Why spend billions on fancy cloning tech when people can just fuck and make more humans for free?

This. Most decisions are driven by cistern efficiency i.e. how cheap we can do it.

wargameexclusive.com

He was using a Mauser-pattern bolter, a semi-automatic with a 20-round, en-bloc clip the size of a W40k rulebook

>doesn't know Tau have hair and even beards

Next you'll tell me they don't have hooves but feet.

So he walks in on a Tau nursury, they basically do a much less severe version of what the Kriegers do, and it's seen as a "perversion of life" and total heresy? That's ironic.

They have ungulate feet. They are not hooves.

Kriegers already think of themselves as sub-human. It's not such a huge jump for some random spess mahreen to also think that Kriegers are sub-human (because they've thrown away one of the things that makes them human, namely sexual reproduction), and by extension that all sophonts that use cloning or test-tube nurseries are sub-human.

Also, Space Marines are indoctrinated to think that most xenos species are literally scum, so that all of their actions are unnatural, perversions of human actions, otherwise gross or some combination of the three.

Because it is not economically viable to have many kids today. In ages past, it was both cheap and a necessity. Today nothing is more expensive than raising a child.

Aww, her eggs look like little human skulls! That's so 40k!

No, they aren't that expensive if you don't feel like investing a lot in them for their future - like parents before child labor was dropped.

Poor people still tend to have more babies.

I don't believe the I/Y slit was ever for male/female that was just the fan theory because of Shadowsun's model. I recall another source saying it was an aesthetic mutation common on certain Sept worlds

I'm just honestly surprised they didn't burn it down

the last story I read where marines got into a nursery involved a lot more flamers and explosives

maybe it happened latter in the book, idk didn't read it since I can't be bothered to deal with more tau wank

Why would Tau have ever laid eggs? It makes no sense - they've always had hooves and their ancestry is from animals similar to bovines, like very early humans are similar to apes.

Let's face it, at the end of the day 40k is a fantasy setting in space, no mattter how much has changed from the Rogue Trader days. The 'aliens' are about as aliens as elves and dwarves are to humans.

It's ironic because most space marines couldn't care less about sexual reproduction, or humans in general. And now that I think about it, certain chapters do the same shit to make more marines and servators, fucking hypocrits.

>inb4 Salamanders, yes I know. They the bomb.

because egglaying is fukken hot?

The thing is that Tau don't have a fantasy counterpart since they came much later after 40ks initial split and blatant inspiration from fantasy. Plus they may not have evolved a womb that allows a baby to survive within it. It's essentially unique to mammals on Earth after all and not even all of them can do it.

>I recall another source saying it was an aesthetic mutation common on certain Sept worlds

You recalling wrong.

The recent Ghostkell releases had two separate Tau heads. In the WD description it was said that these two heads were male and female. Guess which had the Y slit.

Oh well there you go then.

So not having a womb automatically equals laying eggs, does it? They might not have anything earth related at all with that argument. For all we know, they have to put their infants in tech bubbles since the tech bubbles were just woven reeds.

They're so humanoid and like humans in many respects, I can't really think they're anything more than barely not human. GW doesn't even really try to make them crazy different.

Maybe they are biologically marsupials.

THAT is what the headslit is for!

I don't agree with the theory myself and would agree that Tau should give birth "normally".

>Maybe they are biologically marsupials.
>THAT is what the headslit is for!

Those two statement don't really relate to each other at all, user.

Headslit is birthing canal, confirmed.

Storing babies inside of their heads...? Well, why would male tau have a headslit?

Anything else feels like it's trying too hard to make the Tau really alien. Even a few breeds of Tyranid can biologically reproduce.

>engineered babies
>clone race
Why genetically engineer soldiers with bad eyesight and no melee ability? If they are so techy and so hive-minded, why wouldn't they become a race of super-smart brutes in a generation?

>Well, why would male tau have a headslit?
Head dong? Or he carries the eggs for awhile like a seahorse?

Wouldn't the females lack breasts if the males carry and nurse the young?

He just carries so the egg is warmed by his thoughts of righteous space communism. Children don't need teats, they are nursed by pure tauism. The tits are just for fun.

>Today nothing is more expensive than raising a child.

Like 80% of the cost in raising a child today is the College.

>breasts are for breastfeeding
Or they could be sexually dimophic fat stores. Otherwise they would only be "full" during nursing anyway.

Still not following you here. Why would them being marsupials instead of mammals make that the case?

But then in all likelihood the males would be the ones with tits so they could puff them up to attract females.

>no mercy, no respite

yeah, no mercy on that face-slit you mean

>Shows image of a creature with a navel and milk-producing breasts

>Doo day ley egggz?

We are of one mind, brother.

Tau get chirped by Kroot, that's how they mate.

>So he walks in on a Tau nursury, they basically do a much less severe version of what the Kriegers do, and it's seen as a "perversion of life" and total heresy? That's ironic.

Just like how heresy means you get blammed, yet the Martian worship of the Omnissiah gets a pass, or how being mutants can get you wiped out, yet space marines and other mutants get a pass.
Hypocrisy is all over the 40k universe, it's a big running theme.

ha ha I wonder what Tau eggs smell like

Don't Kroot have some really alien backrub mating?

Tau are supposed to be descended from bovines - hence the hooves - so are mammalian ish

Especially other Guardsmen.

Extract the information needed for my Inquisitor.
Hey, it's a living.

Why have I allowed the allure of Heresy to infest my dick? Why did you let this happen, user?

XENObovines, they may have resembled earth bovines, but that doesn't mean they lay eggs

that's a third party model, I don't think we know if they have navels OR breasts

Guardsman Anonius. We need to talk.

I know why you're here, damnit. Just make it quick, and make those fuckers pay for corrupting the good men of the Emperor.

The point is an alien did it so its instantly bad because its an alien who did it. The imperium loathes aliens because they are inhuman and different, but they also hate aliens who mimic or resemble humans in anyway because they see that as a mockery of humanity.

Xenos literally can't win

Maybe Tau genetic structure is hard to tamper with. Besides, thats what targeting computers and kroot are for.

At any rate I don't think turning the tau into Spess Muhreens 2.0 would go over well.

But by the Emperor the reaction from people would make it worth it.

Hold up, hold up - do you think bovines lay eggs? You know what a bovine is, right?

...

Sure! A bovine is like a chicken only it's a cow and when you crack open the egg there's delicious milk all ready for your cereal!

But user, milk doesn't come in eggs.
It comes in plastic bags.

Is that an official miniature?