Im Just Gotta Space Em Out - Tumblr Posts

Hear me out

HEAR ME OUT

I do not wanna anger any t’au fans glance over to the empty desert of one person but like hear me out!!

Was chitter chatting with a friend and like-

They called T’au the ‘cows of space’ and like—

G U Y S

MOO T’AU dies

More mammalian faces to help endear people to them + tails for the character design appeal to go with their already precious hooves????? The babiesss!!!!!!

Like to be fair I think most T’au designs work fine and communicate alien very well and all and their planet is different and that’s why they look like that or whatever, but their cute with their little hooves and precious armor I’m just a sucker for animalistic character design (cough chaos gods designs cough) and like the canon designs are good!!!! I’m just a freak

Maybe these can just be some sort of cross between a T’au and some unnamed aliens UwU if we REALLY need an “reason” other than I love them your honor

So here’s my ramblings about this eye twitch

To start off I just have a few random doodles figuring them out and stuff, seeing how their faces would work and figuring out elements I’d keep and loose!

To keep them recognizable as t’au I decided to keep their lack of hair (mostly well talk about it—) and turn their little ‘nose’(?) situations into markings instead! They’re also still blue I just— didn’t color them :3

Imagine….i jest i jest….unless?

This is where they get their cow ears and tail and it will not be changing ever-

I also mostly went with their descriptions from various wiki pages and things and just took inspiration bits and bobs from artwork!

Fire caste are in the range of human heights and are the most muscular of the castes, they even have more muscle mass then most humans to counter their planets naturally harsher gravity. this also aids their prowess as soldiers!

The fire caste’s hooves come more to a clawed shape, their ‘dewclaws’ normally being larger and thicker than other castes. Some higher ranking officials even having dewclaws that resemble and have sometimes get used more like a rooster spur, the fire warriors in some cases of being brought into imperial custody have been recorded to attack with these claws and often are trimmed or ‘booted’ to counter act this risk (especially with the “spur” variants)

Ironically with their soldier classification they are actually, by certain imperials which will not be named, found to be some of the cutest. The caste have thicker ears (likely to minimize damage taken when fighting) and out of all 5 castes are actually incredibly fluffy- adding to the human mind finding them to be “cute” on some level. The fire castes’ also have tails on the shorter end with thick fluffy hair tufts on the end of their tails

The fire (and air) castes are the only two which have prominent claws, which again aid in battle and self defense when/of unarmed and it is not uncommon to see a young tau’s hands with little mittens to prevent the young infants motor control practice from harming themselves

Earth caste are the shortest of the castes, stockily built and often a bit heavier then most fire caste due to their dense builds and often being a bit fatter then other castes.

Their hooves are duller and much more ground down then the fire caste, their legs tend to be thicker and much much much more musclar (though mileage may vary as some members of the caste can be more muscular than others and vice versa) they have also been seen occasionally displaying the “spur” variation.

Their ears are thicker and firmer then the fire caste, they are second fluffiest of the castes and the shortest tails with thin fur tufts that remind much more of some sort of strange dog. Their faces are in a resting sort of puppy face due to the way their mouths curve and even when (slightly minimally) emoting their face remains the same :3

Air casters are the lankiest and second slimmest & tallest of the castes. Slightly shorter than the water caste they are a bit more muscular then them but no where near the fire or earth castes’ broadness. Their hooves as very similar to that of the water caste and are very slim and thin and almost horse like in nature, they also have the smallest dewclaw of the caste’s and are one of the only castes which lack the “spur” mutation.

They have some of the thinner and floppiest ears of the castes (these help planet side air travel or when fast winds blow it won’t irritate the ears). They take third place in how fluffy they are. The air caste feature slim tails with very spare and thin hair tufts, but are on the middling length when it comes to their tails. As well as being the only other caste with claws :3

Water caste are the thinnest and tallest of the castes but are much more evenly proportional than the gangly lanky air caste. Again their hooves are similarly slim and dainty with a horse like air to them, but can often be ornately painted or decorated with various items but especially jewelry depending on the individual.

They are the sparest furred of the four castes (most ethereal are hairless :3) and tend to be the most ornately dressed. Their tails tend to be the longest and fluffiest thickest furred and tend to be groomed and styled in various ways and specially adored with bangles and jewelry. The caste having a very strong affinity for shiny objects normally are adorned with jewels to match and slim but long ears are often pierced and bejeweled end to end and anywhere in between. They also tend to have the most control over and be the most expressive of the castes!

All castes can have any variety of hair styles really, and depicted outfits/“unifroms” are not one size fits all and naturally the castes can see various changes depending on rank, line of work, individual preferences and more

The chart below also depicts the tallest of each caste, at their maximum heights, most caste members range a bit shorter then theses Water caste stands in at 7 feet tall (~213 cm), Air caste tend to max out around 6 feet 5 inches (~198 Cm), the fire caste again tend to be in the human height ranges but max at about 6 foot (~182.88 Cm), Eath caste meanwhile as the shortest tend to max out around 4 foot 11 inches (~149 Cm)

Early concept sketches

I’ve yet to decide on some designs on etherals but I’ll get there. These alone were really fun but very time consuming lol even if most of these doodles I had finished prior but shhhhh I love these goobs a lot tbh they’re so silly….i love designing each caste and picking out little reasons for the design tidbits. I think one of my favorite things is character design and Augh this was so fun.

Honestly could probably ramble for ages on the design variations and lore change ideas I have for these goobs

Do hope you all enjoy my little guys