Gai'kal Sept

The  ( Gai'kal Dialect : i/ɡeɪ.xæl/, Galactic Standard Tau Lexicon : /ɡeɪ.kɑːl/) is an isolated Tau Sept straddled far from well-charted routes upon what was once the southernmost limits of the Tau Empire. Colonised during some of the final days of the second expansion in 710.M41, Gai'kal was forcefully segregated off from the Tau Empire in 728.M41 after it succumbed to an aggressive outbreak of Rust, which soon spread planet-wide and succeeded in killing off three billion native Tau before containment and euthanisation of all infected hosts formerly eradicated the virus.

For one hundred and sixty three years the sept had willingly isolated itself from the rest of the Tau empire on the direction of the then lead Ethereal Aun'O D'yanoi Hwa'ran, remaining in embargo long after the disease was contained and eradicated, leading to the sept's native castes to develop a unique set of technology, tactical skills, culture, philosophy and dialect. Over the course of its isolation, a dynasty of ethereals descended from Hwa'ran ruled the planet with a controlling grasp, fear-mongering the population into submission and industrial overdrive with the artificial threat of a rust epidemic re-emerging.

With economy and societal development having greatly ossified past a century of isolation, by the reign of the last of the so-called Hwa'ran dynasty, Aun'O Gai'kal Kai'ba, the native population of castes saw through the gradually thinning walls of propaganda and a poisonous and deliberately terrifying ethereal caste cult of personality. By the dusk of 890.M41, growing tremors anti-state hostility had frothed and bubbled to the point where the united Tau workers, diplomats, pilots and soldiers had given up all hope on reunification with the empire and potential stepping-down of the Hwa'ran elite. An initial strike of thousands of earth caste manufacturers soon spread across entire cities and continents of the planet, motivating their entire caste to leave their factories as well as the air caste to dock and abandon their crafts, the water caste to cease bureaucratic communication, and lastly the fire caste itself, once intended to police the workers back into submission, to rise up and threaten the ruling ethereal caste with resignation or death. What was once sparks of hostility effectively became a fire caste coup d'etat backed by the voice of a billion united Tau citizens, disposing a dynasty of terror with a fully democratic government, and at last reunifying the Sept with the greater Tau Empire.

Toi'san School of Warfare

 * See section on language for meaning

(pronunciation: /tœɪʔçæn/) The most dominant tactic used by the sept since the launching of the Third Sphere expansion and its subsequent participation, Toi'san is a contemporary school of warfare that has roots in the deeply-steeped traditions of Gai'kal Kauyon.

The blending in of Mont'ka has proven to provide a useful antidote to the rigidity of static trap-orientated Kauyon warfare in circumstances where it proves unfeasible.

Technology
Throughout a 160-year isolation, the engineers and manufacturers of the Gai'kal earth caste progressed upon a strikingly independent path of development utterly uninfluenced by the progression of Tau interplanetary technologies post 728.M41. Progressions appeared to focus strongly on kauyon tactics with a development of hardy, resilient and efficient battlesuits, leading to lengthy research and experimentation of alternative power sources, atomic metallic engineering, energy-efficient weapons, stability, resource sustainability and advanced sensory capabilities.

XV9 Upsurge Battlesuit
The XV9 battlesuit found its roots in several blueprints of thickly designed, bulky pre-XV8 battlesuit designs that existed before conventional high-mobility technology in battlesuit armour technology and mechanical limb and sensory development was made available to the public. With in-field tests showing the XV8's to operate brilliantly in conjunction with Mont'ka tactics of high-mobility and maximum firepower in contrast to its limited success in static trap-orientated Kauyon tactics, plans were funded by Earth caste administrators to see fourth the development of battlesuits that sacrificed mobility and flexibility in favour of armour, sensory capability, payload and energy efficiency. Years of tactical and structural analysis both simulated and in-field gradually phased out the need for the battlesuit to require a fully-swivelling head and functional hands, with head sinking into the reinforced frame of the battlesuit to become immobile and hands disappearing from usage altogether. In final versions, the back and shoulders of the battlesuit evolved to become comparatively hunched to support larger supplies of ammunition within the abdomen of the suit, with finished designs resembling the designs of the XV25 Stealthuit and the later XV107 R'varna.

Twin-linked weapons became standard issue for the XV9 Upsurge battlesuit, mirroring the XV9 Hazard close support suit that would not see development within the greater Tau Empire until the Third Sphere expansion. The suit was further fixed with ground-to-suit sensory nodes across its entire surface, with particular emphasis on the rear of the vehicle's structure, programmed to map the suit's position against the ground to gain more detailed bearings on its surroundings and furthermore providing the pilot with a simulated 360˚ view of his or her surroundings on top of the approximate 180˚ view provided by the head-mounted multi-spectrum camera relay. Initial prototypes quickly denied usage of a full deployment of cameras across the entire suit to reduce engineering and supply costs.

The nano-crystalline alloy which provided the basis structure for the armour of all battlesuits later saw heavily-funded development in the fields of Earth Caste nanotechnology and chemistry. The lattice structure of the alloy was reconfigured through synthesis attempts into a near purely face-centred cubic structure similar to that of diamond. Whilst tests showed positive results, production costs for fully-restructured armour plating were predicted to be unsustainable en masse due to the sept's isolation. Regardless of this, on commission of an Ethereal youth of the Hwa'ran dynasty around 52 production models of the XV9 Upsurge Battlesuit and a further 400 XV8 Crisis Battlesuits selected for testing did demonstrate some capacity for sustainable usage of thin (<10mm) surface level re-plating with of the restructured material. These commissioned suits proved fairly effective in resisting larger payloads of standard Imperial-grade ranged fire, yet procured only a 16% success ratio in resisting lascannon and melta fire. Projected results estimated an increase to an approximate >46% success ratio for fully-restructured armour, however these tests appeared noticeably extrapolated from optimistically skewed figures.

To pan out and optimise what limited resources were available, since testing, the four hundred upgraded crisis suits were since phased into standard service within the Gai'kal fire caste. Whilst knowledge of the upgrades were kept strictly away from public eyes, information still managed to be leaked on the back of a soon widespread rumour, giving birth to a cult of superstition amongst Shas'ui to bet upon their assigned battlesuit's slim - but still nevertheless existing - potential to be fielding the restructured armour plating. The culprit for the leakage was never identified.

Since reunification with the Tau Empire, the Upsurge battlesuit has generally been phased out of widespread usage within the sept, with the make officially being classed by intergalactic classifications as the XV8-47 Crisis Battlesuit. The make still sees active service in siege warfare and pure-minded usage of Kauyon defensive warfare by Gai'kal commanders.

XV29 Regency Battlesuit
Building upon the success of the XV9, stability, armour capability and energy efficiency saw rapid developments. XV8-48 Crisis Battlesuit

XV89 Fusillade Battlesuit
With the successful development and commercialisation of antimatter technology, XV88-9 Broadside Battlesuit

XV100 Cascade Battlesuit
XV104-13 Cascade Battlesuit

Language
Due to the Sept's isolation the dialect of Tau Lexicon spoken by natives of Gai'kal differs somewhat significantly from standard Tau Lexicon. The dialect's roots predate the Great Isolation, however the isolation itself noticeably accelerated its development.

In conjunction with differing pronunciations for many letters and sounds, including unique spellings, there exists a distinctive slang focussed intensely on poetic elements and effects, which is in many regards a sharp contrast to the largely efficient and mathematical standard Tau language. In the most cultured and isolated of regions upon the planet, many words and pronunciations are so altered that a standard Tau water caste envoy, an off-world immigrant, or even a drone with pre-installed voice recognition software can have great difficulty understanding the language.

Amongst the wide variety of varying slang words, some notable examples include the following:
 * In'nae tu Gai'gye ko Tau-Fio'shas'va: A common expression and official motto for the sept. Its literal translation is "We shall not rest today for only (our) indomitable spirit will achieve greater-of all tau worker warriors-good!". To Imperial xeno-scholars and pan-empire Water Caste scholars alike this phrase is heavily disjointed and difficult to translate, as it is heavily reliant on native Gai'kal dialect and poetic tradition in favour of standard Tau diction. In'nae is the simplest word of the expression, directly meaning "we shall not". Tu is an unclear indication of a day unconstrained by length (in contrast to the Tau Rotaa). Gai'gye is combined from the words "indomitable" and "spirit", the latter of which can also mean "life work", "livelihood" or "lifeblood". Lastly is an unusual combination of Tau'va, meaning The Greater Good, and Fio'shas, meaning Worker Warrior. In Gai'kal dialect, fio'shas is used liberally in a similar fashion of space marines using "Brother", and it intended to be all-encompassing of all the five castes. When combined with "Tau'va", the word means something similar to "the greater good of all tau worker warriors", however its odd arrangement suggests that the Greater Good and the success or "good actioned by" worker warriors as being the same entity.
 * Toi'san: A term generally used to describe the fusion of traditional Gai'kal kauyon tactics cultivated during the Great Isolation with contemporary Mont'ka. The word is a mutated form of Tui'san, which has a literal translation of "morphing trap" in standard Tau. In Gai'kal dialect, the usage and connotations of the noun have long overshadowed its literal meaning and interpretation.
 * Eui'am:
 * Sm'oi Ta: Translates roughly to "struggle is what defines us so". Often used for reassurance from Tau to Tau.
 * Ta'ko'ua: A common phrase used by Gai'kal fire warriors and commanders alike as an expression of determination and faith in the future. Translates roughly to "the goal I strive for is within reach/approaches", however it is presented in a timeless tense, which may imply the goal is anywhere from seconds away to a lifetime away from being completed. The phrase itself is grammatically unusual for the Tau language as the first person pronoun and action are swapped, resulting in an odd phrase which can in one way be translated as "My goal that I strive for approaches/is within reach", which evokes stronger personal connotations.

Phonology
Tau standard dialect modelled off Tau voices in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade and Dawn of War: Soulstorm.

About
Feel free to add your own "Used to be a great place to unload blankets."

- Douchard Bagge

"To put it realistically, there's little to expect from these stagnant, backward highlanders. Their culture is regressed, their tactical abilities dated, and they fail to relinquish their painfully naïve perception of the Greater Good."

- Water Caste diplomat from the Kar'das Sept after an unnecessarily long conference with Gai'kal water caste administrators "I love these guys, We are so alike, both working for the Greater Good. Well the greater good of me"

- Radriar Drazin