Wintertide Concordance
The Wintertide Concordance (alternatively, Wintertide Cadre) was an insurgent movement fighting against Imperial rule on Phaedra with support from and in partnership with the Tau Empire and, at times, elements of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperium of Man.[1a][1f][1k]
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This page contains spoilers for: | Fire Caste (Novel), Adeptus Mechanicus: Vanguard (Short Story) |
Overview
If you do not know your place in the Tau’va, you do not know yourself. And if you do not know yourself you have no place at all.
Primarily composed of indigenous Saathlaa guerillas and human gue'vesa (colloquially known as “janissaries”) recruited, ironically, from Imperial Guard forces sent to fight them, the rebellion received little official support from the T'au Empire. Small contingents of Kroot, Vespids, and Loxatl auxiliaries made up the bulk of reinforcements, as well as a trickle of Tau who had been judged “irredeemably flawed.” At some points in the conflict no more than a few hundred to two thousand individual T’au were involved in the insurgency.[1b][1c][1d][1g][2][3][4]
Equipment issued to the rebellion, including vehicles like the hover barge and Cuttlefish, Drones, and Battlesuits, tended to be older materiel passed down from regular line troops. Janissaries often mixed stripped-down, modified Fire Warrior pieces such as open-faced helmets and targeting arrays with captured Imperial hardware. O’grinn were known to utilize salvaged Battlesuit weaponry.[1f][1h][3]
Limited access to advanced technologies forced the Concordance to be exceptionally resourceful. While some Saathlaa used rail rifles, for example, most fought with bows, arrows, cudgels, and spears tipped with coral points. The alliance with Magos Caul saw the creation of bizarre T’au-augmented servitors. Assassinations of Imperial leaders were undertaken by, in some cases, sewing melta charges into a Saathlaa’s abdomen, turning the demi-humans into suicide bombers.[1a][1c][1f][3]
Janissaries were organised into squads known as “clusters.” All cluster members referred to each other by the honorific “Friend,” with the sergeant called the “First Friend” or “Cluster Leader.” Converted gue’vesa went above and beyond to prove their loyalty, commonly tattooing or carving Commander Wintertide’s geometric snowflake heraldry into their faces. Some Fire Warriors had also adopted this practice, much to their superior’s concern, as many viewed janissaries as something more than mercenaries but less than respected allies.[1c][1d][1f][1h]
Concordance camps were often, but not always, coastal, helping to limit troop exposure to Phaedra’s inland corruption and endemic pathogens. Still, it was common for soldiers of several species to be afflicted with diseases like splinterskin. Insurgent headquarters were built inside and around ancient Saathlaa coral structures like the abandoned city known as the Shell and, after the deaths of most Concordance leadership saw Magos Caul eject his former partners from his Iron Diadem base, a series of estuary ruins. They were constructed from solid walls of geodesic panels buttressed by saucer-like towers, more geodesic pieces used inside to form dome habs, the forts layed out to give every allied species their own district. Strong antiseptics were used to beat back Phaedra’s fungal infestation, though success was only ever temporary.[1f][2][3]
History
Originally an offshoot of the Whispertide Concordance diplomatic mission to the Imperium of Man’s Yuxa System, the organisation that would become the Wintertide Concordance morphed into an armed insurgency following the early deaths of its Ethereal Aun’o Hamaan as well as its military commander Shas’o Gheza. Without oversight from an Ethereal the expedition’s other caste members fell into disorder, pursuing their own agendas. To control the situation senior Water Caste diplomat Por’o Dal’yth Seishin and Shas’o Gheza’s second-in-command Shas’el Aabal constructed a mythical Tau hero called Commander Wintertide, naming their venture after him.[1h][1j][1k][5]
Over the course of the conflict large numbers of Saathlaa and Astra Militarum soldiers were won over to the cause, often through creative propaganda. Alliances were struck with Adeptus Mechanicus heretek Explorator Caul (also spelled “Kaul”[1f]) and, through a secret treaty called the Invisible Accord, overall Imperial commander Sky Marshall Zebasteyn Kircher. Individual motives varied, but the arrangements were mutually beneficial enough to see the war of attrition intentionally extend for nearly a century. Only after the assassinations of Seishin, Aabal, Kircher, and finally Caul did the war end and the Wintertide Concordance dissolve.[1a][1c][1f][2]