Air Caste

Tau Portal

AirCaste symbol^[1]

The Air Caste (or Kor) is one of the five Castes of Tau Society, based around air and space travel and trade.^[1]

Overview

Member of the Air Caste^[11]

The Air Caste is charged with holding the Tau Empire together through the Kor'vattra, the Tau Empire's merchant and war-fleet in addition to operating Tau Orbitals and Fortress Stations.^[1]

Formerly functioning as messengers, these days they are the Tau Navy and are sometimes called the "Invisible Caste", for they rarely if ever set foot upon planets.^[1] The Air Caste also operates air defenses within Tau territory.^[2] Living in Orbital Cities, Tau of the Air Caste are the tallest and most slender of all Tau, with long, skinny limbs and hollow bones developed due to lives lived mostly in low- and zero-gravity ships and space stations. In the past, before the time of the Mont'au, the Tau that originally became the Air Caste had membranes stretching between their limbs, allowing them to glide on air currents. Tau pilots tend to be superior pilots compared to their human counterparts because they have a better depth perception and higher G-tolerance, but lack battle-experience compared to the best Imperial fighter-pilots.^[1]

Ranks

Each Tau Sept has its own variant of the Air Caste symbol, which is displayed upon all the aircraft and spacecraft of that sept^[14]

The Air Caste ranks from lowest to highest are:^[3]

Rank	Translation
Kor'saal	Deliverer
Kor'la	Messenger
Kor'ui	Carrier
Kor'vre	Pilot
Kor'el	Captain
Kor'O	Admiral

While not a rank itself, ace pilots of the Air Caste are known as Y'eldi a term which literally means "winged" but is akin to an earned title of respect and incorporated into their names.^[14]

Notable Members of the Air Caste

Air Caste Pilot^[6]

• Kor'O'Vanan - Supreme Admiral^[7]
• Kor'o Y'eldi - High Admiral^[8]
• Li'mau Teng - Admiral^[9]
• Skychild - Admiral^[10]
• Cloudstrider - Admiral of the Farsight Enclaves.^[13]
• Valroth - Commander^[7]
• Sei - Pilot^[12]

Images

• 

  Air Caste Pilots^[4]

• 

  Air Caste Ground Crew^[5]

Sources

• 1: Codex: Tau Empire (6th Edition), pgs. 8-12
• 2: Warhammer Community: Flight Plan: You're Grounded (posted 10/20/2020)(last accessed 10/20/2020)
• 3: Codex: Tau (3rd Edition), pgs. 56-57
• 4: http://web.archive.org/web/20130118035448/http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Tau/TAU-ACCESSORIES/TAU-AIR-CASTE-PILOTS.html (saved archive page, dated Jan 2013, last accessed 9 August 2015)
• 5: http://web.archive.org/web/20130118035439/http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Tau/TAU-ACCESSORIES/TAU-AIR-CASTE-GROUND-CREW.html (saved archive page, dated Jan 2013, last accessed 9 August 2015)
• 6: Warhammer Community: Take to the Skies with the T’au Air Caste (posted 6/5/2020) (last accessed 6/5/2020)
• 7: Codex: Tyranids (5th Edition), pgs. 18-21
• 8: Deathwatch: The Achilus Assault, pg. 118
• 9: Blades of Damocles (Novel), Chapter 5
• 10: War Zone Damocles: Kauyon, pgs. 49–54
• 11: Codex: T'au Empire (9th Edition), pg. 13
• 12: Elemental Council (Novel) - Chapter 7
• 13: Farsight: Blade of Truth (Novel) - Chapter 20
• 14: Flyers of the Dark Millennium, pgs. 38-47