Most of the hate is inherited from their initial appearance in the early 2000's and being monsters at long range shooting, easily wiping out armies in a few turns.
As for cool lore a couple come to mind:-
Rapid evolution, including cultural over a few 1000 years,
FTL that is incredibly short range
Their Crusade rules turn them into the aliens in conspiracy media, secretly undermining/disappearing dissenting voices on a planet and supporting "traitors".
Farside was horrified at seeing a subordinate execute herself for failure on orders of an Ethereal. The subordinate was too after the shot.
Despite seeming like an existential threat to all the big players in the 40K galaxy, their Empire is actually tiny. Smaller than the extent of human travel in the Battletech universe (barely 1000 light years across).
Every time the Imperium as nearly won against them, a (much) bigger fish turns up.
Final two:
Farsight has a cadre of elite battlesuit operators, with custom suits, that are basically the 7 Samurai.
T'au military tactics and foreign policy are based on NATO/Western tactics and ideals. Greater Good or death.
the legit HATE i see is mostly from oldheads or strictly astartes dudes. i do find them mostly boring, except maybe for the farsight enclaves lore bits
I don't think they deserve any hate, and they definitely don't like up with the "communism" jokes. In my opinion they're an excellent example of a young, optimistic race being slowly broken by the grim reality of what the milky way is like in 40K, but still trying their best.
Personally it's just people over reacting for no reason
One of the first xenos to join the Tau Empire was the Nicassar who are powerful but peaceful psykers who wish to explore the galaxy thus the reason why they join. (1/3)
They don't fight on the battlefield as they mainly serve in support roles mainly navigation.
They also provide the Tau with ships.
Because of them being psykers the Tau keep their existence hidden from the Imperium to avoid conflict.
The most interesting thing about them is their physical appearance.
Though there is no official art of them (sadly) they been described as a flat or pancake shape polar bears with avian skulls, no eyes, and ivory quills.
Most fan artworks also depict them having 4 arms and two legs.
Comments
As for cool lore a couple come to mind:-
Rapid evolution, including cultural over a few 1000 years,
FTL that is incredibly short range
Farside was horrified at seeing a subordinate execute herself for failure on orders of an Ethereal. The subordinate was too after the shot.
Every time the Imperium as nearly won against them, a (much) bigger fish turns up.
Farsight has a cadre of elite battlesuit operators, with custom suits, that are basically the 7 Samurai.
T'au military tactics and foreign policy are based on NATO/Western tactics and ideals. Greater Good or death.
One of the first xenos to join the Tau Empire was the Nicassar who are powerful but peaceful psykers who wish to explore the galaxy thus the reason why they join. (1/3)
They also provide the Tau with ships.
Because of them being psykers the Tau keep their existence hidden from the Imperium to avoid conflict.
Though there is no official art of them (sadly) they been described as a flat or pancake shape polar bears with avian skulls, no eyes, and ivory quills.
Most fan artworks also depict them having 4 arms and two legs.