Commander Shadowsun

Commander Shadowsun, formally Shas’O Vior’la Shas’len’ra M’yen Sha’serra and also rendered O’Shaserra, is the supreme commander of the T’au Empire, a post she assumed from O’Shovah, known as Commander Farsight. She bears the titles Spearhead of the Greater Good, Disciple of Puretide and Hero of the Third Sphere. Born in M41, she has been active since the 700s of M41.

Accounts of her origin differ. A novel places her birth on Vior’la, and her affiliation is accordingly given as that world. An earlier novella, a magazine article and later army datasheets instead give T’au, the capital world, depicting her in the inverted colours of the T’au sept rather than the red of Vior’la. Both accounts are recorded.

Her father was Kiru, and her younger sisters are Shas’el Ty’res and Shas’el Oru’mi. She took two bond-mates, warriors sworn to her by a T’au oath of mutual loyalty: O’Shovah and O’Kais.

She spent much of her youth on Dal’yth as a student of Commander Puretide, alongside two fellow pupils, Shoh and Kais. The three endured the harsh conditions of Mount Kan’ji, survived, and were accepted as Puretide’s full students. Shoh later became known as Commander Farsight, and she became a noted subordinate of his.

The Ethereal Supreme Aun’va, highest-ranking of the Ethereal caste ruling the T’au Empire, judged Puretide’s surviving disciples indispensable and had several, including her, placed into cryogenic stasis for expansion campaigns beyond a T’au lifespan. When Farsight subsequently went rogue, Aun’va chose her to replace him as supreme commander, hoping to replicate Puretide’s strategic gifts.

Accounts of her chronology diverge. One account of the Damocles Crusade, fought between 742 and 745.M41, lists her among the commanders of the Fire caste, the T’au warrior caste, leading cadres that fought by the Kauyon, the “patient hunter” doctrine of ambush. Other accounts hold she remained in stasis throughout the campaign, reviving only during the Great War of Confederation, a war against several Ork Waaagh!s begun in 975.M41. Both accounts are recorded.

In the Great War of Confederation she was taken out of stasis six years into the conflict. Her leadership broke the stalemate against the Orks, and she oversaw the clearing of Ork forces from Sa’cea. In the subsequent K’resh Expansions, she timed a strike to an eclipse to ambush and destroy a vast Ork horde on K’resh. From this action she took the name Shadowsun.

On learning of Farsight’s betrayal, she destroyed the last statue of him in the training dome of the Mont’yr, using the twin fusion blasters of her XV22 stealth battlesuit, a T’au powered combat exo-armour, and swore to spread the Greater Good, the T’au creed of collective purpose. She became known as the master of Kauyon. She also led raids against the hive ships of a Tyranid splinter fleet, damaging them enough that the T’au fleet engaged the whole Tyranid fleet without loss.

She oversaw the Third Sphere of Expansion, launched in 997.M41, forming five colonies around the T’au sept worlds, including in the Damocles Gulf and the Perdus Rift. She won the Battle of Mu’gulath Bay on Agrellan, one of the greatest T’au victories over the Imperium, though the White Scars captain Kor’sarro Khan inflicted heavy casualties on her command staff. Overconfident, she pursued the retreating Imperial forces to Voltoris, where she was ambushed and defeated, escaping only through her retinue’s sacrifice. She then launched and won the Prefectia Campaign, though the Imperium used it as a diversion to strike Mu’gulath Bay again. In that second battle she led the resistance, was wounded by a Callidus assassin, and recovered aboard a T’au starship; she could not prevent the world’s destruction or Aun’va’s death by the Officio Assassinorum. Ordered by the Ethereal Council to capture Farsight, and grateful for his aid in the battle, she secretly warned him.

Also in M41, she led a Firestrike Hunter Cadre in the defence of Mu’gulath Bay against an invasion by Hive Fleet Eumenides.

She was again taken from cryogenic stasis to command the Fifth Sphere of Expansion, leading it through the Startide Nexus, a stable warp passage, to the Nem’yar Atoll, where survivors of the lost Fourth Sphere under Commander Surestrike settled. Frustrated by the brutality and xenophobia of the Fourth Sphere forces, she and the Ethereal Council disciplined their commanders, among them Tash’var Shi Kais, with the ritual punishment called the Malk’la. She then oversaw the defence of the Startide Nexus against the Death Guard; the Ethereal Aun’la briefly relieved her of command in favour of Surestrike when she sought truth about the Fourth Sphere and a warp entity it encountered. She boarded the Death Guard battleship Nephylum with a few auxiliaries and was afterwards restored as supreme commander. She went on to direct Fifth Sphere campaigns in the Chalnath Expanse and at Astorgius, issued with the Ethereal El’Vesh the Kesh’val Declaration ordering stealth teams to plunder Necron tomb worlds for the Earth caste, and is organising the defence of the Fifth Sphere against a great Ork horde threatening the Chalnath Expanse and Nem’yar Atoll.

She originally used an XV22 stealth battlesuit with a stealth generator, jump pack, twin fusion blasters, a command-link drone, two MV52 shield drones and a bonding knife. Since the Great Rift she uses an XV22 Stalker battlesuit with twin high-energy fusion blasters, a light missile pod and flechette launcher, accompanied by the MV37 Advanced Guardian Drone Oe-hei and the MV62 command-link drone Oe-ken-yon.