Event · M41

Great War of Confederation

The Great War of Confederation was a war fought between the T’au Empire and several Ork Waaagh!s, migratory Ork war-hosts, beginning in 975.M41. Its span is given as lasting from about 975 to 997.M41, though another account holds that it ended only after a dozen years of fighting. Shortly after the Farsight Expedition, ramshackle Ork armadas emerged from the Western Veil Nebula, several Warbosses vying for supremacy among them; with the war against Hive Fleet Gorgon, it was the first time the T’au Empire truly fought for its survival. The Ethereal Supreme Aun’va, an Ethereal being a member of the T’au ruling caste, gathered the leaders of every sept, and forces of the Vior’la, Sa’cea and T’au’n septs, being closest to the Ork advance, combined in a delaying attack while the other septs hurried troops forward. The T’au fleet made hit-and-run attacks to draw Ork ships within range of orbital defence stations; Ork sabotage ships rammed some of these stations, and Fire Warriors, T’au infantry, fought on for months aboard the survivors. The Ork front subsequently broke apart across more than a dozen worlds, and every landing was met by reinforced garrisons, even upon barren moons. Six years into the war, Commander Shadowsun was taken out of cryogenic stasis; her leadership broke the stalemate, she oversaw the clearing of the Orks from Sa’cea, and after the massacre of the Orks in the K’resh Expansions on K’resh the Ork hold on the region was broken. The war left the T’au Empire on a footing of total war with a veteran Fire caste, the T’au warrior caste, and Aun’va thereafter gave Shadowsun command of the Third Sphere of Expansion.

See where Great War of Confederation occurred on the galactic map in the 41st Millennium.

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