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Overview
Commander Shadowsun is the T'au Empire's greatest living commander and the leader of the Third Sphere Expansion. She is a patient strategist who favours stealth and efficiency, and is known for winning wars with very few casualties.
She fights in an XV22 stealth battlesuit, armed with twin fusion blasters, and coordinates her forces through command-link and shield drones. Her campaigns emphasise preparation, intelligence and the precise use of force, and she is admired throughout the Fire Caste. She has fought Orks, the Imperium, the Tyranids and Chaos with equal skill. O'Shaserra, Commander Shadowsun, trained under Puretide like Farsight and became the T'au Empire's greatest living commander. She specialises in stealth, precise strikes and staying hidden until the decisive moment. She led the Third Sphere Expansion's assault on Agrellan, the Battle of Mu'gulath Bay. After the Second Agrellan Campaign she was freed from Aun'Va's restraints, and secretly warned Farsight that the Ethereal High Council had ordered her to capture him.
Origins
She was one of Commander Puretide's most promising pupils. She first came to prominence in the K'resh Expansion, where she crushed the Orks with historically low losses.
Under Puretide, she learned that patience and precision can win wars as surely as aggression. Her early victories in the K'resh Expansion made her famous. During the Damocles Gulf Crusade she fought alongside Farsight on Dal'yth, a partnership that became the foundation of both their reputations.
Phil Kelly's novel Shadowsun: The Patient Hunter describes her youth on Dal'yth as one of Puretide's students. With Shoh, later Farsight, and Kais, she survived the freezing ordeal of Mount Kan'ji and was accepted as a full pupil. She served first as Farsight's subordinate. Her name comes from K'resh, where she used an eclipse to ambush and destroy a huge Ork horde. Codex: Tau Empire (7th edition) records that when she learned of Farsight's betrayal she entered the Mont'yr's training dome and destroyed the last statue of him with her fusion blasters, swearing to spread the Greater Good with pride and honour. The 4th-edition codex credits her with raids that damaged a Tyranid splinter fleet's hive ships so badly that the T'au fleet could engage it without losing a vessel.
Key events
- Won the K'resh Expansion against the Orks with historically low casualties.
- Drew out and overextended Imperial lines on Dal'yth during the Damocles Gulf Crusade, setting up Farsight's counterattacks.
- Was appointed Supreme Commander by Aun'Va after Farsight's defection, and destroyed his statue before the assembled Fire Caste.
- Led the Third Sphere Expansion, including the first battle of Mu'gulath Bay and the Prefectia Campaign.
- Was wounded by a Callidus assassin and could not prevent the destruction of Mu'gulath Bay or Aun'Va's death.
- Secretly warned Farsight that the Ethereal High Council had ordered her to capture him.
Codex: Tau Empire (8th edition) has her woken again to lead the Fifth Sphere beyond the Startide Nexus. There she was frustrated by the brutality and xenophobia of Commander Surestrike's returned Fourth Sphere forces and helped the Ethereal Council discipline them. The Patient Hunter shows Aun'la briefly removing her for investigating the warp entity tied to the Fourth Sphere. With a small band of auxiliaries, including the Kroot Opikh Tak, she boarded the Death Guard battleship Nephylum. She was blown into the void and apparently saved by that same entity before being restored as Supreme Commander. Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good and the 9th-edition codex describe her campaigns at Chalnath and Astorgius and her defence of the Nem'yar Atoll against a vast Ork horde.
Battles & campaigns
- Mu'gulath Bay (Agrellan): Her assault opened the Dovar System.
- Second Agrellan Campaign: She led the T'au resistance but could not prevent Aun'Va's death.
Personality
Shadowsun is disciplined, efficient and loyal to the Greater Good. She is privately conflicted about Farsight and the Ethereals, and she respects her former ally.
She believes completely in the Greater Good and in the Ethereals' leadership, yet she is not blind to their flaws. She is calm and calculating, preferring to win a war with minimal losses rather than through spectacle. Her private feelings for Farsight, whatever their exact nature, remain hidden behind her professional composure.
Weapons & Vehicles
The long-range electromagnetic plasma induction rifle of the T'au Fire Caste, outranging and out-punching the Imperial bolter without o…
A short-ranged thermal sub-molecular agitation weapon that flash-melts battle tank armour, bunker doors and heavy walkers into bubbling…
The terrifying hyper-velocity linear magnetic accelerator of T'au Hammerhead gunships and Broadside Battlesuits, punching solid project…
The sleek, antigravitic skimming armoured transport of the T'au Fire Caste, gliding effortlessly over terrain to deploy Fire Warriors a…
Towering T'au stealth battlesuits developed in secret at N'dras that vanish behind overlapping holophoton fields and wage lone covert w…
The iconic jetpack-equipped armoured battlesuits of the T'au Fire Caste, piloted by veteran Shas'ui who drop from Mantas to deliver mob…
The Fire Caste's forward scouts, whose markerlights paint the targets for every gun in the cadre and who die more often than any other …
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Connections
Characters (3)
Commander Farsight rival · Farsight EnclavesShadowsun replaced Farsight in the eyes of the Ethereals.
Factions
- T'au Empire primary faction
Related units (4)
Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.
Legacy
Shadowsun is the Supreme Commander of the T'au Empire, a master of stealth and coordinated warfare who has led its greatest campaigns of the Third Sphere Expansion. To the Fire Caste she is the model of disciplined loyalty to the Greater Good. Her secret warning to Farsight, and her private doubts about the Ethereals, hint at tensions that could one day reshape T'au society. Shadowsun's story shows the T'au discovering how far the Imperium will go.
Her current XV22 Stalker suit carries twin high-energy fusion blasters, a light missile pod and a flechette launcher, and is escorted by the named drones Oe-hei and Oe-ken-yon. Sources disagree about her homeworld: The Patient Hunter says Vior'la, while Braden Campbell's 2013 novella The Last of Kiru's Line and several datasheets say T'au.
Appearances & sources
- Codex: T'au Empire
- Mont'ka and Kauyon campaign books