Home › Units › T'au Empire › Kroot Shapers
1 / 4 · Click to enlargeLore & origins
A Shaper leads a Kroot kindred, whether it fights directly for the T'au Empire or sells its services as mercenaries. Shapers are usually elder Kroot who have proven they can survive battle and hardship, and few Kroot have the patience and inner strength to earn the title. A large kindred may be run by a Master Shaper. A group of kindreds may answer to a Shaper Council of three to five, who oversee the other Shapers. In a crisis a Shaper Chief such as Anghkor Prok may unite hundreds of kindreds into a single army.
Their most important duty shapes the future of the whole species. At some point in their past the Kroot gained the ability to absorb the genetic traits of their prey. Their DNA can store far more information than that of other species, so useful strands from what they eat can be worked into their own genotype. Uncontrolled, this would be a riot of random change. Shapers can sample and analyse the genes of anything they eat, keep that DNA from corrupting their own, and judge which traits would help and which would harm. They then steer their kindred towards some prey and away from others. A Shaper who wants more muscle will campaign against Orks. One who wants speed and agility will hunt Aeldari. Feeding heavily on flying predators can eventually give Kroot wings.
Each Shaper guides his kindred along a slightly different path, so every kindred carries a fractionally different genetic code. That diversity matters. Kroot hounds, krootox and knarlocs may all have been Kroot once, before they hit an evolutionary dead end, and the Shapers are as much on guard against regression as they are focused on new traits. Kroot have an almost uncontrollable urge to eat the fallen, and only a Shaper can hold it back, warning his kin off with a single hiss. Three kinds of prey are forbidden outright. Tyranids are declared "inedible", a word with far worse connotations to a Kroot than to a human. Chaos worshippers are banned after a kindred that ate a Slaaneshi warband developed horrible mutations. And the T'au are protected, because the Kroot owe them for saving Pech from the Orks, and anyone who tastes T'au flesh faces the Shapers' swift retribution.
Appearance & wargear
Shapers are often bigger than other Kroot, their frames packed with gnarled muscle under tough, leathery hide. They carry a fetish pouch of powders, rocks and bones for their rituals, and many are credited with a primal bond to the kindred's totem animal, often a homeworld creature such as the widely revered Kroothawk. The classic Shaper model of 2001 carries a Kroot rifle. The War Shapers of the newer Kroot hunting packs wield bladestaves and prey-hooks, or dart-bows and tri-blades.
Weapons & Vehicles
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Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
In battle a Shaper commands his kindred much as a sergeant would, and he also handles dealings with outsiders such as the T'au. Newer forces split the role into specialists. War Shapers direct all Kroot forces in the field. Trail Shapers plan the attack, scouting infiltration routes and good ground before the army arrives. Flesh Shapers are masters of ritual butchery who make sure only the finest genetic material is eaten. Pact Shapers negotiate the mercenary contracts the Kroot call pacts, and the most binding are sworn over a sacred Stone of Pech carved from the bedrock of the homeworld.
Notable battles & users
- Anghkor Prok: the legendary Shaper who first met the T'au, persuaded them to help free Pech from the Orks, and then pledged his warriors to the Greater Good at Pech's sacred oathstone.
- Pechallai: commanded thousands of Kroot auxiliaries on Sha'draig against Hive Fleet Gorgon in 900-901.M41. He held the forests through wave after wave until the Hive Mind sent Hormagaunts reshaped specifically to tear Kroot hide.
- Gorok: helped Ciaphas Cain uncover a Genestealer infestation during the Gravalax Incident, and was killed by a purestrain.
- Orak: served Commander Brightsword and tested the Last Chancers by making Kage eat a human brain, believing both the T'au and the Imperium doomed by their stagnation.
- Harbyx and Griahgri: Shapers who fought on Kronus before and during the Dark Crusade.
Related
No profiled character is closely tied to this unit type yet.
