Star Trek vs. Warhammer 40k

[SilentP]

Actually, a more likely meeting might be between the Eldar and the Federation, as the Eldar certainly understand their reality better than the Imperium does.

One encounter that would be interesting would be the Tau and the Federation. Wonder how enamoured the Federation would be with the Tau being one of the few 'unifiers' in the 40K universe until it could recognise how different some of the Tau ethics are from the Federation (such as the caste system, hinted 'domination' of some subject races etc.) Access to Tau technology that can be understood could be what allows the Federation to gain some insight as to how the 40K universe operates.

 

[Demiurge]

I tend to think the Tau and Federation would tend to get along fairly well despite their differences as long as there were significant outside threats. And one thing we know about the Warhammer 40K universe, there are always significant outside threats! LOL.

It's interesting how the Tau relate to the Imperium - and how that might equate to how the Imperium would deal with any other discoveries, such as the Federation.

Initially they were scheduled to be exterminated - the Imperium destroys any xenos they encounter. But a warp storm cut the Tau off from the Imperium for a couple of millenia, and by that point they had other concerns. In that time the Tau developed from hunter/gatherers to a small interstellar empire. MUCH smaller than the Fed btw - Tau space is stated to be 300 ly across when they re-encounter the Imperium 6000 years later.

The Imperium tried to destroy them again, but eventually even with Titans and 2 Space Marine Legions were ground to a halt, and brokered a peace when other matters came to a head - in this case, initially hive fleet Tyrannus and then Abaddon the Despoiler and the Eye of Chaos.

There are several occasions where the Tau and Imperials have brokered peace deals, including Fire Warrior where they teamed up to fight Chaos.

Also of note is that the Tau Ethereals were extraordinarily successful in using diplomacy to actually get many Imperial worlds to secede from the Imperium and join the Tau.

I think the Tau would be overjoyed to learn of the Federation, and vice versa. The question would be where contact between the two galaxies/universes originated - very good chance that it wouldn't be in Tau space. But the Vulcans and the Tau would be very happy with each other.

Oh, and of note Tau don't have psykers and therefore don't have a presence in the warp. Because of this they are immune to mental attacks powered by the warp (ie Imperium psykers), but not to physical manifestation of warp energy like fireballs and the like.

You'd have to assume the same would be true of any race that had no contact with the warp.

And the Tau FTL is even similar to warp - you could make a case that the Tau are the Vulcans of the WH40K universe.