T'au Reading Order: Farsight and Shadowsun

T'au Reading Order: Farsight and Shadowsun

A five-step route from Farsight's early campaigns through his numbered novels to a later Shadowsun story, with clear chronology caveats.

1 min read

Direct answer

Read Farsight first, optionally add Blades of Damocles, then read Farsight - Crisis of Faith and Farsight - Empire of Lies in their numbered order; finish with Shadowsun - The Patient Hunter for a later T'au perspective.

Audience
Readers seeking a compact path through Phil Kelly's principal Farsight arc with one optional Damocles companion and a later Shadowsun novel.
Scope
The sequence covers five English-language Black Library works; it is a recommended route, not a complete T'au bibliography or an exact scene-by-scene chronology.
Published
Updated
Update reason
Clarified the title and linked the T'au topic hub for character and campaign context.

Recommended reading sequence

  1. Farsight

    Begin with the Arkunasha campaign, which Black Library presents as an early defining challenge for Farsight.

  2. Blades of Damocles (optional companion)

    Add this for a Damocles-era conflict featuring loyalist Farsight and Shadowsun; it is useful context, not required core reading.

  3. Farsight - Crisis of Faith

    Continue with the explicitly labelled first Farsight novel, following his return from Arkunasha.

  4. Farsight - Empire of Lies

    Read the explicitly labelled second Farsight novel next as his expedition advances toward Arthas Moloch.

  5. Shadowsun - The Patient Hunter

    Finish with a later Great Rift-era Shadowsun perspective around the Startide Nexus rather than treating it as part of the numbered Farsight pair.

Authorship and review

Author
Black Library Explorer (Organization)

Change history

  1. : Clarified the title and linked the T'au topic hub for character and campaign context.
  2. : Aligned catalogue links with the established production canonical slugs.
  3. : Removed external product citations and linked the sequence to BLE catalogue pages.
  4. : Rebuilt the article as a five-step recommendation with an explicit optional companion.

Why this order works

For the character and campaign context behind this route, start with our T'au Empire and the Greater Good topic guide.

Farsight establishes the Arkunasha campaign and an early test of the commander. Continue with Crisis of Faith and Empire of Lies as the numbered core of the route.

The optional Damocles companion

Blades of Damocles features Farsight and Shadowsun during conflict with the Imperium. Place it after Farsight if you want broader Damocles context, but do not treat this recommendation as a claim about exact scene-level chronology. Skipping it does not interrupt the numbered Farsight pair.

A later Shadowsun endpoint

Shadowsun: The Patient Hunter belongs at the end as a later T'au perspective. The shift is intentional: it contrasts a loyalist commander with the preceding Farsight arc.

Chronology caveat

This is a recommended reading order, not a claim that publication order, every flashback, and every campaign event align exactly. The numbered Farsight novels determine the core order; the Damocles title is explicitly optional, and the Shadowsun novel is a later thematic extension.