It is not known when T'au'va came to be, but the Goddess' earliest known appearance was to a young [[Shadowsun]]{{Fn|1h}}, when the [[Tau Commander|Commander]] was still training under the legendary [[Puretide]]. Shadowsun had been tasked with retrieving a stone Puretide had placed in the underground labyrinth, that lies beneath [[Dal'yth]]'s '''Mount Kan'ji'''. Though she had thought finding the stone would be her test, Shadowsun learned that Puretide had mislead her when a tide of water came down the labyrinth before she could find retrieve it. This was done on Puretide's orders to see if Shadowsun could escape the labyrinth{{Fn|1c}}, but it proved too much for her. She was lost and still days from escaping, when Shadowsun began losing consciousness due to the wounds she suffered and being unable to find air in the raging waters that now flooded the labyrinth. However it was then, that T'au'va appeared before her as a translucent apparition and a shocked Shadowsun mentally asked the Goddess what she was. T'au'va instead gave Shadowsun an amphora filled with air, which she breathed in, before answering herthe young [[T'au]]{{Fn|1h}}:

[[Shadowsun]] refused to believe this though and claimed that the Goddess was nothing but a ghost. This led T'au'va to reply{{Fn|1h}}:

Moments later the waters surrounding Shadowsun became calm and she was able to see her surroundings once more. She Shadowsun then asked what she could do to repay the Goddess and T'au'va replied{{Fn|1h}}:

The Goddess was next seen, when she rescued the [[T'au Empire]]'s [[Fourth Sphere of Expansion]] fleet, after it became trapped within the [[Warp]]. The ravaged fleet had been stuck there for some time and was suffering attacks from [[Daemon]]s, when T'au'va's powers cast them into the [[Nem'yar Atoll]] and created the [[Startide Nexus]] in the process. The appearance of the Goddess caused the Fleet's [[Tau Auxiliaries|Auxiliaries]] species to begin openly worshiping T'au'va, but filled the Fourth's [[T'au]] with disgust and dismay. Believing the Auxiliaries were responsible for the Fourth being attacked by the Daemons and for the creation of T'au'va, which they believed thought was a corruption of the Greater Good, the Fleet's T'au turned upon their allies{{Fn|1a}}. This began a campaign of extermination, as the T'au thought believed the death of the Auxiliaries would kill T'au'va as well.{{Fn|2}}

The onslaught was finally ended , when [[Tau Commander|Commander]] [[Shadowsun]] and the [[Fifth Sphere of Expansion]] appeared within the [[Nem'yar Atoll]]. With the [[Fourth Sphere of Expansion|Fourth]] now under the command of the Fifth{{Fn|3}}, the worship of T'au'va began was allowed to spread. It reached the Atoll's worlds the [[T'au Empire]] held{{Fn|1e}} and temples dedicated to the Goddess would be built{{Fn|1b}}. Though the T'au still did not worship her, some began to see the Goddess in their dreams{{Fn|1a}}. By then Shadowsun's encounter with T'au'va had faded from her mind, but this changed when [[Chaos Lord|Lord]] [[Oratius Glurtosk]]'s [[Death Guard]] forces [[Battle of the Startide Nexus|invaded]] the Atoll. While fighting on [[Pekun]], she saw one of the Goddess' temples, which bore a statue of T'au'va. The sight caused Shadowsun to flashback to her near drowning death{{Fn|3b}} and in anger, she destroyed the statue. Shen She then ordered the Atoll's [[Earth Caste]] to begin tearing down any of T'au'va's temples they found{{Fn|1d}}. However as the Death Guard's invasion wore on and they neared the [[Startide Nexus]], Shadowsun became desperate to stop them. This led her to begin making contact with the [[Tau Auxiliaries|Auxiliaries]] that worshiped the Goddess and asked them to pray to her, for the Death Guard to be defeated. She Shadowsun then led an attack on Glurtosk's flagship, the [[Nephylum]], hoping to disable or destroy it before the warship could enter the Nexus. Several Auxiliaries joined her{{Fn|3e}} and during the boarding attack, Shadowsun saw them chanting to T'au'va and calling upon the Goddess' power{{Fn|1f}}: