Zhodani without Psi

[Malenfant]

Why do we need the Zhos to have a psi-like ability at all? If we're looking for "Zhos without Psi", then make it actually be without anything like psi too.

I think you can have an very effective 'bad guy' (and one that is much less morally ambiguous than the current Zhos) through extensive, invasive brainwashing and monitoring and ruthless 'efficiency' - combine Nazi Germany, North Korea and the worst elements of the Chinese and the USSR systems and add a dash of The Prisoner and 1984. Keep the Thought Police around (and they don't actually have to be psychic) and the population will stay cowed - Fear and paranoia has proven rather effective historically in "keeping the proles in line" without magic powers.

Plus it gives you opportunities for Resistance, guerilla warfare and memetic countermeasures too. It makes the Zhodani much darker than they are currently, but if you really want them to be the bad guy of the setting then why not go the whole hog?

OK, you lose the invisible teleporting commandos or whatever, but let's face it, those are game-breakingly stupid anyway.