Zhodani without Psi

[Malenfant]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Apart from that the Zhos need to be a credible threat. A smaller state that expends most of it's energies on crushing it's own people doesn't qualify.

I wouldn't say that they're really a 'credible threat' as they are at the moment - all that's happened are the odd border skirmish and a few worlds swapping hands, which is no big deal really. They're more a 'bogeyman' for the Imperials - they're more feared because they use their psi and for how their society works than because they're an actual military threat.

Besides, a state can grow quite large despite spending a lot of energy crushing its own people. See Nazi Germany, China, and the USSR for examples.