Zhodani without Psi

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Malenfant

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.

Those states had virtually instantaneous communication and could transport troops from one end to the other in more than a not much more than a week. And they didn't last very long anyway.