Zhodani without Psi

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by 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.

Why do we need Traveller at all? Why do we need Science fiction at all? Heck, why do we need to do anything but get up eat, work enough to eat, work enough to satisfy prospective mates, reproduce, begin process over? Why not just live like Really Smart Apes? We don't NEED a lot of the things that are worth doing. Since when has that had anything to do with it?

But as for why we need Psionics, it is because psionics are a basic science fiction trope, and having a ideological contest between a Psiocracy and an Imperium that persecutes Psis is interesting. It is a good way to create an ideological quarrel that is not just a copy of Earth.

Zho are not really meant to be just "bad guys". If that is how they came out then they weren't played to their full potential. Zho are a sophisticated civilization, that is based in some ways on inherant features that are repugnant to our notions of human rights, specifically the right to freedom of thought. However they are not vicious monsters and they are no more likely to engage in atrocities then anyone else; less so in some ways. The purpose of the Zho is to find a rival empire that is different from the Imperium, and is specifically not a Nazis In Space. For that purpose the Zho do nicely. They provide a regime that sounds extremely frightening to live under, without making them cardboard villains.