Sci-fi, Psychic Powers, and Setting Design

[Territan]

I'll just go ahead and ask what the literary agent within me is asking:

"Where's the main conflict? Is it the bright-and-hopeful space operatic vibe of millions of cultures dancing the galactic dance versus the atrocities that those cultures had to rely upon to get there? Is it the tension of living in an otherwise harmonious society while trying to hide the screaming psychic monster within you and keep the populace around you from seeing all the other screaming psychic monsters around them? (I'll admit that one has a certain Æon vibe to it; let's pin it and keep going.)"