On Sat, 7/5/14, Rupert Boleyn <rupert.boleyn@gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Zhodani in District 268
 To: tml@simplelists.com
 Date: Saturday, July 5, 2014, 4:41 PM

 On 6/07/2014 10:06,
 Rouven Weinbach wrote:

 >
 Psi helmets are mostly a waste of money, even in the
 Marches. Only the
 > Zhodani ruling class
 (say, the top 10%) are psionics and they probably
 > leave Paradise (eh....the Consulate) even
 less often than the average
 > Zhodani. So
 yes, on rare occasions (maybe rich worlds) you will find
 a
 > few psi-helmets but they are just as
 rare as the hazards of you being
 >
 molested by a psion. Or in terms of demand and supply: If
 you are not
 > regularly subject to
 psionics powers, or don't remember, or live to
 > tell, then why bother buying a helmet?

 I expect Zho Nobles to leave
 the Consulate rarely, but that /very/ few
 of those that do except as deck swappers will
 be proles. The vast
 majority, including all
 those with any autonomy will be indendants.
 They're somewhat expendable, yet have
 enough invested in the system to
 be
 unlikely to see any value in leaving it. Many of them will
 be trained
 agents of various spy agencies,
 and /all/ Zhos who travel outside the
 Consulate will be carefully debriefed when they
 return in case they saw
 or heard something
 valuable.

 Thus, when
 dealing with Zhos or working on worlds where they have a
 presence psi helmets will be quite useful if
 you're doing something that
 they might
 not like or might be interested in. Of course, on worlds
 where wearing them is not a matter of routine
 having one marks you as a
 person of
 interest, and as most Zho can't and won't be reading
 the
 thoughts of everyone they see, most of
 the time if you're not dealing
 with the
 Zhos just going about your business without one is 'good

 enough'. Imperials, with their anti-psi
 paranoia might not see things
 this way, of
 course. Others will likely be a bit more open, seeing as
 they've been around Zhos since long before
 the suppressions, which were
 an Imperial
 thing, not a universal thing.

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In addition, while psi-capable Zho's may well prefer to remain 'at home', there is/was (according to the 5th FW boardgame) an entire psi-capable Zhodani Corps which was commited to action during the 5thFW.
That being the case, I wouldn't be surprised if there are a number of other various & insundry Zho' unite comprised of psions capable of covert ops.
Also, in CT there was mention of a small Zho' warship (frigate?, I'm sure it was smaller than a 'CE' anyway) which used psions to co-ordinate the actions of the ships when deployed in force/squadrons.
Perhaps intendants are required to perform some sort of compulsory service (A Draft?) as compensation for their ascension from the 'slave' class?
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