The Zhodani Consulate - Uptopia or Dystopia?

In the official history of the Third Imperium of Traveller, there are six major races - Humaniti, Aslan, Vagr, K'kree, Hivers and Droyne. A major race was defined as a race that achieved interstellar flight on its own, without any outside help. However, this definition has been turned on its head since and the concept of a major race was simply a human conceit. Humaniti, in its long history in space, has diversified into three major branches - Vilani, Solomani and Zhodani.

My sources for what follows are based on the three books published by three different publishers. The first is Alien Module 4 - Zhodani (CTAM4) by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW), the original publisher of the Traveller RPG. The next book is GURPS Traveller Alien Races 1 (GTAR1), published by Steve Jackson Games and the last is Alien Module 4 Zhodani (MTAM4), published by Mongoose Publishing. The Zhodani were mentioned briefly in the Referee's Companion published by Digest Group Publications (DGP) but I'm discounting this source since it largely repeats the information in CTAM4.

The Zhodani were humans who were transported in the distant past (about 300 000 years ago, which is approximately 295 000 BCE) by a mysterious race called the Ancients onto another planet, named Zhdant. The Zhodani alternately thrived, collapsed and rose again. In its final development, the power of psionics was recognized and incorporated into its society, called the Zhodani Consulate.

A quick side note: Psionics is a science of the mind. It involves powers such as telepathy (think Professor X), telekinesis (think Darth Vader choking anyone who disagrees with him), extrasensory perception (ESP) etc. From a player's perspective, the Zhodani is the only human race that will let him or her play a psion and explore the ramifications of a society full of people like him or her.

I've always felt that the portrayal of the Zhodani in the various sources I mentioned above were rather biased. In the Traveller universe, the Zhodani were presented as sinister mind readers who would steal all your secrets with their Thought Police. They also presented Zhodani society as an oppressive dystopia where the Thought Police spied on everyone and sent any deviants for "re-education". I want to look at the Zhodani through a fresh perspective and encourage the GM of any Traveller game that wants to incorporate them to present them in a more positive manner.

The first place to start would be the question of social classes. Zhodani society is divided into three major classes: Nobles, Intendants and Proles. The variable here is the proportion of these classes. In CTAM4, the only number given about the proportion is that the ratio of the Intendant class to the Noble class is 8 to 3 (p CTAM4 11). Subsequent books gave more concrete numbers: GTAR1 gives a distribution of 5.6% Nobles, 14.9% Intendants and 79.5% Proles (see p GTAR1 8) while MTAM4 gives 6% Nobles, 15% Intendants and 79% Proles (see p MTAM4 31). The later books preserve the 8 to 3 ratio while stating that a large percentage of the society was made up of Proles, basically Zhodani who do not possess psionics. One of the ways to make Zhodani society more equal is to adjust these numbers.

If we change the distribution to 5% Nobles, 75% Intendants and 20% Proles, it would create a large middle class, so to speak, of Intendants which would fit the society better. All of the Intendants are psions (it's one of the prerequisites for becoming an Intendant) so they would be able to fill the majority of the roles and jobs in a psionic society. The Proles would be the working class while the Nobles are the upper class. Note that a small percentage of Nobles either don't possess psionics or has weak psionic strength. Such Nobles can only maintain their status through the use of technology (psionic or mundane; more on this later) and psychology (which the Zhodani have probably developed to a high level).

The Zhodani also have a respectable level of technological achievement (TL 10, same as the Imperium, from GTAR1, TL 13 from MTAM4). There is less information about their psionic technology (psi-tech). One item of psi-tech is briefly mentioned in p CTAM4 44, the psionic switch which can be turned on or off by any psion who knows or can detect its signature. More psi-tech is described on p MTAM4 75 and p MTAM4 78-79. These psi-tech devices only scratch the surface of what's possible. GMs who want a campaign where psi-tech is more common can consider introducing various psi-tech from GURPS Psionics (3rd Edition). Some of the psi-tech described there can even be used by non-psions, which would close the gap between the psionic and non-psionic Nobles.

The Zhodani, like all the other human races, are a complicated people. They too have hopes, dreams and ambitions (no fears, the Thought Police will help you remove them!). A Zhodani campaign can be a thoughtful treatise about the impact of psionics on human societies and their interactions with others (do aliens have psionics?). I hope this brief post encourages GMs and players alike to look at the Zhodani in a new light and not always treat them as the "evil empire".