Once upon a time I wrote a bit on how to be a Hiver.
I am wondering if it's time to make the Happy Zhodani equivalent.
A lot of whether the Consulate is evil or not depends on how genuinely sincere the Tavrchedl' are or how cynical the ruling class is in manipulating what the "thought police" are up to.
Gotta dust off some synapses for this.
It's surprising that I don't know them better because we spent a fair amount of time spinward of The Spinward Marches outside The Imperium and along the Zho border.
If I could visit the Traveller universe (any version) I'd want to lay hands on as many translated Zhodani psychological and psychiatric journals as I could find. While staying well out of Zhodani territory---if I were fool enough to enter their space, the Tavrched'l would grab right on to me...and never, never let me go.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm visualizing some Tavrched'l meeting Groo the Wanderer...and being utterly frustrated because he has no mind!
The Tavrchedl' would only help you understand why your thoughts are wrong, let you see how much happier you could be without them and how to be a more contented member of The Consulate.
DeleteZhodani literature on the topics you mention is banned in The Imperium and would land you in "who's Technomad?" prison; so finding a source for those materials is dicey. The psionics institutes, if such things still existed (and of course they don't because psi is illegal), might have copies. Unless you're talking about the official institutes on Terra and in the Spinward Marches, but you'd have to join The Imperial Naval Intelligence Service and pass all manner of tests to be let near those facilities...
Despite the Tavrchedl' you might want to consider slipping across the border and asking in at some of the institutes founded by refugees from the Psi Suppressions or one of the many smaller Human Client States in the armpit formed spinward of the marches and rimward of the consulate.