Oh that's easy;

The vargr do it just for the heck of it (increased charisma/prestige actually) & the aslan always, always, always just want more land!

And then there's  the centaurs. They want to eradicate meat-eaters.

The list can go on & on & on.

They are aliens after all, so human-oriented motivations don't really apply.

p.s. Didn't g'father do most of what he did 'just for the heck of it'.
Geez, he wrecked the galaxy just cuz' his clones were 'getting in the way'!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Thu, 5/7/15, Craig Berry <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Finding transport
 To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
 Date: Thursday, May 7, 2015, 9:58 AM

 If
 there's nothing worth shipping in quantity, what's
 worth invading to obtain? Shipping is much cheaper and much
 safer than invasion. Unless there's a lot of shipping,
 invasion seems implausible.
 On Thu, May 7, 2015 at 9:52
 AM, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 wrote:
 This email was sent from yahoo.com which does not allow
 forwarding of emails via email lists. Therefore the
 sender's email address (xxxxxx@yahoo.com)
 has been replaced with a dummy one. The original message
 follows:

 --------------------------------------------

 On Thu, 5/7/15, Bruce Johnson
 <xxxxxx@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU>
 wrote:

  Subject: Re: [TML] Finding transport

  To: "xxxxxx@simplelists.com"
 <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>

  Date: Thursday, May 7, 2015, 7:05 AM

  > On

  May 6, 2015, at 5:18 PM, Phil Pugliese (via tml list)
 <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>

  wrote:

  >

  >

  > Also, there's the old, old canon that

  the OTU represents the 'Age of Sail' & NOT
 the

  post-container cargo ship 20th century.

  > (A point that I suspect DGP was NOT aware of)

  actually no. The OTU is like

  the ‘Age of Sail’ only insofar as communications
 are

  limited to the speed of physical travel.This has
 important

  implications about the structure of governance, finance,
 and

  to a greater or lesser extent society, but it doesn’t

  actually affect the scale of the economy or
 interstellar

  trade.

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 Actually , yes. It is more like the 'Age of Sail; then
 you admit.

 And, of course, we're both interpreting that
 'similarity' in ways that support the disparate
 views of the TU's economy that we individually
 prefer.

 =======================================================

  Again, when all

  interstellar trade is being carried on a relative handful
 of

  tiny ships, the Imperium has no reason to exist, nor the
 tax

  base to pay for itself. Why join (and pay for) the
 Imperium

  if you could do without interstellar trade, which amounts
 to

  a vanishingly small portion of the entire economy?

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 Well, one reason is so that the vargr & aslan etc.
 don't come & take everything away from you!

 Again, & as another poster has written;

 It is absolutely possible for the OTU to exist w/o gigantic
 volumes of trade carried by gigantic ships.

 Also,"a relative handful of tiny ships" is pure
 exaggeration. 12,000dT merchantmen (the biggest size that
 could make J1 w/ a size Z jump drive, or a 6,000dT J2 one,
 are hardly tiny ships. Nor will there only be "a
 relative handful'.

 An interstellar economy w/o monster bulk carriers may not be
 able to exist w/i the economic system that you hypothesize
 but, so what? Just replace it with a system that does &
 everythings hunky-dorey!

 ===================================================================================

  As for the ‘each planetary

  system has essentially infinite resources’ I beg to

  differ.

  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 Yeah, Right, there ain't nothin' out there!

 =======================================

  By the time of the

  OTU (in any era) large swaths of the Imperium has been
 home

  to a highly advanced industrial civilization for over
 ten

  thousand years. They’ve been reduced to mining their

  landfills and tailings piles for a long, long time.

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 Maybe, & maybe not, but, all those things are still
 resources, even if infinitely recycled.

 Besides, if those civilizations really have depleted their
 home systems then they would by now have also depleted
 equally large swaths of 'uncivilized' areas. And,
 considering that the Ancients spread galaxy-wide, there
 shouldn't really be anything except leftovers left
 around anyway.

 And speaking of thousands of years, I seriously doubt that
 all the polities in the OTU follow the same template as the
 3I does.

 In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the 3I's
 template has evolved considerably over the last millenia as
 it changed from a vigorously expanding polity into an
 essentially static one.

 ==============================================================================================

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 Craig
 Berry (http://google.com/+CraigBerry)
 "Eternity is in love with the productions
 of time." - William Blake

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