Quote Originally Posted by Enkidoh View Post
Now, why would a paradiscal civilization need mercenaries unless they were fighting wars? (this also brings me to another question as to why Emet and Hythlodaeus were clearly trained in combat - what purpose for fighting would they need?
I can no more disprove your speculation than you can prove it. However,

So really all Venat did was force the blinders off.
past Astral Eras had automata doing most of the fighting in wars like golems in the War of the Magi, or mammets like the Onion Knights in Allag, so the Ancients doing the same thing
by the logic you use to theorize such a situation, you're inadvertently making the argument that actually the blinders aren't off and sundered people are openly guilty of the same things you're surmising about the Ancients.