I gotta jump in here for a bit.

[quote=Alfhedil]
3: Why? Surely as explorers, their first reaction would be to establish diplomatic ties and make peace with other civilizations, rather than see everything as a threat that needs destroyed.
[/quote]

I don't know about that.

The spanish were explorers themselves too, as their motives were to establish trade routes with china and they found the new world. This didn't stop them from destroying much of a civilization because they deemed it devil worship.

[of course that's a exaggeration of what really happened, but there is no doubt the catholic priests from spain took one look at human sacrifice and said "Nope nope nope nope nope"]

Also norsemen explored the northern seas and colonized greenland, iceland and even a part of canada for a bit. However the norse were very much a warlike society.

For instance a xenophobic society may use exploration as a way to scan the galaxy to make sure no other sentient life exists, and if they find it either try to destroy the potential threat if they're still in the crib or start rapidly militarizing if it's something as powerful or more powerful than them.

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Before one asks, no, I likely won't be joining the RP since I have my hands full RP wise. I find the app sheets and some of the factions here interesting though, and am always watching.