Watch StarGate SG1 sometime. The Priors are a race of Ascended beings who hang around the galaxy and "Force" the rest of the inhabitants to worship them. Even the Ancients were around sticking their noses in, and just forget about trying to take over a planet that they lived on. As for
[Just as a note, the Ascended race is the Ori (the beginning of the word "origin" perhaps?) and the Priors are their human henchmen. I find it interesting that it seems like the Ori, in their Ascended plane of existence, can't seem to do much of anything in this plane unless they have someone here to act as their "conduit" -- hence the reason they need Faithful here to worship the Ori and do their bidding.]
I can sort of follow a line of logic that suggests that other races become paranoid of a race in the process of Ascending. After all, **no one knows** what an Ascended race will be capable of. And allowing oneself to Ascend is one helluva leap of faith. It's like choosing to commit suicide based on the unshakable belief that you WILL go to heaven.
Something I've been wondering about: Your race position is actually an _empire_ position. That is, as the Yor or Drengin or whatever, your overall empire includes not just citizens of your own species, but also 1) those alien citizens on planets that have rebelled against their government in order to join your empire, and 2) aliens on planets that joined your empire when their empire surrendered to yours. When you Ascend, is it just your race in your empire that Ascends, or would it be all of your citizens, aliens included? What about citizens that haven't been around that long? Like the new-borns and the the johnny-come-latelies that only recently joined your empire? What about members of your race that are currently citizens of other empires? Do they get to go along for the ride? And how does an Ascension Crystal waaaaaayyyyy over there simultaneously affect all of your citizens in your empire located on the other side of the galaxy? If it's just a matter of, "by studying the crystal, we learned how to Ascend," then wouldn't it require building something like an Ascensionsphere on every planet first before Ascension may proceed?
[Just got this image of setting up disintegration booths in every major city, posting a sign in front that reads: "Ascension Booth: Simply walk through archway in order to Ascend." Imagine how long the lines would be as people queue up in order to leave all their worldly concerns behind! And a month later, some competing race moves in to pick up the pieces.]