The books do mention that there were wars on their planet so that would explain at least them having a concept of war and primitive weapons. The question of starship weapons is a good one but allow me to offer a possible explanation. First, I think that terraforming explains why they might possess s...

I will say straight up front that I have read Ender's Game plus all of the books from the Shadow Series but that I have not read the Speaker series, just so that particular bias of mine is clear. I absolutely loved Ender's Game, it is definitely near the top of my personal favorite/great books of al...