The west realms give their surplus food to the Zuma because that's the only other option to engage them diplomatically. We can't initiate diplomacy in the military sense because the Zuma was superior in that regard. So no, 'stop giving Zuma food' will not fly because that's the only viable bargaining chip the west realms have.
We can't or don't want to ignore the Zuma. Even if we decide to abandon the west realms and live in Darfix, I think the Zuma GM would still find a way to engage player realms...because then, what would be the point of the Zuma? If they exist just to deter playing in the west, then why not just shut down the entire area? It would be a far simpler solution that would cause less drama and headaches. As such, we have to deal with the Zuma.
You know that the whole food thing is kind of recent right? For years the Zuma GM barely engaged player realms, because his role appears to be passive. He does not seek out engagements, he lets players come to him. For YEARS people wondered what the point of the Zuma was since they seemed to do absolutely nothing.
So here is the story, the Zuma started offering huge sums of gold for food. My IC sources indicate this was due to someone approaching them to sell them food, but its still rumours about this. Once they started buying, people saw a way to make A LOT of gold. Food that previously went to D'Hara suddenly had a better market with the Zuma.
Now the Zuma are used to that excess food. Probably they have changed thier culture to even NEED that food to continue the new standard of living. Just cutting off that supply is going to be hard. Probably something people should have thought about before chasing the big pay offs.
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