In any case, being a "power", in my mind, implies the ability to project one's aspirations abroad. Thulsoma could also defend themselves quite well, but I'd never have qualified them as a power.
What Madina could achieve or not when cornered doesn't interest me as far as which realms are "powers", but rather what they can pull themselves to achieve purely on their own. And Madinians agreeing to getting anything done, without being forced by external factors, was quite a rare feat. As such, D'Hara has long regarded Madina as being a low threat, because the odds of them attacking were small, and the odds of them maintaining a long campaign were even smaller. If we worked on minimizing the odds of a conflict arising, it was mostly out of the now-proven-correct fear that the Lurias could and would attack us while at our weakest.
Who's a power under such values? Morek, Astrum and Aurvandil only?
