To an extent, Oligarch is about the taxes. If you're not getting anything out of the city, running taxes at a low percentage to keep control, and don't have the knights to populate estates, what's the point?
ePeen. If they have it, you don't, and they gloat over that fact.
So what are the alternatives for Sirion?
Dunno. But I've seen the Perdan/Sirion thing before. You have to get the realms in between involved, or you can't have a war. But we've done Sirion/Fontan v. Perdan thing. If it weren't for Ibby/Ito gobbling up Perdan from behind, we could have held them off indefinitely. But Sirion won't have that, unless they convert Westmoor over to their side. Not gonna happen. (Westmoor may not be a Perdanese puppet, but unless you have some *serious* realm turnover, you're not going to turn them against Perdan.)
We've also seen Everyone v. Sirion. That didn't go anywhere.
Sirion and the strongest survivor of the Perdan/Caligus scrap running seperate wars wailing on much smaller realms?
IAIHAC.
In the event of a Perdanese defeat in the south, Caligus and Eponllyn vs Armonia might happen, and Sirion might get bored enough of sitting on the sidelines to chip in.
Sirion is a staunch ally of Caligus. What will you do to break them apart?
Erm... yes, it is. Although it is remote, it would just need a few changes in the political leaders (not specifically the rulers). But it would need Eponllyn to survive the current war, which I'll grant looks highly unlikely.
*Anything* could happen if you start changing out leaders. But that's really not worth speculating on, unless you have plots in the works to actually remove those leaders. (And if you do, you won't be talking about them here.)
Short-term thinking.
In a way, yes, it is. But if you want Sirion to let Fane survive, then you have to give them a reason. "Let them live, and maybe they will eventually grow large enough to want to fight you" is hardly a compelling IC argument to allow them to live. The formation of Fane is an insult to Sirion. I can understand perfectly, IC, why they wouldn't want to let it survive.
Sirion's big problem is that they've systematically blocked the growth of any realm that could become a decent opponent,
Really? Who have they oppressed? I would be interested to see this list.
