Actually i do not understand what's in the mind of the players especially the rulers. Swordfell could had made it very fun by helping out Asylon, but they chose to go about their own business. Astrum and Morek probably have their own IC agenda and not suitable to help Asylon out. That's understandable. But even that can be turned around. Morek can always choose to wipe out Astrum and suddenly Astrum helping out Asylon.
The things you choose to do still need to make sense for your character, and the situation in which they find themselves. How would it make sense for Morek to attack Astrum? How would it make sense for Astrum to ally with Asylon against Morek?
And don't just blame the rulers. Yes, rulers may be the one to actually click the "Declare war!" button, but they have to answer to the nobles in their realms. If the nobles don't go along with it, then the realm will crumble and fail. Then the net result of the swapped alliance will be that the ruler loses his position, and the realm goes right on doing what it did before. Or the realm completely fails, and disintegrates, getting gobble up by everything around it. Take, for example, the recent situation on EC with Eponllyn being surrounded by the Southern Alliance realms. When the ice hit, Eponllyn was offered an opportunity to join the SA and carve a new realm out of Sirion. As ruler of Eponllyn I could have said "Sure, let's go for it!". But if I had, then probably at least 80% of my realm would have either rebelled or walked away. Assuming I kept my throne, I would have an ineffectual realm of about 5 or 6 nobles left, and three of those would have been newbies who had just joined.
You have to take actions which make sense for your character, and which the other characters in your realm will go along with. Face-Heel turns with no warning/justification are no fun for anyone.
