Well, being suicidal was the reason why Atamara went on such situation. One by one smaller realms did something utterly stupid or over bold, without taking account what will happen next. Red Span, BoM, Norrland, Falasan etc.
Earlier we had real good chanche to crush CE, but alliance collapsed, we did real lot work and effort to make it work... to avoid what had happened all those realms which CE had crushed. We had majority of realms agreed to stop CE... but somehow CE were able to convience southeners abandon support to Carelia... and then north started to crumble as well.
Oh, some comments about Miskels doings:
All was well and you gained some real respect... then you started to be a bitch and step over higher ranked nobles. That is what made you trouble maker. Not that you rallied nobles to fight trolls, but that you were jumping on peoples toes, those toes which can kick you.
Yes, you increased problems instead of doing what you should do. If someone does poor job, you do poor job too? Way to go...
Problem with Miskel was, that he didnt do well with authorities. You dont know how to lick ones butt to achieve something, arrogance carries you only to somewhere... Then you need to lick some butts to get what you need... after that you can again be arrogant a bit 
Just declaring war left and right and pissoff everybody in realm and abroad, would have not made Atamara any better... only kill more realms.
No, being overly cautious prudes who wouldn't bread on the off chance that they would choke on it is what made Atamara such a horribly, horribly boring place. If what you said was true; East Island, Dwilight, Beluaterra, and Colonies should all be dead, dreary places with nothing to do. But we find the opposite is true, wars are common, nobles have stuff to do, and the balance of power of individual nations change over time. Compare that to Atamara, where the CE-bloc starts off overwhelmingly powerful and only gets more powerful as time goes on.
Oh, and please don't give me bull!@#$ about not knowing what was going on in Darka, I played their several times throughout my career here.
