If Gondolin or Lorgan want to say something more on that, they can.
I definitely do. This war has been in the works since roughly a month after the end of the invasion at the latest. That it comes as a surprise to you is to be credited to the allies in stead of blaming them for playing the game badly. You can't be *GIANT*, have a history and a current policy of pissing off neighbours and allies AND neglect to make friends or destroy your enemies. Even the changed geographical situation should've pointed you towards the obvious from the very beginning: rich, non-decimated lands around the lake, all in the hands of Fronen, beaten down realms surrounding it, their lands lost in the blight. I wonder what may come from that...
Yes, Sint vs. OG would've made a great war, but how was OG going to do that with an - in their opinion - untrustworthy and clearly expansionist Fronen in their back? Not to mention they've been allied with Sint for a while now, and Sint tends to be a good ally.
The constant increase in Fronen's military shows that if the allies had gone any other way about this than the "out of the blue" attack, they would've been crushed at the first attempt. And Fronen has no one to blame but herself for not doing what they are doing now a lot earlier. The signs for war were there. Days before the actual attack the King of Thalmarkin even informed Doge Diana that Thalmarkin would go to war against her. And still, when we attacked, Vore had 2.5k militia, Yipinalke maybe 2k and there was no real mobile army (that could have been expected from a realm like Fronen that had been warned that war was coming) in sight.
All in all, the allies played the game well, it is Fronen that failed. I don't believe for one second that the war is over even though Melhed joining against Fronen could speed it up and I'm even more surprised by that as I was about Iato's secession. But I haven't heard anything of it IG so I'm still a little sceptical about it to be honest, this is going against all rumours that we heard before, even against a ton of earlier votes.
Also, the rule stands: if you want respect on BT, fight against the invaders and do your part, even if you suffer for it. Fronen did not earn any respect this invasion. Even Sint earned more. At least in my opinion, which of course may very well be biased.
What do you have to think though when you're in Thalmarkin, holding on to every penny, every recruit, every bushel of food for the entire invasion and then Fronen waltzes in accompanied by the sound of trumpets right when the undead have left, sits in Unger for a week eating food that was bought from OG and Sint and then they blindly walk into the blight with their *entire* army and lose at least half of it because - you know - the blight hurts?
As the surviving realm who has suffered most in the invasion without giving in to any demands, I think Thalmarkin has the right to claim some lands from the weak and the useless, and that is the pure IC opinion of my character. I'm sure that Fronen did do things, I just did not see or hear much of them.
And as for strong characters... I assure you that we've still got our share of those. It causes some good drama every once in a while but with the exception of those who have been banned, they can still work together and actually achieve things other than constant bickering. Marionettes are wooden dolls on strings. When people are eating pies, they're the ones that don't take a piece.
Anyway, in conclusion I'd say that BT politics have not changed that much, except for the fact that there was no colonization period this time and there were a few realms who sat on their ass while all the others were busy.
