Ziode can do all sorts of crazy things if he tries. *shrugs* I don't understand him one bit. Really, the comment was that Ziode wasn't seeking refuge in Zonasa. He had plenty of options, and honestly, from what I've seen and heard, he wouldn't have to try much to do anything in Cathay.
As to the number of rebels, I don't think he'd care. Since the most common complaints that he saw was, "you aren't talking to us" over things that were months in the making and were well known, or when they were asking for information he didn't have. I think my favorite was, "we want to go to war, but when you didn't pick Zonasa or C'thonia we're going to whine that you hate Arcaea, because OW isn't our ally, and when you offered, Arcaea wasn't involved at all." Maybe Ziode read it all differently, but that's what I saw.
