Thalmarkin looted Nothoi for no reason, while it was fighting the continent's strongest realm (at the time, at least).
That was a one time thing. Aimed at provoking a realm theoretically stronger than us.
The gang up on Fronen can't be dismissed as well. It surrounded the lake, sure, but it was hardly a behemoth. A huge portion of its economy had to go into militia because of how little defensable it was, and its leadership was more inactive than arrogant, the northern realms were just jealous of the territory expansion it had.
Because it came at a time when
huge swathes of territory had been blighted at the edges of the continent.
The war that created Ar Agyr against Melhed was also hardly fair, Melhed never stood a chance.
It was 1 vs 1. What more could we do? Besides, it was declared at a time when Thalmarkin had about 70% of it's potential population. That's what more we did.
And a crusade that occurred, what, over 10 real life years ago? Of which none of the actors involved remained? That justifies ganging up on the continent's smallest realm?
I was referring to previous gangbangs on Enweil when they were still a powerbloc but I guess indeed AA and Melhed participated in the last battle of Enweil... Not that Rio needed them. It's sad to see Enweil die but I guess after a series of bad luck, this was the inevitable result.
Why Riombara's against them I have no idea, but they fully deserve every other enemy they've got. Thalmarkin went out of its way to make them. Ar Agyr was forcefully carved out of most of what was Melhed, Nothoi was looted over no reason, Fronen was attacked and belittled for little reason...
And Thalmarkin has, by far, the most nobles, which is worth a lot more than a bunch of nobles scattered over a huge territory (and thus with low tax efficiency). I'm not even sure the war is even lopsided against them yet.
Riombara opposes the idea of Fingolfin as King of Kings, probably the entire concept. They've got a legitimate reason to war us. And yes, we've gone out of our way to produce casus belli for other realms against us. That was kind of my point.
Yet still, both treaties with Melhed that have been broken were signed at a position when we could've gone for much, much more. We always said what we wanted and stopped after they gave us that. It may sound arrogant but both treaties were actually very lenient from a Thalmarkin point of view. And I believe the only reason Melhed agreed to them was that they thought so too, considering their options at the time.
And yes indeed, the defensive war is to our advantage, if you block out all of our ambitions and goals. But we have been working on this mountain fortress for years for a reason.
Thalmarkin is surrounded by expendable allies and has a huge noble count as well as very competent military commanders. Even if they lose this war "defeat" will only mean not getting the fancy title for Fingolfin and maybe losing at most a couple of regions. That's barely anything compared to how much damage pretty much every other participant in this war has taken.
I assume Thalmarkin will take damage before peace is signed. I don't see why else we would sign it. And about expendable allies... The fewer you have, the less expendable they are.
