Well this is a really fun conflict isn't it? An alliance of southern realms who all hate each other ICly and that was mostly organized OOCly for the purpose of breaking up another alliance, just buying regions with their bloated gold from the stagnation period.
First of all, Caergoth and Suville are probably the nations (looking at recent history) that have the least stagnation as they actually fought each other. This war was the second one in relatively short time. During all this time, Strombran fought not a single war. So you should have more gold than we do. The difference is, this gold is family wealth that people are willing to spend. Perhaps those in Strombran are no 'devoted' enough, or whatever you want to call it, to do so as well.
And again, yes Suville and Caergoth are still not good friends and many still don't trust Suville. But this last war against Suville was fought over Riverholm. Strombran decided to take the city and proclaimed that all other claims, other than their own (which they didn't really have to begin with) were baseless and non-existing. Basically, Strombran told both Suville and Caergoth to !@#$ off. Also don't forget that Strombran had been raiding Caergothian lands for a long time on the (cowardly) Taran method. The entire situation brought with it a hate towards the federation, which in all honesty has always been present in the south, all of the south. For the first time however, Caergoth saw an opportunity to strike back and they took it. The alternative was to destroy Suville and take their lands (with ease as Tara would support it) but after that they'd be stuck with nothing as they still couldn't oppose the federation, Caergoth would be dead-locked. As a final insult, Strombran took Ser'quea and quickly denounced all other claims to the region as well.
So for the last time, the majority of the arguments for the south to unite was IC. While no doubt OOC sentiments played their parts also, the majority of this was pure IC logic and hatred towards Strombran and the federation's dead-lock.
Trust me, when this is over, there will no doubt be war in the south again. I don't believe this alliance will last long once the federation has been brought to its knees. But then again, why should it? But right now, there's someone who's more hated than any other. And I must admit I had expected CE to be stronger. The forces right now are somewhat unbalanced, but not as much as in the old 'gangbang' days of AT. The end of the federation, you don't want to know how many tried and failed.
