Why do people love the term "paper tiger" so much? It's so overused in this community and seems to always crop up when people are trying really hard to discount someone. A slow period does weaken a realm, but it is silly to think it's unrecoverable.
I wasn't even making a point about their power, just that in terms of noble population, it's likely that a higher percentage of Atamara's total nobles were upset with Merlin's move back then.
I've seen that term used maybe twice, including my own post... so your complaint about people using it so much is a bit mistaken. Plus the term has a specific meaning outside of Battlemaster that is easy to understand, so there is that. Plus I'm a part of the realm, I'm seeing what they're doing so I know how good or bad their military is.
And you said that Strombran had the support of CE, which is a large chunk of the continent. You didn't specify "noble population of CE" rather than military support.
