Well the majority of people who have played Dwilight disagree with you.
The majority being mostly Lurians or have you actually talked with everyone who has played in the last two years, including the dozens who quit the game entirely?
Besides, the islands are not too narrow. Realms being too large is a problem caused by players, not by the game. We can see this by looking at Atamara, where it took OOC means to break up the gridlock on that continent, even though it is much MUCH larger and wider than either island on Dwilight.
Besides that, I've been on Dwilight for a long time. Do you want to know why most of the people left? It wasn't the travel times. It was the fact that the western half was overrun with monsters. Travel times had nothing to do with it. In fact the size of Dwilight as a whole was a large draw, as it meant that one realm or alliance of realms couldn't control the whole of the continent as we've seen happen to Atamara and Far East. Even when the Astrum/Corsanctum/Morek Empire Triple Alliance was still a thing, the west was largely able to determine their own fate, with realms like Asylon and Niselur (and sometimes even the Farronite Republic) actively fighting a war with Astrum without having to worry about being teamed up on by the Morek Empire and Corsanctum. Meanwhile the south west of the continent had their own diplomatic sphere that was largely independent of the rest of the continent. That kind of thing was unique to Dwilight, where independent spheres of influence actually had space to form.
To say that the map design has no effect upon the game and realms that form is just plain silly. It very much directs the flow of troops and some areas can be easier to hold on to multiple cities than others. Not that players can't still deadlock things, but the narrowness of the east island is a major problem. It's also equally silly saying that travel times had nothing to do with it. Travel times were a huge complaint in the war with Luria and definitely, going to or from Morek was basically an all month commitment IRL to get ready, sail there, land, do a few things, fight one maybe two battles and then go back. Swordfell's mountain range makes for a nice divide to separate spheres of influence, but it also means there are few possible realms in the north let along ones for the existing ones to fight with (Morek is basically dead, Antiquallia is... IDK what they're hoping to do, they could have ended the war a month ago and not wound up a 1 province shut in).
I agree that the western half being closed is a major factor (the entire thing was unfortunately badly handled and bungled by both the players and devs), but it's closed and there are no signs of it reopening again anytime soon. I thought it would be clear that I was talking more about the east island since that is the only part that is actually relevant to BM today. The west still had some issues with realms stretching from coast to coast so the only directions they could fight were north or south which greatly limits how many nations you can be at war with.
Morek's break up was largely OOC too, though more a decision by a player who is playing an insane person who doesn't really need in-depth IC reasons to do things. It wouldn't be too hard to reform the Morek Empire either eventually, and then what? You're left with fighting Swordfell (extremely defensive position) or Astrum (only real other target) unless you continually decide OOC to enforce there being smaller realms. It also relies on everyone playing ball with the idea and being in on it, that's not going to happen.
I was .... in Luria,
Then yes of course you enjoyed it, Luria is powerful, rich and and had lots of smaller realms to fight with for ages. It was significantly better off and more enjoyable than most of the realms it was fighting against. There's a reason why it's the largest nation by far and almost the only one that didn't have a lot of players just quit the game completely.
