Yeah the Westfold is a temptation and bit of an irritation. We cannot join until things settle down a bit, and by then it may or may not be possible to branch off from Gelene to potentially retake Niselur - Don't even know if the Devs intend that to be possible. Shoot, most of us in AQ were originally from Niselur. Of course *most* still only counts for like 3 of us.
JDodger: AQ could have worked with enough nobles at the outset. 'Told-you-so' is a rather pointless comment, especially if you merely grumbled to limited numbers of people. I don't remember ever hearing anyone try to talk any of us from going North, so I don't think you should be so smugly satisfied with your prediction. Besides, OOC nay-saying is such crap in a game that requires players to Do something (take risks, make mistakes, piss people off) in order to be interesting.