Cathal's peace offer was always very simple: pay what you think you ought to as recompense for your treachery, then let's ally/federate and build a new power block to balance Lukon. He was also very careful to restrain those forces who wanted to see Oritolon destroyed because that would have made such an outcome impossible.
However successive Oritolon governments have procrastinated in the hopes Lukon would solve the problem for them, and there'll be a price to pay for taking that course. Where is the sweetness in victory when it's another's arms who achieve it? And more to the point, where is the relevance of a realm who can't defend her own borders? Breaking Oritolon's field army was far too easy given her natural advantages.
The obvious course for Oritolon is to have done with independence and merge fully with Lukon for the north-south war which must happen once Giblot falls. A nice big apocalyptic conflict to either end the Colonies and send them crashing into the waves, or break Lukon's power and start a new age with maybe some new realms to spice things up.
