I think one of the big concerns I have with this whole situation is this:
The "Coalition" on Beluaterra had to plan for the possibility of Vordul Sanguinius and, potentially, Ar Agyr joining Thalmarkin. And our characters did that. The fact that neither of those realms joined was an unexpected diplomatic victory, at least from Saoirse's perspective. So at what point does gathering five geographically dispersed and in two cases fairly weakened realms against three geographically tight realms, including the strongest realm on the continent, become unfair enough to warrant an intervention? When one of those realms badly screws up their IC diplomacy, in ways that none of our characters predicted? And particularly given that so much of this was related to one character's screwups, when do we decide that those two realms might not hop back in the war with a conciliatory Ruler in Thalmarkin? I'm not trying to make this a slippery slope argument, I'm literally asking, in this specific situation, where the line is? Because I'm not sure I see it, and when I can't see it on a specific situation that just happened, that concerns me, because I don't know how I'm going to see it next time.
When does it become an improper circumvention of the alliance bloc mechanics, when there were at least two, I would argue three, distinct sets of reasons the realms involved were fighting, that had some overlap but not a ton? There were those who wanted Thalmarkin's size reduced so they would be less of a threat. There were those that wanted the Cult of Mordok destroyed. And there was Vordul Sanguinius, playing a Lawful Evil Tyranny of a realm, who had their territory violated and their Ruler blatantly insulted. Any of those three reasons could have been dealt with, and at least one realm would have immediately dropped out of the war. Obia'Syela certainly doesn't care about Nothoi's territorial concerns, much less Vordul Sanguinius's pique at being insulted. Irondale was not overly concerned about the Cult of Mordok, and if Thalmarkin had backed off on the territory they almost certainly would have dropped fighting. So where's the line on the alliance bloc circumvention? Again, how are we going to know where that line is?
And I know this isn't germane to the larger discussion, but I also think it's, frankly, fairly offensive to say that the southern realms were sitting on their reasons and engaged opportunistically when there had been active work toward that fight before the northern war broke out. Saoirse and others were working, IC, before Thalmarkin declared their surprise war, to arrange a Crusade. This is after Ruler turnover in all three of the southern realms, which produced an entirely new diplomatic alignment, flipping Obia'Syela from seeking an alliance with Thalmarkin under Marcus to wanting to attack them under Saoirse. The situation was complex, and predated the northern war. Indeed, one of Saoirse's letters to Tiberius talking about the possibility of moving to Keffa specifically mentioned the idea of having Obia'Syela as a buffer between Irondale and Thalmarkin in case of this sort of attack. I'm more than a little tired of the idea that just because people were being cautious and quiet about planning a war against the most powerful realm on the continent, that somehow means there was OOC or even IC opportunism at play.
I'm willing to see how this plays out, and maybe I will be able to see the lines on these things soon, but I'm concerned.
