[UninspiredName]

Consider the following situation. The Pantokrator, in all his un-vanished glory, was added (By the devs, of course) as a pretender for, let's say Mictlan. They have a lot of sacreds. Pantokrator had 10 in every magic path, cost 0 points, and started with a Dominion Strength of 4. Don't even get me started on attributes. This would, naturally, be ridiculous, but one pretender counts for much less 'of the game' than the 2% Vanheim does. That pretender could be easilly banned, but many out there prefer to allow all options if possible. Why is it that parts of the game that unbalance it are our problem? Also, say that people did ban Vanheim. Turning the nation into something balanced would, effectively, be same as adding another nation, though it would take less work. And it makes the game feel more solid overall.

At one point in this thread, more than once, both sides have told each-other that, if they don't like change/the way things are, just make a mod. However, only true modding masterpieces could ever be as in-step with the rest of the game as something the developers created. Really, though, when it all comes down to it, it needs to be seen what the majority is. If only two people dislike Vanheim, they can't very well tell everyone else to make a mod. Unfortunately, it's much harder to tell here whether most prefer mods or not.

I haven't ever used, or experienced a Vanheim rush, though it ticks me off in principle, so I'll leave arguing whether or not it's actually unbalanced up to you lot. Still, if it is unbalanced, there's little reason for the developers not to fix it.