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It's not always stupidity (ano's idea), or fear or weakness (Dedas's idea), or apathy (Zeldor's idea).

Here's a situation for you:

In the far west of the world, the nations of Arco and Ulm lived beside each other in peace, tending to their equal kingdoms of 15 provinces each. Until the 28 month, that is ... a vast wave of elephants poured over the borders!

Ulm's finest general was slain. The Ulmish army was crushed. A group of sages was squished inside their library while they studied. The slaughter went on for a few more months, and the elephants gathered at the Ulmish capitol.

But then ... a Prince of Death dropped from the sky! The elephants fled in terror. But the stealthy Ulmish army had taken all the surrounding lands in the same turn, and the elephants were all destroyed.

Ulm battled back to the original border, but then was stymied by Arco magic, and at the end of the third year, they had reached a stalemate.

In the first month of the fourth year, messengers from other nations arrived, telling of impending doom, for Vanheim had overrun most of the east. The messengers tell them it's only logical that they stop fighting, because otherwise Vanheim will win.

....

So, what do you think Ulm and Arco would do? I've *never* seen them stop fighting. They don't care about Vanheim. They don't care about the east. If it had just been a couple of border skirmishes, then maybe ... but man, that thing at the library? Unforgivable!