I think I read a post or two of yours that I liked.
If that adage is correct, you certainly talk too much to be thought a fool, anyways!
Illwinter is basically the cold version of Second Sun, but with random giant (and wolf?) attacks on random lands. It's a GREAT way to piss people off, but it hits their income hard, and in the late game can shut down mage recruitment if their economy is strained already (plus cause a little desertion!), not to mention making -the entire world- hospitable for immediate annexation.