Right, I got over the aforementioned problems, and took the turn.
And relax guys, I'm coming from a completely unbiased viewpoint, Xietor did little more than ask me to sub, and he only did that because Folket asked him to sort it out for him. Also I know from previous dealings that Xietor goes completely out of his way to be honest about stuff, so if he says he didn't look at the turn you can be sure he didn't. And to be honest, he'd have to look for a very long time to have any idea what's going on. It's crazy! (literally)
So guys, I've landed a little in the deep end. I just took an hour looking at the map trying to get some idea what's going on and looking up all the different banners (so confusing! and some of them e.g. different Oceania ages are almost identical), looking at all my mages and trying to guess what they were doing and so on. I've done a kind of holding-action turn because I can't work out who I'm meant to be fighting or anything!
So, I'd ask that everyone in any way involved with me (which seems to be a lot of nations?) send me either a PM or an in-game message explaining the situation. Even if it's just "not done much diplomacy but consider you a friend". And the enemies too - I would greatly appreciate your honesty in letting me know we are at war.
I'm not sure how long I will sub for. I was trying to cut down on the games I am playing, but this does look very exciting (what a cool game!), so I think I will persist for a bit. Absolute max 3 weeks though, because then I am off to Edinburgh to do a show in the Fringe Festival.
Incidentally does Folket just have flu or something, or does he look to be out of action for a while? Hope he is okay.