Has Tien'chi has not foreseen the fall of their own race at the hand of Sauromantia, as a direct result of their lack of action against them ? That makes Claire wonder how much "acknowledge the facts rather than continue belaboring the false notion of their divinity" they really have. Claire adds : unless, of course, they have a plan to counter it. Claire has seen that wasting their armies against Ulm's has not really been that successful up to now, and Claire wonders now how much of a "blowhard without any power" Tien'Chi really is, and who the "generals" really are.
Maybe the "celestial" masters should before speaking about hypothetical futures of other races, even before checking their own futures, checking the present reality of the world.
Claire has. Claire acted in consequence. Claire asks again : will you join the crusade or remain a peasant that beat up other peasants when bandits are at their back clearing up the backyard instead of striking them when they are vulnerable ?
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Unfortunately, your winning in diplomacy becomes meaningless as soon as you are crushed with brute force. That's one of reasons I said that attacking before alliance was formed was probably your mistake - Tien Chi, for example, formed an alliance before attacking me...
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Claire disagrees. Claire's mistake that would cost her victory was to die during the second month after the pantokrator died. That prevented her from taking the territory that forced a pointless war against Ryleh, prevented most of the firepriest from researching the spells needed to repel an invasion for a year, and left the north side open to a double invasion since Claire could not secure the land that could have blocked Sauromantia's advance to the south.
Claire however, has not attacked too soon, but too late. You forget why the diplomatic victory was scored. Part of it is as I said in the few last topic : Sauromantia's openly shown greed and arrogance has made it the "enemy". Another part is because in a war, your allies move because you move. Sauromantia had diplomacy in his hands with secrets dealings with most nation and at that time organised wars with others. The only way to grasp that control was not using the same methods, since, basically, Claire had nothing to offer but a promise to attack that could be : a lie or a diplomatic standstill. With no one daring taking a risk (since the first one to attack would undoubtly take the wrath of the defender). Getting enough allies could get months of undoing and there was no just months to spare.
What Claire did then was setting a precedent. Risked accelerating the rise of Sauromantia in order to break the forementioned alliances, making them realize that even by swallowing their neighbour as fast as they could, without an alliance, they stood no chance because Sauromantia already had made that alliance and that it's own individual power was not only stronger than their own, but growing faster than their own as well.
By setting this precedent, by attacking that soon in plain sight, Claire has scored that diplomatic victory at the cost of her future. Claire risked her lands in exchange of a chance of victory for all other nations in the world, including Claire's. Finally, by doing so, since Claire's lands are so far from the Sauromantia homeland, it helped spreading out the lizard armies and make them much more vulnerable. That's the reason why Claire provoked Sauromantia that much and it worked really well.
Now, Claire hopes that the last of the remaining border nations around Sauromantia come to their senses and manage to make Sauromantia back into something manageable again instead of the juggernaut it currently is. That's about what is needed to put the oversized ambitions of Sauromantia in place : to strike into the vulnerable belly of the beast. Claire therefore needed to attack first, since a side attack could only happen after Sauromantia's armies were stretched
To put the plan into simpler words : to kill a beast, you need to make it vulnerable, to anger him so it reacts with feelings instead of with a cool head, and then finish it when it's vulnerable with a spear in its belly, and that the hide of the beast is strong enough to repulse the attackers.
Claire believe that plan was good, and so far it worked rather well. The only problem is that the baits (myself and Ryleh) are falling too fast, soon needing Lanka's help) and that the spear didn't hurt enough, and hopes the only reason is that it is because some of the spearwielders didn't even move yet, and that it is not due to the tactical strength of Sauromantia overwhelming.
Otherwise, the world is doomed to be under Sauromantia's rule.
Re: On the same topic . . .
In any case, Tien Chi will probably HAVE to attack Sauromatia soon, though Sauromatia doesn't have to attack Tien Chi - it can win without fighting them at all! 
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