The Great War

Mona Lisa wrote: Certain powerblocs were beginning to take shape and that War with H?, unthinkable in the past, was not out of the question. . .  a host of reasons, shifting allegiances and past histories had conspired to alter the status quo (. . .) Sooner or later something was bound to give, nearly any altercation on any side could trigger Armageddon.  The metagame reached a fevered pitch, unlikely alliances were forged, formerly tense or outright hostile past dealings were laid to rest in the interest of a common goal, and the Grand Alliance was formed.  It is not proper for me to go into details, but it was a truly herculean feat.  I was aware of a great deal, but no doubt much occurred that I can only guess at . . . There was little surprise when a relatively minor altercation (shades of the Trove War) blew up out of proportion into the biggest war in Illy’s history, it was inevitable at that point. The only question was where the fence sitters would lean… Mona Lisa Aka “Banshee of the North”

First of all thank you for one of the most informative posts in this topic. If I might ask you to elaborate a little bit on a few points though I would really appriciate it.

The part of Your post Im quoting seems to indicate that Epidemic was correct in saying that the GA (or parts of it) were prepareing for the war for half a year. Can you confirm or deny that? Also which alliances were in the initiating group?  

What it further implies is that most of the reasons for the war were only smoke screens at that time neither BANE nor CK were at war and if I understand correctly there was nothing to suggest that NC were some crazed warmongers threatning the whole server. 

If the aformentioned is true it bares for me a question of what the real reasons for the war were? Was it a quest for domination? Did the vets get bored (as some seem to suggest)? I don't belive in personal grudges driving such major events, but have they played any role in it? Or have there been any other reasons?

Those are all intereting aspects, but what is the most confusing for me is the Crow Confederation itself. If I understood Angrim correctly eCrow (and per analogiam mCrow) were not taking part in the initial planning. You are giving here lots of reasons for which they actually could have joined the other side - am I correct to assume that this is why you did not include them in the initial planning? Were they considered fence sitters? Furthermore I can't help to notice that the Crow Confederation is not confederated with itself (mCrow and eCrow with nCrow and vCrow), yet nCrow and vCrow are confederated with many non-crow alliances. What's that about? Does the crow confederation exist or is it only names by now? Or is there a confederation of nCrow, vCrow, VICX and EE that is the really dominant on the server? If so, then is this the case just now or has it been the case since before the war? 

There are many more questions that could be asked in regard to all this, but Id like to start with those :)