For a three-way civil war in Holm, Kari mused, there sure was a lot of waiting. It became apparent pretty soon that her island couldn't exactly be invaded, with by far the largest number of defenders. On the other hand, her distinct lack of a navy proved troublesome in actually attacking anyone. Meanwhile, her former friends were either unable or unwilling to engage eachother by sea, which would possibly spell a conclusive end to the war as both sided only had one ship. If both sides lost their longship, they'd be completely unable to transport a standing army, and with Kari being the only large producer of food, she could win the war by waiting the other out. Of course, that left out the shipyard of the now-leaderless island of Heila, and any outside intervention. While she didn't think she could do anything about outside intervention, she did have a plan for Helia. Helia needed Hendur's food supply to keep afloat, and so it wouldn't be hard to convince the Helians to accept her rule, at least temporarily.
Meanwhile, Einar found himself with the same train of thought, from the opposite direction. The shipyard in Heila was instrumental, more ships would allow him to send orders to the colonies without leaving his own army shipless. The settlement of Heild was where the rest of the Holm army and navy were stationed, which, if they sided with him, would make victory almost inevitable. The war was his to win, if only he took Helia for long enough to build a few ships, but he'd need to manoeuvre his fleet around Hendur. He vowed to lie in wait until he found a good opportunity to make his move.
Balder, on the other hand, was more willing to take risks, to win the civil war quickly and efficiently. After all, there was a larger conflict at hand and Holm had obligations as a member of the alliance. He sent his one Longship, essentially only with diplomats and ten guards, to request help from Kytirome. Nothing major since he knew that they had their own conflict to deal with, just any spare ships that could potentially help defeat one of his rivals.
Governer Nanook of the settlement of Heild was a mess. not only was the mainland in civil war, he still had to deal with the prisoners, and completely-useless loot, from Ragna's botched raid. After all, what was gold and jewellery going to do in a bare-bones colony that could only just manage to be self-sustaining. What he did have, though, were seventy soldiers and twelve longships, most survivors of the failed raid, but some soldiers who were stationed on Heild before this whole civil war fiasco. While a few soldiers initially wished to return to their homes, it became quickly apparent that the great majority felt too ashamed of their defeat to return to the mainland, and they especially didn't want to split up any more in case their foe in Otso Zuria tried to take revenge. So they stayed on Heild, neutral in the civil war, for now. He groaned. He didn't want to have to take a side, but didn't want to antagonise whomever the winner was by not siding with them. Not to mention, this insane "Democracy" idea that some of those prisoners were spouting was beginning to spread to the populace. Though, to be fair, it actually sounded sort of interesting...
(Potential democratic revolution here we come. Man I really should've named Heild something else, because now having Helia and Heild as important points in Holm is gonna become a problem. I'll probably add opportunities for the other major nations to support their preferred side of the civil war, or otherwise take advantage, depending on what Kytirome does)
