The histories Parson read just said their have been battles...
Nothing saying who started the fights and nothing saying the alliance members started fights for purely selfish reasons... And certainly nothing saying they treat war like a game or like a sport; as in something they do for fun or because they are bored. One thing we are seeing in the battle of Gobwinknob is that everyone in this fight has some kind of reason for fighting.

And i say again what i said in my previous post... just because wars are common place does NOT mean the erfworlders tolerate it. There are many that may very easily wish to not fight and have peace but some ambitious and/or evil ruler always pops up to stir up more trouble and keep the wars going.
The revolution that killed Saline happened after a surprise attack from below. (From unnamed and presumably unknown attackers.) Clearly Stanley's side isn't the only aggressor here.

Put simply, if Stanley's attacks on other sides were the issue I could see them defending themselves, sure.... but making Stanley out to be some sort of monster is another matter entirely. Remember, Vinnie himself is surprised that Jetstone entered the fight, their losses had been minimal. Ansom entered the fight because he doesn't like the idea of some commoner assuming power. There doesn't seem to be any other particular reason for him to do so.... and the fact that he tries to minimize this reason with vague rationalizations suggests that he knows that this reason is fairly petty and when it comes down to it, tyrannical in some ways.

I guess that's at least part of what's bugging me after all. Ansom dropped everything and marched to war because of class issues. The idea of a commoner being anywhere near his equal (much less his superior) comes dangerously close to sending him into a physical rage. From his perspective, it looks a lot like Stanley's 'atrocities' consist of becoming overlord and not having been a royal.

This seriously bugs me as an American. *shrug*