(Essentially, the Adakari ruling class like to see themselves as benevolent protectors, nobly welcoming back the wayward children of the other nations. Unsurprisingly, the nations who're currently trying not to get swallowed up view them in a significantly less positive light)

This is mostly because they truly believe that bringing other nations into the empire is a good thing *for those nations* since it gives them access to all the good things the empire can do for them.

The other nations... don't always agree on that, let's say.

As an empire, they're... not completely awful to live under? Very much the 'pay your taxes and venerate the emperor and you can pretty much keep on doing whatever it was you were previously doing' type, which is definitely better than some of the alternatives (just, y'know, still an empire).

since they see themselves as the heirs and inheritors of the pre-Fall mage lords, who ruled over the whole thing (and, given they control the only known wellspring of natural magic, even if they can't do much with it, they've got a very good claim to that title from certain angles).

Well now I'm going to have that stuck in my head every time I see that bus go past XD

(Efir's a small enough country that it can't stand against the Adakari Empire's forces without outside help. It's also the bulwark protecting all the states north of it - including Sacaan - from the Adakari advance, so there's more than a wee bit of self-interest in those contracts as well)

(And for the folks who might not get the reference: www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedd... )

Yyyeah, my guess is usually either that or folks who've just discovered activism and are... let's say, a wee bit overenthusiastic (and that's me being polite, though also acknowledging that I did something very similar r.e. feminism when I was in my early teens)