Tahlberl, Burglen, Ibiran, Yalibe. These are names of fiefs that FCC has absorbed into their all consuming overlord red blob of doom.
Wait, no.
These are the names of fiefs FCC has conquered and given/sold to small or completely new Strat factions that wanted to get started on the map in the last days.
FCC may be many things, but besides smart diplomats and strategists, they are not here to win Strat by wiping everyone out and owning the whole map - they try to keep things going and interesting.
Everything Dynamike said is very true.
While they hold a very strange forum front, and sometimes contradict themselves, they are really the only faction willing to give up land for smaller factions to become involved. 3rdRL and these new Berserk guys are the latest example, they honestly probably wouldn't have had much of a chance without a clan giving them land. Considering that they aren't expected to work as vassals (unlike just about any other faction) and can stay sovereign as their own color, I'd say it's a pretty good way to get them started on their own path.
Several people have been given or offered fiefs from FCC with no strings attached, myself included. You can also add Arowaine/Occitan making that kind of offer as well so at least some of the larger clans do understand that getting upstart clans a spot helps overall.
Also, agreeing with Smoothrich. For better or worse, play the game and have fun. As a former member of both LLJK and BIRD clan, you know clans that actually had wars, it's more fun to go down fighting than sitting in fiefs doing nothing except muttering "That mean ole Kesh, I will show him!" 
Honestly giving away a fief is often the best tactical decision along with the best decision for the sake of the community to encourage more players. It's not really an abnormal thing to do.
For all you people preaching the altruism of the FCC, you're forgetting the key to this strategy:
Giving a fief to a faction uninvolved in a war immediately after its conquest restricts the faction who previously owned it from being able to safely retake it. It furthers the war effort against them if they try. It's a shady tactic, one that has been the M.O. of the FCC in almost every strat, as near as I can tell. This time, at least, several groups were just straight up absorbed into the faction.
Get the small factions on your side, as many as you can muster, then give them things for "free". When someone whose land was stolen wants it back, what do they have to do? They have to fight through this small and, in many cases, new faction to get it back. This faction will, of course, turn to their FCC philanthropists with their big hearts and shiny armies, and will get going against a clan who was previously only fighting FCC.
The flip side of encouraging new people on the map in that fashion is that it's a cheap way to get unofficial allies and prevent dynamic map play for people at war.
FIDLGB and CHAOS had the past year to do something about it (or do anything at all lol) lord knows LCO/SS were busy duking it with FCC/BIRD/TKoV the majority of strat and never got any help. We didn't ask for it or need it but instead just invited people to get in on the fun war. Quite impressively Fimbulfuckers (who at least skirmished with SS/LCO) and CHAOS/FIDLGB managed to accomplish nothing when Strat interest was at its peak and are now sitting around wondering why they don't have any allies or help when everyone's already burnt out. Enjoy The Game
We were supporting LCO with trades during their war before the HoC blockade was announced. It's unfortunate not to have wars, but just because we weren't at war
constantly doesn't mean we were doing nothing.
Remember when we went to war with The Coalition back in November? Well, that little effort we put forth against them wiped clean a large share of what we'd acquired up until that point. We simply have not had the manpower to be successfully aggressive against clans any larger than, say, Teutonic Knights were.
We also made the mistake, before, of approaching "who should we pit ourselves against?" in a diplomatic way. We didn't want to support KUTT, and we didn't want to support Hospitaller. Sorry to those guys, but we didn't necessarily favor you over your enemy at that point.
At a time when we did favor one side in a major war, it was against the largest faction on the map who shared a border with us. It was daunting. However, we learned from our mistake not doing anything at that time, and went on to become more reckless.
We've technically initiated four wars this strat; with a three month gap between the first two and a two month gap between the second. Long stretches without battles, but we were doing what we could. We struck the first blow in this current war on April 15th, with about a week of downtime from the last (admittedly small) conflict.
We've only been in wars that we have started and you people still say we do nothing.
If we're not on the offensive it has much to do with what Daruvian just said: it's just not practical to attack a faction with the resources and manpower to shut us down on every assault. Before we were ever at war, at the point when the FCC's losses were approximately in the 30,000 range I tallied up every ticket we'd ever spent, recruited onto a player (including the base 100) or put into a garrison: they'd lost more tickets than we'd ever recruited at that point, and they were still actively at war. For them it isn't a choice of "protect fiefs or spend tickets attacking?" because they have the resources to do both.
