an easier answer would eb to tell me what alliance he was in. Kesh has never told me who I have to merc for someone in particular. I can and do make my own decisions
To my knowledge, Astralis has no formal alliances. Nor do we have any pacts of non aggression. We are only at war with one clan, AoW. There are a lot of reasons from this strat alone that has warranted the war. I doubt you have merc'd against them.
That being said, I highly doubt we would attack LCOH, Acre, or MB. They allowed us trade in our rebuilding efforts, and continue to do so. They also merc for us, but I covered the whole merc aspect in a previous post.
Wardens of the North, and Black Company have both been at war with us in the early stages. Upon getting wiped, we entered peace with them. About that wiping... small bit of 'Do you remember...' Astralis was at war with four clans at one time. GeForce, AoW, Wardens, and BC. The only ones to help us at the time was Frisia. We remember. So when Frisians go to war, we are often by their side.
Legitimate Businessmen, Hessians, Britannics... all too far away really for us to support/fight.
Steppe Alliance... interesting thing here. I complained long and hard about how the trade situation was set up. Know what Kesh said... paraphrasing (I can dig up actual quotes if you like) 'There is no alliance. Unless you are Acre, or Astralis, you can freely trade here...' I took that to heart. Trade truly influenced who Astralis stands with. Without fiefs of our own for a long while, we had to build relations with those who would allow use of their SnD. Everything at the time was 'closed' or 'restricted.' And to have a whole third of the map shut down, willingly, by those who 'lived' there... It sucked.