I think that fluff is super important, maybe the most important, otherwise your members will get bored and won't interact with each other, neither would they follow your instruction ln time. I for sure know it's very hard to have said fluff, but once you do, you're good to go, and ready to improve your alliance governance
Sorry for my ignorance, but I have no idea which alliances are part of which block, may you give me a quick re-cap? I thinm The Commonwealth is in The Swamp, but that's about it