As the Roman legionnaires left to fight a new war on a new front, a mostly demilitarized border concealed the troubles that grew behind the front line of the Punic War. Sultan Igider surpassed his subjects' expectations and salvaged what his uncle Badir nearly destroyed, but the Sultanate's gentry were still deeply dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. The economy was reeling once again thanks to Badir's declaration of war against Rome; this conflict, at least temporarily, cut off trade with Thurri and forcibly isolated the Sultanate from its Gulgean allies. If not for the increased employment and business that resulted from mobilizing a large portion of the Sultanate for warfare, the Sultan might not have had a Sulanate to return to when he came home from the Punic War.

As the Sultanate's army failed to recover all of the Berbers' homelands despite much fervor and bloodshed, public confidence in the Sultanate's military leadership was weakened, albeit not broken. It also did not help that Carthago seceded from the Sultanate with Roman and Thuran help; altogether, the Sultan's ability to maintain national loyalty and unity was in question. With leading members of the gentry class already in several administrative positions, there were whispers through the Sultanate's cities and caravansaries that other members of the upper class might seek more power for themselves and even subvert the royal family's rule. Should this prove to be the case, it is not clear whether the Sultanate's already combat-weary armies will be willing to fight for their monarch's right to rule.

The crisis of the Punic War had passed, but all is not well within the Sultanate. Politics are rarely that simple.