Having not interacted with Robert or Yaroking before, my input is probably close to worthless in terms of the specific situation that you are all in. It is more a general take based on interaction with EO.
EO loves the war game, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's a key part of the game. When I say the war game, however, I don't mean indiscriminately attacking other players. He seems to have a solid understanding of the fact that the game isn't necessarily in a healthy place where player count is concerned, and that smaller players getting attacked for seemingly no reason can discourage them from playing outright. From conversation, seeing his interaction with other players on the game's discord server, and general activity level, he appears as a player that cares about the health of the game itself just as much as the health of his empire.
All RP aside, this thread started with Robert declaring Yaroking was identified as having conducted a sneak attack him. Sneak attacks throughout the game are generally viewed as cowardly and grounds for full on war declaration to remove the player from your country's immediate area because especially if no communication happened before the sneak attack, it shows that the aggressor cannot be trusted because if they've done it once they'll very well do it again. It is also at worst a precursor to a full blown war by trying to discretely probe defenses without getting caught and at best is a malicious act that only harms another player without providing any real benefit to yourself. I may have missed it, but there does not appear to be any mention of Yaroking denying these sneak attacks in this thread.
At the time of my post, the Draca Mixor continent has 265 C3 countries. Yaroking is at war level 5, which I completely understand provides some challenge if the player is attempting to take over a C3. At the same time, it is questionable what Yaroking, with 18 countries currently in his empire, would hope to gain attacking Robert in the first place. Attempting to take one of Robert's countries and pillaging it leaves the world as a whole, and Yaroking's 18 countries, worse off in the long run by slashing the long term production of another player's country. Trying to take it and add it to Yaroking's portfolio and take over managing the country has benefit to Yaroking, but adds a not insignificant amount of work to the maintenance of the empire especially given its already bloated size.
Perhaps most importantly, Yaroking was given a chance to meet terms that, considering the conflict began with unprovoked sneak attacks, was relatively fair. Yaroking asked for terms to end the conflict, received them ~ 4 hours later along with a deadline that again made perfect sense given that the conflict started with a sneak attack. Robert and EO giving additional time after the war was officially started would only give Yaroking the ability to delay for time and strike first again. Yaroking's next post on this thread came a full week after asking for terms of surrender, giving credibility to the idea that peaceful resolution wasn't something he was really interested in. At worst, if the terms were disagreed with, such could have been said.
Yaroking is absolutely right, Robert and EO cannot tell him where he can and cannot setup countries. At the same time Robert and EO are also absolutely right to put down any new Yaroking controlled country that pops up near them on Draca Mixor. Registering a new country directly on their border a month ago and naming it 'Oops I Did It Again' along with Yaroking's general demeanor in this thread paints a pretty clear picture of his intent to be an antagonist until he either gets bored or is wiped off of the map.
