Lords do hold power.
And the duke doesn't have any power to force him to do anything. The most he can do is hike ducal taxes for everyone, which will do him absolutely no good. He can bark all he wants, that's all he is doing. The lord has absolutely no reason to comply with this barking.
Unlike for rulership. When one gets a new ruler, be it by elections or rebellion, he can be ousted quickly if his opposition is large enough. If a new ruler is instantly protested out of office, is he being "forced to be a placeholder"? Is everyone protesting him deserving of a lock?
So...what you're saying is that rulership is totally worthless, and being the ruler gets you
no power, while being Lord gives you
absolute power.
Sorry, I don't buy it. Power is about more than what buttons the game gives you and your political opponents.
The amount of power you have is the amount of power the people around you give you. If you're an untitled noble who is liked and respected by the people in the realm, you'll likely have a lot more power than a Lord or Duke everyone hates. If you're a beloved Ruler who was elected by a supermajority, put against a Lord who got his position by buying it from an enemy and who regularly lets his contempt for everyone else in the realm be known, then you probably have more power than he does.
It's the "forcing another to be a placeholder" argument I don't buy.
Well, fortunately, I'm not asking for you to buy it. You just have to accept that that is the official consensus of the Titans, which I fully support. The rule was created primarily to prevent turnover from being reduced;
forcing the person who gained the position because of that turnover to give it back is significantly worse than that person simply choosing to do so of his own free will, because it actively deprives someone new of a position in favor of someone old.
