Yes. Which is weird to be honest. The game is so centralized yet dukes still wield so much power. Feels like it can't make up its mind. If you want to be a strong ruler, you need your own duchy.
I cannot help but agree with Zakky here. Usually ruler will have its own duchy to rule over. When my Ruler character steps down as Duke of a duchy, he cannot be subjected to another Duke power, so he cannot hold any region. Anyway when he passed through a region which seen much fighting, the people of the region elect him as Duke and formed a Duchy under him automatically without he need to create a new duchy. And the region is not Townsland or City type. Of course I Roleplay it as people of the region supporting his realm cause.
I do believe even Townslands are available to start a Duchy with.
For a long time I have even believed that duchy capitals actually were a thing (had a conversation with Delvin about this many weeks ago), just because of the fact that you need to have this 1 starting city/stronghold/townsland. And I could have sworn that this starting region was somehow highlighted (bold, italic) on some pages.
Never was so wrong in my life.
Yes, Townsland can be its own duchy too. I have created duchy around Townsland before.
