I will preface this by saying this is more in the way of a "discussion of a fun possibility" than any serious effort to craft a feature request. This is certainly not something that could be done in the next year, or even the next couple of years (at least I would guess that it can't), but I thought it intriguing enough that I wanted to see what others thought and if they could improve on it. I think this would build nicely with Tom/Barek's ideas on more fluid hierarchies and geographies, but could conceivably work without those.
The basic premise is that everyone has political power, and everyone can cede that power to their liege, possibly with gradations (full vs. conditional support, more on this later). Whether you kept or ceded power would be codified in your oath (now a formalized, game-mechanic construct) along with a few other things, and the effects would be...Interesting.
First, the strength of the Ruler and Council (central government) is dependent on how much of the realm's political power flows all the way to the top. If you can convince all the knights to cede power to their lords, all the lords to cede to their dukes, and all the dukes to cede to you, congratulations, you are a very strong Ruler (Tyrant, in the traditional BM parlance). What this means is where it gets interesting. My initial thoughts are that strong central governments would have appointed Council and Dukes, and very strong ones might even have the Council serve at the Ruler's whim. Strong central governments could control what tax rate regions/duchies/whatever pay to the realm, issue bans and fines at whim even to those in good oath standing, and if tied to Tom's idea on making a separation of regions/duchies held by lords and Dukes in their own right or in fief to their liege, regions and duchies would be held in fief to the central government. The Ruler would hold the position for life as current Monarchs due, and maintain full diplomatic control. Food could be controlled by the Banker, and the General would have more control over armies (possibly just a textual change to indicate that orders from the General take precedence to all other orders). Regions in strong central governments have higher realm control, but estates will have efficiency penalties, requiring more nobles to run regions well.
Weak central governments might have elected Council members, and require them to face periodic elections. Regions and duchies might be held in their own right instead of in fief, and various decisions would be required to be put to vote, including things once reserved for the Council like changing diplomacy, banning, fining, tax rates, etc. However, the local control would keep everything running amazingly on production, but keeping everything in the same realm when there isn't much to the "realm" in the first place is difficult.
Holding in fief vs holding in your own right would, I think, have a number of effects, but the biggest one is that oath-breaking is treason if in fief, and not if in your own right. So, for example, if you secede with a duchy you hold in your own right, you set up your own realm and everything as currently works. If you secede with a duchy you held in fief, you receive an auto-ban like in the old system. Same with switching to a new realm. And if the oath is broken by your liege, if you hold the duchy in your own right you secede as current, or lose the duchy if held in fief. Region lords become dukes in their own right of their new one-region duchy or are forced out. In addition, regions/duchies that defect automatically join new realms as held-by-right, making accepting them somewhat risky as they can leave easily.
Now, full vs. conditional support. Ordinarily, one offers conditional support to one’s liege. So, half your political power goes to them, and you keep half yourself. A “typical” realm might have everyone this way, leaving the Council with half the power and the rest scattered in a fairly normal spread. But, perhaps a really rich townsland lord wants more power, and offers a lot more gold in exchange for full support. Or, a really charismatic King talks his Dukes into offering full support so he can act more efficiently. On the other hand, a Duke that you talked into defecting to you might not only hold his region in his own right, but might keep all of his political power, leading to a semi-independent position within the realm. You could have a “confederation” style realm with each Duke holding all their power and a weak Council, or a Democracy with each noble holding everything themselves, or a Tyranny with the Diktat holding everything, or anything in between and a mish-mash that allows negotiations based on relative positions and offers.
