Hosting Foreign Nobles

[Charles]

Title: Hosting Foreign Nobles

Summary: Much like prison, but no torture, banning, or execution. 
A noble without a unit who is from a realm that is below federation can be 'hosted' by The Lord of the region.  His time as a guest would be limited in a similar fashion as prison.  The Lord would then decide whether to release him back to the region or back to the nobles own realm.

Details:  The Lord of the region would either need to be there with troops to 'arrest', or have militia in the region to arrest him.  With militia present, The Lord could order them to 'arrest' the noble in absentia.  Or perhaps a noble with a unit is needed in the region to make the arrest, but the noble would be taken to the region lord's estate.
Keeping the noble in the region should cost a certain amount of gold, after all, they are accustomed to finery.  Perhaps the extravagance and cost could be decided by The Lord or it could just be based on region type.  All costs of the noble are payed for by the lord, including the trip home, unless the noble decides to leave early.
The restriction of a noble below federation could be changed to below alliance or perhaps not have any restrictions at all.
The gold may be forfeit or not.  This may be dependent on stature of noble, or may be a comparison between noble and Lord (ie, The Lord would not be able to take the gold from another lord, but a Duke would.
The guest would not have access to their paraphernalia, and would not be able to see what kind of troops are in the region.
The noble would be able to communicate with all his usual contacts, The Lord would receive a copy of all letters to and from the noble.  The noble would not receive any messages that are realm wide or part of any message group without the sender intentionally including the guest noble (I am imagining a check box like the keeping recipients secret feature).
The duke, and ruler could decide to host the noble instead of The Lord, thereby moving them to the ducal/realm capital and transferring control to the duke/ruler.  The Judge can decide to release the noble at any time under selected conditions.
Clearly some of the aspects of this feature need to be fine tuned.

Benefits: At this point, nobles without units can travel wherever they like and bring paraphernalia like scouts with them.  There are currently no methods of dealing with these nobles.  This would increase international relations and disputes.  This would also be fairly accurate to historical events.

Possible Downsides/Exploits: Nobles would no longer be able to travel without fear of being arrested.  This would function similarly to prison other than communication restrictions, so it could be rather boring for players. 

[JeVondair]

I like this idea very much. It would make a most excellent avenue for intrigue and fuel for RP's. Plus it happened regularly enough IRL as to not be a problem.

[OFaolain]

I disagree.  If you want to host a noble you can already roleplay it; no new mechanic is required to host a noble cordially.  And if you want to cause a diplomatic incident, you can set your unit to murderous and attack the noble in your region.  What you're proposing is the ability to arrest any noble regardless of diplomatic status; there's a reason you have to be at war with a realm to arrest that realm's priests: if you're going to arrest them you have to mean it.  Ditto for your average noble; if you are at war with their realm your troops have a chance to capture them (I believe this is accurate).  Otherwise, them being somewhere they should not be should be enough to cause an incident if you suspect they are scouting your realm for invasion.

[Indirik]

... you can set your unit to murderous and attack the noble in your region.

FWIW - Do you have any idea how difficult this is to pull off when you are in your own realm? Trying to force a battle with a noble from another realm is almost impossible.

[OFaolain]

FWIW - Do you have any idea how difficult this is to pull off when you are in your own realm? Trying to force a battle with a noble from another realm is almost impossible.

Yeah, I spent about three days trying to catch Lunaria de Lancelot in one region and she was constantly traveling.  But being able to push a button to arrest an ostensibly friendly or neutral noble should also not be kosher, IMO.

That brings me to this question: if you are stationary in a region and set to murderous, shouldn't you attack any nobles not of your realm who enter or travel through it (stopping because they encounter "hostile troops")?  Likewise, if you and another noble from another realm enter another region simultaneously, shouldn't you attack them?  Or do you both have to be stationary in the same region while you are set to murderous because you don't count as hostile until you actually attack?  How does the murderous setting actually work?

[Eirikr]

I can't put my finger on it and it's not OFaolain's reasoning... but something about this feels wrong. Sure, there are times when friendly nobles are wrangled into situations like this, but what binds them to it is politeness and maintaining diplomatic relations, not actual restraints or enforcement. In that case, it's already possible in-game; you just need the right government system. There's also the point that lower ranking people are less likely to have such an offer accepted or are less likely to command enough respect or power to be a big diplomatic deal if their guest leaves early.

For example, if Duke Importantson has a controlling vote in a Senate that will decide if your two realms are going to war, you are more likely to stick around for however long he wants (provided you don't want to fight). If, however, Baron Whocares isn't allowed to vote in the Senate, you're not going to feel particularly pressured to stay... unless he uses armed guards, which now becomes an actual arrest. All but that suddenly hostile arrest are already possible in-game. You just have to start playing that way and maybe toss out a few RPs to make your model clear.