Duchy Reformation Ideas
This page is made to collect some ideas concerning duchal independence. It's quite much a change of gameplay and -mechanics that is proposed by this, so before anyone is troubled with it, things should be thought through.
A] Duchies should gain more independence in the realm. Instead of making it obvious that they supply nobles, gold, food and army for a realm, they should be persuaded to do so. As such, every duchy would be more independent.
B] Duchies should be able to fight amongst eachother for regions; they can expand their duchy by taking a region from another duchy (from the same realm) by replacing the lord there by a knight of the Duchy.
C] Nobles of a duchy should recruit their unit in the duchy, not in the capital. This is logical, for one didn't recruit his army in the capital in the medieval times, but in the region he was home to.
D] The concept of realm should change from one united "something", to a federation of cities serving the same ruler. There would be a give-and-take policy between ruler and duchy. Wars between realms however apply for all duchies of involved realms; you cannot back out unless you break your allegiance to the ruler.
E] It is not unthinkable that bordering duchies who own loyalty to different rulers start a border conflict. This does not have to lead to a war between realms - it can stay between the duchies. Of course, other duchies should be able to help. This brings us to F.
F] There should be diplomacy between duchies. Dukes can chatter with eachother and make plans. Perhaps, to make it more realistic, dukes can't just chat with any other duke, but only with duchies in X amount of regions/hours away from them.
Counter-Proposals
A) Sovereigns -- be they Presidents, Prime Ministers, Chancellors, Kings, Emperors, Pontiffs, whatever -- in this time period are usually seen as the chosen of a higher power. As such, they should be able to issue a decree, urging the peasants or guards/militia to rise up and overthrow the Duke, a person appointed by the Sovereign.
B) There should be a way for a sovereign to remove the ducal title from any individual within their realm, removing their nobility and transforming them into a peasant, as did happen in the medieval period.
C) Not all historical monarchies or republics were "federations". Some were exceptionally united with a strict hierarchy. If added, make the two systems OPTIONS for the sovereign to determine how they want their realm run rather than an idea forced on all realms, even those known for a strict central authority.
