[Wick]

I agree with everything you say except I believe I can answer the question.

Implementing a comprehensive system of for bribery or, more comprehensively, leader loyalty would not add to the core gameplay which is about wreaking havoc with armies and spells. It is not required since most (all?) of the things it would allow can already be done in other ways, and it would be a major undertaking to implement comprehensively, particulary as a general loyalty system which I think would be incredibly cool.

I also think that a diplomacy system is probably a prerequisite for this and Illwinter doesn't seem to be excited by that, despite it being widely requested and probably simpler. They also have many more ideas then time so I think it's safe to say that this idea is dead. For this game.

P.S. I've only addressed bribery since, as I assume you know, there are assassins already.