While not being a copy of earth vassalic political systems, the system we will start with in CoE is vassalic.
Which means that the relation between lord and vassal goes both ways and one's power is only as strong as the sum of the powers its vassals add to its own.
A wise lord will understand that it has to cherish and support its vassals,because if fate has it, it will need their help ( which is expected but not granted) to survive. A wise vassal will understand that its relation to its lord imply supporting it, to be ready to commit to fight to its side and to abide to its law, but does never mean you are under its command or bound to execute its orders.
A lord does not issue orders to its vassal, it ask for help or threat to extort things, its up to the lord to choose which it wants to be and up to the vassal to strengthen and nourish the link between it and its lord that both have sworn to have or to bow under the boot of a tyrannical one.
Usually those ruling by strength and fear are the ones not getting support in time of need, and in a system built to require support in time of need , it might not be the wisest choice of path.
But this community is known for its very large number of wise people and some even much wiser, some time much more wiser than the builder of the game according to them.
guess only time will tell, lets the dance spin around wildly!