Yeah the own kingdom thingy needs some serious work, right now it's not viable to start your own. When I did I was at war with the Aserai, because that's where I came from and I took my fiefs. Of course I wasn't strong enough for them, so I had to peace out paying a lot of tribute. Then I went ahead and told the dude that I formed my own kingdom, which made me someone the other kingdoms could declare war on. Which they did. Every single one of them. Had to peace out Vlandia with 5k a day because they were going to roflstomp me. When I was 100k in debt, I decided to quit. Much more viable to just ignore that quest line.