I like your idea of having a progression of your importance in the faction, climbing the social ladder and all, but the beginning seems off with how the game is set. The usual start is to create a small group of units that you train and then you join a faction. And of course you can go to the first noble you see and ask to join them first thing in the game (to follow your system). But would it be enjoyable to be a simple soldier and be carried away through the map not controlling what you do for the first minutes/hours of gameplay ? And managing your party/clan is a big part of the game, if you remove that from the beginning, there is not much left.You just end up waiting that your lord starts a fight with whoever and then you fight, since you're low level, you most likely get defeated very easily, and then you wait for the next fight. I think the "soldier" part should be removed, or maybe I misinterpreted what this step would be. Since Mercenary and Vassal are already something that exists in the game, and I don't see the interest there would be to have something lower than that, I'd say it would maybe be better to make them the bottom of what you can be in the faction social ladder.