Player in the game are very much into shouting "bend the knee" in public chat. Which is sometimes funny to see as two powerful people go all out in war trying work out which one is going to lol.
Most kingdoms after a couple of weeks will have a ruling alliance and they might rule with iron fist or show kindness and allow people to grow and work with them. Since there at least one new kingdom a week many start over if things did not go the way they wanted on a fresh kingdom hoping for better results.
So if you do end up playing you will at least end up on a fresh kingdom that should only be a couple days old. Overtime it will open up to being in kingdom vs kingdom battles.