they really need to add a vanilla option to recruit Legendary Lords, defeated or not, through an in-game mechanic. They keep adding this option sparingly to other factions then they just forget that some factions are just so spread out that recruiting some of them takes the extra mile
>tfw playing Ikit
>had to send an assassin all the way to Cathay just to meet and confederate him before Gelt and the chink dragons destroyed him