I originally had an idea for commanders and leaders of that sort who would be able to get items. It's difficult to get such a system to work though, I wanted to have lots of traits (RTW-style), but creating and balancing all of them is a huge task for such a small part of the overall game.
Still, now that I have a few exra mechanics to play with (health, crime, Cultural stability etc) I may look into this again.
It would also include having the leaders of the civilsation as ''leaders'' under most governments.