Thanks for the feedback. Quite a few good points I should address after reading through (e.g. I should add tooltips to the icons when viewing a character haha).
Were the tooltips when viewing activities working? There should be tooltips that pop up when the abbreviations are hovered.
If you can upload a save somewhere I can check why Victoria can't be promoted - it sounds like she should be able to be.
Something I'll likely add but not for quite a while is 'guest' characters; these would potentially use facilities in your realm and provide income by paying for them. Would that be a playstyle you'd prefer over primarily selling characters?