I think new characters should be presented with some stats on the continents. Right now, on the continent selection screen, we have an old description of each continent, and one statistic: average gold per noble. We should expand that to list "number of battles in past 30 days", maybe something else. Things to help people decide which island to play on. Highest average income isn't bad, but i think people want to see the battle in Battle Master, you know?
Then, when they get to the duchy selection, they currently see a few options--glory, estates needed, and size of duchy, I think. We could maybe put some 'highlights' at the top of the duchy selection page: "Highest Average Income per Noble", "Highest CS", etc, the things discussed previously. That way, players--especially new players--can quickly see what makes each duchy special.