As much as I love the player drivenness of BM, I do think that some sort of outside or natural force do need to shake things up. Unfortunately, being islands, there is not really any possible pressure from invading barbarian hordes or neighbouring empire like there was in eastern Europe and the middle east. Beluaterra does have the however-often (I forget how often they occur) monster invasions though, I want to send another Noble over there again eventually.
So that leaves some sort of natural force, and maybe not as something as forced as the glaciers, but a legitimate game mechanic chance of famine breaking out and weakening the old order. Small climate changes have played a large part in the rise and fall of many empires. I'm sure that would be a tonne of work for the developers though
Now I kind of want to make a map drawing board idea for a theoretical remake BM with a much larger map that has land borders world heh.
