IF we were to do a kind of Tutorial Island, my suggestion would be to make it SMALL. Say two cities with four townslands between them and some grasslands around all of that. Maybe two dozen regions at most. Have a couple nations that are always at war. No militia allowed at all, so it is just nobles moving around and getting into fights. We could do a very brief story post from each realm's perspective so people get in a with a brief roleplay that they can jump into.
And let any player have a free character there, with the understanding that they be interacting and helping new players that ask questions.
The island should be even smaller.
a) 1 city to make everyone travel there.
b) 1 rural region for the first battle
c) 1 stronghold for people to practice siege
lordship, gov positions can be learned in game once they hold those positions.
