My other question is in regards to gaining prestige. How should one go about doing so? Thank you!
The fastest, surest way to gain prestige is through battle. However, depending on the realm you've joined, that may be intermittent at this time.
You can gain prestige through several kinds of actions that aid the realm and its regions (police work, civil work, surveying the administration); however, some of those are locked to you for at least a couple of weeks (largely to prevent realms forcing new players to stay home and do these more menial tasks, rather than being allowed to go to war right away).