You can click on their portrait in the voting screen and it will bring up their entry in the encyclopedia.
Use trebuchets. They both take and do more damage, with the downside of taking longer to construct. "Abuse" the reserve to get all 4 out at once. You will then take out the cities siege engines faster than they can replace them.
The lost person is no longer available to :
It would work the same way it did before. They become a party all by themselves where they currently are and begin recruiting troops. This isn't some new function being requested, it is one we had before.
Now is merely Soon's herald and delivery boy. When Soon choses to release something to us, Now is tasked with the delivery. This has lead to two separate heresies. One group who feels that Now is an aspect of Soon (as reflected in that song), and one who feels that Now is truly the superior being. The Truth(tm) is that Soon is the master and Now is the servant.
It it is meant to be, it will happen Soon.
While the amount of renown you gained was reduced by a percentage of how much you already had, I am 99% sure that it wasn't reduced below zero. That when added to the decay made it hard to stay on top, but you weren't actually penalized for getting into a battle.