There are a couple points I've been unable to find addressed in the rule book or errata.  Maybe they're simpler than I think, I dunno.

1. When fate cards run out, is that it for the year?  For example, the second player's turn in the summer exhausts the fate card deck.  Are the third and fourth players unable to use fate cards to resolve actions until the start of next season?

2. If a player gets blitzed early on and loses his only stronghold, can he recruit heroes?  This actually came up and we couldn't locate anything definitive.  It states that heroes enter play on a stronghold, but there's no indication that they cannot be recruited and held in reserve until a new stronghold can be erected.  While that seems odd to me, it seems equally odd that a character who loses their last or only stronghold would be so completely crippled, especially when the rule book paints player elimination as an unlikely event.

Hope you guys have some insight.  Thanks!

 1) Any time a card deck runs out, you have to reshuffle the deck. It's in the rules, page 31. And don't forget that the fate deck gets reshuffled every fall as secondary effect of those season-cards.

2) Yes, it's true: If you've lost all your strongholds, you have to build (or conquer) a new stronghold to recruit new units or new heroes. 

But I can hardly believe that a player lost his only stronghold very early in the game: It will take more than one year, in many cases more than two years before an army will reach an opponents' home realm. This should be enough time to build a second or even a third stronghold. 

Thanks for the clarification.  Found the reshuffle rule in the book, as well.  Good games!