As the comments below already mention: brilliant idea, brilliant implementation, and brilliant mechanics. It’s genuinely impressive to see this level of variability and engaging interaction while still keeping the engine clean and readable.
Massive congratulations as well to your sister-in-law: the character designs are fantastic. From now on, I’ll firmly deny that my marmots look like beavers (though I’m still not entirely sure what they actually resemble in the end ;)).
As a possible direction to explore further, I wonder whether the VIP mechanic could be made more dynamic. I find it slightly underwhelming that VIPs are assigned once during setup and then remain mostly static throughout the game. Perhaps the system could revolve exclusively around other factions’ VIPs, potentially allowing factions to manage multiple VIPs at once (which could also serve as a clearer representation of corruption) somewhat analogous, though mechanically very distinct, to how Otter funds operate. I think this could reinforce the thematic cohesion even further.