Regarding sprites, EricM has extracted the sprites and they are available for the modders. He has only extracted unit sprites for the units that are available in the latest version, the attachment is somewhere in the forums. If it isn't in the faq, it should be.
Interesting to see those two flags. They really do look like the white hand and the flaming eye.
Would be interesting to know what they're doing in there.
It is possible to make a map in which a nation starts with province X (which has site which allows the owner to recruit national units), but which independents conquer on turn 2. This can be used to produce results similar to what you suggested, especially for scenarios. Furthermore, scenario could be set up so that the player starts with pre-determined god, nation and scales, and doesn't get the map but an actual game already underway. While this can be annoying if you don't like the pretender design, it does let you see fights of the previous turn as well as read any messages sent to "everyone" the turn before. As an example, it could show the assassination of your prophet in a far-away province as well as a fight in which your now-commanderless forces rout from overwhelming enemy force, with a message explaining that the evil Hinnom just ate everyone.