Gelt becomes a necromancer of sorts, throwing in his lot with Vlad von Carstein. It's hinted that he's been getting his best ideas from Neferata's coven for a while. The head of the Amber College is now the Supreme Patriarch.
The College of Death crumbled into ash on Nagash's ascension.
We don't know what's up with Morathi exactly, other than that she's been suspiciously reclusive. The Dark Elves have some of the least coverage in this book; presumably they will be very prominent soon, however.
On female characters: there's a lot of them, and some of them get to be competent, heroic badasses, even if life doesn't go well for them. Khalida is awesome. Eldyra is very, very capable. Neferata's coven and The Queen herself are by turns terrifying and sneaky. Katarin is being unspeakably brave beyond the border, even if we don't see it. Meanwhile, the leader of the chaos assault on Naggaroth was Valkia; Malekith's court and Ulthuan's armies are both explicitly described as lords and ladies / men and women. It's about as good a representation in quality and certainly quantity as GW have ever done (outside of maybe Sisters). There's still problems. A few too many damsels needing rescuing (or sacrificed), but it's headed in the right direction.
THe main thing, to my mind, is that there's a lot of strong characterisation. Neferata isn't a great battlefield leader, but she is a sneaky, self-serving master manipulator. She knows things even Arkhan doesn't. Mannfred is impulsive, selfish, and ultimately not as powerful as he thought he was. Vlad is aristocratic and contemptuous. Krell is a capable and driven military leader. And so on. It's all about characters, and that's why it's so good.