I hate random events in any game that are not in some way linked to the players actions.  They are a meaningless waste of time, and a rude interruption to the game play.  Glad they gave us the option to turn them off.

Imo, random events need a bit of a revamp.

• A random event should be global. Always! No one faction should have a greater chance at being the target of a random event, for good or for ill. That means that all AI players should receive the same potential of targeted random events as the player does.
• There should also be good random events to be had as well as bad and always variable depending on your faction position and alignment.
• All random events should be kicked off with a cutscene screen. Always.

Here are are the random events RIGHT out of MoM...since its abandonia:

1. Bad Moon: A blood red, evil moon appears in the night skies of Arcanus and Myrror, increasing the magic power that flows from evil temples, those owned by practitioners of death magic, by 50%. At the same time, the magic power flowing from good temples, those owned by practitioners of life magic, decreases to half its usual amount. There is a 5% probability of the event ending every game turn.
2. Conjunction: The skies over Arcanus and Myrror occasionally exhibit an unusual phenomenon: triads of stars of similar color (red, blue or green) appear to rise in the skies. When they do, the dominant color of the stars in the triad mysteriously influences the magic nodes on the worlds, doubling the magic power obtained from nodes of the same color as the stars and halving the magic power emanating from all other nodes. There is a 5% probability every game turn that this phenomenon ends.
3. Depletion: Occasionally deposits of minerals are depleted. When this happens, the mineral disappears from the land, never again to contribute to the local town’s resources.
4. Diplomatic Marriage: The ruler of a neutral city appears, bearing an offer for unity through a diplomatic marriage. If you agree, the neutral city becomes yours. (obviously for this one, we would need minor factions to be created, which imo would be AWESOME)
5. Disjunction: On rare occasions, a massive flux of energy from an asyet-unidentified source tears asunder the fabric of magic itself! Well, it need hardly be said that the consequences of this event are disastrous, as wizards see all their hard-placed global enchantments destroyed along with the woven threads of magic.

6. Earthquake: While most of the earthquakes on Arcanus and Myrror are due to wizardly feuds, the odd earthquake occasionally happens naturally, with effects transpiring in the same manner as the spell (see earthquake in the Spellbook supplement).

7.  The Gift: A god offers a powerful ancient relic to a wizard.

8. Good Moon: A pure silver moon appears in the night skies of Arcanus and Myrror, increasing the magic power that flows from good temples by 50%. At the same time, the magic power flowing from evil temples decreases to half its usual amount. There is a 5% probability every game turn of ending the event.

9.  Great Meteor: An enormous meteor strikes a city, with consequences like those following the casting of call the void (see the Spellbook supplement).

10. Mana Short: All sources of magic power dry up completely. No player can draw magic power from any source during a mana short. Note that enchantments and fantastic creatures that require mana for maintenance still require it during a mana short! Take care that you spend the magic power from your reserves carefully during this event. Every turn there is a 5% probability that the event ends.

11. New Minerals: A new mineral source is discovered near a city. Potential new minerals include coal, gold, gems, mithril, adamantium and quork crystals.

12. Piracy: Pirates stage a raid and make off with between 30% and 50% of a wizard’s gold reserves! 

13. Plague: A virulent plague breaks out in a city, causing a loss of lives and increasing local unrest. The effects are the same as the spell pestilence (see the Spellbook supplement), except that a plague cannot be dispelled. There is a 5% probability of the plague ending every game turn.

14. Population Boom: The population growth rate of a city doubles. There is a 5% probability every game turn that the growth rate returns to normal.

15. Rebellion: Your local popularity in one of the cities you own plummets. Rebels seize power and the city, along with any military units there, becomes neutral. All fantastic creatures in the city are banished. 

Now, since I have not yet come across all the random events in FE, I may be suggesting some events that have already been added into the game.

Remember....cutscenes....those things bring a WORLD of difference between numbers in a game being generated and a story unfolding before your eyes!

ps...just reading through these events makes me want to spool up MoM again.....

And yes, the introduction of minor factions/neutral cities would be bloody awesome.

This past game on Challenging I was nearly defeated by the Spider Queen event.  I had to hunker down in my two cities while I feverishly researched bigger army size and better weapons until I could defeat the Hoarder spider  and swarming (love the new mechanic, btw!) spiderlings that had spawned 4 tiles from my Capital city.  

Definitely made for a mad scramble!  Agree that it would be nice to see some beneficial events as well.

And the ideas posted above are a great start.  

As far as new minor factions, couldn't we have a new faction spring up like the Jagged Knife did in GC2 by slicing off a few dissident cities from existing factions?  Would especially make sense  with the new unrest modifiers put in place for too many cities.

Or instead of a faction watching itself be whittled down to defeat, let a certain number of remaining cities rebel in a coup d'etat  and seek peace with those who are at war with them.  "The new Emperor of Kraxis gifts you with the head of Karavox and 500 gildar to make amends for his predecessor's warlike ways."

The skeleton event wiped me out of the game. I think it happened around turn 50 (way too soon). I ended up having my capital surrounded by companies of skeletons. Since I was trying to get an early research edge, my army sucked. 

I brought my best stack to attack the temple or whatever that spawns - wish I had known what I'd be facing. hopelessly outnumbered, lost. Was being invaded by another empire at the same time, so I was rendered defenseless against an invasion. Game over. 

If I had just sat in my capital, probably would've been game over, just later. I HAD to expand or die, but that random event killed me. 

I love random events (as I saw them in FE), but when they insta-kill me it curbs my enthusiasm a bit.

Holy cow this is awesome! Although it could be repetitive if only one faction oriented event could happen. Having 2-3 mixed up with random events (good or bad) would really be insanely good.

Yes! Yes! Yes! cutscenes are the way to go.

Great list of events. They certainly could be adapted or at least used as inspiration.