Dead Lands - Monarchs have powers?

[berschok]

So, my friend and I played Dead Lands and were half way through the fifth island, so we almost beat Dead Lands. Then my friend suddenly told me that he discovered something interesting. By accident he pressed "w" and he activated some kind of ability. So basically we both thought this whole time, that the different monarchs were just skins without any power, until we almost finished the game. So my question is.. did the game tell you that you can use abilities? Did we miss it?

[Pockets]

I dun recall the game telling you, but yeah, all four have differing useful powers.