It's not only about values and categories, but also about the way you can do things. For instance you could choose the trait "life bringer" that would bring a square back to life if you just stay on it for 3 turns. That's not about numbers, it's about gameplay.

Or the "researcher" : each movement points you don't use at the end of a turn will be added to your research pool.

Or "Fire hater" (or water hater or ...) : you can't research or use fire spells, and you gain the ability to mix other spells in one spell (think ligtning + water and you get electrocution. And without that trait you just can't create mixed-spells)

Or getting some personnal spells that you can never get in a nother way ...

Charisma:  Raises tax revenue (Or you can raise taxes higher with less determental effects)- makes it cheaper to convince your race heroes to join you, etc.

Yup, I heartfully agree with the idea of real game changing perks/flaws that cannot (or hardly be) emulated through normal sovereign progression. I'm not so fond about numbers either, I'd rather have traits that bring a new twist to the game like vieuxchat and others mentionned.

I think that bonus/malus is okay for faction traits, but the sovereign deserves something really unique (hint: Fallout 1&2).

I also like the idea of traits that are not outright positive but that can also be detrimental in ways, as long as it's consistent of course. I'm afraid that separated perks and flaws could be balanced out by power gamers and thus become more or less pointless.

Monagomous: can only have one wife, +20% fertility factor for that wife, +1 attribute point

Polygamous: can have multiple wives -1 attribute point

Harem: can have 100 wives, -10% fertility factor for each wife, -1 attribute point

(place-holder): -10% fertility rate, +1 attribute point

Randy: +10% fertility for each wife, -1 attribute points

Titan's Blood: +100% fertility for each wife, each wife always dies upon giving birth, all children born with "taint of the titans" trait and "Titan's Blood" trait -1 attribute point

I'd like some to be gameplay changing. Maybe some that use all but 1 or 2 points to choose. Or had massive penalties. Like playing master of magic with no magic.

Necromancy -15 points to start with (more than you have to spend). So to pick it you have to give up all the good traits and pick 5 bad ones, like repulsive... it could be as unbalancing as you like in the end game if it made you relatively weak against rushes at the start. Or it could be free but cause war with all races, repulsive and prestige penalties (neutrality with other necromancers)

(Hydro)phobic skin - no (water) mana, 25% (water) resistance. more points to spend. (for the warlord type builds - hydrophobic/impermeable - water, fire retardant/inflammable -fire, unsoiled -earth, rubber -air)

Oblivious - can't see new resources on map outside your borders, gains 100% extraction rate to res of choice.

Keen eye - can see resources within the sovreigns line of sight 2 levels above current research. (large cost?)

Vampiric - must win a battle (feed) or perform a spell in town (feast on the tasty) every 5 turns. For every 5 turns missed the sov's attributes suffer. after 25 turns the sov's vampiric unveiling causes rebellion/unrest/diplomatic penalties. But no longer needs to be hidden. Gains bonuses for each kill from that point onwards. (say up to a limit based on essence)

Werewolf - the sov alternates between 2 forms, a high power, fast form with no magical spells or the spell casting but weaker form. The alternating could be every 15 turns. The sov could also become a greater werewolf or control the transformations with magic. Allowing transformation at will and the creation of lesser werewolves.

Turtle magic - understanding the strengths of protection and a shell you became magically shielded. It wasn't till afterwards that you realised that turtles aren't very dangerous. +50% defence (mundane and magical) and +30% HP bonus -75% attack power (physical and magical) bonus to diplomacy on trade, unable to threaten or demand.

Wild magic - each turn your mana income could be +/- 20% of normal, and your spell power fluctuates +/- 30%, allowing you to cast spells early and fast, or not at all. So too the power of each spell can vary, or can have strange consequences.

Attuned Wild mage - same as above but has greater attribute cost but you get to see in advance the spell effect (say it's highlighted in your spell book if you'd have a good trick effect) and able to see the next turns income and power. say +15% to - 25% income and +25% power -40% power as a further cost.

Isolationist - gains a % bonus for each turn inside your own territory, and a penalty each turn outside your territory. (bonus/penalty with diminishing returns, resets very quickly when you switch from inside to outside)
Explorer - opposite of the above, gains a bonus when in unclaimed territory
Warmonger - bonus when on the offensive

Also I'd like some actions that your sov can do that would take them out of action for a while. Unable to move but gives a bonus after the first 4 idle turns. For example:

Sage - able to join any library/alchemists to boost that cities production
Miner - as above with mines
Farmer/horticulturalist - food production
Creater/destroyer of life - spreads terrain type
etc. for mana production, training time, prestige, culture spread, building time

the only unique thing would be to use it for ritual magic. say after 5 turns in one spot you have the option of planting a totem to signify the rutials you've been doing. Do at least 3 of the same rituals and they mark out an area, each totem is another edge to the area. With each having some weakness (anyone can do a 'corrupt ritual' action for 5 turns to remove it) That way you could have your territory protected, buffed or any area that you can mark out.
It would make it a little different if you see someone hanging around your borders, they could be planting totems to gain an attack boost in your lands.

In some ways it's hard to answer this until we have a better idea what we will eventually be able to do with our Sov.  Right now he's mostly just a very powerful unit that I think everyone keeps him on the move exploring and planting cities, unless we stop to heal up for a bit. 

I'm hoping that there will eventually be good reasons to keep him in a city.  Perhaps some ritual magic or summoning will require him to be in the city.  I'd like to see a small bonus to any city where the Sov is at and perks that significantly increase that would be great. 

I fall into the camp that beleives these choices should generally have a long-term impact and not average out that much over time, although having some of that customization happen through adventuring would be pretty cool as well.  Perhaps it's just a simple matter of +1 Strength meaning you also get a bigger strength boost on each level up as well.  At a fundamental level I want the sovs and their powers to have a major impact on the world and the game.  I'm not sure if it should be quite as defining as the picks were in MoM, but I would err on that side of things for now.

I guess the one that stands out to me is fertility. That seems like a better faction trait, unless your sovereign is quite... *ahem* busy.

Sorry if I offended you, wasn't my intention at all.  My only point was that your original bonuses were 80% enhancing the physical characteristics of the sovereign but I'd like to see more far reaching abilities.  Since you like MOM as do I, I pulled some examples from there to give an idea of what I'd like to see the direction go in.  Warlord gives all your units a higher starting experience level, artificer gives bonuses for making items, etc.

Now that I look at this again maybe I misinterpreted things.  Were things like +1 attack supposed to be modifiers to all your troops?  If so than it's better than I thought at first.

Again sorry, I guess I need to choose my words a little more carefully.

yea, percentages would be best (on the safe side) when concerning Sovereign attack, defense, ect. However, if stats are kept to a low-ish number, its doubtful 10% will be equal to or greater than 1 for half of the game, so maybe +1 would actually be stronger than +10%, except for HP.

• More attributes :
• . Base Age (20, 40, 60) : you can get more points for creating your sovereign, but you'll gain bad effects earlier in-game. (maybe 100 turns = 1 year of life, and if you're too old you can die, unless you cast the "extend life" spell from the life/death category)
• . Base intellect (-1, 0, 1, 2) : you can research more spells in the same time, you have a lesser malus from casting spells higher than your casting level.
• . Base casting speed (-10%, 0, 10%, 20%) : self explanatory
• . Base charisma : you attract more heroes and they are more powerfull (-10%, 0, +10%, +20%), the units you lead gain à bonus in morale.
  
• . Base leadership : you can have bigger armies (-20%, 0, +20%, +40%), big armies suffer less from speed-decrease
  
• . Base Will : you have better chances resisting effects like stun/paralyze/etc. (-10%, 0, +10%, +20%), you get less maluses from hp reduced (you still fight at your max stength even when you're near death)

Why not, but aging could be a good way to get the sovereign out. They need to find a way to survive years after years. That would be a strong mechanic : you could extend your life span through magical means, herborism, yoga, changing every piece of you with some magical things (a mystic arm, then legs, then.. etc and you're immortal when you're all .. Elemental)

that would be a good reason for the sovereign to get back on the surface : he/she needs ancient knowledge to stop time damage (yeah another damage type )

*stops dreaming*