The Sovereign

I have posted a couple times over the last few days about what I think is wrong with the Sovereign.  Most of the posts are about how the Sovereigns are getting lost in the plethora of Champions that you can recruit.  I really think the game is moving away from the importance of the Sovereign and I think the game is becoming less interesting because of it.  I still enjoy the game, but you could almost start the game with any of the Champions in the game, because there is no difference between them and the Sovereigns.  I have a list of a couple things that I think would help bring the Sovereign back to the top of power list.

1.  First, eliminate or decrease the number of Champions that have access to magic.  It is the exception to find a Champion that cannot cast magic.  This minimized the Sovereign right off the bat.  The Sovereign’s were supposed to be special and they are not.  Right on the front page of the website it reads “the world’s most powerful sorceress will destroy the world unless you stop her.”  She is not the most powerful sorceress in the game I am playing.
2. Bring back Imbuing.  This goes hand in hand with my first point.  Let the Sovereigns control who can access the world’s magic.  You can do it two different ways.  A spell that lets the Champion access all the spells you have access too.  However, the Sovereign that casts Imbue needs to lose a level, or at least a level of magic to do this.  Or, you can to do it a spell at a time which is already a part of the game.  After reading the Journal entry about Essence, it would also be interesting to see how Essence could tie into this.  Perhaps Champions could even have a level of Essence.  The Higher the Essence the more spells they could learn.  For example, a Champion has an essence of 4, so you can “teach” the Champion 4 levels worth of spells.  Teach him one 4^th level spell or a couple lower level spells.  You could even have a quest to increase a Champions Essence.
3. Grant a production and research bonus throughout the Kingdom/Empire when the Sovereign is at the Capital.  It would also be nice to see a more directed bonus when the Sovereign visits another city.  It would symbolize the populace working harder when the Sovereign is there.  This would also create a huge choice right from the start of the game.  Go and explore your surroundings, increase in level, or get your capital and perhaps second city a jump start.
4. Bring back marriage and children.  This was an awesome feature of WOM.  You do not need to bring back the dynasty and diplomacy system that involved the children.  Although I do think there needs to be some down time for mom about half way through and even some time after the birth of the baby.
5. Learn how to create magical items.  A high level spell that can customize magic equipment.  The spell needs to use mana, crystals, metal, and material.  Metal and material can be standardized by types of equipment.  But as the level increases so does the amount of crystals and mana.  The Sovereign also needs to be at a city and immobilized while it is being cast.  Again, the length of time is based on the level of item created.  I think several world spells need to have some type of casting time.

Perhaps I am thinking completely off base about the Sovereign.  It’s just my opinion they have become marginalized by some of the changes in the game.