This is just a quick(tm) look at sovereign traits and stats, what they do, and how useful they are in the current game. I'm probably going to overlook how some traits can be used, especially in niche strategies, so constructive feedback is appreciated.
If you dont feel like reading the inevitable wall of text, skip ahead to the eyeball friendly section (disclaimer, actual friendliness may vary).
Stats: The bread and butter...and jam...and syrup...
Strength(Str): modifies your base attack [Att=BaseAtt*(STR/10)] (ex. 15 str modifies attack by 1.5, so 24 base att becomes 36 total att)
I almost always take this down to 5. I dont ever want my sovereign to be in melee range, not with 10hp and <5 def 
. 15 extra points is a lot and i've never made a warrior based sov. One day i'm going to try it out just to see how it plays though. A must have if you're planning on using a bow though, since theres no distincion between ranged and melee combat as far as stats go, they both use str.
Dexterity(Dex): modifies your base defense [Def=BaseDef*(DEX/10)] (ex. 5 dex modifies attack by 0.5, so 24 base def becomes 12 total def)
Very good, if your sovereign is going to be in combat at all, your going to want some points here. Depending how you play you can get by without it, but when you get one shotted by a spell your gonna with you'd taken 15 dex, good armour, and stood on a +50% def hill. You can get a pretty tough sov if you combine the right items/stats etc.
Intelligence(Int): Most damage spells depend on your int to calculate their max damage. Some other spells like stoneskin also use int to determine their bonus.
Depends what your going to use your sov for. Personally i find i almost never cast a damage spell with her after the early game. My mana is kept for imbuing, summoning, enchanting and teleporting (gotta keep 10 so i can snatch a few units from a town and get back to the war front asap). You can get by sacrificing a couple points here if you need them elsewhere, and if your not using int based spells then take it down to 5. Can be nice to have a 30 maxdmg burning touch tho.
Wisdom/Essence(Wis): Dispite calling itself wisdom it is for all intents and purposes, essence. Essence appears to modify the action points needed to cast spells just like wisdom mentions in the sov creator (this also applies with champion essence i think).
Who doesn't want more essence. I max this out if i get the chance, you can do with 10 but (especially if your an empire faction) more essence for imbuing early on is very fun. It means (as kingdom) you can imbue 2 champions and still double teleport with 1 turn in between (and put your first lvlup into moves since essence 9 is still pretty good early).
Charisma(Cha): Modifies the cost to recruit champions. If this works anything like Str/Dex then 15 cha will mean recruiting for half price. Not tested this but i've used high cha+bard combo in games and the costs are 12-34 early game. I think its a pretty substatial boost.
You can get by without this one, but you might kick yourself when you miss that awesome champion or potential spouse because you were 20 gildar short. Mass channeller strats should consider high cha. Depends what your gildar aquisition strategy is like.
Constitution(Con): +1 hp per point (7 Con = 7 hp)
I usually run out of points by the time i get here, so i mostly just have 10 con. I find you dont really need it, for survivability dex gives you more than con, even cha lets you get more channeller alpha strike. Offense is the best defence.
Quick recap: There are no awful choices but Int/Cha/Con are fine at 10 and int can be dropped lower without too much pain. Dex and Wis are by far the most universally good. Consider getting a 15 in one or both. Str 15 is a must for bow wielders and melee sov's)
As a side note, if you are left with 1 or 2 points after sovereign creation you can use them to increase a stat by +1. Even though it normally costs 3 points the system seems to accept up to 3 if you dont have enough. Also if you do use your last point to increase str by one and then uncheck a 3 point spellbook, the system adjusts and you end up with one point again instead of 3, so it appears this is intended behavior.
Spellbooks: I've not had enough experience with all 5 to go into detail on each one (thank goodness or there'd be another 4 pages ). In general though i find that you dont need all 5, i use Fire/Earth mostly. That gives me the 8 mana stone giant summon and 4 decent att spells (early inf range 1/2 dmg, early 2 range double damage, late inf range norm damage and late inf range normal dmg area effect). Enchantment can be very useful if your stuck for tech/food resourse early on, and enchanting champions can make some pretty mean combat chars/archers. The benefits of having all 4 elemental books are of course being able to use any shards you find, whether thats worth the extra cost is up to you. I say pick the combination that gives you everything you need whilst conserving points for other things, but thats just me.
Professions: The tricky bit
Note on percentages: i'm gonna display these as +15% etc, but for clarity the game sees +15% as 1.15 so they may stack with similar bonuses differently than you imagine (i believe Elemental has a diminishing returns system when stacking bonuses).
Miner: +20% to metal production
Nice, but getting 6 metal/turn rather than 5 metal/turn really doesn't work for me. There are better profs.
Warrior: +10% to attack (i believe this adds to base attack, therefor Str will multiply this bonus [effectively +15% with 15 str])
For a melee or archer sov looking for max dmg output, by all means, get this. For everyone else though this is kinda lacklustre.
Bard: -25% recruitment cost (for champions)
Really nice if your going mass channelers early. Still, its not the best prof out there.
Thief: +20% gildar from battles
I like this trait, dont know quite why. Gold from battles is already high anyway so you dont need it but its nice, especially if they reduce gold from battles in future (seems likely).
Royalty: +1 Prestige (the way its coded, seems like +100% prestige, but that doesn't appear to be the in game effect. Either way i think +1 is intended)
Good. Very good in fact. Assuming you build both the pub and the inn (for kingdom) asap taking 3 turns each, a standard city takes 25 turns to grow to lvl 2, 39 more turns to reach level 3, and another 74 turns to reach lvl 4 (i think its 400 pop for lvl 4, could be wrong tho). Add the Royalty prof to the mix and the same city takes 13 turns to reach lvl 2, 16 more turns to reach lvl 3, and then 48 turns to reach lvl 4. Thats a pretty massive boost. By far my favourite profession.
Warlord: Gives you two sentinel units [4/4hp 4att 0def 3.0 actions in combat]
Better than it might seem. Two sentinels is nothing by mid-game standards, but as any strategy gamer knows, early advantage and be turned to a greater mid-game advantage and an overpowering late game win. Warlord can give you that. Being able to start questing immediately is a big deal. Your opponent might be struggling by with 1.6 gildar/turn when you've just got the silver flute. You can explore the wilds with ease rather than avoiding every combat that comes your way. By turn 30 you can potentially be up ~200 gildar/50 materials/20 metal if your lucky/good. If you put this extra wealth into warfare early on and grab an enemy city or two then you're in a great position going into midgame.
Merchant: +1 gildar/turn
Never get this. Almost all of the other traits can get you more gildar in less time, even miner can give you extra metal to trade for gildar.
Assassin: Champions do double damage with their first strike.
I cant figure out whether this is currently working or not. Is it first strike per combat? First strike per round? Does it effect spells? Does it effect bows? Does it effect all champions or just the ones in the sovereigns army? I really dont know about this one. If the answer to all these questions (save the last one) is yes, then awesome. It could be really good depending on your strategy (five channelers casting infernal anyone?) If anyone can clarify the full working perameters of this ability i'd appreciate it.
Adventurer: Gives you +1 to moves (on the map, doesnt affect tactical combat)
A nice ability with the organized trait. Adventurer, organized and Tracker gives your army 4 moves from the get go, its a popular combo i think 
. That being said there are other ways to get early movement, and not taking adventurer frees up your prof slot for something better.
Dungeon Master: Additional damage to creatures
Coding doesn't make it clear what the damage bonus is.
This from Archonsod
It only affects the sovereign's attacks. It does seem to be a substantial bonus though (seems to double or possibly even triple damage against neutral creatures), so if you're going for a questing sovereign it may well be worth it. With a bow and sufficient combat speed for three or four shots per round you can tear through most wandering parties and quest guardians. Seems to work on everything with the "creature" type, though I haven't tried it against summons or allied creatures.
Quick recap: Heavily dependant on your strategy (especially early game). In the long run i think Prestige/warlord/Thief/Bard (in descending order of awesomeness) will give you the greatest advantage.
NorwegianViking found an explanation on the effects of morale 
Morale
On each side of the screen you will see the units in a given battle. Under each portrait is their current health bar and either their mana bar (if they are Champions that have been imbued with essence) or their morale bar.
The morale bar indicates how high their current morale is. If morale is at 100%, the unit receives bonuses on their attack and defense rolls. If their morale is less than 50%, they receive penalties. If morale gets very low, the unit may panic and the player cannot control that unit until it recovers.
Morale is affected by multiple variables such as:
Combat Rating: A unit’s morale is multiplied by the current combat rating ratio of the two forces.
Unit Experience: Each level of experience a given unit has increases its starting morale by 10%.
Turns: Each turn, both sides will lose morale. The attacker loses two points per turn, and the defender one point.
Special Abilities: Some champions possess special abilities that improve the morale of soldiers in combat.
Spells: Certain spells can improve (or harm) the morale of soldiers.
Traits: The best bit
note on the morale based traits/weaknessess: The descriptions in the file dont match the coding (so it seems), so i'm not sure i'm relaying the morale bonuses correctly, or how a % moral modifier effects moral. Natural leader seems to be +20% and my guys had 60 starting morale rather than 50, which seems to fit so i think i'm right, but don't we all .
Brilliant: +1 tech knowledge/turn
Not great in the long run. That being said, starting your research on turn 1 rather than whenever you get around to building a study, is a nice advantage in an early conflict. Easy enough to live without tho so only take it if your strategy involves a tech rush.
Organized: Accompanying army will move at the sovereign's move speed
Take it. Theres no reason not to, even without adventurer or tracker you can put a lvlup into mov and have 3 squares(2 squares in forest) mov early. By the end of the game you can have 6-8 mov easy.
Natural Leader: +20% friendly morale
Nice for only 5 points. With basic units you'll only get a +10 effective bonus to morale but as your units get higher level this trait will keep you that much closer to 100% morale.
Tracker: Yay, +1 moves
I really like this one, its expensive but it doesn't take up your prof slot. Getting movement in the early game doesn't have to come from traits though. The "Equipment tech (kingdom) opens up the travelers cloak for 45 gildar, and the "Mounted Warfare" tech opens up mounts for 100 gildar. Each adds +1 mov, if you've got a lvlup into mov then your at 4.5 without having spent anything on a trait, so its not essential. If you took both traits you'll have 6.5 at this point, which gives you a crucial 4 moves through forest rather than 3, and you get more moves earlier than someone relying on items. Its a preference, not essential but very nice, especially for a questing strategy.
Medatative: +1 Arcane Knowledge/turn
Another nice early game boost. Depends on your strategy, if it involves a spell rush then this is the trait for you. Otherwise, its not that great.
Diplomatic: +20% to your diplomacy ability [+20.0 to A_Diplomacy]. I believe this works just as it sounds, ie if your trading 20 gildar for something the other player will value it at 24 gildar.
Actually rather nice if you are doing a lot of diplomacy, 20% is quite a bit when your trading all the time. On another note, i wonder what would happen if you tried to trade 30 gildar for 36 gildar, probably wouldn't work but it would be amusing if it did.
Intimidating: -20% enemy morale
Very nice looking now. This will give an enemy army instant penalties to att and def if they're not of a decent lvl. If there are spells that lower enemy morale for the whole opposing army, this could be a viable strategy for large scale fights. Its got potential (gonna try these out).
Hardy: +15% hp
For 10 points, its a bit expensive. Even late game this won't make that much of a difference, and early on your better putting those points into Constitution if you want hit points.
Naturalist: A mine will appear near your starting position (at the beginning of the game)
Very nice trait, especially for the kingdom. Empire Superpeasants with their 13hp cant use metal armour . For an early warfare strategy this is a must, try combining it with other early game traits such as warlord and Brilliant for the greatest effect.
Daring: 3% chance for the sovereign's attack to ignore all defense.
Never used this but its only three points, if your sov is going to be attacking things (at range or in melee) then this seems like a good pick. If i understand the math correctly an attack 56 strike against 34 defense will go something like this (att[random0-56], def[random0-34]. Damage=att-def.) so you'll do decent dmg half of the time but you'll almost never deal 56. If daring takes effect then it'd look like this (att[random0-56], def[random0-0]. Damage=att-def.) and therefor you're going to do 0-34 more damage than normal.
Quick Recap: Very dependant on strategy. The only underwhelming trait here has got to be Hardy. The morale traits might also be negligible, without a thorough understanding of morale i couldn't say.
Weaknessess: Yay, more points to spend
Cowardly: +20% enemy morale
Giving the enemy an easier time of killing you? Might be something worth testing out (on my part for sure). Certainly a challenging weakness if you want some more colour in your game.
Clumsy: According to the code clumsy is exactly like tracker except that instead of altering the value by +1, clumsy multiplies the value by 0.8. There appears to be no randomness involved.
Losing 20% of your movement for a gain of only 3 points just isn't worth it. If it was determined randomly (maybe it is) at the beginning of each turn whether mov would be reduced by 20% or not, then it might be ok, and kinda funny when your sov trips and falls in the process of running from a shrill army 
Blunt: +15% cost to recruit Champions
Instead of paying ~51 you pay ~58. Not all that bad, especially if you have an abundance of gildar.
Ugly: -1 to the maximum children you can have (if i'm reading this right, which i'm pretty sure i am).
Max children is usually 4 iirc, so going down to 3 isnt so bad, so long as you've got at least one son you can get a proper dynasty going (well, dunno about proper dynasty but thats another thread). It doesn't appear to affect the rate at which children are born at all, so this is a safe bet for a shorter game.
Cruel: -20% to friendly morale
For only 3 points i don't like this one, too much of a penalty. I don't think 3 points can make up for this if put anywhere else.
Stupid: +15% to the time taken to research spells
Considering how long it takes without this trait, i'd stay away from this one, but if you dont like magic...
Insane: -1 to prestige to any city the sovereign is currently stationed in (Like royalty it might be -100% but i don't think so, the coding is confusing here)
I always take this one, maybe cause i'm also insane. Seriously its one of the less annoying weaknessess, i don't know about you but my sovereign doesn't visit his cities (awful strange behavior for a ruler but then, he is insane).
Inefficient: +10% to build time in any city the sovereign is currently stationed in
I take this for the same reason i take insane, well most of the same reason, i'm actually very efficient . +10% to build times in not a whole lot anyway, even with both this and insane, in a city with a pub (or any if your royalty) you can garrison your sov there for a while if you need to.
Quick recap: Ugly/Insane/Inefficient cause little to no trouble, so if you must take weaknesses go there first. Blunt isnt all that bad either depending on your gildar situation.
Weapons and Armour: The only things i'd consider taking are the war staff and padded cuirass. Everything else is too expensive and even these two cost 18 pts total. For a melee sov looking to start questing early, equipment may be a good idea, or you could just take warlord+brilliant, quest for gold, research equipment and buy a nice set of armour (weapons are very expensive so the war staff may be a good idea in this case).
--------Eyeball friendly section---------------
Stats: Strength(Str): modifies your base attack [Att=BaseAtt*(STR/10)] (ex. 15 str modifies attack by 1.5, so 24 base att becomes 36 total att)
Dexterity(Dex): modifies your base defense [Def=BaseDef*(DEX/10)] (ex. 5 dex modifies attack by 0.5, so 24 base def becomes 12 total def)
Intelligence(Int): Most damage spellscalculate their max damage based on int. Some other spells alsu use int to determine their bonus.
Wisdom/Essence(Wis): Dispite calling itself wisdom it is for all intents and purposes, essence.
Charisma(Cha): Modifies the cost to recruit champions. If this works anything like Str/Dex then 15 cha will mean recruiting for half price.
Constitution(Con): +1 hp per point (7 Con = 7 hp)
Quick recap: There are no awful choices but Int/Cha/Con are fine at 10 and int can be dropped lower without too much pain. Dex and Wis are by far the most universally good. Consider getting a 15 in one or both. Str 15 is a must for bow wielders and melee sov's)
As a side note, if you are left with 1 or 2 points after sovereign creation you can use them to increase a stat by +1. Even though it normally costs 3 points the system seems to accept up to 3 if you dont have enough. Also if you do use your last point to increase str by one and then uncheck a 3 point spellbook, the system adjusts and you end up with one point again instead of 3, so it appears this is intended behavior.
Spellbooks: In general though i find that you dont need all 5, i use Fire/Earth mostly. The benefits of having all 4 elemental books are of course being able to use any shards you find, whether thats worth the extra cost is up to you. I say pick the combination that gives you everything you need whilst conserving points for other things, but thats just me
Professions:
Miner: +20% to metal production
Warrior: +10% to attack (i believe this adds to base attack, therefor Str will multiply this bonus [effectively +15% with 15 str])
Bard: -25% recruitment cost (for champions)
Thief: +20% gildar from battles
Royalty: +1 Prestige
Warlord: Gives you two sentinel units [4/4hp 4att 0def 3.0 actions in combat]
Merchant: +1 gildar/turn
Assassin: Champions do double damage with their first strike.
Adventurer: Gives you +1 to moves (on the map, doesnt affect tactical combat)
Dungeon Master: Additional damage to creatures (sovereign only)
Quick recap: Heavily dependant on your strategy (especially early game). In the long run i think Prestige/warlord/Thief/Bard (in descending order of awesomeness) will give you the greatest advantage.
Traits: Brilliant: +1 tech knowledge/turn
Organized: Accompanying army will move at the sovereign's move speed
Natural Leader: +20% friendly morale
Tracker: +1 moves
Medatative: +1 Arcane Knowledge/turn
Diplomatic: +20% to your diplomacy ability [+20.0 to A_Diplomacy]. I believe this works just as it says in the trair description.
Intimidating: -20% enemy morale
Hardy: +15% hp
Naturalist: A mine will appear near your starting position (at the beginning of the game)
Daring: 3% chance for the sovereign's attack to ignore all defense.
Quick Recap: Very dependant on strategy. The only underwhelming trait here has got to be Hardy. The morale traits seem really powerful now that morale makes more sense.
Weaknessess: Yay, more points to spend
Cowardly: +20% enemy morale
Clumsy: -20% "moves" (no effect in tactical combat)
Blunt: +15% cost to recruit Champions
Ugly: -1 to the maximum children you can have (if i'm reading this right, which i'm pretty sure i am).
Cruel: -20% to friendly morale
Stupid: +15% to the time taken to research spells
Inefficient: +10% to build time in any city the sovereign is currently stationed in
Quick recap: Ugly/Insane/Inefficient cause little to no trouble, so if you must take weaknesses go there first. Blunt isnt all that bad either depending on your gildar situation.
Weapons and Armour: The only things i'd consider taking are the war staff and padded cuirass. Everything else is too expensive and even these two cost 18 pts total.
--------End of eyeball friendly section--------
Well i hope this helps some of you enjoy the game more, it certainly helps me to know what all this stuff does, no more languishing in the dark corners of my mind (except for morale which is still there, somewhere). All constructive feedback is appreciated. Unconstructive feedback is appreciated less but still keeps this post on the first page .
Enjoy
Kadra
Edit: Thanks for the info/feedback folks. Its been updated. On the subject of stickies, It would be easier to have one stickied post that contains links to threads like this one, that way it can languish in the depths of the forums and still be useful. To be honest this stuff should be in the wiki, its pretty bare bones right now. I will get as much of this info in there as I can, as soon as i get the time.
