My custom Capitar sovereign is actually quite similar to your Pariden one:
Diplomat
Water 1
Life 1
Brilliant
Scholar
Wealthy
Cowardly
Rusty short sword
The idea is that he's an academic and a diplomat but not much of a fighter, and in battle functions as a supporting caster/buffer. In previous versions he (with slightly different skills) would take Path of the Governor for the instant prestige bonus, but I'm more likely now to give him the path of the Mage or Defender - probably the latter for all the army buffs. He gets better in combat as he levels - not only does Cowardly stop coming into play as often, but also when it does apply his Mancer Blood counteracts it. I do have to luck out with my starting hero a little - once I got one who was also Cowardly, which was a disaster as soon as I had to face any monsters tougher than wolves or mites.
Earlier versions of this character had both Wealthy and Natural Leader, but that was kind of overkill and I decided that Wealthy was more fitting. Diplomat and Legacy of Serrane go really well together, as the extra influence generated by caravans means I can cast Silver Tongue more often, with enemy cavalry and mages being priority targets, or the Knights of Asok if they spawn. I go heavily into civics while relying on heroes and subverted units for my military strength, and then switch to warfare so I can start training my own knights, taking advantage of the Capitar warhorse,
My custom Umber sovereign has varied more over time - she sometimes is a bow user, sometimes spear, for example, and sometimes uses Death magic, but the constants are Hardy, Might, Tactician and Air 1. She's a straight up military leader who usually goes Path of the Assassin, and once single-handedly took down Vetrar. Well, she had an army at the start of the battle, but by the middle it was single-handed. So it counts.
For the other factions I tend to use the default sovereigns as I have been trying to play a successful game with each - I have not yet succeeded in this.
