Plantation Owner/Farmer -> Bonus to Earth magic (or increased farming)

Falconeer/ Lookout -> Bonus to Air magic (or increased visibility of units, improvements, fortresses, walls, and cities)

Sea Captain/Admiral -> Bonus to Water magic (or stronger navy)

Blacksmith/Welder -> Bonus to Fire magic (or faster/cheaper equipment production)

Fencing Instructor/Combat Trainer -> Shorter Training times

Peasant: morale and farming bonus.

Vegabond: better relations with heroes.

Fighting Styles:

Bladesmaster +3 attack/+3 defense when Sword is Equipped  (can be increased to +5/+5 via quest)

Bezerker +5 attack when axe is equipped, 20% increased damage dealt. (can be increased to +8, +30% via quest)

Acher +5 attack and +20% range when Bow is equipped (ditto via quest)

Ranger +3 attack/+3 defense when Bow is equipped (ditto via quest)

Guardsman +5 defense when Shield is equipped ( can be increased to +9 via quest)

Fighting Perks:

Sprinter +2 speed, +2 attack speed (can be increased to +4 speed, +3 attack speed via quest)

Martial Artist +20% hitpoints

Each Style/Perk costs X. You can only pick one fighting style (if you choose) for X points. You can pick a stand alone perk for X points. Picking a Fighting Style plus a Perk costs 2.5 X. Picking a Fighting Style and TWO Perks costs 4.5 X

X should be relatively cheap, while 4.5 X is relatively expensive. Otherwise X could be super cheap, and picking two would cost 5 X, while picking 3 would cost 15 X.

I really loved the Alchemist retort in MoM. I guess a Blacksmith would do for Elemental, where all your units start with +1 attack? Somehtign that makes all your untis better

Late at night you hear a window break in your house . Do you:

a. Sneak down the stairs and peer around the corner?
b. Grab a knife and go see who's there?
c. Charge down the stairs screaming at the top of your lungs?

Making stealthy choices leads you to the Stealth trait, the second leads to the Throwing trait, and the last one leads to the Psycho trait. The game didn't tell you what the results of each choice were...it really felt like a personality test.

Yo ... we should totally do a personality test mod!!! xD

I wish some weren't just a "single bonus" thing. Limits too much the addition of professions. I have tried to dumb... er... simplify these professions* (in bold the most dum... simplified version):

Courtier

Good bonus to diplomacy and reduce penalty of "agressive actions" agaisnt enemies.

Farmer

Increases food production.

Gladiator

Bonus to attack and defense.

Swashbuckler

Bonus to combat speed. Earn extra prestige in battles and quests he is involved in.

Monk

Bonus to defense and combat speed.

Charlatan

Bonus to diplomacy and to trade.

Scout

Bonus to movement and sight.

Carpenter

Construction (speed?) bonus to buildings that require wood.

Woodcutter

Bonus to wood production.

And I find myself to add any more as "simple professions with simple bonuses" are difficult to me. Most would be like the two last examples. Problems of simplicity.

I'll hate myself for some time about it. Don't worry, I'll survive.

+1 vote for personality test like the aforementioned jagged alliance or better still the Ultima IV test where questions were not split between good and evil.  Choices were often complex both good and bad but for different reasons.  That way you feel connected to your soveriegn from the start.  However, I would include an "advanced" option with check boxes.  Eventually everyone learns to game the system so check boxes are a logical shortcut for those who prefer it. 

If you go with straight check boxes at least layer it.  Childhood (basic stat increase) Teen (production/research/income bonus) Adult (professions gives a perk and a weakness)

Which personality hates which personality?

And yeah I really don't like small little bonuses. When you make a character in an RPG for example you usually get to chose lots of interesting things. (especially clerics in say NWN2 - if it takes over an hour to setup a character with medium knowladge of the mechanics thats cool - obiovusly we don't want that here but its a good example).

I get this vision of a soverign being talent 1 talent 2 weaknesses, profession ok GOOGOGOGOGO!!! BUIILD!!!

And you got +1 gold every 100 turns, 1 extra unit for every 100 units and +1% research bonus on a 20% chance every turn.

I really dislike 'minor' benifits. Not that its happening here but my 'instinct' is to see things more unique and more interesting.

I think it is odd, too, that the sovereign would lead a normal life.  After all, some of the channelers we've already been told of were sons and daughters of powerful sorcerers.  Did they discover their channeling ability only after the Cataclysm?

Anywho, here are my suggestions:

Federalist: 10 percent bonus to economy

War Party: 10 percent bonus to war

Whoops, got Galactic Civs 2 mixed up with Elemental... wait a second, this feature is just a rehash!!

"Prisoner" would be a nice origin, but I can't think of a good bonus for it.

There should be several options for low-status origins -- not just peasant, but also serf, laborer, slave, goatherd (some kind of pathfinding bonus!), etc.  More options for military involvement too, so that your character might have been an infantryman (bonus to defense), cavalryman (bonus to horse movement), NCO (bonus to morale), officer (reduced upkeep), and so on.

In fact, which I feel that the personality test would just be an annoying layer between the player and the system (where you wind up alt-tabbing out to a faq to see which questions are tied to which traits), I think a structure of traits and subtraits would be good -- specifically, as some have already suggested, a series of origin choices rather than just one (inspired in part by Mount and Blade).  Right now, I'm leaning toward a compromise between them that involves selecting three things: first a Birth which narrows your options (e.g., Slave, Noble, Peasant, Artisan, Merchant), then a Field which is an area of work (e.g., Agriculture, Law Enforcement, Learning, Military, Commerce), and then a Career in the Field which is what you actually wound up doing by the time the Cataclysm hit (butcher, watchman, historian, camp follower, peddler).

The idea is that Births have some general effect that's pretty modest, like a slight boost to the morale of your forces by being born a slave in the Kingdom (because you represent the Kingdom philosophy that the individual is the master of their own destiny), or a slight reduction to crafting time because you're an artisan, and your Birth also permits some Fields/Careers and denies others (for example, most nations don't have slaves in their armies -- but there could be an exception, like the Ottoman Turks... maybe the Krax).

Then Fields come along and provide another modest effect, like slightly shorter training times for Military professions or a small research bonus for Learning.  But the main thing is that Fields are also sets of Careers.

The Careers should have an enduring impact on your choices in the game.  Something like the goatherd's bonus to movement in mountains, which will have you favoring mountain settlement and movement and could see synergies with other aspects of the game, like a spell to raise mountains, a defense bonus in mountains, the presence of certain useful resources like iron in mountains, etc.  Similarly, an athlete's shorter fitness training times will see you fielding hardier armies that can march quickly in heavy armor or run all day in skirmisher gear, and you might decide that cavalry is unnecessary.  As a common smith you could stretch your resources to the limit, banging out incredible numbers of cheap swords to outfit a massive army, but as a master smith you'd have the tremendous technical knowledge required to forge a single enchanted sword meant for a mighty hero.

I hope that the Empire will handle some professions differently.  Maybe they have a whole thriving secret police branch of professions (investigator, observer, torturer, messenger, spymaster, jailer) but lack certain other things, like the Field of Law Enforcement as the Kingdoms would know it.  And maybe they have different agricultural things going on over there -- they raise different animals, have different staple crops, and the goatherd knows mountain paths but the henkeeper knows management.

Edit: I realize that the design here seems to focus on minor benefits, and I've tried to run with that in an interesting way.  This system would string together two minor benefits and one highly specific and useful minor benefit.  Players could then punch it up a little with the non-Profession traits.

Here's a weird idea, maybe one of the things you can select about your sovereign is Genre.  E.g., Tragic Hero, Anti-Hero, Brutish Villain, Scheming Villain.  Leaders in fantasy fiction tend to fall into archetypes, and those archetypes could have affinities for certain kinds of play.  Hey, maybe this could tie into how the AI plays as a particular sovereign.

Paria (outcast): penalties to diplomacy; but you have connections in the underworld from your time as a persona non grata: you get 1 spy ability for free. This profession could be a very common background among these misunderstood, freaky chanellers!

Castellan: big bonus on siege defense, smaller bonus for attacking keeps, defense bonus to any city sovereign is in.

Court advisor: plus to wisdom, diplomatic bonus with all friendly civs.

Stable master: automatic riding skills, can tame any horse, cavalry gets bonus when in same army.

Lady: plus to charisma, and to diplomacy (through manipulation), can choose whome to marry.

Like also commented on the traits, it would be very nice if you could include some more active abilities based on your background. Just getting a small bonus to e.g. gold or production is NOT very exciting, so why should we waste a game mechanism in that way? This could also be linked into the quest system. If you were a blacksmith maybe you can take on a quest to forge a special magical sword later on. If you were a god king, maybe you can build a special temple that will control your followers even better than the scientologists of today.

Artist- bonus to prestige of all cities built by Sov.

Lots of ideas I had are already posted.

THIS!!!   (I second this)

Smith - fire resistance, benefits to making weapons or armour

Engineer - understanding of siege equipment

Scribe/scholer - better spellbooks?

Mother/Father - already have several heirs

Undertaker - bonuses to death magic effects?

Doctor - Bonuses to healing effects

Sorry, Tasunke, if I'd seen it I would have given you credit.

Going back and reading your ideas, I see there are more origin steps in your formulation.  If Talents and Weaknesses stay in, I'd rather keep Profession as simple as I imagined it, but if Talents and Weaknesses are folded in and Profession becomes an all-encompassing Character History, your approach is superior.

Edit: Also, AndyRoo mentioned Mount and Blade before I did.

I'd really, really like it if either the profession and/or the ethnic group chosen gave a starting technology to for your civilization. This would get the early game going a lot faster.

That said, I'd like to see lots and lots of historic professions. There might also be some less noble professions:

Titan slave

Titan gladiator

Titan Prisoner

Outcast/Hermit

I would like to see something such as painters receiving abilitites that only painters can get, like canvas scrite(reveals fog of war for one turn in an area of effect) etc.

I'll second this, since you didn't actually say, "I'll second this"

Procurer: Bonus to happiness and morale.

Whipping Boy: Choose another faction. You are blamed for everthing bad that faction does.

Rock Star: Constantly followed by groupies. Once "Greatest Hits Compilation" is researched may choose to "Reform the Band" with other sovereigns of same profession.

College Student: Bonus to selling Vector Marketing products to family members. Begins play with student loans and liberal arts degree (liberal arts degree has no in-game function).

Lawyer: Penalty to relations with everybody.

Masked Vigilante: Begins play in spandex costume. Bonus to crime-fighting. Every other turn spent as alter-ego (identical to Journalist profession).

Habberdasher: No one actually knows what that is.

More Professoins/Ect

Manslayer- increased morale for troops, increased HitPoints for Sov, Diplomatic Penalties for Peaceful NPCs, Diplomatic Bonuses for Warlike and Malicious NPCs.

Vengeful- Sovereign's stats increase as his Hitpoints decrease. Additionally, if the Sovereign is leading an Army, as his soldiers start dying half of the casualties' HP is redistributed among the rest of his army, weighted towards elite units and champions. (or weighted towards the cannon fodder, if the previous weighting proves OP). Diplo bonuses towards nations that have been kind, peaceful, and rewarding (both ways), Diplo penalties for those that have been a Negative Experience (both ways) -> going to war with a Vengeful Sov is not going to net you any friend points. In fact, he will mostly try to war with you the entire game ... at the intervals he has enough power to challenge you (never forgets, never forgives). Perhaps losing cities to player X will give your troops certain bonuses for invading player X (like free supply routes, faster movement, higher morale, ect)

Wrathful- If in a Tactical Battle with someone who you don't like (diplo Modifier-wise, generally an arch enemy you have fought many times) ... your attack and magical attack are increased, and your defense is decreased. Increase and Decrease are more extreme the more you "hate" this faction. Soft cap is doubling attack, increasing magic attack 50%, and decreasing defense 50%. If enemy Sov is also present, Damage and Hitpoints are affected. (Hitpoints reduced 20%, Damage increased 50% as hard or soft caps)

Envious- Diplo penalties (reverse) for factions with a stronger economy, Diplo bonuses (both ways) for factions weaker than you. (This goes for an envious AI only ... if your better than an envious AI, they won't like you). Even without being an AI, however, you still have an Envy meter. The affect of the envy meter is to try and alleviate an unfair economic advantage, by your nation cheating them out (similar in some ways to the swindler profession). Trade routes with a Nation you are envious of will always net you more income than it will for that nation. The higher your envy, the more youll make and the less they will make. The reverse effect takes place for nations less than you. They will make more on trade routes with you than you will of them, however in THIS aspect, your trade routes will never dip *below* basic profits ... they will simply get more *gifts and favors* since your envy works reverse on their poor economies, and it feeds your Envious Ego. Also, your armies in a Nation you are highly envious of will not have supply route penalties, will move faster, and will have lower maintanence costs. The reverse works for your armies in negative envy lands (lands much worse economically than you). An interesting thing to see would be Two nations with Envious Sovereigns of disproportionate wealth at war with each other (or even conducting normal trade). The lesser would get trade bonuses and invasion bonuses, while the stronger would get trade tarriffs and invasion penalties. It would be the stronger Envy's job to simply defend his lands as he goes after the throat of those stronger than himself, not feeling "low enough" to bother with destroying the annoying fly at his heels. He would feel that all nations should be annoying flys biting at his heels, so he might even take it as a compliment (if he doesn't lose any cities of course :p ... losing a city changes alot, if its an important one)... not to mention that it would re-align the economic disparity. When/If they are equals, there will have been enough conquest for the Envious one to be rightly mad and take his cities back without any remorse.

an Envious + Vengeful Sovereign would be *quite* the interesting character ... especially if he was an AI (but also fun for humans).

alas, these are traits and not professions!!!

Scout/Spotter .... more likely to notice hidden armies/units/monsters waiting for Ambush. Can alternately surround such an army, and slaughter those that would suprise/surround and slaughter him.

Trapper/Trapmaker .... much better at setting ambushes and hiding with your army

Baker -> bakeries give prestige and more food. Can open the Sub-trait "cannibal" through questing decisions/morality choices. Markets and trade routes give extra commerce.

Shoemaker -> markets and trade routes give extra commerce, Sov starts with an Item-Crafting Skill of "Advanced" for magical Footwear items.

Clothier -> markets and trade routes give extra commerce, Sov starts with Item-Crafting skill "Advanced" for leather armors.

Seamstress -> markets and trade routes give extra commerce, Sov starts with Item-Crafting skill "Advanced" for magical robes

Master Seamstriss -> markets and trade routes give extra commerce, Sov starts with Item-Crafting skill "Expert" for magical robes

Market Vendor -> markets and trade routes give extra commerce, Sov starts with Item Crafting skill "Moderate" for magical trinkets,  jewelry, and potions

Alchemists -> markets and trade routes give extra commerce, Sov starts with Item Crafting skill "Expert" for potions

Jeweler -> markets and trade routes give extra commerce, Sov starts with Item Crafting skill "Expert" for magical jewelry

Baker thru Jewler express, what I believe is a common idea, of choosing Career Path separate from specific "profession" .... or semantically different: choosing a Field of Work, and then choosing a specific career

So a Sovereign could choose "Artisan" as his class/field of work, which gives markets and trade routes extra commerce.

Next he needs to choose a specific job/career ... like Alchemist, or Jeweler for instance.

Ok, I know this is a joke, but this is how this whole system is going to come off in the end: cheesy. Putting myself in the shoes of a post cataclysm survivor I don't think I could follow the bard I used to throw coins at on the corner... Does anyone else see the stupidity in that? If a musician came to me, talking about magic and powers that I thought were long dead I would tell him to go write a song about it and leave me alone. I would like to think that the Channeler is some powerful person who overcame great tragedy to to be where he's at, or has been worshipped all his life since he was a baby because of his gifts. 

"didya hear? Ol farmer jenkin's is bring life back to the lands! lets give him a crown!"     "srsly, you guys? srsly?"

Sovergn should be an option for proffesion-- you were a sovergn and then got channeling abilities and continued to rule. A loyalty bonus perhaps?

Are we going to be able to make/mod our own professions?

DISCLAIMER-> Samurai, Pirate, Ninja, and DemonLord are *mostly* serious. The rest .... um ya

Samurai- starts with +5 attack, +5 defense, +10 Hitpoints, and negative bonus relations with Ninjas and Pirates. Soldiers training time increased 20%, +2 to all stats.

DemonLord- Diplo Bonuses towards Demons and other monsters, Diplo penalties towards the Kingdoms (or human nations), can recruit demons normally (at a mana cost for the actual demons +training at double length, + equipment cost +50% due to custom equipment)

Ninja- starts with +7 attack, moves invisibly, if an Army is with him, a 20% chance of the Army being invisible (for each faction, some ppl might see him, others not) each turn. If the Ninja's army stops moving, the entire army goes "into hiding" automatically assumes Ambush mode, and is 100% invisible.

Pirate -each enemy death increases gold for the treasury (stealing valuables/gold from soldiers' pockets). Ranged attack (non-seige) units in the army of the Pirate get +1 attack (including Ships), +10% range, and all ships (global) get +2 movement (or +20% movement), and increased cargo capacity. Naval units can become "Hidden Nationality" or cosmetically barbarian towards other opponents, and can disrupt Opponent's Fishing Ventures, Sea-based trade, and destroy Transport Ships at no diplomatic penalty.

Cyborg- 20% increase towards scientific reasearch, 10% decrease towards magical reseach. Base defense doubled for physical attacks(so defense doubles the normal rate), 10% weakness to electrical attacks. 20% resistance to wind attacks. Slightly decreased chances of having children (has the organic components ... simply an 'ick' factor for some people)

Robot -cannot have children, although can adopt at least 3 NPC champions to begin his mortal bloodline. Is "biologically" immortal. 20% weakness to electrical attacks, 10% weakness to fire attacks, 10% weakness to water attacks, 20% resistance to wind attacks/physical damage. Base Attack and Base Defense are doubled. Base HP increased 50%. Cannot adopt a Fighting Style or Fighting Perk. 20% faster scientific research, citizens contribute 20% more science, Science buildings give double science. Citizens give 10% more taxes. Low loyalty factor for Spouse (only time a Sov's spouse can have their own bastards). 10% slower magical research, spells cost 20% more mana. Constructs (War Machines) are stronger, cheaper, and have higher morale (if any morale at all) ... includes seige engines.

** Robot or Cyborg can be combined with Pirate, Ninja, Samurai, or Demonlord.

*** Robot's stats would ACTUALLY be a good starting point for an Atronarch Sovereign, or a sentient Golem Sovereign.