There's quite a lot of excellent characters already, but I'll throw mine into the pile. I've been polishing the application for the last few days and I'm quite happy with how she's turned out. Introducing Lyn Ralgar:
Lyn has a dream, and she’s had it since she was twelve. She doesn’t have natural charm and she’s terrible with music, but she has a dogged determination, is fiercely loyal to Taldor, and she’s smart enough to achieve whatever she sets her mind to: Lyn is going to become a Lion Blade!
Lyn is an (unchained) Rogue with the Snoop archetype. She fills the skills monkey role while also being a secondary melee combatant. The aim is to take the Lion Blade prestige class down the road. It doesn’t matter too much if/when this happens, but I hope there’s room in the AP to make it work at some point. Even if she were never to meet the Lion Blades, it would still be a long-term goal that will motivate her to do well throughout the campaign. Lyn will take Underworld inspiration at level 2 to boost some more skills, and the ‘Bardic pretender’ rogue talent at level 4 in order to qualify for the Lion Blade prestige class. Before that, she might take a few levels of Brawler if it seems like the party could use the extra melee power. I’ve added a possible build progression in a spoiler at the end of the alias.
Since the AP will feature many social encounters, Lyn is capable in that department. However, I’ve left her Charisma average and she’s therefore not really optimized in the social skills. Many other characters might opt for high-Cha build and I felt like the contrast would be nice: Lyn isn’t naturally at home among nobility, but she’s going to put in the effort to make it work, regardless.
One last point I wanted to clarify is regarding her alignment: There are some references to Norgorber in Lyn’s background and I’ve pegged her as a N alignment. However, there’s no evil or malicious intent in her, at all. She’s mostly Good, with a dormant resolve to do what must be done if the circumstances require it: she’s also not naive as to what being a Lion Blade might entail. That’s why I pegged her ‘down’ to a Neutral alignment. Still, Lyn is optimistic, friendly, loyal, inquisitive and adaptable. Also, she’s highly secretive regarding her early childhood and cagey on her ambition to become a Lion Blade. It might be quite a while before it comes up, and if it ever does I’ll make sure (as a player) that it never becomes problematic.