Character

How personalized will your char's appearance be? Not expecting something like Fable, but at least, better then BG's?

I don't think so. Frankly, I don't give a damn, so that was never my priority. To answer your question, only armor / clothes and weapons (one per class, i.e. all swords look alike) would be shown. It's a 2D engine, and the download size is limited, so don't expect much in that department.

When I look at the Character screen, I notice the section for the player's "Trade." That implies a "character class" system - is it so?

For some reason I thought you were going classless. As in character differentiation solely through skill choice.

But maybe not. Care to elaborate on the system? Possible number of classes, how they'll be differentiated. Maybe like in Geneforge, with some skills costing more or less depending on the underlying class?

While I'm pretty sure I've said it before, thanks again for being so responsive in general. Also, echoing the sentiments of others - that's some incredibly high-quality concept art. The artist is an extremely talented individual.

The system is classless. Trade is a background, it defines what you were before the story started, and your connections within the gameworld. A thief starts as a member of the thieves guild, a loremaster starts as an apprentice to an established loremaster, a knight (praetorian) serves a Noble House, etc. You can choose None though, if that's what you wish. Any character can establish such connections, but it could be difficult and take some time.

For more info see this thread
http://www.rpgcodex.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=3809

As for the artist, he's very talented. The inventory armor looks beautiful. I'll show more art soon.