Class notes:
Monk: Banned. Not flavorful for this setting, and broken in 3rd edition (perhaps not in 3.5, but who knows?). Note that the Monk feats are not banned, so you can still make a Fighter who�s a good brawler, has Weapon Specialization: Unarmed, and so on. You just don�t inexplicably become able to speak all languages and turn into an extraplanar being.

Sorcerer: Really talk with me first. Sorcerers are quite rare in Meria, and a bit more powerful than they are in the PHB. As in, you only have to devote a third of your level advancement to the Sorcerer class to keep advancing in it every level (not the HP or BAB bonuses, but the spell chart. So a 4th level Fighter/2nd level Sorcerer could cast spells like a strict PHB 6th level Sorcerer.). So this is unusually good for a fighter-mage or thief-mage or anything else, really. I don�t want to unbalance the party too much- bad for chemistry and all that- but this is a very good excuse to be chosen for our little group.

Paladin: Fine, but talk with me. Paladins are a bit weirder here, with the less emphasis on godly interaction with the world- they�re closer to the Crusaders they were based off of. Or at least will start out that way.

Barbarian: Fine, but be warned that your unconventional fighting style will stand out in the mess of plain old fighters that compose the army. Then again, maybe that�s why you were picked.

Cleric: As a reminder, you may only choose 2 Domains.
If you are a follower of Amadan, your Domains available are Luck, Protection, Healing & Destruction.
If you are a person who believes that clerical spells are merely another style of magic, then your domains are Knowledge, Magic, Trickery, & Air.
If you are a member/sympathize with a rather militant group known as the Fire Blades (they decry the other two for mostly using the softer side of cleric spells), your Domains to choose from are War (Bastard Sword, used 2-handed)*, Strength, Fire, & Destruction. *Note that since you get the Martial Weapon Proficiency feat with Bastard Sword for free, you are able to also take (as a normal feat) the Exotic Weapon Proficiency that allows you to wield a Bastard Sword 1-handed, should you so desire.
If you (for some odd reason) worship forgotten & ancient pagan gods, you probably don�t have access to spells (unless you�re a druid). Pray all you like, nothing much seems to happen. For the few (and I mean very few) who combine this with �clerical spells are another style of magic� adding ancient toppings, you have access to the Plant, Water, & Earth domains.

Weird Prestige Classes: Talk to me.

Everyone else: As the PHB says.

Skill notes:
There are really on two skills I�d like to note something about. Okay, 3.
Gather Information: Personal matter, but I hate the idea of this skill. If you want information, then you�ll roleplay it out, darn it. Who are you talking to? Where? None of this magical information flowing into your veins without any explanation. Don�t bother investing any ranks into it, I won�t ever ask for a check with it.

Search: I�m not a huge fan of this skill either. Unlike GI, you might occasionally have to make checks with this, but Spot works just as well generally, and tearing a room apart generally works no matter what you rolled. This is something that might only be useful in a situation where you have 10 minutes unattended in someone�s lounge and would like to look for something as unobtrusively as possible (because tearing the room apart gets you a +20 bonus on finding what you�re looking for, generally)- long enough that Spot checks won�t be enough, but short and discreet enough that a good searcher could be of use.

Speak Language: A mere 1 rank gets you an extra language by the official rules. This seems a bit nice to me, so 1 rank will give you tourist proficiency in a language- if you want to speak without an accent, it�ll take 2 ranks. Note that all �free� languages you will be fluent in. By this I mean racial free languages- Elves will start with 2 autmatic ranks in both Elven & Common, in other words. Free languages for high intelligence are spent like ranks- so somebody with a +2 Intelligenec bonus, who under strict 3rd edition rules would have 2 free languages, could either take marginal proficiency in both Seridi & Goblin, or take fluency in Seridi by spending both slots on it. Needless to say, you're free to spend later skill points on more languages too.
I should probably list languages spoken.
Common- Consider this the language of Meria.
Seridi- Language of the old Serridian Empire. Still spoken by some old-schoolers, though most know Common there now.
Elven- You get two guesses for where this is spoken, and the first doesn't count.
Dwarven- See above.
Asciric- Language of the land to the south.
Drow- As Elven, Dwarven. Also called "Undercommon."
Goblin- Yay, antoher racial language!
Draconic- A very ancient language. Might be useful for some musty old tomes.
Sign Language- Different variants, but if you're playing a mute character, or one who knew mutes, or just a very crafty person who found this interesting, you might know it.
Halfling- Doesn't exist. They all speak Common natively.
Planar Languages- Not spoken or learnt here(Infernal, Celestial, Demonic).

Edited addition: 3.5 has also cleaned house with a few skills. We'll ignore for a moment Knowledge (dungeoneering) that support the uber hack&n'slash stuff.

Intuit Direction: This skill IS pretty weak. If you have 5 ranks in Wilderness Lore, consider having this skill automatically on for free.
Innuendo: The terrible replacement for Thieves' Cant that everyone can still intepret, sort of. And a terrible code for the party to use two, considering that a mere 2 ranks can buy everyone in the party some obscure, never used language like Terran which acts as pretty much perfect code. Just buy Thieves' Cant as a language, or Sign Language for that matter, if you want to communicate covertly.
Scry- Oh, I'd love to get rid of this skill, but it's written into the 3.0 spells, so no can do. Scrying checks tend to be pretty easy anyway, so no more than 5 ranks is probably all you'd ever need even if you did want to be good at it.

Feat Notes
The only thing of much note is that I don't recommend making your character a cavalry nut and take all the Mounted Combat feats. Sure, it's wonderful at war-time or at the jousting range, but inside houses, in thick forests, in caves, when surprised... they aren't as useful. This isn't what you're being trained for, generally. Feel free to take one or two if you like, of course, but I don't think it should be a focus.