Long story short, I've decided to create 5-6 characters at once. These will be simple people, just living in Cyrodiil. However, I would like to have the Crisis going on around them, even if they're not involved. Which brings us to the question at hand. What I would like to do is make one character, take him through the MQ just to the point where Gates start opening all over. After that, console the menus to "create" each individual character (changing race, skills, sign) and drop them into the world where they will be starting from. The question is this; the generic character may gain a level or two going through. Because of this, I'd like to set each character to, maybe, level 3 (level, skills, attributes). I would like them to level normally after this. I wouldn't want to cripple them later, and I'm not looking to make them overpowered. I'm sure the skills gained will not suit all the other classes, either. I know from lurking that some of you here are Console wizards, so I humbly beg for your knowledge.

"showracemenu" can do most of what you're looking for, as you can change just about every aspect of the character. You need to be careful how you use it, as it tends to reset everything down to starting levels. You should be able to find the proper incantation in another post or buried in http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Console_Command_Tutorial The other console commands described there will let you adjust around the edges.