Oh man that is awesome, I am glad you liked the Courtesan. And you said we disagree on builds....
Well.... that's because we so often do.
There's no way I'd pick speechcraft or alchemy on pretty much any build, no matter how much sense they make from a roleplaying perspective. I understand why you do it-- it's just not something I'd do. Maelyn (my Dunmer Courtesan) does have Illusion, but that's just because it's so central to the build. And I guess if she relied on Charm instead of the mini-game, Speechcraft would be okay, but I just don't like Charm much. Partly it's that it's temporary-- I like to go through the mini-game the first time I talk to someone, then never have to deal with it again. And partly it's just that in order to rely on Charm, I'd have to hotkey it, and I already have too few hotkeys.
Mindi the Barbarina sounds stellar, I have a female Breton stock Barbarian, cuz I love the paradoxical as well.... and she utterly kicks as, as does the Courtesan...
Mindi's one of my all-time favorites. And yeah-- it's the paradoxical that's a good part of the attraction. It all started when someone here (I'm pretty sure it was Benn) dared someone else to play a female Bosmer with a battle axe, and I thought that was such a great idea that I immediately went and created her. She eventually shifted to a war axe, and asserted a bit of a pixie-ish quality that I had to balance with the barbarian nature of her fighting, but that just added to the roleplay. And she is indeed deadly.
You should check out the Kushiel book series. I flipped out when this lady told me about them about two weeks after I made that character. The main character is essentially a Courtesan who gets training as a spy and becomes a big time power player in the world's political scene. It is very well written and an excellent fantasy world concept, basically set in an alternate historical late middle ages with some basic magical and mythical components thrown in the mix.
Thanks for the heads-up. I'll keep an eye out for them.