My character lives in Holland now, choosing a shape that is from very far away won't be fitting in. I have proposed becoming a bit of mist (don't know the english term for it), as a backup a viper would do nicely as well.
Mist is fine. We use mist here in England. That and "fog", "smog", "pea-souper"....
Eric
Both of those are fine choices. I was only sticking up for Mythic European lions because I thought you were looking to add a tough combatant into the mix. Watching the liger-skinchanger grog in my saga nearly devour an experienced armour-clad hospitaller in 2 rounds (before St. Ubaldesca came to the knight's rescue) convinced me that lions are deadly.
While a lion in Holland does seem questionable, I think it really comes down to how Mythic vs. European your saga is. As just one idea, there might be magic regios here and there. Magic Animals, including lions (or in my saga's case, the even rarer liger), might be quite comfortable there during the colder parts of the year, and only wander out during the warmest parts of the year, to hunt or migrate between regios, or whatever.
Mundane Knights might or might not understand the reasons behind the sudden appearance and then disapearance of these mighty hunting cats, but in either case, they might have a brief hunting season, whether to protect their serfs or just for sport (see LoM).
This would help explain why so many knights have lions, leopards, etc on their shields. Its a boast that "I could kill a lion" or a means of intimidation - what serf wouldn't be afraid of the lions that appear every year around mid-summer, terrorize the villagers, and kill their livestock?
In our case, the liger-skin was sourced from a travelling animal menagerie that serves as cover for a wandering covenant that seeks animals to add to its collection. The animal died of old age while they were visiting another covenant, gifted the skin to their hosts, who enchanted it and gifted it to a failed apprentice grog.
There are exotic animals in the royal and imperial menageries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menagerie#Medieval_period_and_Renaissance
Nobles have a chance to meet them in person.
Our saga is mainly mythic to accord for historic myths. And, of course, we change history, we helped Dirk III against the emperor, which shuffles the power struggle a little. We hardly have any overt fantasy, and if we do we tie it to myths or stories that are extant in the region, or just outside of it, and research where language barriers end, try to retrace the flow of the Gantel through sediments and current and historic landmarks, these kind of things. We also do the occasional thing mainly because it has the right feel (though "the right feel" as experienced by modern-day, mainly beta-focussed people) without researching.
I was kind of hoping for more of that feel myself. When I gathered my initial players and querried them, they rated historical accuracy lowly and high fantasy highly, so I'm meeting them halfway by delivering on their expectations while still trying to keep to the medieval setting and paradigm.
They've enjoyed the mix so far; they can travel across the countryside slaying dragons if they want, but they understand that this isn't a fantasy setting built for adventuring, its a "real world" inhabited by "real people." The grogs, for example, have learned to be friendly, helpful, and non-threatening when entering a village. Their are few commercial inns outside of larger towns and cities; if they want a place to sleep at night, they'd best not offend the locals.