[Nick_K]

LE Ermor is already quite powerful, so I wouldn't choose it as the number 1 choice for an upgrade. Unless other nations are also heavily upgraded an improved ermor would invariably lead to a 'human vs ermor' situation in every game. Ermor is also not as easy to mess up for the AI - having bad scales is not such a problem.
Also, having the Eater of the Dead as a pretender might be a bit iffy unless doing so would stop it becoming uncontrolled!
I don't think the arena is necessarily /that/ suicidal for an AI pretender if they are naturally powerful. I like the Prince of Death as a pretender, thematically. It's also physically powerful. If given some equipment at the start it should crush most arena opposition. The difficulty would be if multiple AI nations sent upgraded pretenders to the arena... but at least the battles would be fun to watch.

AI Ermor should have a high dominion (10?) and scales on the lines of turmoil 3/ sloth 3/ cold 3 (better for cold auras / luck 3 / magic 3 (or 1) / Death 3.
Obviously, the pretender needs death magic. Giving it very high levels to allow for global enchantments and so on is probably best. 10 perhaps?
The pretender absolutely needs to be awake.

Blood and nature don't seem very thematic for Ermor and blood is pretty useless for the Ashen Empire. all the others could easily and be added to beef the pretender up. Giving Ermor a pre-designed SC pretender with items and strong magic plus a strong dominion and luck/magic scales will probably spell doom for any other AIs near them though.