[Juzza]

The answer to most of your woes is that your not meant to able to do things easily, such as the national summons, few people would make such a mistake to make their national summons unavailble to the nation, they require astral gems, just use a bit of alchemy.

As for the national mages, I agree that the black priests should not be restricted to the capital, however I don't think they should have their magic increased, late age is less about magic than the other ages besides, their black 'priests' not black mages.