Indeed! That is a nasty fountain! I must try it someday. Maybe a bit much with a drain scale as Sauromatia's researchers aren't really that good. But you can, as you wrote yourself, switch it for misfortune. And with the help of Enaries, Soothsayers and order it isn't so bad.
Thanks for sharing.
I made some changes to my pretender's scales:
Production lowered 2 to 0. Found no use for it at all. When you have the sacred quickness blessed cavalry you don't really need the heavy cavalry. Also raised dominion to 7. Nature raised to 5 with the spare points. Maybe it will come in handy later on?
Found out that building a Witch King early on, making him your prophet, giving him some Androphags and then setting out on a crusade of mayhem against the enemies provinces is very effective. But why is that effective I hear you say?
1. He is your prophet, spreading your dominion.
2. He is very though when blessed with above bless and made prophet. And accompanied by his fellow Androphags he is hard to destroy.
3. He causes fear and is very fast making him an ideal pillager.
4. He has blood and can blood hunt, so why not on enemy territory!
5. Has his own standard so you don't need to worry about bad morale in enemy territory. This is true for many of the thematically supposed raiders of Sauromatia.
6. It is thematic that he rides around killing people, eating them, making some blood slaves and then rides home to sacrifice them in some gory ritual
Try it yourself, it is fun and messy.
Made some changes to the pretender again: Production 3, sloth 1. Too much resources...