I'd really like to keep Earth, but it just has to go. I'd really like to keep Witches and Gnomes, but I might have to give both up. It's very annoying, but Earth just doesn't fit the nation at all. I had themed even Hiisi as a renegade Troll King, but trolls and fire don't work well together.
What about this kind of a mage roster:
everywhere:
N1 100%FWDN Wiseman, sacred, not priest
N2H1 10%E Bear Tribe Shaman, stealthy
capital:
N2F1 210%FWDN Spellsinger
This way the nation has:
1) cheap, sacred researcher
2) access to a stealthy mage that can buff the stealthy troops, esp. cast Spellsong of the High Heart
3) a mage/priest recruitable everywhere
4) eventually a Nature/Earth mage, that can start summoning Gnomes if given Earth Boots or 30 Earth gems for empowerment
The only problem is that I'd have liked to change Spellsong of the High Heart into N1F1 now that I could have. I can't write here how troublesome it has been to come up with these changes. I really liked Earth, and needed it for the gnomes, and had to change lots of things. It was a really annoying process that can be summed up to "I don't know how experienced modmakers can go through all this more than once! AARGH! This doesn't work either!"