[DrPraetorious]

The Mage of the Four Corners could be a heretic - this is thematic, but not actually a game mechanical drawback (it lets you take drain scale, especially if they are good researchers.)

Since you are an early-era nation, you can "steal" the nation slot from MA Ermor. This would enable your priestesses to animate and lead undead right out of the box - a significant bonus.

Other than that, I'd recommend:
Mage of the Four Corners: copy stats on the heliodramus (so he is heretic 3), give him some cool power like a research bonus (3 pts) or a forge bonus (25).
Could be: S{FW,75%}{AE,75%}{FA,75%}{EW,75%}
or even: SFAEW{FAEW,100%}{FAEW,10%}
On average he's got 4 picks, makes 10 RP / turn and is a heretic - at 250 gold (which is a lot!) he'd still be a steal, especially if you can make him everywhere.
Keep in mind that what you'd actually *do* with such a mage is have him command a communion of your other national mages to cast big elemental spells (T'ien Ch'i and Arco do this all the time) which is somewhat non-thematic. If you don't want that to happen, take away his astral, make him cost 325, and give him like seven picks of magic: FAWE{FAW,75%}{FAE,75%}{FWE,75%}{AWE,75%}.
Expensive mages with relatively weak magic are a going proposition in the late era - but in the early era it's a non-starter.

Tomb Sage: S2A1D1H1. You don't need to put randoms on everyone. With okayundeadleader and bonus undead leadership from his holy (if you do the trick with copying Ermor's nation #), he'd be a useful magician and a steal at 150 gp.

Mage of the Night Sky: 3S - could be as cheap as 90 gold if you really want people to use them; make them 2S1D and they'd be slightly less devastating offensively but more versatile.

Courtier: I'm not sure what I'd do with a 1S1D commander. He can buff himself up a bit and is survivable - if he's also got undead leadership and/or priest levels he'd be useful for commanding undead. A *stealthy* mage with astral magic has a number of clever usages, and the courtier could have seduce as well, given their political nature.