[Rytek]

Death scales work great when paired with extreme temp scales. So,death for Abyssia is fine. It highly discourages attack and if you do get attacked they better have a plan to survive the heat 3, death 3. Death hurts the old age mages but that is why you take magic3 and research with your young, sacred (cheap up keep) mages. After you hit construction 6 you can makes boots of youth to prevent the aging. You really don't need gobs of the older mages unless you get into an early war and need some marching with your armies. Later in the game its all about gem income so don't worry about that death and blood hunting. So you may have to move to a different province sooner than if you had death.