horror mark on pretender

[PDF]

Graeme Dice said:
If horror marking or cursing doesn't make you seriously question whether you want your pretender fighting a particular battle or not because of the consequences, then it is powerful enough. If they can be mostly ignored, as horror mark was in previous versions of Dominions, then the spell might as well not be cast. It should be a dangerous effect, and it should be unremovable so that you have to deal with the effects.

Ok, if it is meant to be a big nasty dangerous spell, but in this case it shouldn't be a lowly Thau1, S2, fat20 (!) cantrip...
It isn't fun for me to envision a pretender cowering against a group of Sages (with 1 pearl each)