Indep. Mages

[Micah]

Abysia's research capacity is actually so incredibly bad that the X tribe shaman are cost-effective researchers. They're not at all useful in battle, but they won't die off from old age, and the gold to research point ratio is about the same as the anathemants. Plus you don't have to build a fort to make them.

For most nations though they're only worthwhile if you need nature magic (or astral, in the case of the lizard shammies. The lizards are even worse researchers than the tribals though, for the cost, assuming some magic scale)