Well you say you have a lot of death gems? You could summon spectres, 20 death gems, they have random paths that involve earth. It's cheaper than empowering to first level and you get a nice little thug mage. The second empowerment costs 30 gems which is ok-ish. And once you have earth 2 you can forge earth boots to gain another earth level for forging the hammers.
http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Spectral_Mage
Or if you're lucky maybe there's an indie earth mage somewhere in your provinces? Enchantress, crystal mage or someone?
Re: Too many mages?
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