Mod: Conticeos - Servants of Priores (EA nation)

[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.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

I'd probably use Courtiers to lead up to about 30 undead (already there thanks to death magic), and cast Nether Bolt/Darts. It's like they are tailor made.

Where was the courtier in the original post, DrPraetorious? Anyways, what would be a rough cost? Cheap, Medium, Expensive?

Not only could the Courtier(?) buff himself, he could be communion buffed. A power of the Spheres would allow, late game, them to all cast Disintegrate, and earlier on they can spam frighten or dust to dust as needed. You could also give them a national combat summon based off of LE Tien Chi's Call Ancestor if you thought they needed some sort of boost in early combat. Nothing overpowering, mind you, just something that in enough numbers will act as small speed bump in combat, esp. to cavalry charges.

[Baneslave]

It seems that I play too much Middle and Late Era. I know very little about EA's magic.

I thought out two possibilities about Mage of the Four Corners:
1. Increase his (her?) elemental randoms and make him extremely costly and old. He could cause some unrest, but wouldn't be heretic, as he still follows ways of Priores. (Mage learned basic magics of Conticeos, but then left to world to seek new magic.)
2. Take out astral and give great boost to elemental skills. Also, make him heretic and costly. (Mage left to world and didn't learn basics of Conticeos magic. He brought strange religions and ideals from foreign lands and so is heretic.)
3. Make MotFC capital only and increase his elemental skills. He wouldn't create unrest or wouldn't be heretic. His research skills could be okay, as his magics aren't gifted from Priores. (As he would have studied antient magics, unpure magic I have to say, in some hidden tomb. He wouldn't get holy magic or sacred status, as elemental magic isn't true way of Priores.)

1. Sounds okay, but that would probadly make him communion master type, right. That dosen't sound thematic, so...
2. Sounds pretty good, as you really couldn't use him as communion master.
3. Feels best, IMHO.

Hm, one question though. What is major use of astral mage? Are they good offensively or in buffing or?

Members of Royal Court should be used as summoners. Summoning Sacred King sounds okay to me. Still, not every member of Royal Court should be cabable of summoning a Sacred King, so luck (gettind D3 from randoms) or death boosters would be needed.

I think I have to divide summons to two parts:
1. Astral summons, calling souls of Priores to help.
2. Death summons, used to create those soul abonimations like Dark Prince and Dark Warrior.
Should this be other way around, though?