Bandar Log advice

[atul]

You can bootstrap to blood by blood hunting with many scouts in several provinces (5000+ pop, preferably low income) to get enough slaves for the first empowerment and going forward from there.

Or taking a pretender with blood.

But wouldn't make that a cornerstone tactic, more like an extra trick in your sleeve. After all, researching blood with what is essentially a non-blood nation isn't necessarily that cost-effective.