Are Clams worth empowering for?

[lillumultipass]

Hi to all,

I am playing Niefelheim with a N10S4 emprisoned monolith and a dominion of 9 I think.

I have a few large armies of giants, mainly with my prophet and one with a Niefel Jarl equipped with a few items like wraith sword...
I am at war with a few nations, namely Agartha, Atlantis, C'tis and Sauromatia. Well, almost everyone actually.

My problem is that, althoug I have done a lot of Arcane probing, I have ony found 3 astras sites, and only one yields perls. Furthermore, I have lost the said province. Hence, I don't have any astral gems at all.
Since my pretender is immobile and knows astral magic I need some perls at least to teleport it (I could also try faerie trod...).
So my question is: should I empower a few mages with N1 since they have W2?
I have cast Mother Oak so that I have a good income of Nature perls, i.e. 18 per turn.

Also, I am a bit clueless as to what to do/research next. I have forged a few skull mentor for my research, and I now have a D5 mage thanks to 2 items so I can forge wraith sword, wraith crown...
The thing is, there are so many possibilities, I don't know on what to focus. I would like to equip my jarls, maybe with
robe of shadows, amulet of anti-magic and the like.

Thanks for any suggestions