[DragonRider]

I think I'm just going to go ahead and commit to Marignon instead of Arcoscephale. I did a few test runs for the first year or two and it seemed to go well enough. Of course, that's just against the AI (I think Bandor Log wound up with a total of two territories in the most recent one, and I personally watched Caelum lose its army two or three times), but I have a general feel for things now.

I also learned some very important information. Like the fact that nine out of ten 60-year-old human fire mages will pretty much die of spontaneous combustion within a year and a half unless you take some growth scales, which narrows down my Pretender build quite a bit. Now it's just a matter of finalizing my paths and figuring out a research plan...