What nation(s) are best for fire? (Besides Abysia)

[Sencha]

I started a Dom 3 game this morning with the Abysia, Children of Flame. It was early age, medium map, three other civs. I started in a corner and had some nice prospective provinces to conquer. My pretender was the Solar Disk with maxed out fire magic and heat scale.

Unfortunately, the barbarian independents were strong in the area, and since I was starting out I was going to have to rely on large, cheap armies.

This was my first time using Abysia, and I loved their troop/commander units. But I found their rank and file troops ridiculously expensive. I couldn't afford more than a small hand full. I tried filling out my units with those black winged demons, but they're useless. They flew right into a Barbarian army and died.

I'm interested in using fire spells, especially from the evocation school. But as a relative newcomer to the game, I don't think I'm ready for Abysia yet. Considering their high costs, and the fact that I couldn't even clear away the first couple of independent provinces, I wonder how usable they even are. Although I bet there's a dom3 player (or several) out there that thinks its perfectly easy

So, if I want to do well with fire magic, what Nation/Pretender can I play that isn't from Abysia? Sorry if I could have looked this up myself, but I wanted some player input.