Nomadic Devourer Civilisation for Erebus - Panivo

“Sucellus is dead. Cultivating crops and tending herds is doomed to failure. If we are to survive we must be sure to gather every remaining morsel of nourishment in these lands. We must pray to Lord Agares that he will delay the wastage so that we may gather all the food in time. Mammon will aid those that aid themselves. We must hoard our food lest it be claimed by other tribes.”
“But what shall we eat when there’s no food left here?”
“Then we will move on and take what ever food is available in other lands.”
“This will leave a wasteland in our wake.”
“Then Lord Agares will bless us. Remember that Mulcarn and the rebel Gods are in ascendance. Agares is chief among the rebel Gods.”
“And what shall we do when all Erebus is a wasteland?”
“Why then, the divine Ceridwen will open the portals to allow us enter other worlds. The Godless vault of Sucellus will provide a feast for our people.”

The Age of Ice taught the Doviello to gnaw the marrow from the bones of their prey like wolves. It taught the Panivo not to be so wasteful. They consume flesh, hair, blood and bone. Over time, almost all life around them is devoured and they are forced to move on. Once they leave - the land recovers, life renews, plants begin to
grow, animals breed and then ... the Panivo return...

The Panivo differ from other Civilizations in their relationship with land and nature. They do not farm or tend animals. They exploit the land and cull herds. As the herds die off, the Panivo rustle more from further afield. When an area around their city has been impoverished they move on.
They hate Sucellus, never having forgiven him for allowing his own death after all of their devotion. They hate everything associated with him - nature, animals, Fellowship of Leaves. They have no animal or mounted units but are better in combat against such units. This anti-nature tendency also limits their arcane units, who seem incapable of developing skills in some of the magical spheres. The Panivo hatred of nature prevents them from performing the Genesis and the Nature's Revolt rituals.
In a nut-shell, they are nature-hating nomads, who will destroy the land within their territory. Surrounding Civilizations will also find their lands poorer because of the presence of the Panivo.

There are currently three selectable leaders.
Gorta has the Adaptive, Expansive and Raider traits. Leader art based on Fanart Conan King by kamyu.
Seerson has the Expansive, Industrious and Spiritual traits. Leader art based on Evil Wizard by Daniel Egeland, danilolatino on deviantart.com
Ocrann is Emergent, Ambitious and Arcane. Leader art based on The Puppet Master by AlishmcMalish.
All leaders are blocked from making Fellowship of Leaves their state religion.

The Panivo can found OnSeason Cities or OffSeason Settlements. It is necessary to keep a balance to allow the Panivo to move between these. Founding only OnSeason Cities would handicap the Panivo relative to the other civilizations, as their unique improvements would degrade and never have a chance to recover.

Senser Camps: These are just like normal camps but will not upgrade. Senser Camps outside Panivo land become normal Camps. Camps and Yarangas in Panivo territory become Senser Camps.

Culling Fields: The Panivo do not tend herds. Rather than cultivating wild herds of cattle, sheep or pigs in pastures as other Civilisations do, the Panivo will massacre these herds. They will slay every last one. For a time, they will have all the benefits of wool, leather and food that such herds provide but soon the herd animals will be locally extinct. The Panivo rely on the rustlers to provide them with further supplies of animals.
Culling Fields differ from most improvements in that they will degrade to Dormant whether they are worked or not. If they are worked by an On-Season City, then they will degrade even faster. Once the Culling Field becomes Dormant, the underlying herd bonus is removed. Pastures and Homesteads which come within Panivo territory are converted to Culling Fields.

Mobile Trading Camps: The trading camps have a population boom whenever the nearest primary camp comes into season as the merchants scramble to supply the large population. Of course, the merchants can not survive without food and so as the food in the area diminishes, so many of the merchants will move on. Over the seasons as the population returns again and again, the associated trading camps will become more established and developed providing a greater and more varied selection of traded goods.
The four first tier improvements are: New, Established, Old and Deserted Small Trader Camps. If Established, Old or Deserted Trader Camps are within the fat cross of a city when the Panivo relocate to it, they become New Trading Camps. Further Relocations will upgrade the improvements to New Large Trader's Camps and ultimately New Massive Trading Camps. The variously sized trading camps go through the cycle: New, Established, Old and Deserted.
Once Trading Camps become massive, there is a chance that the underlying terrain will start to degrade down to desert/tundra.
Pillaging of a Mobile Trading Camp converts it to the Deserted form of the next lower tier. Pillaging of Small Trader Camps converts it to an Empty Site. Mobile Trading Camps which end up outside Panivo territory become Empty Sites.

Empty Site: When a Panivo trading camp ends up on the wrong side of the border or a Small Trader Camp is pillaged, the people there get up and leave. If the Panivo reclaim the tile and relocate to a nearby city the empty campsite will gain new inhabitants but must start again on the first tier as a New Small Trader Camp.

Exploited Land: The Panivo Foragers are skilled at finding more food in an area than any other Civilization's workers, resulting in high early food yields in a city supported by exploited terrain. Overtime, this exploitation is unsustainable and the amount of food returned diminishes. If the land is not given some time to recover, it will ultimately cease to yield any food at all. There is the added possiblity that the intensive exploitation will result in degradation of the terrain, even if recovery time is allowed - Exploitation ultimately will yield deserts or tundra.
Exploited lands goes through the following improvements, each with lower food yields; Initial Exploitation, Continuing Exploitation, Diminishing Returns Exploitation, Weak Returns Exploitation, Break Even Exploitation, Scarred Land, Ruined Land. Initial Exploitation will also provide whatever crop bonus (rice, etc.) is on the tile but the bonus will be destroyed by the exploitation cycle. Knowledge of Poisons and Tracking will improve the food yield during Initial Exploitation.
Exploited land can only recover to Dormant, when it is not in the fat cross of an On-Season Panivo City. The more exploited the land, the lower the likelihood of this recovery and the greater the likelihood that the underlying terrain will itself have degraded.
Other Civilizations can remove Exploitation using the Vitalize spell.

Dormant Land: When the slaughter in a culling field is completed the land becomes Dormant. When exploited land is no longer within the fat cross of a Panivo On-Season city, it has a chance of recovering to Dormant. When a Dormant tile is within the fat cross of a city that the Panivo relocate to or that they upgrade from OffSeason to OnSeason, then it changes to Initial Exploitation. Some herd/crop bonuses will be removed if there is a Dormant improvement on the tile.

The Withered One: A successful casting of Wither the One by the Nihilists will replace Yggdrassil with The Withered One, which provides entropy mana. It also gives nearby Animal and FoL units the Shadow of the Withered One promotion.

Their unique technology is Exploitation, allowing them to build the exploited tile improvements, culling fields and mobile trading camps.
They can not develop the following technologies: Way of the Forests, Hidden Paths, Horseback Riding, Armored Cavalry or Warhorses.

Technologies which are of particular interest to the Panivo include:
Animal Husbandry allows Panivo recon units to rustle herds.
Animal Handling allows the creation of the hero, Slitinn.
Carnivals allows building of Mammon's Banquet.
Cartography allows the casting of the Panivo Worldspell, Openings and also Ghetto.
Code of Laws allows Starved units.
Deception allows Squatting.
Fanaticism allows Nihilist units.
Knowledge of the Ether allows building of Ceridwen's Maze.
Necromancy allows building of Rings of Entropy. This technology is also of value to the Panivo as it enables them to build Dimensional Nodes. The more Dimensional Mana the Panivo possess, the easier it will be to successfully navigate Ceridwen's Maze. Those arcane units with the Ceridwen's Chosen promotion will also benefit through their affinity with Dimensional mana.
Warfare allows the melee units to Efficiently Pillage.
Way of the Wicked allows casting of Sentient Feast by captured slaves.
Poisons and Tracking provide one additional food to Initial Exploitation improvements.
As the Panivo can not develop any of the mounted technologies, they will need to research Sailing if they want to develop Trade.
The Panivo gain nothing from Commune with Nature, except the possibility of developing Omniscience.

Relocate - The relocate spell allows the Panivo to transfer the population, units which are currently in training (excluding Nihilists, Beastslayers and boats), mobile buildings, stored food, specialists from a current OnSeason city to a target OffSeason Settlement. The OffSeason Settlement switches to OnSeason. Any Dormant improvements in the fat cross of the target settlement switch to Initial Exploitation improvements. Trading Camp improvements in the fat cross of the target settlement switch to the new version of the Trading Camp at the next size level. Religious beliefs (except FoL) are transferred along with the population. Only the state religion (and religions that the casting city is the founding city for) are left in the casting city.

The target settlement also gets a temporary happiness boost (nomads are happier when they move than when they are stationery). The casting OnSeason city is reduced to a one population OffSeason settlement.

OnSeason - This converts an OffSeason settlement into an OnSeason city. Any Dormant improvements in the fat cross of the casting settlement switch to Initial Exploitation improvements. Trading Camp improvements in the fat cross of the casting settlement switch to the new version of the Trading Camp at the next size level.

Openings - This is the Panivo World Spell. It opens borders and gives a diplomatic boost between the Panivo and all known Civilizations that they are not currently at war with. It also temporarily gives all of the Panivo units the Ceridwen's Key promotion, which gives them a large drop range.

Disperse - This spell will provide a Diaspora unit and reduce the population of the casting city. The reduction in population is related to the cost of growing the population relative to the cost of building a Diaspora.

Salted Earth - This is cast in an OffSeason settlement. It reduces the settlement to a ruin. Any exploited tiles in the fat cross of the casting city are degraded to the next worse version of exploitation. If there is three or more scarred or ruined lands around the new ruin and no ruins within 2 tiles, then the armageddon count is increased.

Inquisition - This can now be used to remove Ghettos. If Order is the state religion, it also removes Temples of Triumvirates.

Efficient Pillage - This is performed by Melee units in enemy towns. It takes three turns to cast and provides a Supplies unit. The town is completely removed.

Ghetto - This is castable by Diaspora. It creates a ghetto in an opposing civilization's city, which consumes food, reduces culture and increases war weariness. The caster is killed.

Add to City - Diaspora can add 1 population to an existing Panivo city. The caster is killed.

Sentient Feast - This is cast by slaves in a Panivo city. It creates the Sentient Feast building which provides extra happiness. The caster is killed.

Enter the Maze - This is cast in cities containing a Ceridwen's Maze. There is a chance that the unit will be killed. If the unit survives, it emerges with the Mobility 1 and Sidestepper promotions. Adept units, which survive, gain the Ceridwen's Chosen and Mobility 1 promotions. The pedia gives information on how to improve survival chances.

Distorted Senses - This is cast by recon units with the Senser promotion. If successful, they temporarily gain the Distorted Senses promotion, which provides an extended range of vision and the ability to see invisible units. If it goes wrong, the unit is struck with Blinding Headaches, which temporarily reduce vision and hold the unit where he is. This is autocastable.

Rustle - Rustle is cast by recon units with the Rustler promotion to remove a herd type bonus from a tile and gain the appropriate herd promotion. There is a (small)
chance to get the unit killed and start a war if the theft goes pear shaped. Rustling can not be performed if there is a non-Panivo unit on the tile.

Leave Herd - A Rustler who is carrying around a herd casts this spell within the fat cross of a Panivo city in order to lose the herd promotion and leave the appropriate bonus on the tile.

Rot On the Branch - This is cast by the Nihilist units. It will destroy crop bonuses on the casting tile. It has a chance to poison enemy units in the surrounding tiles.

Squat - This requires at least three combat units and at least one Diaspora on the tile. It strips the tile of cultural control (as it is ethnically cleansed), allowing the Panivo to found a city there. It will trigger war with the civilization that previously controlled the tile.

Wither the One - This is cast by a Nihilist unit (supported by two others) at Yggdrassil. It replaces Yggdrassil with The Withered One. It causes temporary anarchy in all FoL cities. FoL civilizations, the Elohim and the civilization on whose territory Yggdrassil was located will declare war on the Panivo. (I know that this spell could be regarded as fluff but I thought the chance to destroy Yggdrassil fitted well with the Panivo mentality.)

Devour Slave - This is a spell for all cannibals, not just Panivo. It allows injured units with the Cannibalize promotion to consume a slave which is on the same tile. Essentially they get the benefit of eating without the risk of the combat.

Quench - Panivo Adepts who master Water 1 can not cast Spring. Instead, they can cast Quench, which does not restore life to deserts but puts out fires in a wider radius.

Vitalize - This spell has been amended so that it can also remove Exploitation from the surrounding 9 tiles.

Hand of Agares - Only one of the Triumviratic Profanes can be the Hand of Agares and it must be selected when the unit is created. The Hand of Agares has Entropy Mana affinity and has Entropy 1 and 2 promotions. He causes the tiles he is on to move closer to becoming Hell Terrain (based on the current Armageddon Count).

Hand of Ceridwen- Only one of the Triumviratic Profanes can be the Hand of Ceridwen and it must be selected when the unit is created. The Hand of Ceridwen has Dimensional Mana affinity and has Dimensional 1 and 2 promotions. He also has an extra 5 tile teleport range.

Hand of Mammon - Only one of the Triumviratic Profanes can be the Hand of Mammon and it must be selected when the unit is created. The Hand of Mammon has Mind Mana affinity and has Mind 1 and 2 promotions. He has an extra 20% chance of converting defeated opponents.

Path of Destruction - When a tile that Slitinn is on degrades, he becomes visible for two turns. This gives opponents and barbarians a chance to kill him off even if they can not see invisible units. After 2 turns he becomes invisible again.

Glory Seeker - This is a free promotion for Beast Slayers but is available to units with the Adventurer, Crazed of Heroic Strength 2 promotions. It increases strength by 1 when in combat against opponents with higher base strength. If the unit defeats a unit where there is more than 5 in the difference between base strengths, then all units on nearby tiles receive the Morale promotion.

Shadow of Withered One - This is automatically gained by animals and FoL units that come within 2 tiles of the Withered One improvement. It gives them -30% to combat.

Devourer - This is the race promotion that all the Panivo get. It provides bonuses against animal and mounted units. It prevents gaining of the Subdue Animals and Subdue Beasts promotions.

Senser - This promotion is gained by Sensers (Hunter equivalent). It allows casting of the Distorted Senses spell.

Distorted Senses - This temporary promotion extends the visibility range, allows the unit to see invisible units and provides a bonus against illusion units. The promotion lasts 1 turn.

Sidestepper - This promotion is gained by a unit on a successful navigation of the maze following casting of Enter the Maze. The unit ignores terrain costs, ignores building defences and has a withdrawal chance to reflect the way that such a unit slips between this and adjacent dimensions. It also allows the gaining of the Dimensional 1 promotion or Mounted unit promotions.

Panivo Worker - This promotion is gained by workers/slaves captured by the Panivo and prevents the building of farms, cottages, plantations and pastures.

Rustler - This promotion can be acquired by Recon units once the Panivo have mastered the Animal Husbandry technology. It allows them to remove a herd bonus from a tile and gain the equivalent herd promotion, allowing them to transport the bonus close to a Panivo city.

x Herd - The appropriate herd promotion for whichever bonus type is on the tile when a rustler casts Rustle is given to the Rustler. The promotion lasts 15 turns.

During this time the rustler must cast leave herd within the fat cross of a Panivo city or else the carried herd (and potential, associated bonus) will be lost.

Waywarper - This promotion is gained by Adept units, which successfully cast Enter the Maze, instead of the Sidestepper promotion. It provides them with an Affinity for Dimensional mana, providing +0.5 movement and +0,5 strength for each Dimensional Mana. It also allows the gaining of Mounted unit promotions.

Ceridwen's Key - This promotion is gained by all Panivo when their world spell, Openings is cast. It increases the drop range for every unit by 25. The promotion only lasts for 10 turns.

Blinding Headache - This is the promotion a Recon unit suffers if they miscast Distorted Senses. Their visibility is reduced by 2, they can not cast spells and they are held. The promotion lasts 2 turns.

Taunted - This promotion is gained by Starved units in a city with a Taunting Pit. It provides experience but increases the chance of the unit becoming Enraged. The promotion is lost when they leave the city.

Feeder - This promotion can be gained by Panivo Commanders. It allows them to use Controlled Rations to control their troops.

Controlled Rations - Gained by units in an army led by a Feeder. This makes them Loyal and prevents them becoming Enraged. It also makes them immune to fear (they fear starving more than anything else.)

The unique buildings that they can build are; Slaughterer's Rock, Taunting Pit, Mammon's Banquet, Ceridwen's Maze, Temple of Triumvirate, Entropic Rings and Withered Grove.
They can not build; Stables, Dancing Bear, Grand Menagerie, Spider Pen, Tiger Cage, Lion Cage, Wolf Pen, Gorilla Cage, Ride of the Nine Kings, Winter Palace & Aquae Sucellus.

Panivo Palace - Their palace provides Mind, Dimensional and Entropy mana.

Ceridwen's Maze - This can be built once the Panivo have Knowledge of Ether. It is a pre-requisite for casting of the Enter the Maze spell.

Temple of Triumvirate - This is the Panivo version of Pagan Temple. It provides extra happiness if Ashen Veil is the state religion and extra unhappiness if Empyrean or Order is the state religion.

Entropic Rings - This can be built once the Panivo have Necromancy. These provide health at the cost of food. Extra health is provided if certain food bonuses are available.

Withered Grove - This is the Panivo equivalent of a Grove and allows the building of Nihilists.

Mammon's Banquet - This can be built in a city with a Carnival. It costs a food to maintain but provides happiness for the food bonuses that the Panivo can not establish permanent supplies of, e.g. cows.

Ghetto - This is created in an opposition city by the casting of the Ghetto spell to reduce food, culture and provide war weariness. Ghettos can be removed by Inquisition or Purge the Unfaithful. FoL Civs can automatically remove Ghettos using Inquisition or Purge the Unfaithful. Civilizations with a different state religion must be at war with the Panivo and must have a different state religion to the Panivo in order to remove the Ghettos using Inquisition or Purge the Unfaithful.

Sentient Feast - This is created by casting the Sentient Feast spell to provide happiness.

Slaughterer's Rock - This provides the Combat 1 promotion to melee units if there is a Culling Field within the BFC of the city when the unit is built. It provides xp at the rate of 1 xp per turn for melee units when there is a Culling Field within the BFC of the city up to 16 xp.

Taunting Pit - Starved Units in the city gain the Taunted promotion. This provides xp but increases the chance that they will become enraged. It also provides happiness to the city.

Their unique units are; Triumviratic Profane (Profane), Slitinn (hero), Diaspora (Settler), Senser (Hunter), Wanderer (Ranger), Gorger (Phalanx), Starved (Catapult), Beast Slayer (Beast Master),

Panivo Adept (Adept), Panivo Mage (Mage) and Nihilist (Druid).
They can not build; war Chariots, Chariots, Knights, Horse Archers, Horsemen or Hawks.

The Triumviratic Profanes have a weaker base strength than standard Profanes. The Incense requirement has been removed for them and instead the require a Temple of the Triumvirate. When created, they may become the Hand of Agares, Hand of Ceridwen, Hand of Mammon or remain a basic Triumviratic Profane.

The Panivo Hero is Slitinn and he is available with the Animal Handling technology. He is a Wanderer who starts with the Hero, March, Senser and Invisible promotions
and can freely enter other Civilizations' territories.
Each turn that Slitinn starts outside of Panivo territory, there is a chance of degrading the features (forest, jungle, etc) on the tile or changing grasslands to plains or plains to desert on the tile.
If Slitinn dies whilst outside of Panivo territory he is resurrected in the capital but loses all experience and promotions that he has gained.
As long as Slitinn is within Panivo territory he has the Weak promotion. If he dies in Panivo territory, he will not be resurrected.

Diaspora replace Settlers. They can cast Ghetto in enemy cities. They must be among the units in the stack in order to Squat. They can cast Add to City. A Diaspora can be built or the city castable Disperse spell can generate one.

Sensers are the Panivo equivalent of Hunters. They can not carry hawks but gain the Senser promotion (as do the higher Recon unit types) to make up for this.

Wanderers are the Panivo equivalent of Rangers. They can not carry hawks but gain the Senser promotion (as do the higher Recon unit types) to make up for this. As with all Panivo, Wanderers can not learn to subdue animals or beasts.

Panivo Adepts and Panivo Mages are like other adepts and mages except they can not build nodes nor gain the first level promotions for Nature, Life, Death, Creation or Body mana.

Building a Nihilist requires a Withered Grove and the Fanaticism technology. Nihilists are not limited by the state alignment (whatever the state currently believes, ultimately those beliefs and the state that espouses them will crumble into nothingness). They replace Druid units and can cast Rot on the Branch and Wither the One.

Building of a Starved unit requires a courthouse. They cause collateral damage and start with the weak and cannibal promotions.

Gorgers replace phalanxes. They start with the Heavy and Poison Resistance promotions.

The Panivo have no unique projects and are barred from performing the Genesis and the Nature's Revolt rituals.

The Song of Spring can be performed by those who've discovered Hidden Paths to create some new bonuses in the world.


Purge the Unfaithful can be used to remove Ghettos.

The Panivo slaughter populations when they conquer cities, leaving only a population of 1. The Revolt time is reduced to 1 turn.
Crop/Herd bonuses on tiles where the Panivo found cities or on tiles where the Panivo conquer and claim a city are destroyed.
Forbidden developed mana nodes (Nature, Life, Death, Creation or Body mana) which are captured by the Panivo will be destroyed unless Strength of Will has been researched.
Captured workers are converted into slaves.