| Parthenon | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Races | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Construction Cost |
 400 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Upkeep Cost |
 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sells for |
133 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Reduces Unrest in this town by 1 and increases Power output by  +3. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
The Parthenon is a type of Town Building. The Parthenon may only be built by the Barbarians, Halflings, High Men, Nomads, Orcs, Beastmen, Dark Elves, Draconians and Trolls. A town must already contain a Temple in order to construct a Parthenon. The Parthenon's base construction cost is 400.
The Parthenon itself provides two important bonuses simply by existing in a town. Its most important benefit is reduction of Unrest by 1 point, meaning that the town will have one fewer Rebel than it would without the Parthenon. Furthermore, the Parthenon produces 3 points of Power, fed directly to the town's controlling wizard. This Power can be invested in any way the wizard sees fit. Both bonuses are cumulative with those given by the Shrine and Temple.
Also, for the majority of races, the Parthenon can unlock up to two additional structures for construction: the Cathedral (the final step down the Religious development branch) and/or the Oracle (which reduces Unrest further and increases the town's Sight Range).
The Parthenon requires an Upkeep Cost of 3 per turn for its maintenance. If you're pressed for Gold, a Parthenon can be sold back for 133.
Description[]
As religious devotion in a town grows, it becomes necessary to accommodate worshipers from many different religious sects. Sacrifices must be made for various gods, in an attempt to appease many of them. The Temple simply is not spacious enough (and not grand enough) to accommodate so many people and religious practices, which is why a larger structure - dedicated to all gods - must be constructed. This is the Parthenon.
The in-game representation of the Parthenon is modeled after a real-life structure of the same name constructed on top of the Acropolis in the city of Athens. The original was dedicated to a single god - Athena. The structure consists of a series of support columns running all around the building, holding up a large sloped roof. Stairs at the front lead up to the altar itself, which is at the center of the structure (unseen in the game). Elaborate decorative artwork is chiseled into the tympanum (gable) at the front of the building.
Races and Construction[]
Only 9 of the 14 Races have access to the Parthenon. They are the Barbarians, Halflings, High Men, Nomads, Orcs, Beastmen, Dark Elves, Draconians and Trolls. The other five races either do not believe in creating massive temples for their gods, or simply lack the architectural skills required to do so.
A town requires the Temple before it can build a Parthenon. The Parthenon is simply designed to allow more people to participate in religious ceremonies, so it is only a logical second step after a Temple has been established. If the Temple is missing, the Parthenon cannot be built. In fact, if the Temple is lost or sold off while the Parthenon is still in construction, the project will be canceled prematurely and cannot be restarted until these required buildings are rebuilt.
Construction of a Parthenon costs 400. This is quite a prohibitive cost for most towns, so the Parthenon is often built only when there are no other construction priorities - or when Unrest in the town is still high despite the presence of both a Shrine and Temple (and possibly, an Animists' Guild). Some wizards will nonetheless build Parthenons in several towns simply to increase their own Power.
Continuous Effects[]
The presence of a Parthenon in a town has two separate effects, both of which are quite useful. They include reduction of Unrest in the town and extra Power production for the town's owner.
Reducing Unrest[]
First and foremost, the Parthenon will lower the town's Unrest by exactly 1 point. In other words, if the town has any Rebels (due to high Taxation, subservience to another race, or other reasons) the Parthenon will turn 1 Rebel back into a normal, productive citizen.
This bonus is cumulative with the Unrest reduction given by the Shrine and Temple, which are both required before construction of the Parthenon can begin. With all three structures present, a town will have 3 fewer Rebels than it would without them. If Unrest is not so high that it cannot be handled by the first two structures, the Parthenon will likely eliminate it. Only the largest or unhappiest towns will see a need for even more Unrest reduction (through the Cathedral or Oracle, if they are available).
Power Output Bonus[]
The Parthenon produces 3 points of Power. This is added directly to the town's owner's Power rating. That wizard may distribute this extra point of Power just as he would distribute Power originating from any other source, such as the Fortress, Nodes, and so forth.
Depending on the distribution, this can increase Mana production by 
+3 Mana per turn, increase Research by 
+3 per turn, or hasten the improvement of the wizard's Spell Skill (or any combination thereof). Therefore, the more Parthenons there are within an empire, the better its master's magical prowess will be.
This bonus is also cumulative with the Power bonus from the Shrine and Temple. With all three structures in the same town, the town's Power output is +6 higher than without them.
Unlocked Town Buildings[]
Depending on the town's Race, the Parthenon may unlock up to two different Town Buildings for construction (or neither).
For the Barbarians, the Parthenon represents the end of the religious development branch. They simply lack the engineering capabilities to create even more spectacular structures - for them even the Parthenon is a crowning achievement.
For 7 of these races - namely the Halflings, High Men, Nomads, Orcs, Beastmen, Draconians and Trolls - completion of the Parthenon project immediately unlocks the highest-tier religious building available in the game: the Cathedral. This structure gives the same essential bonuses as a Parthenon, except its Power output is slightly higher. As with the Parthenon itself, the Cathedral's effects are cumulative with all other religious structures.
For 6 of the races - namely the High Men, Nomads, Orcs, Beastmen, Dark Elves and Draconians - the Parthenon is one of two components required to construct the Oracle. The Parthenon provides a direct "hot-line" to as many gods as possible, while the University (the other component) provides the scholarly studies into manipulating divine energy into usable forms. The resulting Oracle structure allows priests to tell the future, resulting in several beneficial effects to the town and its population.
Unlocked Normal Units[]
For the High Men, Nomads, Beastmen and Dark Elves, construction of a Parthenon immediately unlocks production of Priests.
Priests have a respectable Ranged Attack, and are not too shabby in Melee Combat either. They are also remarkably resistant to enemy Curses and other ill effects. Like the Shamans of other races, Priests will significantly boost the healing rate of all units in their army stack. Unlike Shamans, Priests are also capable of healing friendly units during combat, making them valuable support troops in any battle. Furthermore, Priests are absolutely essential to combat Corruption caused by the actions of 
Chaos-wielding opponents, since the Priests can Purify corrupted tiles.
The Parthenon unlocks no racial units of any kind.
Strategy[]
For a city that has no Unrest, a Parthenon is of very marginal benefit -- the net effect is -3, 3, which is a rather poor return for 400. For a city that does have Unrest, it will allow converting one Rebel to a Worker. At the initial game state of Tax Rate 1 and no Commerce or Industry buildings, this means the net benefit is instead -2, 3, 2, which is somewhat better but still not terribly useful; in most cases you should consider other means of combating Unrest first, such as a larger garrison or an Animists' Guild (if available), or simply tolerate Unrest and produce other more valuable buildings.
The Parthenon does interact with Divine Power and Infernal Power, increasing the net benefit (over a Temple) to 5 (no additional reduction in Unrest, as half-points are dropped). A Parthenon also interacts with Dark Rituals, and a net gain of 6 may well be worth the penalties.
Unit-production centers may wish to acquire a Parthenon in order to unlock Priests, but it is sometimes better to just let religious centers do this on their own. For the races that can produce Priests, getting at least one Parthenon early on may be imperative - in order to combat Corruption. If Corruption does occur within your empire, a Parthenon often takes priority over other structures if you don't have one already.