The tornado spell generates a small twister that can destroy entire structures and send followers flying all around. When cast directly on a building, it will completely destroy the structure (bigger buildings are harder to get destroyed by a single tornado, but it's possible), but if the spell is cast when the Shaman is out of range of the building (using Autocast) the spell will do minimal damage and float away. This spell lasts for like 17 seconds.

 

You will unlock this spell in level 12, and you can have a maximum ammount of 3 shots stored at once.

 

Tornado is a very commonly used spell as it is cheap and efficient for destroying huts in one shot. Players also use it to spread followers around, maybe in the water. Firewarriors can still fire even if they are in the air, mostly getting another chance to kill the enemy shaman.

 

In Shaman combat, one technique used is when the enemy shaman is in a tornado, to keep blasting the tornado in order drain the health of the enemy shaman before she falls and can cast spells to retaliate.

One unique attribute of the tornado spell is it does not destroy the building materials it consumes. While the tornado does damage to the land when it destroys a building, the wood used in construction of the building is spread out around the spell's path. This is true of when a tornado hits a tree or pile of wood as well.

 

In populous online this spell is common, and in later stages of the game it's worth to cast a tornado on a shaman and pray it to fall on water!

 

Tornados will interact with the terrain the are touching: meaning they can have 3 colours - They are brown in most of landscapes; they are blue when touching water; they are orangish/red when touching lava from spells or lava ocean.

It's possible to use tornado on vehicles, affecting it in a particular way, aswel as any inside unit.