I think that the game wouldn't know how to handle essence from a unit, since unless it was handled as a special case you'd be able to get an extra enchantment on the city. And then, what happens when your governor leaves because you decided you needed him/her elsewhere? I also agree that more than one bonus essence would be overboard. I'd also expect that essence bonuses would be a benefit of having a mage in town rather than an administrator.

Bookworm and Slave Driver look fine to me, and seem like reasonable bonuses from a governor.

The experience bonuses aren't particularly great, either, though if it's my only option (other than conquering the world) I suppose I could use it. But I don't see why I'd bother with it, since it would take too much idle time for units to gain levels beyond the first few.

I think that, if anything, the only thing governors really need would be the ability to gain experience from governing (some base amount per turn, with an increased amount if the city is producing something, perhaps with bonuses for completing a construction in place of the increased amount while the city is producing something). I don't know how much experience they should get for governing, but I do think that they should get something for doing their jobs. The only reason I don't really like governors right now is that, in order to really benefit from having them, I need to keep them in a city, but if I'm keeping them in a city they aren't roaming around gaining experience and helping my armies. They are certainly useful, though.

Multitasker I,II,III: boosts production from non-elemental resource tiles by 10/25/50%

Thieves Guild Leader: 50% of lost production is converted into gildar.

Warden: Deters monsters from attacking the city/group

Efficient Manager: Provides +2 movement for all units within the city's ZoC

The essence bonus is indeed powerful. To answer the question of what happens if your governor leaves the city you've enchanted:   You lose enchantments (I believed in order of newest to oldest).   Same thing that happens if your scrying pool is destroyed.   I've been considering changing the levels you acquire them at.  I like them butch, because it only affects one city.   I want the governor to have a meaningful contribution to combats, while he sits at home.  Perhaps just 2 essence, one at level 5, and one at level 12.  After all,  Nothing is going to compare to a high level path of the mage throwing blizzard around.

To reply to the idea that the essence boost is more suited to a wizard,  I think that is partially true.  While essence is all magic-y, It is still something that is harvested in cities.   

Also, Perhaps increasing movement of units produced in the city by +1?

 What if along side the experience point boost, it also offered a 2%,4%, 6% chance to automatically level up any champion in the city?  This way the governor won't stagnate as soon as you stick him on garrison duty.

While I like the idea to cheapen rushed production, when added in conjunction to the other abilities I can see that getting out of hand real quick.   But it did prompt me to think of something else to add.  (see: "waste not, want not" below)

So to summarize,  a few new things to add:

Forced March Training  :  Units produced in the city the unit is stationed in, gain +1 movement.  (level 15, rare, 100)

Warden : Deters monsters from attacking the city/group (level 6, uncommon, 200)

Waste Not, Want Not  :  Increase the Metal and Crystal production of a city the governor is stationed in by 50% (level 10, rare, 100)

Let Them Eat Cake  :  Increase the population growth of the city the governor is in by 1. (level 5, rare, 100)

Possible changes

Reduce essence bonuses to one at level 5, one at level 12.  (to clarify, the previous list was a total of 3, not a total of 6)

Add a % chance to instantly level any champion in the same city as the governor to the experience point boost.  

The thing I'm trying to accomplish here, is to cause you to have to move your governor out of your fortress, and move him to different cities.   if you want the Crystal, you're going to have to move him to a far off city.   If you want to build some units, he's going to want to head to your fortress.   If you're trying to get to that super important tech so you can rule the world,   move him appropriately.  While most champions double the power of an army,  I want to see the governor at least increase the power of a city by 50%.

Give Governor a spell, where he picks what city to govern. 

Problem solved. Making him stay in a city to reap benefits is counterproductive, given how few champions you usually have. 

The thing to realise about Governor is that they don't need to be parked all the time.  Once a city has hit its food cap and built unrest-reducing buildings, it's time for them to move on.  So they're relatively free to:

• Clear out nearby lairs for XP
• Go to the front line and fight a battle or two
• Station in a newly-settled town and speed up the production (by reducing unrest) and growth there.
• Park their behinds on a pew in the Adventurer's Guild and solve Sudoku puzzles.

To be honest though I think things could improve for them a bit if they're allowed to pick another path at level 8, or if Path of the Governor became an option at a level higher than 4, requiring that you pick one of the other paths before you can get it.  Then your level-up choices will not be limited to traits from one path.

I'm not wild about having them running around adventuring either, but it's the simplest solution I could think of.

So I tested out altering the level requirement.  Bumped it to level 5.  Seems to work fine, apart from the downside of losing a trait choice at level 5 if you didn't want Governor.

It's actually possible to be a complete rebel and avoid the 'Path of...' trait choices this way, though they each have some pretty good bonuses so I don't know why you would want to.

What about adding +1 to a city with 0? It would allow certain enchantments that don't rely on essence. You would be adding a pretty big cheat.

The bonuses discussed are great.  But the Governor needs to start getting experience for being stationed in a city.  Without that it is very difficult to select the Governor option.

I do for the growth and unrest bonus, but it is few and far between, or late in the game.

I've tried to add an ability that grants experience while stationed in a city, but there are some hard coded issues hindering me.  About the best I'm going to be able to do, is have it so the governor will receive traits that unlock buildings that grant xp to champions stationed in that city.  Probably to the tune of 1,10, and 50 xp / turn, at levels 5, 10, and 18.  This should in no way outpace the xp gained by killing things, but still allow the governor to level up while governing.  I'll likely do 1,5,and 20 xp at the same time to these buildings to stationed units.

I'm also very keen on adding the +1 to movement for units built in that city.  

  I think the governors in this game follow more the Roman model.  They would have made a name for themselves as Generals.  Then they would learn bureaucracy by becoming a senator/politician.  Then they get appointed to manage a province (city). 

From there they would still be in charge of a military, so could go afield if the need arose.  Otherwise they would sit in the city and manage the taxes etc.

Julius Caesar was a governor.  

If you are using your governor to give frontier towns a boost until thy can get their bell tower or cleric built and/or until you can connect it up with your capital.... then you will probably have wildlands nearby that might need dealing with?  Also, troops might need time to heal between battles.

It could happen, but this depends on many factors...

I do not know about "any point", but I have also been offered path of the govenor late in the game when my sovereign was mostly not able to get into combat before it was over.