What I am saying is that the kind of game where a lab around a building is not allowed, because it is "unrealistic", is probably the kind of game that is tight about the amount of Vis any particular Mage has. Two hundred+ Vis sitting around not being used for more important things is not very realistic.....
If you don't like the ring idea, there are dozens of ways to do it. four foot by four foot block by four foot of Diamond will fit in a regular lab just fine. Open it, and make one of the enchantments a "permanent" one that transforms it into a building just like the one you wanted to enchant. Drop, activate, clean up the old building. And still way ahead in the game, what with all the time you had to actually add enchantments, as opposed to season after season blown opening all those smaller items. (It's not like you were going to run out of spaces!).
Yes, but it might be a project endorsed and financed by a covenant, not a single magus. Realism is a matter for the troupe/saga.
And it will also require 60 pawns of vis to open for enchantment, if not more. I'm giving such a piece of diamond a x4 multiplier, and a base of 15. And then there is the trouble of finding (or making) such a large piece, and the fact that it can be stolen/removed, which granted is also possible with Hermetic Architecture.
I would say that a lab built around a building is more realistic in setting then a public group project based off a Mystery Cult. Your mileage may vary.....
Well, first, the size isn't an issue, a CrTe ritual will make you as much diamond as you need, and you will still be getting vast savings on time and Vis. And the Mystery almost assumes you are using a specialist. A Verditius Elder Rune Specialist can open an item with a hundred spaces, easy (For a specialist)!
But my goal here is not to replace Hermetic Architecture, it is to point out how "unfinished" it seems. The "Major Hermetic Architecture" we talked about seems the logical endpoint to make the mystery actually useful......
I don't disagree that it seems unfinished, as presented it was one virtue. The biggest obstacle to me is the time investment involved. X devices, taking at least two seasons to make. Might take more than that if the effect level is greater than half the lab total and also if more than one effect is desired. Time is the magus' most valuable resource. But consider tha Hermetic Architecture addresses this because the items can be created by others following a lab text, dividing the work among many. The architect need only prepare the items for enchantment and perform the final spell necessary to unite the items. Certainly not out of the realms of possibility for. Verditius, which this virtue seems to be geared towards.
I suppose that is the next question. What, in the worked example earlier, actually requires that it be Jim doing it, and what can he delegate? It seems that opening the items and enchanting the effects into the items might be something that could be delegated and that only the ritual to bring them together really requires hermetic architecture. In which case the whole effort might be much easier to do with a dedicated group. One very powerful magus (Jim for instance) with a team of lab helpers does the initial enchantment and then passes on the lab text to his fellow mages to produce the rest of the enchantments and Jim then retires for a few years while they produce the enchanted wands. Once he has all the devices, he spends a day or two setting them in place and casting the ritual.
Ah, if only it actually saved time, as opposed to just spreading around the cost, at an enormous increase in the amount of Vis needed. As it is, it seems only to be useful as a kind of "Manhattan Project", where a bunch of mages need to enchant a building before the war gets to them. Not that they will be able to do so, because it's a secret Mystery Cult thing.....
The Mystic Fraternity od Samos (TMRE p.126ff) is a rather public Cult, able to provide masters for public projects.
The Architect can indeed farm out opening the Compound Component Devices to dedicated specialists, typically Verditii. See also TMRE p.98 box. I first saw
, but this is a very plausible and significant improvement:
AFAICS, to make use of Hermetic Architecture - as is - in a campaign, you should find existing places of great magical interest and adapt these for specific uses by the OoH, or by a powerful group within it:
temples to covenants,
regios to last stand defense sites of entire Tribunals, Houses or Mystery Cults,
historical sites of the OoH to Tribunal or Cult meeting places,
caverns to huge, prestigious labs,
mountain passes to castles of the OoH, guarding secluded valleys
and so on.
Working on such tasks is a vast story in itself, not a ho-hum lab project to quickly discharge.
For player characters it starts often enough with finding and scouting a site.
For political figures defining the project, building support for it, and gathering the resources, can involve work on several Tribunals.
For an Hermetic Architect the first concern might be to preserve existing unique Magic, Faerie - or even Divine - features, around which even a master cannot build a lab.
Cheers
EDIT: I imagine a saying among (TMRE p.128f) Mathematikoi: "around that you can build a lab". It means, that something is relatively simple, well circumscribed and not worth their further time and attention.
If you're initiated in Faerie Magic, you can increase that total, so long as the amount you're using over your (MT2) is Faerie vis. I can't recall if it's (FM2) or just (FM), but it's a way to push your maximum total vis available in a season for less of an XP investment.
