A lot of it will depend on where in Europe you are talking about. The palace of Versailles was a bit later that the ars magica setting (and a palace) but they used large glass windows and mirrors to reflect sunlight along the northern walls to make maximum usage of sunlight. In England (where weather is much cooler) smaller windows are the norm. The Greek Acropolis didn't even use walls- admittedly this was for a temple not a private setting, but a large roof will keep the rain out n a warmer, Mediterranean climate. oil lamps are an alternative, with differing designs and fuel sources offering differing output of light and fuel consumption. A lot of it will come down to what is available locally, unless the redcaps are transporting mundane goods as well as magical. generally speaking in northern climates a fireplace helps to provide both heat and light for a room.
But the idea that there is one single way that things were done for anything in the middle ages is a huge fallacy.
I'm confused. A level 5 Creo Ignem gives you candle light until morning. A new mage can spont that, just using aura and stamina and a below average roll. If it matters, a season studying a creo or ignem summae makes it even easier. If the light coverage isn't good enough, he casts a bunch of them.
Is this more of an entertaining discussion on how something we find trivial (light) was costly in the medieval era, rather than having a concerted look of how it would affect a covenant?
This is true. Any magus can create light spontaneously, but there are a couple of caveats.
- If you rely on this, you will find yourself having to cast the spell also when you are tired, distracted, or stressed, giving you a risk of botching. If you do this on a regular basis, you will botch, over time often enough that the warping is a concern.
- The effect of multiple castings is unclear. The way Lamp w/o flame is described, I would rule that multiple castings do not add, they max instead. CrIg5 of Sun duration is only candlelight. If you want to have better light you need to find a narrative different from the canon spell descriptions.
Indeed. I can't find a reference right now, but I do know that fire in all shapes and forms was often banned from scriptoria altogether, no exceptions made.
Keep in mind that in general you do not want to cast fatiguing spontaneous magic on a regular basis; not because of fatigue, but because even in the best conditions, one casting roll in 100 will botch. Beyond contending with the effects of a botch (an ignem botch when dealing with precious books hmm...) the caster will get a warping point. So, a fatiguing spontaneous spell cast once daily will earn a magus at least 3-4 accidents and 3-4 warping points/year, which is considered a very hefty cost in my sagas.
Now, casting a level 5 spell without fatigue is not that hard. But it does typically require some expertise in the Arts involved, since you need to bring your casting score up to 25.
I just don't see it being a meaningful issue. A summer or autumn covenant would have the cash to buy the candles or lamp oil. Maybe sometime in the past, a magi made a few sun duration candle without flame lesser enchantment item for 1 vis each, for the mages who can't spont light spells.
Like anything, the SG can make it a problem. "It's winter in England, without reasonable light you get lab penalties". Then the magi work around it.
An important distinction is do sponts round up or down. Ars Majica usually rounds up, so I think a 21 is needed not 25. With that in mind, a personal Eyes of the cat is level 4, so that would need Muto Corpus of 16. Same with a sun duration Moonbeam. If they are truly desperate, a ring duration moonbeam is level 3 and would need an 11. It's tedious casting a non fatiguing light spell every 2 minutes, but as someone mentioned, better thank botching on average 3 times a year.
Also, learning a level 10 creo ignem formulaic spell isn't hard if it comes to needing that. The core rule book doesn't have a sun duration light spell, however, it's clearly needed, so I assume it's in another book somewhere.
Absolutely, but lighting makes an impact on the finances. It takes silver away from other things, and the Summer/Autumn covenant has to pay attention to keep up their income. If they don't they fade into Winter.
If you make a dozen magic candles, they are not necessarily used in the lab or library. They can cut costs by replacing the light used anywhere in the covenant, even by the grogs, and it is probably a very common utility for that reason. A Level 9-10 candle probably will not save you a full pound per year, but maybe £½ in running costs, and serious reduced risk of fires, and they can easily be made in large quantities.
That's a very good point. Logically, a Winter season is not a effective for work as a Summer season, and the difference is greater the further North you go. In Loch Leglean, the difference would be quite substantial, but it is left out the studying rules, the lab rules, and the labour rules [C&G]. It is relevant to all of those.
Now, I am not arguing that we need more complicated rules, but the observation is interesting.
It does not say you round, so there is no reason to round at all. If your score is 21 you make level 4.2, which is arguably better than Level 4 in some subtle way, but it is short of Level 5. Score 24 gives 4.8 which is also short of Level 5. I think RAW is clear on this point. Don't round if there is no compelling reason to do so.