Absolutely not. Spellcasting is incredibly complicated and a spell cannot be transcribed onto a page of sheet music. Each pipe only has volume as its single axis to communicate information, and what a Wizard is doing with magic when they are casting a spell is far too complicated to fit into a single dimension of data.
I know this is not what you meant, (and doesn't fit this setting), but my mind immediately thought: "Of course a single instrument isn't enough. You need an entire orchestra."
Good ol' survivorship bias.
Personally I think the Runic Inductor would make a solid choice for a simpler "mass-production" model, whether that be a standard leyline model or the portable-riverine-spirit model people have been kicking around - the drawback relative to the Stone Flower is that if you have 1) multiple winds present 2) in high quantities, some additional Dhar gets created. But I think that's not a huge problem compared to the benefit of "you don't need High Magic to make every single one" -- while runesmiths aren't exactly commonplace, ones capable of the Runic Inductor (
which Thorek literally described as Apprentice work) are nonetheless thicker on the ground than High Mages. I think the Stone Flower was a good choice for a model designed in part to impress the hell out of everyone, matching and in some ways exceeding the Golden Age's capabilities, but different tasks suggest different design parameters.
I agree that the Runic Inductor is a solid choice, (especially for a boat-model,) but I believe what
@mathymancer was attempting to get at was that the Collegiate Fascis may have its own advantage. Our current, (still-unnamed) waystone design has the following:
Advantages:
Dual Transmission - Leyline + Riverine
Iterative Improvements - Storage Mechanism
No Visible Precious Metals
The dual transmission means that if the leyline connection is severed, it will still send the magic through the river, thus avoiding the
Dhar buildup that is a major flaw of old waystone designs.
For a leyline-only Waystone, the Collegiate Fascis offers a similar advantage: If the leyline connection is severed, the waystone turns off. It
also avoids the major disadvantage of older waystones that turns them into ready-made
Dhar generators.
The counterargumenst against this were 1. You want waystones to continue functioning when separated from the network. (I find this dubious due to the many cases of sabotaged waystones.) And 2. The Collegiate Fascis would somehow be less effective than the other two options. But this isn't supported by the text, which seems to show all three options being equally viable for their main function:
The first is the Collegiate Fascis, your own invention, which involves eight rods bearing simple enchantments around a conductive core. While this has minimal material costs and could be replicated by just about any Wind-based enchanter, eight separate enchantments is a substantial amount of effort, and it was built under the assumption of a connection to the Waystone Network and will not function without it.
The second is the Stone Flower designed by the Grey Lords Elrithish and Seilph, consisting of a single simple enchantment on carved stone that absorbs and relays energies exactly as needed. The only problem is that it is a product of High Magic, and as such can only be made by a small number of highly skilled Mages from Laurelorn or Ulthuan.
Finally there is the Runic Inductor, Thorek's design incorporating two simple Runes, one of which he rediscovered. While very simple and cheap to make, it is also a very basic instrument, simply absorbing and transmitting energy without regard for the consequences of them intermingling. Most of the time the Winds' tendency to naturally repel each other would be sufficient to prevent the creation of Dhar, but when multiple Winds are present in large amounts and being absorbed by a Waystone incorporating this component, more of it would be transmitted downstream as Dhar than would be the case for the other two components.
[ ] [CAPSTONE] Collegiate Fascis
Requires a Wind-based Wizard. Moderately difficult, low cost. Requires a connection to the Waystone network.
[ ] [CAPSTONE] Stone Flower
Requires High Magic. Simple, negligible cost.
[ ] [CAPSTONE] Runic Inductor
Requires a Runesmith. Simple, negligible cost. Will result in more Dhar and less of the other Winds when large amounts of multiple Winds are present.
Basically, when considering the two options for a leyline-only waystone, I see the comparrison as the following:
Collegiate Fascis
+Doesn't require limited High Magic casters.
+Automatically turns off if the connection is severed.
-More expensive.
Runic Inductor
+Doesn't require limited High Magic casters.
+Cheaper.
-Creates more
Dhar in high wind conditions.
Notably, the Runic Inductor may create more
Dhar if the waystone is deliberately sabotaged. Possibly not a problem given the locations we want to deploy them to, but still. I really like the idea of creating multiple waystones that deliberately fix the major flaw of the waystones created by all those ancient, legendary, but not-so-flawless mages.
