The Ara Vitae is a marvel, but even a devoted Vitaemancer tires of standing vigil over every slate. Fortunately, the altar accepts mechanical servants; items and Essentia Vitae can be piped in and out.
The basin holds a single item at a time. A simple Hopper feeds them in one by one, and the altar
transmutes each in turn, drawing Essentia Vitae as it works. Keep the basin supplied with essence and it labors without pause.
The altar makes no distinction between input and output. Without a filter, items will cycle in and out as fast as your transfer system allows. The Routing Nodes may serve you well here.
The altar also permits the transfer of Essentia Vitae to and from external tanks. Connect your fluid conduit of choice and you can stockpile excess essence for later workings.
The flow is sluggish by default. Acceleration Runes quicken the altar's pulse, while Displacement Runes widen the channel through which essence flows.
Remember: the Essentia Vitae piped in or out does not come directly from the altar's main basin. A hidden secondary reservoir, holding up to 10%% of the altar's total capacity, acts as the intermediary. If essence seems to vanish from the basin without explanation, or the numbers never quite add up, this phantom vessel is the culprit.
A comparator placed beside the Ara Vitae reads the level of Essentia Vitae within, much like a chest.
Place a Blood Stained Glass block directly beneath the altar, and the comparator instead reads the Anima of whoever owns the orb resting in the altar's basin. The signal strength scales to the orb's tier, not the maximum capacity of the network.
For example, 500,000 EV would register as overflowing through a Weak Novicius Orb, but only half-strength through a Magus Orb. Clever use of this lets you shut down costly rituals before your Anima runs dry.
When the orb is bound to a team via NeoVitae Teams, the comparator reads the team's pooled Anima automatically; no special setup is needed.
Place a Redstone Lamp beneath the altar and it will emit a redstone pulse the instant a transmutation completes, useful for chained automation.