What are the Foundations (Pet)?

They are the five palaces that still describe an animal which owns nothing, earns nothing and cannot move house — Bloodline & Luck, Home & Safe Ground, Play & Purpose, Body & Vitality, Territory & Treats. The grouping is not invented for animals: it is the same three-way split the twelve palaces are always read under, with the names put into the register an animal lives in.

Why are there 5 palaces under Foundation and not four each?

Because the three groups are uneven by construction. Two of the twelve describe the animal itself, and the remaining ten split evenly between its relationships and the practical shape of its life. Dividing them into three fours would have meant moving a palace somewhere it does not belong for the sake of a tidy number.

When does a pet reach the Foundations (Pet)?

At Bond Level 3, which is one rung later than a person reaches the same palaces. An animal's first two rungs are spent on species and breed, and then on birth year and gender — so the hour that actually casts a chart is the last thing it gets rather than the first. These twelve are also the last free reading a pet produces: there is no Soul rung for an animal.

Where is the human version of the Foundations (Pet)?

At the foundation lens under the twelve palaces, which reads the same group for a person — careers, marriages, property and money, none of which an animal has. Both pages link each other. If you keep charts for yourself and for an animal, reading the pair is the fastest way to see what the rename is actually doing.

Twelve palaces, read for an animal

Foundations (Pet)

Palaces: 5 of twelve
Covers: Territory, Drive, Body, Home
Read at: Bond Level 3
Human version: foundation

The Foundations (Pet) are the five palaces that still describe an animal which owns nothing, earns nothing and cannot move house. They are the same 5 cells of the same cast chart a person's foundation palaces are read from, named for the life an animal is actually living.

The 5 under Foundation

Bloodline & Luck

genetics and eight weeks, decided by strangers the keeper will never meet

A person inherits a story as well as a body — a family they can question, a version of where they came from that can be retold and rebuilt.

Home & Safe Ground

an animal cannot choose where it lives or leave it; all it can do is claim a corner

Choosing where to live is the largest decision most people make about their own comfort, and an animal makes none of it.

Play & Purpose

work nobody is watching and nobody promotes — and where the drive goes when there is none

Take away a person's job and they lose standing, income and a way of describing themselves.

Body & Vitality

constitution, and the concealment over it — an animal cannot report, and most species hide illness

Every human reading of a body starts with somebody able to say where it hurts.

Territory & Treats

possession without ownership, which is why this palace reads as guarding rather than as greed

Nothing an animal has is legally its own.

Where breed starts to matter more than palace

These five are the practical palaces — territory, work, home, body and what was inherited — and they are the five where breed does more of the explaining than the chart does. A working line needs a job whatever its birth hour says; a flat-faced breed has a body reading no palace overrides.

So read these five alongside the breed rather than instead of it. The seven species and 140 breeds each carry their own energy, temperament and bond tip, and where the two disagree the breed is usually describing the body and the palace is describing the animal.

The other two groups

Inner & Outer Persona (Pet)

2 palaces

The Animal, Home and Outside.

Relationships (Pet)

5 palaces

Keeper, Housemates and Kin.

All twelve, with the rename table beside them, are on the pet palaces index.

Frequently asked

What are the Foundations (Pet)?: They are the five palaces that still describe an animal which owns nothing, earns nothing and cannot move house — Bloodline & Luck, Home & Safe Ground, Play & Purpose, Body & Vitality, Territory & Treats. The grouping is not invented for animals: it is the same three-way split the twelve palaces are always read under, with the names put into the register an animal lives in.
Why are there 5 palaces under Foundation and not four each?: Because the three groups are uneven by construction. Two of the twelve describe the animal itself, and the remaining ten split evenly between its relationships and the practical shape of its life. Dividing them into three fours would have meant moving a palace somewhere it does not belong for the sake of a tidy number.
When does a pet reach the Foundations (Pet)?: At Bond Level 3, which is one rung later than a person reaches the same palaces. An animal's first two rungs are spent on species and breed, and then on birth year and gender — so the hour that actually casts a chart is the last thing it gets rather than the first. These twelve are also the last free reading a pet produces: there is no Soul rung for an animal.
Where is the human version of the Foundations (Pet)?: At the foundation lens under the twelve palaces, which reads the same group for a person — careers, marriages, property and money, none of which an animal has. Both pages link each other. If you keep charts for yourself and for an animal, reading the pair is the fastest way to see what the rename is actually doing.

Seat your animal on the board with its hour, day and month of birth, and all twelve palaces are cast from its own chart rather than looked up.

Open the Bonding Map