What is Time Analysis?

A reading of how a life is turning, across five nested scales at five different rates: a ten-year Stage, a year, a lunar month, a day, and a two-hour window. Each names one of the twelve life domains as its focus and gives the period a verdict. They sit inside one another, so a day is read against the month, year and decade containing it rather than on its own.

Do the five scales turn over at the same time?

No, and no two of them share a boundary. Stage: 1 january of the year you reach the boundary age. Year: 1 january, on the ordinary calendar. Month: the new moon, at your own timezone. Day: two boundaries at once — one lunar, one civil. Hour: every two hours, the first window opening at 23:00. The one most often assumed wrong is the year, which turns on 1 January and not at the lunar new year — the lunar new year moves which community a birth year belongs to, and it does not move this.

Why does the board show a smaller scale inside a larger one?

Because a reading at one scale means something different depending on what contains it. A strong year inside a difficult decade is not the same year as the same reading inside an easy one. The board also marks where consecutive scales agree — pointing at the same domain, or falling under the same theme — because agreement across two or three scales is the signal that a period is about one thing rather than several.

What does Time Analysis cost?

The Stage, Year, Month and Day readings are free once a seat reaches Soul Bonding, the top rung of the Bond Level ladder — which for your own seat costs nothing but filling it in. The twelve two-hour windows are the exception: each is unlocked separately for 300 Karma Credits, and one unlock opens that window in both Time Analysis and the Fate Calendar.

Soul Bonding · Time Analysis

The five scales a life turns on

Scales: Five, nested
Shortest: Two hours
Longest: Ten years
Each one names: A life domain, and a verdict
Read at: Soul Bonding

Almost everything else this app reads is fixed at birth. Time Analysis is not. It reads how a life is turning, and it does so at five different rates at once — a ten-year Stage, a year, a lunar month, a day, and a two-hour window. Each of the five picks one of the twelve life domains as its focus and gives the period a verdict.

The five nest, and that is the part worth understanding before any of the rest. A day sits inside a month inside a year inside a decade, so no scale is read alone: the same day is a different day depending on what contains it. What the board does that a page cannot is work out which domain each scale points at in one particular life. What these pages can do is explain what the five scales are, how long each lasts, and — the part most often assumed wrong — where each one actually turns over.

The five scales

Stage

Ten years · A graded decade

The longest reading the board produces, and the only one measured in ages rather than dates.

Year

One year · A tone

The scale most people mean when they ask what a year holds.

Month

One lunar month · A tone, and one written instruction

The scale that answers what the next few weeks are for.

Day

One day · A tone, a posture and a score

The shortest scale a person can plan around, and the only one that comes with both a number and an instruction.

Hour

Two hours · A standing and an action

The finest reading the board produces and the only one that is not free.

Where each scale turns over

No two of the five share a boundary, and only one of them turns over where a reader would guess. This is the single most useful table on these pages, because almost every misreading of a time layer starts with looking at the wrong period.

Scale	How long	Turns over on	What it returns
Stage	Ten years	1 January of the year you reach the boundary age	A graded decade
Year	One year	1 January, on the ordinary calendar	A tone
Month	One lunar month	The new moon, at your own timezone	A tone, and one written instruction
Day	One day	Two boundaries at once — one lunar, one civil	A tone, a posture and a score
Hour	Two hours	Every two hours, the first window opening at 23:00	A standing and an action

The year is the row people get wrong. It turns on 1 January, on the ordinary calendar — the lunar new year moves which community a birth year belongs to, and it does not move this. Those are two different questions about the same number.

Why the scales nest, and what it means when two agree

The board does not show one scale at a time, because a reading at one rate means something different depending on what contains it. A strong year inside a difficult decade is not the same year as the same reading inside an easy one, and a difficult day inside a good month is an inconvenience rather than a warning.

What the board also marks is agreement. When two scales next to each other point at the same domain — or fall under the same theme — it draws the connection between them, and the longer that run of agreement is, the stronger it shows. That is the actual signal in a time reading: not any single scale's verdict, but a period where several rates are pointing at one part of a life at once. A decade, a year and a month all pointing at the same domain is a very different thing from a day doing it on its own.

What every scale names: a domain, and a theme

All five scales answer the same two questions in different spans. The first is which of the twelve life domains the period is about — the same twelve the palaces family covers, each with its own page. The second is which of four broader themes that domain belongs to, which is what lets two scales agree at a coarser level than the domain itself.

Core Identity — periods governed by who a person is, what they do, and what they hold. Inner Persona · Career · Wealth
Interpersonal Network — the vertical relationships — authority above, peers alongside, juniors below. Parent · Associate · Successor
Social Relation — origin, public face and partnership — how a life meets the world. Genesis · Outer Persona · Romance
Security & Vulnerability — the containers a life sits in — body, home and blood ties. Property · Health · Sibling

The four themes are explained in full on the Persona palace hub, where they turn out to be the same four groupings the palace ring already makes. These pages name them and link them rather than explaining them twice.

Frequently asked

What is Time Analysis?: A reading of how a life is turning, across five nested scales at five different rates: a ten-year Stage, a year, a lunar month, a day, and a two-hour window. Each names one of the twelve life domains as its focus and gives the period a verdict. They sit inside one another, so a day is read against the month, year and decade containing it rather than on its own.
Do the five scales turn over at the same time?: No, and no two of them share a boundary. Stage: 1 january of the year you reach the boundary age. Year: 1 january, on the ordinary calendar. Month: the new moon, at your own timezone. Day: two boundaries at once — one lunar, one civil. Hour: every two hours, the first window opening at 23:00. The one most often assumed wrong is the year, which turns on 1 January and not at the lunar new year — the lunar new year moves which community a birth year belongs to, and it does not move this.
Why does the board show a smaller scale inside a larger one?: Because a reading at one scale means something different depending on what contains it. A strong year inside a difficult decade is not the same year as the same reading inside an easy one. The board also marks where consecutive scales agree — pointing at the same domain, or falling under the same theme — because agreement across two or three scales is the signal that a period is about one thing rather than several.
What does Time Analysis cost?: The Stage, Year, Month and Day readings are free once a seat reaches Soul Bonding, the top rung of the Bond Level ladder — which for your own seat costs nothing but filling it in. The twelve two-hour windows are the exception: each is unlocked separately for 300 Karma Credits, and one unlock opens that window in both Time Analysis and the Fate Calendar.

Seat yourself on the board and all five scales are read at once, against your own chart rather than in general.

Open the Bonding Map