Scene cadence (Pentad signs)

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The pentad sign maps a scene into five-force space. Each sign is the high/low configuration of Fate, World, System, Theme, and Causality at that moment. The 32 signs, not the older three-force cube corners, are the states of scene cadence.

The first three bits still place a sign in one of eight stored-force families. This is a compact projection for colour, comparison, and sparse-data backoff; it is not a smaller ontology and it is not the Markov state.

The eight sign families

Key	Name	Forces	Description
HHH	Epoch	P↑ C↑ K↑	Everything converges — threads resolve, characters transform, and the world's rules expand. A defining moment that reshapes the domain landscape.
HHL	Climax	P↑ C↑ K↓	Threads resolve and characters transform within established world rules. The payoff of what's already been built — no new lore needed.
HLH	Revelation	P↑ C↓ K↑	Threads pay off through world-building. The world's rules explain why things happened — lore unlocks resolution without personal transformation.
HLL	Closure	P↑ C↓ K↓	Quiet resolution within established world rules. Tying up loose ends — conversations that needed to happen, debts paid, promises kept or broken.
LHH	Discovery	P↓ C↑ K↑	Characters transform through encountering new world systems. No threads resolve — pure exploration, world-building, and possibility.
LHL	Growth	P↓ C↑ K↓	Internal character development within established world rules. Characters train, bond, argue, and change through interaction — no new lore.
LLH	Lore	P↓ C↓ K↑	Pure world-building without resolution or transformation. Establishing rules, systems, cultures, and connections for future payoff. Seeds planted in the world's structure.
LLL	Rest	P↓ C↓ K↓	Nothing resolves, no one transforms, no new world concepts. Recovery and breathing room — quiet character deliveries and seed-planting.

Theme then supplies the sign's register (Literal or Resonant) and Causality its bearing (Open or Fated), producing four signs inside each family. Scene generation samples independent per-force momentum transitions; the selected sign remains a compact target for all five forces.

The built-in matrix is a product of independent per-force momentum factors: each force is likelier to hold its sign than flip, with no presumed coupling between forces. Record-specific lagged couplings are measured from observed scenes and remain descriptive rather than a generation prior.