Map key
A theater is a conflict, not a country — the unit this whole map is built on. It can cover several states, or a corner of one. What follows names every mark the map draws.
This is the legend. What the controls do, and how to reach a conflict, is in How to use this map.
Where this comes from
Every event on this map is a reported incident, published one at a time by the editorial desk and carrying the sources it was published on. It is still a reading instrument and not an authority: verification status is on every mark and every row, and a disputed claim stays disputed here.
The glow
The glow marks the zone a theater covers, which can span several states and stop short of all of them — it is never a statement about a government, and a country inside two theaters glows for both.
- CriticalSustained fighting or an active closure.
- HighOpen confrontation, short of the above.
- ModerateStanding tension without regular exchange.
- PeripheralSame level, quieter presence: a zone drawn into the theater rather than at its centre. It is not a lower tension.
The marks
Marks appear as you zoom in. Each one explains, spatially, what happened — there is no generic pin.
- AttackForce applied at a place. Coral, in every composition it appears in.
- MovementForces moving when the medium is not stated.
- Movement · groundArmour or troops overland.
- Movement · airAircraft.
- Movement · navalShips.
- DiplomacyTalks, agreements, recognitions, expulsions.
- Maritime controlA passage closed, restricted or policed — the mark sits on the corridor it governs.
- DevelopmentA nationally scoped development — a leadership change, an official statement or a policy decision — that belongs to a country rather than to a place. The only mark with no colour, and it appears only once a theater is selected, within the period you have chosen.
- AssessmentAn analytical finding or observed effect: military, humanitarian, economic or weapons-related.
What varies, and what it means
One channel, one fact. Everything a mark can do differently is on this list.
| Channel | Says | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | What kind of event | The nine marks above. |
| Colour | What kind of event | The same fact as the shape, repeated for faster scanning. Development remains achromatic because it applies to a country rather than a point in the field. |
| Stroke gaps | How precisely the place is known | Continuous, dashed, dotted. |
| Ring radius | Stated accuracy | Shown when you point to or select an event. It follows the stated location margin, with a minimum visible size; zooming closer never shrinks the declared distance. |
| Size | Importance | Two sizes and never three: major, and everything else. |
| Overall fade | Focus | Marks you are not looking at step back. It is about your attention, never about the event. |
| Offset echo | Events in the same place | An outline and a count, so a stack of five does not read as one. |
What never varies
Worth stating, because the absences are as much a promise as the readings.
- Transparency never means age or confidence. It only steps unrelated marks back while another event is in focus.
- There is no third importance size.
- A location ring appears on focus. A short outline with a count groups events in the same place; neither indicates verification status.
- Nothing is drawn without a source for its geometry. An event whose place cannot be defended is listed but not plotted.
Marks in the event list
Beside each row in the theater events list, at text size.
- MajorThe bars appear on major events only. Every other row carries no importance mark at all — a glyph on every row is not a signal.
- ConfirmedFilled: stood behind by sources.
- ProbableHalf filled: reported, with reservations.
- UnverifiedDotted: claimed, and nobody has stood behind it yet.
- DisputedStruck through: the sources contradict each other.
The curve along the bottom
It measures publishing activity — how much was written about this theater, weighted by importance. It is not a tension reading, and a peak on it means a busy desk, not a worse day.