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Territories, Features, Sites, and Threats

This page owns Valenar's strategic map content taxonomy.

Territory​

A Territory is the strategic map unit.

It is what the player scouts, surveys, claims, designates, connects, and acts within.

A Territory carries:

  • terrain and topology facts
  • knowledge and survey state
  • control, claim, and travel context
  • visible or hinted Features
  • discovered or enterable Sites
  • Threat state attached to the Territory itself or to content inside it

Feature​

A Feature is notable generated or discovered content, sign, or fact inside a Territory.

A Feature explains why a Territory matters before, alongside, or instead of full place access. It can stay a Feature for its whole life, or it can convert into a Site when it becomes enterable, exploitable, defensible, or developed.

Examples include:

  • springs, ore veins, or other resource nodes
  • ruined mill traces, standing stones, or ward clues
  • shrines or ruins that are known but not yet enterable
  • ambush signs, demon tracks, ash fields, or other threat signs (See lore exposure: lh-game1-world-hooks.md — Demon presence row, gate scarring/taint fields row)

Site​

A Site is first-class place content inside a Territory.

A Site is what the player can inspect, enter, exploit, defend, connect, or build around once it becomes discovered, enterable, or developed.

Site wording should stay explicit about state:

  • wild
  • discovered
  • secured
  • active
  • owned
  • developed
  • depleted
  • sealed
  • destroyed

Examples include:

  • mine sites and productive water sites
  • shrine interiors and ward sites
  • restored ruins and strongholds
  • dungeon sites

Feature Reveal And SourceFeatureId​

When a Feature converts to a Site, the Site record carries SourceFeatureId pointing at the originating Feature row. This explicit link preserves provenance and prevents silent mutation of the Feature row into a Site row in a way that loses source history. The field is present on Host/Data/SiteData.cs:11 and is consumed by the Territory Dossier when it explains how a Site was discovered.

Promotion uses explicit Site reveal/promotion with SourceFeatureId set. It is not a mutation of the Feature row's identity; the Feature row remains the source-of-truth record for its provenance information.

Threat​

A Threat is danger, pressure, or hostile presence attached to a Territory, Feature, or Site.

Threat is not a separate place ontology. It describes the dangerous state of a place or sign, not a parallel map object family.

Examples include:

  • corruption or route danger attached to a Territory
  • hostile pressure revealed by a Feature
  • an active dungeon as a Threat Site
  • a Site with linked threats that must be cleared or contained

Dungeon Rule​

Unknown dungeons begin as clues, Features, or threat signs inside a Territory.

Once the player can meaningfully inspect, enter, or exploit them, they are Sites. Active dungeons are either Threat Sites or Sites with linked threats.

Design Rules​

  • Territory is the strategic unit; Feature, Site, and Threat all live inside or attach to that Territory record.
  • Unknown or nonexistent content must not appear as a known row.
  • Resource nodes and ruins can begin as Features and convert into Sites when the world state makes them enterable, exploitable, or developed. The Site carries SourceFeatureId pointing at the originating Feature row.
  • Dungeons do not create a separate top-level map ontology or top-level dungeon tab. They stay aligned with the Territory Dossier and the combat/dungeon surface.
  • Threat language should stay causal. A danger can attach to a Territory, Feature, or Site, but it should not replace the underlying place taxonomy.
  • Settlement designations and district logic consume Territory truth rather than replacing it.