diff --git a/internal/check-packet-render.mjs b/internal/check-packet-render.mjs
index 766365d92..56c739c50 100644
--- a/internal/check-packet-render.mjs
+++ b/internal/check-packet-render.mjs
@@ -163,9 +163,33 @@ const r = await page.evaluate(() => {
 
   // Whole-map property, NOT one sampled element — see header note 2.
   const mapFaults = (() => {
-    const svg = document.querySelector('.sheet svg')
-    if (!svg) return ['no map svg found']
+    // ⚠ SCOPE TO PAGE 1. This was `document.querySelector('.sheet svg')` — "the first svg
+    // ANYWHERE" — which is a FALLBACK SELECTOR, and a fallback selector turns an absence
+    // into a pass. Measured 2026-09-24: deleting the map svg from page 1 entirely left this
+    // gate reporting "map: palette resolves, not black — PASS, map painted", because the
+    // query silently retargeted to the PRAYER WHEEL's svg two sheets later. The wheel has no
+    // CSS variables to leave unresolved and no black fills, so both checks passed vacuously
+    // while page 1 — "the map one-pager", the first line of the Driver's packet spec — was
+    // blank. The sheet count stayed 8 because the empty sheet still exists.
+    // The packet's page order is the product spec and does not vary: sheet 0 IS the map page.
+    const sheet0 = document.querySelector('.sheet')
+    const svg = sheet0 ? sheet0.querySelector('svg') : null
+    if (!svg) return ['no map svg on page 1 — the map one-pager rendered without its map']
     const faults = []
+    // ⚠ AND ASSERT IT PAINTS GEOGRAPHY. Palette-resolves + not-black are both properties a
+    // map with ZERO country shapes satisfies perfectly. Geography is counted as paths whose
+    // `d` is long enough to be a coastline rather than an icon or a chart tick. MEASURED
+    // across zones: laos 13, brazil 18, middle-east-core 55 — it varies with how many
+    // countries a zone spans, so the floor is well under the smallest rather than an exact
+    // count. Zones whose groups do not resolve are SKIPPED by the generator and never reach
+    // this gate ("europe: no groups resolved — skipped"), so a zero here is a real fault.
+    const geoPaths = [...svg.querySelectorAll('path')]
+      .filter((e) => (e.getAttribute('d') || '').length > 200).length
+    if (geoPaths < 5) {
+      faults.push(`only ${geoPaths} geography path(s) on the map page — the map one-pager is `
+        + 'blank or drew nothing but furniture (a correct palette and no black fills are both '
+        + 'satisfied by a map with no countries on it)')
+    }
     const names = [...new Set((svg.outerHTML.match(/var\((--[a-z0-9-]+)/g) || []).map((v) => v.slice(4)))]
     const cs = getComputedStyle(svg)
     for (const n of names) if (!cs.getPropertyValue(n).trim()) faults.push(`unresolved ${n}`)
@@ -235,6 +259,14 @@ const r = await page.evaluate(() => {
     })(),
     metacamp: (body.match(/metacamp\.org/g) || []).length,
     mapFaults,
+    // Printed beside the verdict: a reader should see the number the assertion rests on,
+    // not just the word "painted".
+    mapGeoPaths: (() => {
+      const sheet0 = document.querySelector('.sheet')
+      const svg = sheet0 ? sheet0.querySelector('svg') : null
+      if (!svg) return -1
+      return [...svg.querySelectorAll('path')].filter((e) => (e.getAttribute('d') || '').length > 200).length
+    })(),
     // The per-page "{from}-{to} of {count}" headers, as DIGIT TRIPLES rather than text.
     // Read from the rendered DOM (not the source template) so what is checked is what a
     // reader would see. Locale digits are normalised to ASCII first: several catalogs
@@ -329,7 +361,24 @@ if (r.points !== POINTS_EXPECT) {
       + 'carries its "12 Prayer Points" heading')
 }
 if (r.metacamp !== 2) fails.push(`${r.metacamp} metacamp.org attributions, expected exactly 2`)
-if (r.mapFaults.length) fails.push(`map: ${r.mapFaults.join('; ')}`)
+// THE MAP PAGE IS OPT-OUT-ABLE, THE SAME WAY THE PHOTOS ARE — and for the same reason.
+// packet.mjs lifts the map from out/posters/<zone>.html and, when that file is absent,
+// deliberately "still builds (cover page without the map) rather than failing". That soft
+// fail is intentional, but it is also INVISIBLE: measured 2026-09-24, a packet built with
+// no poster sources has 8 sheets and an <svg> present (the prayer wheel's) and carries no
+// marker at all, so it is structurally indistinguishable from a good one while page 1
+// promises a map one-pager and delivers an empty sheet. doxa-maps-plugin-studio ships 0
+// poster html files against wt-packet's 28, so every packet generated there is degraded
+// this way and nothing said so.
+// Default to FAILING, so the degradation has to be DECLARED rather than discovered.
+const expectMap = process.env.PACKET_EXPECT_MAP !== '0'
+if (r.mapFaults.length && expectMap) {
+  fails.push(`map: ${r.mapFaults.join('; ')}`
+    + (r.mapGeoPaths === -1
+      ? ' — build the poster sources first (node library/scripts/posters/generate.mjs), or set '
+        + 'PACKET_EXPECT_MAP=0 to declare this a deliberately map-less packet'
+      : ''))
+}
 if (fontStatus.declared && fontStatus.loaded !== fontStatus.declared) {
   fails.push(`a declared @font-face did not load (${fontStatus.names.join(', ')}) — `
     + 'text in that script will print as empty boxes')
@@ -478,7 +527,9 @@ console.log(`  wheel segments   : ${r.wheelSegs}  (${r.wheelLabels}/${WHEEL_LABE
 console.log(`  Mark 5 in full   : ${r.mark5Len} chars`
   + `${scriptureIsEnglish ? '  ⚠ UNTRANSLATED (English fallback)' : ''}`)
 console.log(`  metacamp.org     : ${r.metacamp}`)
-console.log(`  map              : ${r.mapFaults.length ? r.mapFaults.join('; ') : 'palette resolves, not black'}`)
+console.log(`  map (page 1)     : ${r.mapFaults.length
+  ? `${r.mapFaults.join('; ')}${expectMap ? '' : '   [declared deliberate: PACKET_EXPECT_MAP=0]'}`
+  : `${r.mapGeoPaths} geography paths, palette resolves, not black`}`)
 console.log(`  page size        : ${boxes[0] ? boxes[0].join(' x ') : '?'} pt`
   + `${boxes.length ? ` (all ${boxes.length} pages, asserted US Letter)` : ''}`)
 console.log(`  layout           : ${r.cards} cards / ${PER_PAGE} per page `
@@ -494,4 +545,8 @@ if (fails.length) {
   for (const f of fails) console.error(`  - ${f}`)
   process.exit(1)
 }
-console.log(`\nPACKET-RENDER: PASS — ${r.sheets} sheets, ${r.sheets} pages, portrait, map painted, content intact.`)
+// ⚠ THE VERDICT MUST NOT CLAIM MORE THAN WAS CHECKED. It read "map painted" unconditionally,
+// so a packet passing under PACKET_EXPECT_MAP=0 — one with NO map on page 1 — was summarised
+// as having a painted map. The summary line is the part a reader actually quotes.
+console.log(`\nPACKET-RENDER: PASS — ${r.sheets} sheets, ${r.sheets} pages, portrait, `
+  + `${r.mapFaults.length ? 'NO map (declared)' : 'map painted'}, content intact.`)