1 idk
2 idk
3 no they are not

thanks. but, 1 should not this information be available?
2 Is there more doc from the vendor that I should have referenced?
3 Are these customized for AHK?

For prosilver:
The topic is blue if there are no unread posts - red when there are.
If you have posted in a topic before the topic receives a *.
The exclamation mark is for sticky topics that stay on top of this forum.
The lock means that this topic is locked and no person is able to reply to it.
The i marks announcements - those can be global or specific to one forum.
The fire icon means that this topic received a lot of activity.

If you mean "boardstyle" under Preferences, that is "ProSilver"

Which design do you use?

There are at least 3 different ICONS that appears in front of a post in the post listings. (An exclamation point, a squiggly 3-pronged thingy, and a text image are the 3 I found). They come in at least two different colors: red and dark blue.

1. what do these mean?

btw. I downloaded the phpBB rhea user's guide. It is an awesomely thorough piece of documentation about the forum structure, use and installation. But, I found nothing about the point (as well as numerous other questions about images in the panels I have yet to ask).

2. Are these customized icons or standard icons (not that it matters, though, since neither is documented in the user guide as to details)?