This paper reports an advanced study of the excited ionic states of the gas-phase nitrogen molecule in the binding-energy region of 22-34 eV, combining ultrahigh-resolution resonant photoemission (RPE) and ab initio configuration-interaction calculations. The RPE spectra are recorded for nine photon energies within the N 1s -> pi* absorption resonance of N-2 by using a photon bandwidth that is considerably smaller than lifetime broadening, and the dependence on excitation energy of the decay spectra is analyzed and used for the first assignment of 12 highly overlapped molecular states. The effect on the RPE profile of avoided curve crossings between the final N-2(+) ionic states is discussed, based on theoretical simulations that account for vibronic coupling, and compared with the experimental data. By use of synchrotron radiation with high spectral brightness, it is possible to selectively promote the molecule to highly excited vibrational sublevels of a core-excited electronic state, thereby controlling the spatial distribution of the vibrational wave packets, and to accurately image the ionic molecular potentials. In addition, the mapping of the vibrational wave functions of the core-excited states using the bound final states with far-from-equilibrium bond lengths has been achieved experimentally for the first time. Theoretical analysis has revealed the rich femtosecond nuclear dynamics underlying the mapping phenomenon. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.3.011017