Mordarion Map

[onewithnothing]

I've been lurking here for a while, figured I'd make a post at last.
So here's the map I drew for the first prolonged campaign I DM'd. It was sketched in about half an hour and colored in about the same amount of time. Also, what I'm posting is a photo - and a rather poor one at that - of it, so... Yeah.

Things I like about it - The paper itself and the effect it has - it's thick and brown and uneven somehow, communicating the proper mood. The woods, towns and fortress markers came out better than expected. They're clearly identifiable by type and even size of the inhabiting community. The names of the Njordheim cities - I'm especially proud of them. The forests too.

Things I dislike about it - mountains aren't named. Should have written names first, then drawn around them. The eastern lands are part of the Darian Imperium, a name that should have found it's way in the map, being the focus of the world and all. It didn't. Didn't know how or where to put it in order to to NOT obscure landmarks and province names too much, so in the end I didn't. The swamplands at the lower left came out worse than expected - and I had high hopes. Right after coloring the Unsunk Archipelago in the lower right I realized that I hadn't left space to write its name either. Also, the badlands feel... Empty, even for a broken wasteland...

Lessons learned - write the names of landmarks first and don't get ahead of yourself - coloring comes AFTER that. Nordic-sounding names are cool. Naming forest is difficult.