[WIP] Fanid and the whole imaginary continent

[nill]

Hello!
So, these are my first ventures in cartography. Other than drawing fantasy lands in notebooks as a kid, that is.

I have started with this continent and developed some regions and countries, along with some topography like mountains and forests, grasslands and deserts. I used many resources from members of this site (thank you very much). But I couldn't really get something to be satisfied. I reckon it needs practice.

So I decided I'll leave continent as it is and develop just one land. Fanid was the last land I thought I'll do, because when I started I was concentrating on Oliria mostly. But somehow I thought that it would be to big for a beginner to get something good, so I decided that Fanid was better because it would be smaller and with less different elements.

Fanid is the land on the north of the continent. Eastern part of the land is a vast and unfriendly desert almost impossible to cross. Dry rocky hills and highlands surround an endless sea of sand and all that wasteland is inhabited only by several tribes of desert folk that dwell in few oasis scattered through the desert. They are the only people that go across the desert with their caravans.

Western part of the country is a fertile river valley. Three large rivers flow from the mountains and join into one river that floods the fields and provide fertile lands and three harvests a year. The river forms a delta with marshlands surrounding it. In the higher lands and around the upper part of the rivers there are dense forests of Fanid cedar, the most esteemed wood on the continent, that Fanid's people export with their ships too almost every other land.

Other than agriculture and timber industry, Fanid people have herds of cattle, goats and sheep that roam through arid areas on the edge of the deserts and mountains are also mines of mineral deposits.

Under the reign of Fanid's khagan are also two large island on which are rich plantations and large herds of sheep and goats.


That's enough story for now. I still need to add towns and location names to Fanid map. Suggestions are welcome as well as critique and advices.

P.S. I would love to attach pics as thumbnails, but I don't know how. (unless I upload them on photobucket ) Maybe someone could tell me how, or a moderator could do it?
P.P.S. Oh I see that it is done automatically!

[tilt]

nice start... the mountains in the region map could perhaps be a bit more textured and edgy and the rivers even more tapered at the end

[nill]

Thanks for the comment. I think that I see what do you mean about the mountains. That was the best that I could get at the time. I'll try to make some peaks and ridges somehow, although I don't know how right now.

About the river ends, do you mean river shores or mouths? Probably shores. I'm not happy with them at all and I'll try to fix them and maybe lower them slightly using emboss effect.

Thanks again for the comment and advice!

[tilt]

I mean the beginning of the river