Fantasy World (for a D&D campaign)

[Zaianya]

This is not finished (there are things I'm not super happy with), but I'm having a conundrum and wanted some thoughts.

Essentially, Ingvald (the eastern territory) is supposed to be a cold land on steppes. But I can't quite figure out how to depict that--the slight elevation, I mean. Any thoughts on that (or anything else) would be appreciated!

[CharlesRobinson]

A think that part of the problem is: why would this terrain develop into a steppe?
Steppe's are dry grasslands where few trees grow.
The trees grow along rivers and around lakes.
With the land bordering on the sea and have no mountains to block weather systems, it would most likely end up being Taiga Biome (Heavy Forests).
The traditional terrain that would create a steppe is not present, hence the ability to make it look like one.
In my world, there are mountains on both the north, west, and south sides of the steppe, with few rivers through it and hills & cliffs along the east showing a drop in altitude from the steppe.
So the question is why a steppe would exist here?

[Zaianya]

Sadly, I don't control the terrain--I'm not the DM--I just do the mapping as we play. It's been a headache and a half, I can tell you (these people LOVE to slap rivers down willy-nilly).

Here's the newest version, still in progress. They decided they wanted a mountain range there, so whew.

DnD5ed_Map_MONOCHROME_v3.51.jpg

EDIT: Thank you, by the way, for taking time to explain the terrain. I always value that kind of input!