Fanatsy World Map - Final Stage

[acrosome]

Speaking as a fellow neophyte, yes, you can easily get sucked into the technical side of this mapping stuff (as contrasted with the artistic side). The Wikipedia page on map projections is actually very good. And then you'll get sucked into climatology where, again, the Wikipedia page on Koppen climates is pretty good, though it may not be terribly applicable to you in such a fantastical setting. And Trewartha, which is a modification of Koppen, is probably better. And then there are Holdridge life zones.

Sigh.

I'm quite a bit more of a science/worldbuilding fanboi rather than an artistic mapper, so that's the stuff I geek out about.

Have you considered making your map a small part of a larger Earth-sized world? Then, as long as you know where the lines of latitude are we can give great climate advice. For instance, if you don't want the permanent polar caps involved then make your map run from about 60N to 60S or something. But if your setting is as fantastical as it sounds then the climate gurus here are apt to be less helpful.

Wilbur is awesome, especially for freeware, but it's functionality grew sort of organically rather than being designed from the ground up so some of it has very odd interfaces. Luckily the dev stops by here a lot (Waldronate). He answers questions in the software forum very diligently.