Finally roused myself to do the mountain shading, which I always find to be one of the most tedious steps for me. Also added: rivers, lakes and ocean coloration (including the lovely waters around that island no one wants to go near...). I think the colors I've chosen for water overall help with the darkish tone I was going for with this one.
Additionally, I've marked cities - the large diamonds are capital cities while the circles are other major cities. Elion is big enough I'm only marking the big or otherwise particularly notable ones at all. Labels are to come, which will help with putting the names I've mentioned previously to places where that hasn't already been hinted at.
### Latest WIP ###
Elion-4.jpg
Things I've to add next: notable roads, kingdom borders, sites of note that aren't cities, and labels, the latter to include coats of arms because why would one map a medieval world without taking the opportunity to make some of those. I'll also need to add some black cloudiness to reflect the Darkness on the northern land edge of Elion.
The city markers are all silver-ish because silver is somewhat of a big deal in Elion - ignoring any concerns of material wealth it interacts in varying ways with some of the myriad necromantic traditions practiced on the continent. Often that interaction is harmful to the undead; it isn't a surprise that silver is thus a material of interest and import (it's even tightly controlled in a number of Elionese kingdoms).
That mention of 'necromantic traditions practiced on the continent' is actually relevant. The inhabited southern island (the one closer to the mainland that doesn't come with its own implicit neon warning sign on the map), is home to the Kingdom of Torventhal which is remarkable for wholly rejecting all forms of necromancy, including prohibiting all undead or 'practicing necromancers' (a rather varyingly-defined legality in practice) from setting foot upon its shores. Needless to say this attitude hasn't won the kingdom any friends from its continental neighbors, but the instances where this has escalated to armed conflict the island has proven too tough a nut to crack for invaders. Its nearest neighbors - Medorjnsy and Symurth - begrudgingly engage in trade with it anyways, most of the time, in part as this serves as motivation for Torventhal to reign in its many sailors of well-known skill from engaging in too much privateering. The position of the island between the Lithan Sea in the west and the Vlochen Sea to the northeast gives it a disproportionate ability to influence sea trade, (which none of the continental powers are all that happy with) which has prevented its strained interaction with other lands from stifling its progress and economy as much as might otherwise have been the case.
