[WIP] Vestraad - Single Continent from Homebrew D&D World Map

[RidleyofZebes]

Well, Here we are. My first map done completely in PhotoShop. (Okay, well, it began as a sketch on a cardboard box lid that I lost, but whatever.)

This is Vestraad, the base for a homebrew D&D Campaign I'm putting together as well as a small collection of short stories and lore.

I've developed a pretty neat style of doing this using PhotoShop's blending options, which I had ignored up to this point. Part of the land shaping was done using a nifty little tutorial I found on Youtube.

I like where it's headed, but I'm still pretty fuzzy on a lot of things like where to place cities and roads organically without making a massive spiderweb, and where to put certain types of terrain like deserts, swamps, and other, more interesting things. All the features on the map right now I felt were safe, as in there's more I want to do with it but am slightly scared to. I'm going to be getting into more of it as time goes on, but I have enough of a base to get things started for my players at this point.

I know for sure there should probably be some more cities in the Viridian Planes area because, you know, farmland and stuff. Again though, there's that spiderweb of roads that I'm trying to avoid.

Also, this is the northeastern continent of the 3 I have planned. This is kind of like a more fertile Russia, I guess.

EDIT: After some much appreciated feedback, I've rendered a sort of 2.0 version of the map. Here it is, with changes:

Vestraad_latest.png

Thank you guys! I want to ask again if anyone is still watching this thread, what could be made better about the landmass? The way rivers flow, the positions of mountains, deserts, and forests? Even the way the towns, cities, and roads are arranged? I'm looking to make this map better in any way I can manage, especially since this was done by the seat of my pants and there's no way I got it all right the first time. Constructive criticism is welcome! I am loving this community!