Kharoun - Orientalist Imaginations (Regional-Map WIP)

[Abu Lafia]

Hello everybody,
inspired by Ilanthars attempt to rework an old map (http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=29671), i "gimped-up" an old map of mine (http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=29659) and thought a bit about the region/ world in general.
Kharoun - "Reich des roten Sands" ("empire of the red sands") was born (again...)
The Idea back then was to create a pen & paper setting inspired by the great Artwork of the "blackblood" (Chronopia) by Adrian Smith. A dark-fantasy oriental Ogre/Orc/Goblin empire.

I followed (though not too dogmatic as you'll see ) the great tutorials by arsheesh about Eriond and Mapborders
(the chequerboard-pattern gave me a real nervous-breakdown due to the DIN A3 format ). The cities and agricultural land were mainly inspired by a fantastic set of related regional maps by one of the members of this community, which i couldn't find anymore . Thanks a lot anyways (maybe someone knows the maps?)!
But in the work process i often fell back to the huge amount of amazingly crafted maps and tutorials from the whole commmunity for inspiration and help, so first of all:
Thanks to all of you!
But - despite the many hours i worked on it - the map is still very much "in progress". After long nights of remaking my terrain (wilbur is a very nice programm btw.)
i decided to switch to the "stuff" around the actual terrain and had a lot of fun creating the patterns for the border, doing the shields, etc.

As a noob in Gimp my workflow in general was pretty messy (to much unsaved progress was gone, the overall layer/mask-management killed my toaster,etc.)
but i learned a lot so far and hope to start my next map with a clearer plan in mind.

Some of the things i'm aware of on the unfinished Map:

- Mountains:
well, they are a bit to "thin" and too "flat"... The next days, i'll have a look at how Harrg did his fantastic Mountains on Kronos (http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=29486)

- Rivers:
... i'm on the run from the River-Police ...^^

- Forests, fields and cities:
the final arrangement isn't done yet... i was just testing in general how to make these things

Next thing to be done is a windrose.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, comments and critique...

-Martin