Aha! I see! Well, I maybe didn't come up with the most handsome of solutions perhaps, but this is what I finally came up with that I ended up liking
vmountrivers.jpg
I went twisted and spiney for the mountains. I'm sure someone could make that aesthetically more pleasing, but the basics are there. Rivers the some sort of thing. Unnatural without being totally implausible.
mappaint.jpg
I decided to go big instead of go home. I want to detail every friggin region. It's going to be a long slog, but it'll be worth it. This image is at 25% of the actual size. Mountain shading needs some fixing up and not all the geography is present, but that part feels pretty solid now. Whew! I love love bright colors, and this is overload, but it so fits with my JRPG/ cartoony style I wanted to do. The borders and backgrounds are placeholders for now, so if anyone has suggestions for something neat, let me know.