Interesting. I am mixed on the Google Earth idea. On the one hand, it seems like a nicely flexible way to add future detail. On the other hand, I'm not sure that I want to be at the mercy of Google. I haven't used Google Earth very often, so I should probably take a closer look at the software. I didn't realize it could be used with different maps.

Good questions about the level of detail. You're right that you won't find distilled geographic detail on the site. Instead, those details are bound up in things like histories and nation pages. I don't really expect someone to mine for those. I will summarize the important details by region. What sort of details am I talking about? Most of the political borders lie on rivers. The borders as they are currently drawn are approximations and don't look realistic if they are rivers. There probably needs to be additional drainage, which I would leave up to the artist's discretion. There are some very large lakes on the map. I would leave others again to the artist, as those will likely be connected with adding rivers. Where I have a brown blob that represents a mountain range, I would expect that to be broken down into more realistic areas of higher and lower elevation. For example, the great mountain blob in the middle of the map is the Great Durnai Range. A line of tall peaks named the Aptec Divide runs northeast to southwest through this range and some of the peaks in this region are truly huge - extending above the level of breathable air. The page for each nation in the wiki lists the highest elevation in the Highlights section, which should help to give some indication of what sort of mountains are found there. In most cases, I haven't decided just where that highest peak lies - I just know it is somewhere in that blob of mountains. I'd expect forests to be broken up a bit more realistically. But, again, a lot of the details are up to the artist, so long as they fit within the overall regions that I have established.

Here is an example of some geographical details for a region:
http://maragtorok.com/wiki/index.php...mpire#The_Land

These sorts of broad details are available for several of the larger and more influential nations, but that only covers a fraction of the world.

I've had a hard time finding maps that are exactly what I am looking for, probably due to the blending of geographical and political features. It is important to me to have clearly defined political borders. Some maps that focus on the geographical features will simply place names and leave the viewer to figure out about where the borders must be based on land features. I like something more clear cut. I've picked the examples above because they do a good job at making it clear where the physical features are without making it difficult to see borders and cities.

With GE, if I recall, you can turn borders on and off, which I could see being a very useful feature.