I believe "dead tree form" is a book, but I am just guessing. I really like the fact that you have thought about geomorphology in the context of your land-forms. I would suggest trying to keep that in mind as well when political boundaries are generated.

I think you are dead on about the Hi-res first thing. You may even want to break the map into tiles so you can really res it up. I look forward to seeing this one progress.