I was directed to Cartographers' Guild when I posted this question over at AskMetafilter and got some great leads; I'm asking y'all directly in hopes that the collective expertise here can shed even more light. Many thanks for your time and your experience.

I write a blog about very large maps. I'm strong on the "maps" part; weak as a kitten on the "RPG/Fantasy/MMO" part. I'd like to find some high-quality, innovative, significant examples of fantasy cartography to write about, but I'm at a loss for where to start; so I'd like the opinions and guidance of connoisseurs of this mapping idiom, first.

I've had to wade through quite a bit of crap, honestly, to find the few gems I've found so far. I'm not sure where to look, and it doesn't help that I'm not sure exactly what it is I'm looking for.

Notionally, the maps I'm seeking would score high in the following ways:
  • maps exhibiting tremendous skill, effort, and craft on the part of the mapmaker.
  • maps thought to have very high significance or import to a particular genre or canon (as agreed upon by large segments of the community)
  • maps at least somewhat interesting to a layman, and having fairly broad appeal (not saying that it has to be white-bread or anything... just that it should be benign or inclusive towards those unfamiliar with RPG tropes, rather than excluding them, outright)

For different reasons, it'd also be great if:
  • the maps could be obtained at very large pixel dimensions -- we're talking minimum 3,000px × 3,000px, but preferably larger.
  • the mapmaker could be contacted about giving his/her permission to use the map and/or the map is in the public domain. (A hard-and-fast rule of mine).

Many thanks for your expertise and your answers. I look forward to researching further.