What a beautiful way of depicting mountains! I very much like the "sunset" colour palette you chose for this map. The figures in the corners are also great and add a lot of character to the map. The border actually doesn't bother me that much. It becomes a bit distracting only when zoomed in, when I can see the individual tiles... Then it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of your work. I'm not sure I like the forests too much. They look too flat to me. But that aside, there is nothing wrong with them, and they fit nicely with the rest of the map. I think that I just do not like this particular style for depicting large areas of forest.
Overall this looks like a great start and a beginning of an awesome map. I'm looking forward to seeing the final piece.