Map of the Twin Kingdoms of Aran and Ilan

[Caenwyr]

Hi there people!

In my previous thread I already showed you a picture of the Twin Kingdoms, though I didn't go any deeper into it at that moment. I believe the time has come for me to show you another iteration of that map.

Perhaps I should start with a little history of the map. After all I've been working on it for several years now (rather uncontinuously, as the novel I'm writing, and the language I'm developing, are taking up much of my spare time already), and the world has undergone quite some change since I first put pen to paper. I won't go very deep into it, I'll just show you some pictures of how it was, ending with the one I posted in the thread referred to above. The images embedded are fairly small, but I've added a link in each title to the full resolution image, so you can zoom in until your head pops off.

iteration 1:


iteration 2:


iteration 3:


iteration 4:


iteration 5:


Though I kinda liked the "topographic" colours of the 4th iteration, I wasn't at all pleased with the topography itself. Iteration 5 was the logical follow-up, this time using Arsheesh's amazing tutorial. Alas the effect still wasn't to my liking, mainly because the rugged coasts in the northwestern corner of the map and the one to the south weren't all that rugged the way I had drawn them.

It was time for another update of the map. And because I didn't want to end up with those silly, oversized pseudofjords anymore, I decided to get my inspiration from the real world. Or to be more exact: from Google Maps. Every stretch of coastline you'll see below, was shamelessly stolen from real-life shores, ensuring the feel of reality. And while I was at it, I decided to draw the mountains again too. And oh, kick the cities around a bit. With new icons of course. And hey, why not throw in some forests too?

So basically I started with the modest ambition of redrawing my shorelines... and ended up redoing the entire map. Oh well, it's not like I have anything better to do, right? Right?

Not right, but I'm sure you're in the same situation when you're bitten by the mapping bug. Time or no time, you HAVE to make that map. And that's what I did. And here, after all this jibber jabber, it is:

geomorphology:


cities and roads:


And here are two possible representations of the political borders: a simple dashed line and coloured outlines.




Which of the two do you like best? And more important even: do you like the look of this iteration at all?