First of all thanks guys I really appreciate your input it's uber helpful.

In terms of fonts you are absolutely right I was just playing around to see if it would make the map more interesting but I really like the idea of italics, bold and caps within the same font style. Can't believe I didn't think of it on my own > but it's a learning process as all of you know I will also address the placement problem in the next try.

The reason I tried to make it darker is because I though it would give it more "authentic"/old feel. The overlay layer didn't come out on the land because of the burn color being too similar to the base color of the land. Dutifully noted I need to play around with parchment textures or land color.

I'm glad jbgibson mentioned rivers. That's something I had troubles with. I loved the idea of putting the lakes on separate layer and outlining them with river color. What do you think of making them simply black coming out of black or dark blue outline (Effects>Stroke)?

In terms of mountains I was going to try the overlay tutorial to see if I can make them more diverse.

Once again thanks for your comments.