Mapper on a quest... what makes a map great?

[Salid]

Hi everyone!

Hmmm, according to my profile I've actually somehow been registered here since 2011. I've only recently begun to post, though (namely here).

While I really like the art of mapping, I've never been doing it for the sake of itself. I've seen many maps for novels here, some for boardgames; personally, I always had CRPGs in mind.

So one day I indeed started to make those fantasies real. This map is for this game:



Now while it's definitely more primitive than many of the pieces shown here, I think you still can't deny a certain atmosphere to it. The quest I'm on is thus - what leads to atmosphere? How can you evocate a "sense of wonder"? What, fellow mappers, would be needed to make us wish to wander all these cartographed, but unexplored lands?

(This question is probably better suited to another area of the forum, but as it is what brought me here, I found it appropriate to include.)