The labels are only temporary. I decided that since this is for a game, and placement of each race and their primary area or city matters significantly in the design, I need to place them and map out each region BEFORE doing anything visual to the actual map.
This is the final continent however, so all critiques are welcomed on the continent. Obviously, there are not even rivers in this, but I will most likely have rivers alongside all of the cities, or most of them.
I was quite impressed with my placement of 8 regions, along with the placement of 64 factions that will eventually be in the game (for a total of 256 character choices, once the game is absolutely complete or has many expansions to it to allow them to turn from NPC/Monster to Playable character.)
Here are the regions, open to critique and advice:
The North (Light Blue) - Tundra & Taiga. To the south where it says "Mountains" repeatedly, bordering the gray region, is a wall-like set of mountains. The North is mostly a barren Tundra to the west, and towards the east begins to fill with Taiga, which blends into "The Forest" region (Dark Green color) which is a heavily forested region with both Taiga in the north and normal forests in the majority. The cold environment is actually slanted a bit (think an arrow pointing NORTH WEST) So the NorthWest is actually the coldest, while the east begins to warm up some, which along with the mountains, explains why The North's west side is frozen wasteland, while its east side gets smaller and more forested.
"The Forest" (Dark Green) is magical land, with waterfalls, rivers, lakes full of faeries, and home to the wood elves and underground city of the Gnomes who harvest magical mushrooms which grow from the enchanted soil.
The Iron Kingdom (Gray) is a cold, snowy environment- and extremely mountainous. To the south, is the region "The Hills", so on the border of The Hills (Orange-ish color) are smaller mountains, up until it tapers off into grassland hills. The more north of The Iron Kingdom, the higher the peaks of the mountains. The mountains and rocky terrain cover the majority of The Iron Kingdom, which is rich in Metals & precious, magical stone gems.
The Hills (Orange-ish color) is luxurious farmland, and what is the best land in the continent. Lakes, rivers, and fertile land, it has a lot of hills in the north, and tapers off into plains and flatland in the south. To the east of "The Hills" (Orange) are low mountains, which create The Desert region (White/Pale color). This is mostly desert and oasis.
"Paradise Cove" (white/pale color, just below The Forest) is the world's largest city, and the city of Trade. This is *THE* city to live if you like urban environments. It is a coastal city, and I plan to have a lot of rivers to assist it in having a good reason for being "The City of Trade". This is home to pirates and sailors, among other merchants.
"The Plains" (Pink) is not very developed, but I assume it will be mostly flatland, grassland, and Savannah. To the south, is the "City of Angels" where Angels, Paladins, and Cleric type humans protect its borders from the "HellFire" region (Dark Red). I imagine I will have either mountains or a "Great Wall" on the border, with the City of Angels as a central point, that the church types built to protect from the "Evil City of Demons". The giants/elementals, walls, and mountains are meant to separate or collect Trade into specific areas. Paradise Cove is suppose to be amazing at Trade because it has lush rivers and openings in the mountains to acces the Hills and The Plains, an open sea to access the jungle region and forest region, along with diplomacy with the various races to trade with the Hellfire and Iron Kingdom.
"HellFire Region" (red) is a burnt ash land, volcanoes, and rivers of streaming lava and fire. The creatures which reside are immune to this fire, and either live in volcanoes, or in safer regions such as the human's "City of Madness" which is cooled off some by the ocean. The Minotaurs live in labyrinths underneath the border between the City of Angels and Hellfire region.
Finally, is the "Jungle" region (light green, most southeast). This is thick jungle to the north of it, tropical islands to the east, and marshes to the south.
That is about it, for details on why each region is the way it is, and the big mountains which separate some of the regions.
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