My first region map - the Empire of Tel Ordan

[Cyx]

Hey guys, I've been lurking here for a long time now and since I'm finally finishing off the last touches of the D&D world I've had sitting on the back burner for probably over a year now, I've been making some maps! =D I'm trying to make a basic atlas of my world right now, and I've started with the western side of the main explored continent - following this amazing tutorial I've managed to put together this as my first attempt.



Any critiques or comments are particularly welcome... I'm looking to do at least a few more maps in this style, as well as more work on this one =)

Specific things I'm wondering about:

I feel like it looks pretty cluttered with all the little cities scattered all over the place... but I feel like there's not enough detail without them. I wanted to put names in too but I decided against it - how can I make it look decently interesting in the middle without cluttering it so much with cities?

My rivers aren't as distinct as I wanted them to be but making them bigger just makes them look either weird or like little borders. Any recommendations?

For reference, this was made in Photoshop (which I'm not very good at yet =D).

Thanks!