Help required for my first map making project!

[Philtros]

Hi everyone!

This is the first map I ever made. It is the first region (of ~10) of a mega campaign I am creating on a Pathfinder forum role-play setting.

I used a few tutorials to create it, as I have absolutely no past history with arts, especially map making. I wanted to post it here as I feel there's a LOT that should be improved with the map, and I am eager to have a few comments, as only my wife has seen it until now.

Questions and comments I have for you guys :
- Do you see the cities well enough? Should I make them more «special» ?
- I feel the desert in the north is rather ugly, I tried to implement some vegetation, but I feel it doesn't quite fit. How should I improve it?
- The names are all in french, but still, they are probably easy to guess for someone who only reads english... (Forêt = Forest, the name which is onto the forest-like spot...)
- Should I be adding more rivers?
- What can I put where there's nothing but land? Like... more forests? or... more mountains? more lakes? I don't really quite know how to «fill» empty spots.
- Many cities and villages don't have names and boundaries, they will came later :-)



Software used: Photoshop CS6.
For the mountains, forests and cities, I used SR_Sketchy-Cartography_v2 from Deviant Art

For the title, I used Celtic_Brushes_by_Lavica_Photoshop

For the clouds, I used Clouds_Brushes_by_rubina119