SG, that "heavy black stroke" is no heavier than the Archean Trade League, or any of the Crae Lands/Barbarian maps - I used the same pen to stroke those lines. Its just this map is only at its start. Keep in mind I plan to pen the mountains, hills, forests, swamps and other major terrain features with that same pen. So once all the details are in this currently very empty map, the outline won't stand out quite so much.
Hoel - I haven't created the parchment map background yet, for this one. Where you see "white" now is showing the white background through the edge of the water. Once I place a parchment, the white will change to whatever color the parchment is. Though I will probably lessen the gradient so that its not quite as heavy.
I'm going to try to stroke some mountains in between jobs here at work, I probably won't get much done until after the work day is over. Update probably tonight!
GP