May/June 2009 Lite Challenge Entry: Golden Sands

[msa]

Update: Added the final version of the map to the attachments

Well, I'm a whole hog kinda guy, so in honor of my third week in this community I'm submitting another entry. I'm excited because I have so much more time to work on this month's entry, so here we go...

This is the map of my old campaign world... I've been using it to toy with techniques and ideas while I work on a map for my DM's world (which will be a WiP once we get the coasts and mountains decided). This is a region in a young world where a handful of new human and demihuman nations and try to hold their own against a dangerous, arid land full of monsters, savage humanoids, and the restless dead.

The Burning Sands is a restless and savage arid land located in the northern equatorial region. It is equal parts paradise and wasteland, where expanses of loose, nutrient poor sand and stone are peppered with fertile rivers and lush oasis. To the north-east, an ancient human-dwarven alliance toils endlessly under their rigid god-kings, erecting massive monuments and tending their heavily engineered fields along the Kurfu river. To the south, a relatively new and loosely organized human confederation shares a tenuous relationship with savage elves in the foothills of the Twilight Mountains. Around them, the brutal hobgoblins of The Envenomed Spires, the howling undead of the Blasted Lands, and the barbaric orcs of the Desert of Flame constantly threaten the their daily existence. Will these civilized nations endure, or will the chaos and savagery of this brutal world prevail?