The Independent Dominion of Princelless

[veracusse]

Hi,

I am new here, and I just posted my introduction in the new members forum. I found CG mainly thanks to the internet and this thread: http://www.cartographersguild.com//s...ferrerid=11683

I spent about 8 hours over the past two nights working on this city map for an Exalted campaign I am running.

Background: The IDP is a dominion whose history dates back at least 600 years or more. During its early days as a small settlement on the Upper Prince River, this settlement was a small logging and farming community. Many of the loggers at this time were aware of a local god name the Cutter of the Forest. They prayed to him and offered regular sacrifices in order to gain his favor and blessing in their logging pursuits. After a 100 years or so the third Realm invasion occurred in the Scavenger Lands. After the invasion ended in failure for the Realm, some of her legions splintered and elements, scales, talons, etc. were left stranded in the Scavenger lands. One talon who was lead by a Dragon-blooded Outcaste, Charron Nevel, decided that Prince (soon to be known as the Independent Dominion of Princelless) would make him a nice petty kingdom. Subsequently the petty tyrant wasn't well-received by the local wood-cutters and their patron god, and also by the Guild that had recently set up shop in Prince. Thus he was overthrown, right off the bridge in fact in the ravine of the Wood Dragon's Gorge. Since then this settlement has been known as the Independent Dominion of Princelless, and the locals plan to keep it that way

Map: I have tried to capture all the elements of the background-story in the map. Personally, from a storytelling perspective this settlement is only a waypoint in terms of the larger story. I only plan for one to two sessions to take place in this location. Thus I decided the map didn't need to be extremely detailed.

I like the effects in the river, and the forest, but I would like to make the houses and the terrain stand-out more. What Photoshop techniques would help with the houses in my next map? Any tips regarding the terrain? And one other thing, I would like to get better at doing elevation in PS. I wanted the river to flow from the NW corner of the map to the SE corner, where the river was flowing into a steep canyon or gorge. Is there a better way to do this than layer on layer of shadows in PS? Sorry if these are all newb questions. Thanks.