CC3 Continental Map: The Northlands

[Midgardsormr]

That blue outline is actually the glow effect. I am punching the radius way up and changing the color, as you suggested. Now I am noticing that there is a sort of bevel along the edges of the landmass. It wasn't as noticeable when the glow was the same color as the background, but it really stands out now that I have a blue line between the dark glow and the now-cream-colored land.

The lakes are use the "ocean" fill style. I'm assuming that's what you mean by a raster fill? I agree that the lakes and ocean should match, so I made a huge contour object with the fill and sent it to the back. That also had the pleasant side effect of hiding the default compass rose and scale bar.

I haven't gotten very far with the rivers because I am not entirely sure how they work. Right now they look great on the wide view, but if I zoom in they remain hairlines. How do I add some volume to a line that remains an open path?

Well, I could probably go on with more and more questions, but I think I'll take it in bite-sized pieces for the time being. Here's a new image: