Great work, as always! And 100 hours is quite an investment indeed, I hope the client appreciates that!

Regarding the labels though - can I ask, what is your general progress for planning/sketching a map like this? I mainly ask because I used to not really plan for labels before it was time to actually add them in, and then always hated how they (as you said) would just cover the map I'd spent so much time making. But then I started adding labels to my sketches, and that really was a massive game changer in that regard. Now I always plan for the labels before I draw a single line, so the labels become as much a part of the drawing as the map itself, and I don't have to feel bad for covering bits of the map as I've left the label spaces blank in advance to allow room for them. No idea if this is something you already do and just dislike the text in general, which is a completely valid take too, but just something that came to mind when reading that comment!

In any case, an impressive map! I'm very intriqued by the magical and less magical versions. I love the purple forests on the magical one!