Okay. So I went back to the basics, and redrew everything from the mountains up. Here's the new (and in my eyes improved) mountain distribution. I think I found a fun way of visualizing the effect of the terrain on the coastline. Try imagining a world full of water. the bottom is made of a (permeable) canvas cloth, which is pushed above water by mountains. The trick - I think - is to draw the mountains in such a way that the canvas would indeed rise up from the waters and create the coastlines as they are on the map. I believe this attempt better succeeds at this than the previous one.
Still fidgeting with the rivers, so that will be for later. What do you guys think?
Nesarian Empire5.jpg
Coming up next: more mountains (southern continent), and rivers and shading!