Kingdom of Fesselmark (WIP, Warlock RPG)

[Impractical Cartographer]

Howdy!

Polish publisher of the Warlock role-playing game asked me to prepare a solid map for the Polish release. I was given full creative freedom to draw a series of Kingdom maps.
The official artwork showing this world was quite minimal, but gave plenty of room for my own ideas.

I decided to show you the process of making these maps. Perhaps this will inspire someone. Also, maybe some of you can give me a hint.

So let's start with the original "map".




Based on it, I made a quick sketch of what I thought a powerful kingdom should look like.
First, I redrew the coastline.
Then, since this is a game map, and I use such maps primarily for virtual travel, I focused on roads, rivers and more important settlements. I always start with this, subordinating the whole topography to this particular feature. It may be strange, but this is my style of working. Also I have marked the mountain ranges in gray.



Then it was time for more details. First of all, I placed this Kingdom on a planet (I determined its equatorial circumference to be about 38,000 km). This allowed me to choose the right scale and cartographic projection (simple conical).
I also marked the topography - quite primitive, but enough for this stage of the work.



Because it was supposed to be a reference map on the basis of which various other maps (smaller regions, individual provinces, political etc.) will be created I decided to try to draw a fairly accurate physical map according to the rules of modern cartography. So I drew a rather sketchy hypsometric map.



I figured it was a good idea, so I started tweaking my sketch, adding more and more detail and making sure to keep the scale. There were a lot of corrections, and I often erased and redrew large parts of the map.
Finally, after countless revisions, the map began to look like a map. I still have some work left, but since I have rarely contributed to this forum lately, I decided to share the drawing process with you.
Maybe it will inspire someone, just as such threads inspired me once upon a time.

At the moment, the status of the work looks like this. I still need to refine the eastern mountain range, and then improve the details and check that everything is correct.



When I finish this map, I'll draw another map based on it, styled as a Renaissance map, which should be more suitable for a dark fantasy roleplaying game.

Well, but about that another time. I'm curious what you think of my work.

P.S. Info for those who speak German. The names of the towns & cities are silly. I know that. It's intentional.