Thanks for the feedback. Could you elaborate a bit on generating the history before drawing the borders? I get what you mean, but I don't have a great idea of how to translate a generalized world history into borders. I'd also like to hear suggestions for names and how to make them sound more interesting.
Well, what I did was (in essence, actually doing it at this scale is a LOT of work) quite simple. Started with the first humans, made a list of possible role outcomes and rolled for what they'd do. They fractured in different tribes, expanded, warred, and eventually got civilized. I've got some of that progress in a
GifWhat I'd suggest, however, is that you paste the map in some editing software with layers, like gimp. Then get a new layer on top of it, draw on your first humans, and just have them war each other, split, conquer etc. Using some kind of random chance will make it more organic/real.
As for names, get a certain "cultural vibe" for a country. I for example, have a culture in the SG I'm currently running whose language is heavy on a's, u's, dh's, b's and such. Get yourself a naming theme. Don't fear longer names, all those 2-syllable names get boring, and don't fear real-world cultures either. To make things interesting, you can also add titles to the names, such as: Kingdom of, Grand City of, March of, Archduchy of, Bishopric of, United X of etc.
Kanar, for example, as an archipelago, could have pacific naming schemes, resulting in something like Ka'anar or Ka'nar. (Don't overdose on apostrophes btw, can look chaotic unless it's a single culture that abuses them)
Suesko and Tarq'Haram just sound weird to me, as if they were random syllables jumbled together. Tarq'Haram seems Arabic-esque to me, so what about something like Al-Haaram, Al-Tarq, Tarqaam, Taharam, Tarahan or something. Suex, Suexia, Sueth, and Suath also sound better, but they give me an Egyptian-esque vibe. Not sure where you want to go with that, but get inspired by a real world country, or make up your entire language.
Galta and Eralta both end in -alta, but are situated far from each other, so this seems odd. If I were to guess, Galta is mediterranean-esque whilst Eralta is a fertile river kingdom (might be completely mistaken though). Galta itself isn't that bad (could make it a variant though, Galtea, Gallea, Galtia, Gaccia), though I'm not a fan of Eralta. When I think of a river kingdom, I think of its fertile lands, whilst Eralta doesn't give me any kind of association at all. The river seems to be a defining feature of the country, so the country could be named after it. Let's say the river is the "Essal" (Eral doesn't sound river-y to me). Essalland, the Essallands, Essaya, Esseya, Essland etc. could all be names.
These are just suggestions examples though, you should get the feel yourself.
@Lord_lemonpie,
what program are you using to make your maps? All PS or GIMP??? Or some external thing?
Nothing but gimp and my trusty computer mouse.