Campaign maps should be treated like another character

I'm finishing up a rewrite of the fantasy game ive been working on for a bit now, Blood Red Blades, and am gearing up to do a playtest campaign. 

As with any good campaign you need a map:

Now to me, maps aren't just a piece of art to move your armies around on and provide a little bit of backdrop. I mean they totally can be if that's the function they need to serve, but they can be so much more. Growing up playing games like Mount & Blade, Total War, and growing up in the US, it always stuck out to me how much history and story is held in even the most simple of maps and the names upon them.

In Total war, after big battles, you see little memorials show up on the map to commemorate big battles that you fought, adding to the character and history of the map. Even though it has no game function, it always is fun to imagine what your armies feel marching through the sites of previous triumphs, or what they're thinking as they retreat through that same area being chased by 8 doom stacks of horse archers- all adding to the history and narrative of the game your playing, and to the land you're fighting across. 

Or even in real life, taking Minnesota for example. Just looking at place names, you have French- Fond Du Lac, Grand Marais, Roseau. Scandanavian- Palo, Toimi, Finland. Native American- Minnetonka, Minneapolis, Owatanna, Waseca, and lots of German as well. At first glance they're just place names, but when you look deeper, you start to ask questions. Why are they named in different languages? Who were the people that named it? Who was there first? Who is there now? Was the name changed at all? Why was this name chosen? 

It's these details and questions that can really help weave a narrative fabric for the map you are creating, and making the map itself a character in its own right, or even a narrative prompt for players to build off of for their armies and characters. 

Using the map I made for example- the gist of it is that it's an island off the coast of Ind that is being fought over by the Empire and Lizardmen. The map is created from the perspective of the Empire, using elements from factions present in the campaign. I named things to give all players something they can connect to and tie into their army. Prince Salzheim Bay & Salzheim lake- clearly empire names, but who are the named after? The patron of this endeavor, or a previous lord who first came here and named it after himself? The bay of Quxtal- is that a name of a prominent figure to the Lizardmen, the name of a diety, or just a descriptive name? Same with T'uxl lake and the Saurus woods. Shipwreck bay and sacrifice rock- who was shipwrecked, who was sacrificed and who was doing the sacrifice?

I added all of these little implications of stories to help engage players and maybe even drive narratives. Another aspect too is that with my game, Blood Red Blades, I have campaign and army events that can trigger things like NPC armies coming onto the map in the form of marauders, pirates, and peasant revolts, and random events like dragons being awakened, plagues being unleashed, or even a wildly rich foreign noble coming into the map and tanking the economy, making units and supplies prohibitively expensive until they leave (Mansa Musa expedition basically).  The map and its implied stories and history allows these "random" events to be woven organically into the campaign in a way that might not feel as natural if it was just a blank map with no names.

It also just sounds a lot cooler when you have things to name battles off of too- The battle of the boglands, The second battle of the Greenfields, the Massacre at Stonejaw peak, the skirmish at T'uxl lake.

Long story short, if you're doing a campaign game with the homies, make a map, and have everyone submit a few random names to be thrown on by the organizer, or have the organizer be sure to name stuff on the map after every faction in some way. It honestly may not even get used or noticed, but when it does, it'll add that extra little flair of detail that makes it feel that much more immersive. It also gives all players a little bit of buy in to the setting, as even though they only submitted a few names, it results in them having a history in the game world, and some sort of stakes in the game.

Also, I have to recommend that you use azgaars fantasy map generator. Its so great for making big, detailed maps on the fly! It also auto generates names and states and stuff based on cultures you can set (has fantasy and historical)

https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/