A couple things that I suppose I should bring up real quick...first, I don't know how to use Photoshop in the slightest. Generally when I do this sort of thing, I grab a map from the internet (With the artist's permission), and then edit it with MS Paint. Or I'm content to just draw a crappy map in MS Paint and use that.

If anybody else wanted to tackle a map, or had a suggestion of a map or program to use, I'd be fine with that as well.

Secondly, I had planned on each player controlling a noble or petty monarch in the ruins of a fallen/falling kingdom. That is to say, you wouldn't be creating a whole empire from scratch, but rather controlling a region of that nation state. That's not to say that you can't create your own cultural identity, or species other than the most common of the kingdom. Something along the lines of...say the King of England died, and the players would be the equivalent of loyal Dukes or rebel Kings of Cornwall, Lancaster, York, Warwick, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. But some of those nobles might be giants, elves, dwarves, etc.