The central, main, part of the Palace complex, consists of the Level 1 map(s) above, and the other four earlier "Hive" maps, with suitable amendments:

One major change was the original "Hive" was a single map, with each of the five levels set-up on a separate Layer in that FCW file. Here, each Level is in its own separate FCW file, as that seemed easier to try to keep things properly organised for presenting in the Atlas (although the Level 1 map still works that way, for its variant "Reality" and "Illusion" versions).

As the accompanying descriptive files suggest, the illusory nature of the Palace might be continued for some visitors, as GMs could prefer, throughout an entire visit here. Although no further illusory versions of the maps are provided, the idea is the level maps would be simply inverted, so as to seem that deeper levels below ground were actually higher buildings and towers, with suitable illusory views across the surrounding countryside and neighbouring parts of the Palace. Naturally, none of the locals are deceived by any of this, and now tend to give the place a wide berth, though less because it's really a giant ant colony than because the Queen, while respected as a powerful Faerie creature, isn't the greatest company over any length of time. Plus honey fungus for a meal or two is fine, but not on its own as a regular diet. Unless you're a giant ant, that is.

Yeah, for some reason I don't pretend to understand, the symbols on the same Sheet will reorder themselves like this occasionally. Haven't come across it being related to Sheet Effects before, but there's probably some sophisticated reason why this happens. I'll leave that to others to explain!

You would probably be better off setting up the different buildings that are at different relative heights from one another on their own separate Sheets. There's no real disadvantage to this, except you remembering which Sheet is which, and making sure you've copied over the same Effects (if that's what you want, of course) to each new Sheet. So long as your Sheets are correctly ordered to stack the way you need, this should solve the problem (and might give some additional useful shadow effects on parts of the structure that are lower than others, for instance).

Hopefully before folks get too involved in their mapping for this, it's worth reflecting that Vertshusen is situated around 65° South latitude on Nibirum, which means it's about on the Antarctic Circle (for Nibirum, this is at 65°S). So in summer, the Sun never sets, and in winter it never rises. For those less familiar with such locations, it may be worth examining some of the architecture and building layouts used in settlements in such places today on Earth - Alaska, Northern Canada, Iceland, northern Scandinavia and northern Russia (there are no southern hemisphere equivalents on Earth) - some aspects of which might require a nudge or two from magical elements to replace the technological ones, given there really weren't many substantial, permanent settlements around the Arctic Circle during medieval-equivalent times on Earth.

Odd, as I was having the discussion about using random designed dungeons with another colleague online only yesterday!

I started with purely random designs back in the mid-late '70s, because I had no ideas to work from otherwise, having only just seen the original D&D booklets for the first time. As those who've followed my Atlas maps especially will be aware, I'm still a great fan of random design mechanics to stimulate ideas, or sometimes to better work out why some things aren't working well enough otherwise.

The Donjon system's a fun one, and there are plenty of other generators to try out if you've a mind to.

I've long found that the two elements - creator/occupier and layout plan - go hand-in-hand, and can be used to modify one another along the way. Thus a random idea might spark-off something still more interesting that follows a more logical pathway, until you reach a point of ambivalence, when more randomness can be brought in once more.

The sole comment I'd make about the map here so far is the secret doors are all far too obvious. Move the actual door to the nearest flat (room) wall junction, not at the end of a short passageway (add a second door for the one into/out of Room 9, as the approach could be from either side, so one flush door in the 9 wall, the other in the corridor wall to the west).

When mapping large areas like this, it's important to decide exactly how much detail is worth showing, and what the map is going to be used for (both of which go hand-in-hand).

A settlement will always require farmlands of some kind nearby, so any settlement means there will be such areas around it, even where the map doesn't show them. Then you can use the actual farmland areas to show those places that are particularly important farming areas - key places that the whole country/nation may rely upon, for instance. There, you wouldn't need to show any but the larger or most significant settlements (e.g. like the hamlet the party will be starting from!); all the other hamlets and villages can be assumed as present scattered among the farmland region without you needing to show each one.

For the non-cliff coastlines, I'd be inclined to soften the edges somewhat, maybe with a small Edge Fade effect, or reintroduce the "coastline" blue line for them. Softening the land edges on the cliff coasts wouldn't go amiss either, perhaps.

The aerial floating island looks interesting. Depending on how your floating lands like this work, you might also consider adding some crystal symbols (e.g. from one of the Dungeon sets, suitably enlarged of course!), or by using varicolor mountain symbols. With the settlement on top, it may be worth placing that directly onto the rocky mountain symbols, or with only a much smaller area of grassland fill texture behind the settlement image, then using just the mountain symbols (probably on their own, new Sheet) to cast a suitable drop-shadow. If the grass needs to definitely run right to the very edge of the stony platform, maybe make that more ragged, to closely match the symbol lines underneath indicating where that edge is.