Although I would like to try myself in all these areas, my definite personal favorite are places. Because a place entry summarizes all other types and you can go in so much detail describing not only how the place looks like but also its dwellers, the atmosphere (each place has one), and yeah, because they are the most important ones for the development of a fantasy world.
I hope I did this right! Using Judy's syllable list I got pretty interesting results, although the words generated lack the Latin sounding I got diverse results for Slavic influences. I mainly tried to point out consonant heavy words, Latin and Slavic influences and vowel ending words:
There is certainly a lack of vowel ending 4 syllable words but I think that makes Gnomish a bit more consonant heavy and there still is enough vowel ending words to make it linguistically correct.
Well, I would definitely like to help as I got to know the inner structure of languages quite recently and I must admit it got me interested in finding out more of how languages work so it would be fun for me to help here, although I'm still fond of giving Gnomish a bit of Slavic touch!
I too had a similar problem and I fixed it by adding something to the forest that doesn't describe it directly, but in a subtle way it is something that a forest can't do without (you can look at this thread for an example, I advise you to read Grunok's reply as it contains valuable guidelines which can help you polish this entry further).
Try describing not only how the place looks like but also how does it smells like, feels like, what can you hear in it...you get the point. Another trick is to add something to the forest (a hunting post, a small hamlet) to describe it, its relation to the forest and its populace.
Try adding a bit more colour to your description as it seems pretty dull in some passages (especially the second part), and although the scientific approach is good to use from time to time, it is better to implement some components of an essay to add a bit of flavour to the whole thing.
Noticing Artimidor giving a plaque to Azhira, Arceon gasps and grabs the poor oil smeared sage to the side and whispers to him: "Eh, I think Azhira wanted a plaque with "NORTHlander" on it not "HIGHlander"! You better snatch it from here before he notices...", with that whispered Arceon pushes Artimidor towards Azhira.
Arceon, gently shoves his fellow apprentices as he approaches Azhira carrying a carefully wrapped package. "Is it gift time already?! I didn't even get to the food table... Oh well then, I brought you this whalebone wison as I understand it is the most commonly used cattle around here. If you look closely, you will notice unique carvings representing various Northern plants, also the horns of the wison are made of aurium...Here, Azhira, enjoy and congratulations!", the elf bows and walks away to find some cookies, his favorite dish on inauguration parties.
A black-robbed figure is leading the group which is quite behind it, a gentle but angry voice echoes on the tight streets: "Darn this northern coldness! *shakes* Who would have forgotten the warm clothes but me! Why does it have to be so cold and damp around here...Even when it's sunny it is cold like Querpur's glance!", the robbed man stops in front of the Kuglim noticing a strange, angry look on his face: "H-h-hello!", says the robbed man to the Kuglim with awe, "I-I-I'm here for the party.", he continues showing the carefully wrapped package. Can I pass...please?". The Kuglim doesn't answer, he just shows the dark-skinned elf to enter. After the elf moved away the Kuglim shouts: "Silly southerners, can't handle some real northern weather, eh! *laughs*" The black-robbed elf just bends his head down and walks straight to the nearest bench, greeting Smee and mumbling something in the direction of the Kuglim, which, for elf's sake, he didn't hear.
Either they are burned beforehand and the ashes are buried on this day or we need magical help to prevent them from decaying.
There are plenty other ways to prevent them from decaying and stinking (although it's quite unclear how often is the "Day of the Dead" conducted , is it once a week, once a month or ,highly unlikely, once a year, if it is conducted often then maybe the protection from decaying is not needed at all). The body could be washed with aromatic oils to prevent it from stinking and it can be bandaged and mummified to prevent it from decaying. But I do like the Takor's burning proposal better.
(I have no idea how to design maps...we can ask Arti. The area you are speaking about is the peninsula of Caael'heroth and those orcs are Osther-Oc...the ones north of the Kaaer'dar'shin?)
Actually there is a pretty nice map drawing guide for Photoshop on the site already, I tried and it is really simple, even for me who rarely uses Photoshop. You can access the guide by "swapping" menus in the top left corner and pressing the brush container icon named "The Workshop" or you can access it using this link:
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