Looks pretty cool, to me. I wonder how this mechanic of finding map fragments to expand the world map will work. I like the idea of acquiring maps being important to locate content in a large open world, but if it's sections of the world being greyed out until you find the maps, that's a bit "gamey" for my taste.

I'm assuming we still unveil the map on our own as we explore. Finding a map fragment probably just unveils a full section instantly. At least I hope that's how it works.

Or did you mean greyed out as in not able to go to that area at all? Yeah, that would be gamey indeed.

Looks amazing to me, February can’t come soon enough. I was a bit disappointed with Sekiro and this seems more up my alley. I wonder how much influence GRRM had over the lore, will it be noticeably better than the usual From Software titles?
The hand drawn map must be the most beautiful map I’ve in a game in quite some time.
I hope there won’t be level scaling the way Oblivion did it at least :D

Yes, I was thinking of it in very gamey terms - like unlocking zones by collecting maps. Which is fine, particularly in naturally gamey games, but in terms of what I enjoy in open worlds, I wouldn't like the idea.

I don't mind if an "open world" is non-contiguous, with lots of discrete areas - a bit like the original BG. Where you could cross an area from North to South, and then the next map to the South becomes available. And sometimes you could receive information that would mark new locations. I think that can work well.