Is it humanities? Anyways...where the stupid little round terrain is in the center, there will eventually be a fortress or city or something. And it will be bigger than that. I think i'll probably have some sort of sentry turrets on the tops of some hills or something, or maybe just nautical patrols. The final product will most likely be postworked to have an overall darker feel to it, more desperate. All comments and crits welcome...no, REQUIRED. Please.

Hmm..maybe the liberal arts, at least..;) The trick will be scale, right now these look like beams..the whole thing looks about 30' long..I guess it would depend on what you have in mind. Just a thought, sometimes I put things in at an angle to provide a little interest..this is very balanced. Tilt up, or to one side, might give it some character (of course, I also use it to hide imperfections, but that's me..;)
If you're going for a city-sized scale, the water might be a different (smaller ripples) texture. Of course, it could be a really small city, no reason why not. Or you could scale up the island..it's hard to be helpful at this point, but it's a start.
After all the positioning (not posing, that's another program..;) of stuff, it's time to play with lighting..you can do all sorts of dramatic things with lights, drop one or two here and there to bring out (or hide) details..
hey, I'm just providing suggestions, I'm not the expert by any means. Let us see some more of what you have in mind, and we can help from there..

Yup, I got the scale all wrong as well. Maybe you could make it The Fairies' Last Stronghold, and hold on to the scale. You could make the viewpoint less symmetrical by having the crates(?) curving towards the rock from one side, and placing the viewpoint low down on the resulting causeway, so you're looking ahead, but with the causeway curving towards your ultimate goal, the stronghold. (clear as mud, all that)

I think it's the water that makes it look so small. Do what pakled suggested and bump up the water to make smaller, more abundant, ripples. 8) Catlin

the idea reminded me of a tv program... dunno it escapes me. my penny worth (i'm saving the other one for later): make it gothic and dark. very dark. and gothic. extremely gothic. john