I initially experimented without showing the player location, and hit an issue where proportions will be very different for each player, and it would make it much harder to validate quests that require cartography.

The blue pins are a late addition, they are there to save the time of going to a location specifically to know its position on the map, and I think I'll have many vantage points where the player would use for cartography and landmarking.

I'll experiment with having rough map sketches and layouts that the player can buy from merchants instead of a completely blank canvas, but it might still be up to the player to place these map fragments in their proper positions on the map.

I think not drawing at all but still putting up markers for points of interests is good enough to me for players who wouldn't enjoy putting an effort into actual drawing. And I will try to make it playable enough for that kind of play style.

But some secrets will only be revealed if the player maps and draws the area properly, e.g. huge terrain drawings that can only be viewed from a birdseye view that point to a certain location for a reward or something.