Sombre: Regarding the shape of the wastes, Games Workshop has the same map found in their Hordes of Chaos army book online. The address is:
http://us.games-workshop.com/games/w...ap/default.htm
Looking at that top-down depiction of the poles there is clearly an issue with map projection, as you say. I've had to depict them stretched out and will note this is precisely how they are shown in GW's -rectangular- maps of the World. In the end, I figured one would have to go quite a bit out of their way in order to reach the northern gate (unless they're playing as Jotunheim or have sailing commanders). It came down to leaving the gates out for the sake of authenticity or putting them in for the fun of it.
To the second question, I hope so. I want to get the bugs ironed out of the current (abbreviated) map and produce the "adventure" version before I continue with the rest of the world. Continuing, however, is definitely a goal. As I'll be traveling for much of December, away on training exercises all of January, and then preparing to move to another state the following month I didn't think I could realistically get the full global map put together and released in a reasonable time frame. That's why I've gone with this smaller selection for now.