I have an interesting idea--the Chinese Zodiac, as anyone who's eaten at one of their tasty buffets knows, is divided up into 12 animal signs--rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. What is lesser known in the west is that these animals are further divided up into five elemental varieties: metal, wood, fire, water and earth into a--you guessed it--sixty year cycle. For example, being born in 1975 makes me a wood rabbit! Anyway, I have not the faintest inkling of how to actually make a map, but I think this idea has some cool asian-themed possibilites, perhaps arranged around a yin-yang? For more info (and to see where I got my more specific details) look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_zodiac
I'd gladly collaborate with anyone interested in taking this further, thanks!
oh, I forgot to mention that the animals are also grouped together by characteristics they're said to impart to the person born in their year (as you can read about on the wiki page) further lending themselves to being grouped into nice even "continents" ^^