Could you guys elaborate on the map? Because as is I have no godly idea what I'm looking at right now. A description of each area, and which areas are already encompassed by the Empire. 

I was thinking of having a bubble kingdom in the mountains, isolationist and inward-looking, with the only passes into it blocked off by massive walls, which keep out the worst terrors of the outside. Preferably somewhere otherwise hostile, away from civilization, so that it's a little island of stability in the chaos. Does that fit in anywhere in the setting?