[@Blue Wolf] yes there is magic, there are also dwarves and beast-kin/demi-humans. Some say that Elves used to live in the forests before the Empire expanded. 
As for the terrain, you have the Empire, a massive country with about 3 million miles of territory.
 it has a roughly circular shape except where it encounters the western and southern coastline. there is several days travel between the edge of your territory and the edge of the empire. it was put there as a buffer zone in case anything came attacking you and the empire. There is a decently large forest between you and the mountains (2 weeks on horseback roughly)