Wild (North) West

When someone uses the word "civilized", they're often only moments away from decrying some other as "barbarian", and then saying something about "our culture". Oddly this often has little to do with the lawful-chaotic divide, but rather hinges on what one expects from a society or settlement. Words like "degenerate", "corrupt", and "god-forsaken debacle" are thrown around to express contempt for any society that isn't one's own. This ties into faith, the main way people 'vote' for a world they see as better.
That all said, the North-West of the Valley is a god-forsaken debacle. For most of the fifth age, the North West (more commonly known as the Greenbelt) has resisted any attempt to settle it, and it has been especially hostile to those of goodly or noble intent. 
The main inhabitants of the area are roving bands of orcs, centaurs, gnolls, harpies and more besides. These groups are often somewhat cosmopolitan; an orc warband may be 80% orcs, but employ a number of centaurs to act as fast-moving archers, and a handful of harpie-witches as healers. 
What supports these large groups is the Greenbelt's distinctive trait: both livestock and crops grow exceptionally well here. For most groups, the sole currency is territory. Left unattended, most crops and animals will look after themselves, and the warband can move from area to area, taking a careful amount and moving on.
The Greenbelt is mostly plains, with a few small mountains and swamps. This makes the wide-open expanse very difficult to defend, and makes expansion very difficult. This creates an odd paradox: Some areas become more defensible because the local area is so dangerous the raiding stops being worthwhile, so the local inhabitants only need to worry about whatever the Valley-themed-antics are in their vicinity. For less fortunate settlements, this means that constant vigilance is required. If such a settlement is sacked, it is almost impossible to safely rebuild and is almost always abandoned, meaning that most nations in the area gradually lost territory until they disappeared entirely.
The east coast of the Valley, home to Dejune, Skor, Tsar, and others have far worse land for farming, but it's this lack of natural resources that has allowed settlements to flourish; the land simply cannot support roving warbands.
There are three major communities in the West. Far to the south is Sandpoint. Sandpoint enjoys the rich soil of the west, but the nearby mountains and rivers make it easy to defend, and have allowed it to flourish. It's governed by a quasi-hereditary line of wealthy nobles, and mostly exports luxury goods.
Ferrik's Forge is a group of forts and settlements in the north. It is the last of the old Greenbelt style nations, where expansion is a slow, painful process across decades, as forts leap-frog each other and defensive positions are built and burned down many times before land can be definitively claimed. The Forgeborn are ardent followers of Vanitthu, Lawful Neutral god of guardsmen. They are a hardy, humorless people who take their faith, nation and its meritocratic government extremely seriously. The Forge Academy (they're not great with names) is the single largest educational institution in the Valley, and anyone serious in a career as a guard, watchman, or officer of the law is expected to train there for several years first. The Forge's economy revolves around income from the Academy, as well as goods made by the nation's fine smiths. Otherwise The Forge is self-sufficient, having claimed many hectares of land to use for farming and production.
Lastly, the nation of Pirrat is the cultural center of the Greenbelt, and possibly the Valley itself. The nation-city is a curious decadence in the wilds of the Greenbelt, defended by many retired heroes who are happy to throw a few high-level spells and magical arrows in the direction of any warband who gets too close. The citizens of Pirrat have something of a socialist existence, where magic takes care of all basic needs the citizens are free to spend their time on artistic pursuits. Pirrat is governed by a loose alliance of retired heroes and powerful creatures, led by Yennifer the Muse.
There was once a much larger nation there, the Kingdom of Lycia, but it's gone and its wealth, nobles, and culture are scattered to the winds of time.