Because 'south' is downhill, and 'west' is against the rotation of the Earth?
But seriously, thanks for your question
@Ellania.
It's always easy to 'send out your scout'; just pay the scouting costs and wait the required period of time. Of course the scouting costs constantly increase as you scout and solve more provinces. I suspect you may be referring to the difficulty level of negotiating/fighting the world map provinces that you are discovering?
The wiki has a bit more to say:
https://en.wiki.elvenar.com/index.php?title=World_Map
For example,
'
The cost for fighting or trading to complete the Province will increase with each newly scouted Province.'
and
Province Distance
The further you go, deep into the World Map, the more distant you get from your city. This means that not only will Scouts take longer to reach far away Provinces, but also it will cost you more Coins to scout them.
The Province Distance will also influence the
ranking points you get by solving each Encounter. You will get 1 ranking point per Encounter * Province Distance. For example, if you solve an Encounter in a Province, 3 Provinces away from your city (Distance 3), you will get 3 ranking points.
Fighting and negotiating will get progressively harder the further away you get from your city, requiring that you need to keep upgrading your city to cope with the demands.