One of the basic principles of Might & Fealty is that almost everything is local. To do something, you have to be there. Which means that to explore the game world, you have to travel it. To find out about other realms, you need to visit them. A lot in the game is visible only once you are close. This includes even map features such as roads and bridges. From halfway across the world, how would you know where a river can be crossed?
This makes actual travel important and valuable. As you keep region familiarity for a while after leaving a region (how long exactly depends on how long you were there, the long your stayed, the longer you will keep local information) an expedition force can be crucial for a war party.
There are also many buildings in settlements that have additional functionality. Whenever you are in a settlement with such a building, you can enter it and get additional information. This ranges from rumours about neighbouring settlements or local population development to maps of the game world. Use of these buildings can maximize your knowledge.
Other buildings provice functionality simply by being operative. For example, walls and towers provide fortifications that come into play automatically if the settlement gets attacked. One very important local building are Lendan towers. They provide messaging options for everyone in range, for many miles. As they are magical, they do not even care if you are friend or foe.