Cyrion, do you mean you couldn't get out of the starting area of Broken Valley, where the village, farm, and ruined chapel are?
What it comes down to is that you are 'gated' into that area until you reach a certain point in the main quest/story. There's a path between two hills by the ruined chapel, where some of Rhode's Slayers will block you if you try to leave the newbie area.
When you first arrived at Broken Valley, Rhode gave you a mission to talk with villagers to find out about the dragon sightings. After you've talked with a number of villagers, you can go back to Rhode and finish that quest. Then she gives you another quest, to go fight a restless spirit in the village Chapel's tomb. Once you complete that, as you leave the Chapel, you'll have a cutscene with Rhode, then she and her Slayers will leave, and at that point, you can leave the starter area. So, that's what you did that unlocked the area for you, in case you were curious.
However, there are a lot of other side-quests in the starter area, and a few small dungeons to explore which will give you valuable loot (and IIRC a skill book or two), plus plenty of enemies to fight. You really want to do almost everything you can in the starter area before leaving, else you'll be so weak when you get to the main part of broken valley that you'll get insta-killed by most enemies.
Basically, when you leave the starter area, you should be about level 9 or 10 (I think it might be possible to get as high as level 11 or 12 if you do every last thing in the area around the village before crossing into the main valley - I don't remember what level I was on my current character when I left that area, but I had done everything, I think, or very close to it).
