Some of these suggestions are laughable for a newer player who doesn't know the ropes. Just saying, if you think dealing with anything from the plains isn't going to be death defying, you have forgotten being new...

OP, if you explored North before, then travel south. There should be, as noted above, multiple Elders. You might just have a bad seed though so you can also check the world generator at some point, depending on your frustration level. I might give it 100 hours of flailing round but know that some maps are just sheety.