My first world sucked. Then I made Elasi.

It was based on a dream I had, with a man and a woman standing back to back against the surrounding army in a forest; the man wielded a rifle, the woman - a gigantic sword. Granted, it wasn't very original - it still dealt with the concepts such as elves at the point, being your typical fantasy - but I could never part with it, mostly because of the characters.

I guess that, as I grew, my characters grew with me. Tysie Venn, a character very dear to me, started as a brave, jolly warrior taking up helping people as a job that actually paid for itself. The whole world revolved around him at the time, as he was a projection of what I wanted to be; to a point, he still is, but he's more than that now, an achievement I'm proud of.

First, there were the Benefactors, analogues for deities for the world of Aelas (as it was known at the time); Tysie was, at first, of the Benefactor blood (Benefactors being of a folk from the previous era of the world and very powerful mages) and the only one capable of wielding the glove and sword combo that would only yield to the special people (like Tysie) and slay the secretly-evil Benefactors. As the time went, the Benefactors became amoral scientists wielding magic, and Tysie - a pawn in the secret war against them by their kin who retained their... what we might consider "human side". He was prophecized to kill them and die for it... or something like that; I don't recall it clearly.

It is then that I decided to revamp Elasi into a new world. I decided to get rid of magic of the world, because, even though the concept of fantasy seemingly mandated it, the world wasn't better for it. I wanted to make it a survival based on skills and wits rather than on tricks one can pull out of their sleeve. With it, went away the Benefactors, the earlier eras (at least as fleshed out as I made them, which would, theoretically, allow me to play it as three worlds at once with different sets of folks and rules - grab the idea if you like it), magical artifacts (of one of which Tysie came to be in possession).

Instead, came concepts far more interesting:

* common consciousness for one of the folks, which basically allows them to share folk-wide-important information into a layer of their mind that's constantly available, like burdenless memory with whole-folk-controlled content;

* Old West- and WWI-era firearms for another folk, justified by their need to fend away deadly and aggressive beasts twice their size as a daily activity as well as their ingenuity in chemistry;

* enhanced politics with the Three Rules, the in-universe analogues of international cooperation states (think of USSR);

* and the royal status for Tysie, allowing for much more freedom of any quests I'd lay upon him (I still have no idea what'd the plot of his journey be, just that it'd be something personal and character-developing) as well as with the character himself (unlike in his childhood, he now has barely have to worry about money or housing, given his enormous inheritance which includes a mansion; how'd he act now?).

Though I wasn't certain at the time, the way Elasi took is the way I love seeing it at. The setting is now much more fleshed-out and is far more interesting to work with than anything trying hard to resemble generic fantasy that I had before.

Craig, I have a challenge for you; feel free to decline it. I challenge you to flesh out your first world the way you'd do it now. Declare the core idea for the world, and do whatever you want with it as long as it's visibly the same idea. Dare you?