How about numbers?
THAT was my mind numbing non fiction science project which occupied me from mid November last year to early March of this year.
That said, the settings, races, types of government and whatnot don't matter. What does matter is the story telling.
The core of my principle world comes from half a dozen old AD&D 'Historical Earth' handbooks respectively dealing with ancient Rome, even more ancient Greece, Celtic Europe, Charlemagne's Europe, Viking Europe, Crusader Middle East, and a few other like sources - about as generic or troupe as you can get. I took those and mashed them together and added some themes I wanted to explore - social change, moral dilemma's, technological compatibility with magic, and Lovecraftian abominations to name the main ones.
I also kept a lot of things dirt simple. Doing so helps avoid confusion on the part of the reader. A large portion of the map marked 'Raslantar' doesn't say much to the reader. Labeling that same region 'Unknown Southern Plains,' says quite a bit.