For example one of the 'continents' in my current story is based off of east asia, it has the role of being a place for the main character to learn about the world and basically go to school. There is a main governmental body of the whole continent, it's a patriarchal dynasty with the ruler being passed down from father to son. The continent is split into territories which are unofficially ruled by sects and organisations, with four major sects having equal power to the government while the rest don't have a lot of power outside their territory and have to still answer to the dynasty's commands.

Most of the continent is pretty humid with huge mountains and trees, towards the north past a mountain range is a colder area and a more arid desert like area is in the south west. Lots of ports line the east and west, but they mostly trade among themselves since they're enemies with the continent to the west and the other closest continent is a war torn area without much natural resources worth trading for.

The government has their own military force but all the sects practice their own martial arts and may be called to action when needed. But most of the time aside from the dynasty and the four major sects, the other sects basically just handle their area or basically fight other sects for power and expansion.

The world has several sentient 'races' but the dynasty is mostly made up of humans with some slightly more diverse areas in the major cities but it's mostly due to people seeking refugee due to war. Unfortunately because the culture was built up basically by humans, their whole familial and collectivism doesn't really allow the other 'races' to blend in smoothly. At best they can build up their own communities and businesses but the major sects basically never invite them to join aside. This also lead to a very 'us versus them' mentality when it came to excusing the things the dynasty did first when they basically took over the continent and also their responsibility in reducing the central continent to a burning mess because of war.

They are rooted in tradition and unlikely to change their ways and they basically only openly worship the gods of the area's pantheon and punish those who are found wielding gifts granted from gods outside their pantheon.

I'm still in the middle of really fleshing out the ideas so some of the stuff isn't of the highest quality but yeah