The background and the feel
Some background on the world...
It's a world where civilizations are built on floating islands which are brought into this world whenever a rift pulls entire chunks of land into it, whether it may be a city, a country or an entire continent. Technically it's a gas giant roughly the size of Jupiter.
Anyways the nation resembling India was one of the first ones there that still remain (there have been previous civilizations such as one the resembles the Harrapan). They cover vast terrorities and have a very rich history as they built up their empire. Due to the strange planar anomaly they often absorbed other cultures into their empire, and they continued to grow. As their empire started to cover the world they came under the rule of the first Maharaj who was of nearly divine power, and many to follow after him.
Much of their history has sort of been lost over the years, but it's generally been ebstablished that population has been mostly human, though there's quite a mixture races among the empire. And also through the empire's long history they've had to deal with many invasions and plots from Rakshasas and their extraplanar forces.
As it's such a vast world there have are many nations that are independant of this empire. Of the other nations some of the most significant are ones that resemble Persia, the Ottoman Empire, Russia, China, Prussian Empire, a Greco-Roman-Italian nation, Japan, Songhai Empire (West Africa), Mwanamutapa Empire (Zimbabwe), an Aztec/Spanish Empire and more in addition to an ancient Egyptian like nation of Anthromorphic Animals (including lots of gnoll and flinds), fifteen different Kobold nations each of a particular dragon type (the main chromatic, metallic and gem dragons), many diverse nations of many other humanoid types and a few undead nations.
These nations have all co-existed with each other for eons, travel around the world based on airships. However they were all involved in many power struggles and rivalry, while at the same time having to bow down to the great empire. As the world became more crowded technology, philosophy, magic, and many other knowledges expanded.
Roughly 350 years ago there was the Great Caste War between mainly the Brahmin and the Kshatriya. The two castes pulled in a number of the different nations to their side. During this war which lasted almost 50 years, it saw the introduction many new things for the purpose of war such as the first guns. When the war ended in a stalemate for both sides, social reforms went through out the empire. New political ideologies rose (or at least became more common) in the aftermath of the war. It became the beginning of what is called the "1000 schools of though" by Long Guo the Chinese nation. The Empire absorbed a land called the Grandshire, a nation which resembles Britain, and it became the "Crown Jewel" of the Empire. This nation despite being sort of colonized by the Empire, started to influence it in many ways.
Eventually the empire became a constitional monarchy. Many nations became democracies and constitutional monarchies, some became communist or fascist. Another big change came in the form of industrialization which every big nation in the world has adapted or started to adapt.
Now it's in a period that's much like the Industrial age.
The feel is basically similiar to that of a time when exploration of the world is reaching the end, the world's beginning to change at a faster rate, and colonization is getting ugly. The nations involved are different from what happened in our history around this point, such as India and China being colonial powers instead of Britain and France.
You can get quite a bunch of different genres out of this, one obvious one is Steampunk, there's Swashbuckling and Martial Arts, some of the adventure associated with the Age of Exploration, and Pirate stuff with all those airships. It's quite a multicultural world, with an Indian influence over the entire world.
Now all I need is a good name for the world...
