Renaissance Inspired Fantasy Setting

[macphersonrants]

I've been tinkering around with a renaissance inspired setting for a while. The general consensus in other threads has been that a fantasy setting has way more curb appeal than a historically inspired one for most players, so I've started working out something that approximates the renaissance, but is a pure fantasy setting.

What sort of things would you put in this sort of setting or what would you want to see as a player.

Would you want fantasy races? If so how do they fit in.

How would you handle religion. Assuming you don't have Christianity and Islam what replaces it?

What historical elements from the 16th century do you incorporate? What do you mash in from other eras?

What crunchy bits can you think of from this forum such as real world martial arts and real world inspired Path/Book magic would be a good fit?

My overall idea is to approximate real world politics and history, but with lots of secret magic, martial arts, gadgeteering, monsters, and so on thrown in.