Collecting some examples

[kilroy]

 I'm building a list for analysis. I need twenty or so good universes of any fictional variety that have a bunch of persistent, politically relevant factions with different cultures and/or goals. Help me out?

Things that are good examples:
Avatar: the Last Airbender
Babylon 5
City of Heroes
Defiance
Discworld
Dune
Most well-constructed Dungeons and Dragons universes
Erfworld
Feng Shui
Game of Thrones
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Any White Wolf universe (including Trinityverse)
The Wire

Things that probably aren't good examples:
Star Wars-- it basically boils down to Rebels, Imperials, and Criminals. There are a bunch of alien races, but they all more or less fall into one of those categories. See also Firefly.
Doctor Who-- you get to see a lot of different cultures and factions, but the ones that show up multiple times are usually just villains or backdrops. Designed as an exploration/showcase rather than an integrated universe. See also TOS and to an extent TNG. 
Harry Potter-- the universe has some breadth and depth, but the story as told essentially boils down to everyone-versus-the-bad-guys. The different strengths of the good guy alliance are largely irrelevant. See also Lord of the Rings. 
Fables-- this actually goes too far into motivational territory, where every individual character has an agenda and even people nominally in the same group have only surface-level common ground. See also most superhero universes, Justified, Once Upon a Time, and Amber. 

Comments

[james]

Maybe Walter Hunt's the Dark Wing series, though I don't know that it's all that widely read? It has two species, human and alien, but both sides are treated with both positive and negative, insider and outsider views.

[kilroy]

That's the right level of depth, but I need more factions handled simultaneously. I'll file that one away for my personal reading list, though.