Maybe somethings from this thread could be used:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/simple-technological-improvements-for-the-bronze-age.464635
Imagine a Bronze Age civilization with massive wind and water powered manufactories which mass-produce bronze cannons.
Some other random ideas:
A monarchic empire where it is customary that post-menstrual sisters/aunts/etc of the emperor are made governors of far away provinces with their children held hostage in the capital. This is based on the idea that being members of the royal family they are loyal to the empire and it’s ruling dynasty, whilst with all their kids away from them and no ability to make new ones there is no risk of them declaring themselves independent in order to start a new dynasty.
A culture where the men take their wives with them to the battlefield, not to fight the enemy (but I can see them firing missiles at the enemy when the armies haven’t yet engaged in close combat). But to, when the armies meet eachother, stand behind the last ranks and point their knifes at the men in front of them to encourage bravery in any hesitators by giving them some pinpricks. Should any man try to flee against orders the women are supposed to stab him to death, something which they do with enthusiasm considering their fate should the enemy win.
This ensures it takes more courage to flee then to continue fighting so they never lose any battles by routing when victory is still possible. (I’m actually surprised no one ever tried this considering history is filled with people who aren’t the nicest to defeated enemies.)
Lastly an empire wherein the entire top level of the government (except the emperor himself ofcourse) consists out of slaves:
Slave officers are in charge of the army. However the common soldiers consist out of freemen to prevent the officers of having enough influence to pull a janissaries and become a hereditary parasitical caste.
The highest bureaucrats are also slaves, females at that (to make it even more unusual), under the assumption it would be a waste of muscle power to give men desk functions. They are allowed to marry freemen on the condition they are of low birth (the reason the top level of the bureaucracy consists out of slaves in the first place was to stop the nepotism, corruption and rivalries of the nobility to ruin everything) and take care of any children (the emperor doesn’t want his administratrices to waste their time raising kids).
The palace guard also exists out of female slaves (a previous emperor was paranoid of the freemen who were his previous guard sleeping with his wives).
Meanwhile the emperor’s favourite wife and his mother (both also technically slaves) are scheming against eachother for who gets to be the power behind the throne.
Some poor peasant families do their best to train their sons in fighting and educate their daughters as best as they can, so they can sell them to the emperor when they are twelve (that is the age the slaves official education starts). However as the entrance examinations are so strict that but very few get through most people don’t think it worth the effort.
I suppose that it would be rather fun to see how a society as misogynist as the ancient Athenians would react to an empire who is all three.
Or what about a polygnandrous society? Something that would make inheritance very difficult given pre-modern understanding of heredity and technological availability, but something where each man and woman could have multiple spouses ranked according to their social status, so guy #1 could have wives 1, 2, and 3, but wife 1 is also married to guys #2 and 3, who have their own relationships to the side with a system of inheritance for each kid. Is that even possible? I'm not sure if such a society could even develop naturally. Maybe a radically derived form of Australian aboriginal kinship systems in a much more densely populated, genetically diverse society?
That vaguely reminds me of an idea I once came opun and thought maybe use if I joined another collaborative fantasy setting: A monarchy with an enatic succession system where in order to avoid succession wars the crown princess traditionally marries the two or three best generals (who all get to keep their previous wives). If a succession war still happens the losing princesses end up as shared slave concubines of the kings with their children adopted by the queen, providing her with more options for diplomatic marriages or possible heirs to declare first in the line to the throne. A system which later gets expanded by giving the daughters of generals who get executed and princesses who got enslaved for ending up as the losing side in a succession war to the crown princess and her husbands.
Though I haven't got the faintest idea how such a thing could evolve. Well except maybe in a kingdom where in order to keep their generals loyal the kings give out their daughters in marriage to them. Which eventually ends up backfiring: whenever a king dies all his sons-in-law proclaim their wife the new monarch and start to slaughter eachother, and the king's sons. After a few generations the royal couple decide to prevent all this bloodshed by marrying their favourite daughters with the three biggest contenders and pre-emptivilly disinheriting their sons. Some centuries later everyone forgets about that and claims it is because in order to be capable of inheriting the throne one needs to matrilineally descend from some goddess or something.