integrating real life into a fantasy world?

the thing i'm stuck on though, is figuring out how the countries now would form the shape that is Prepania (the continent i'm building), and how the regions would divide up into pirates, cowboys, and other things that make no sense from a futuristic standpoint.

So it sounds like you've got the map figured out, kinda, but now you need help with how cowboys and pirates and cyborgs and ghosts end up all coexisting in a futuristic world. Right?

Couple of ideas, if you haven't though of them:

1. Extreme nationalism. Perhaps aspects of a particular Old Country have been amplified as history has been twisted by the passing of time. For instance, the US is no longer in history textbooks. It's all just called Texas now, and all the Texans were cowboys (of course), so any descendant of someone from the Old Country Texas would be a cowboy by default. That's their heritage, their national identity. Maybe the people from an ocean-or-water-related old country, like the Mediterranean area, only remember their ancestors as pirates. So of course, if you're from that region, you're a pirate. It just makes sense. Perhaps a country was known for delving deep into tech (Like China) and now their borders are full of cyborgs. Maybe a country or area full of spirit-religion and ancestor worship (like India or Africa) would be prone to their people turning into ghosts after death. Maybe something like that.

2. Religion. You mentioned you wanted religion in your future world. Maybe the cowboys and pirates stick to their older, less-futuristic ways of living out of religious devotion. They worship the spirit of Roy Rogers and Blackbeard, or something like that. The Cyborgs might worship the pursuit of tech advances, and the ghosts may have some religious-based supernatural power that allows them to be ghosts. Anything can be explained by a pantheon of gods or religious beliefs.

3. Maybe it's just economic status. Cowboys are poor farmers and ranchers, living in a poorer section of the continent. They don't have access to advanced tech or ways of living, so they live with what they can get their hands on. Horses, revolvers, and lariats. Pirates are poor as well, which has driven them to crime, except they live near big bodies of water, so of course it's piracy. The black market can only get them a certain level of tech- like old ships with sails and cannons and such. The Cyborgs are rich people, frantically trying to stay alive by replacing the dying parts of them with expensive tech. And maybe the Ghosts are the richest top percent, who can afford to have their minds digitalized, and become immortal programs, sorta like AI, but not programming. Just ghosts of their former selves.

4. Maybe it's all just futuristic. For instance, instead of cowboys riding horses, they ride genetically altered and mutated mounts that are crazy fast and strong. They use lazer guns instead of revolvers, and they keep huge herds of cattle using drones and robot ranchhands. Maybe pirates aren't on ships with regular sails and anchors and cannons, they're on 'ships' that hover above the water and the land, and fire ion cannons. They use solar sails instead of wind sails, and they move at lightning speeds, crewed by a mix of men and computer intelligences. The Cyborgs are, of course, already a futuristic blending of tech and flesh, and maybe they make up a big part of the population, since replacing body parts is so easy now. Cyborg pets. Cyborgs getting married and having a cyborg baby, They become so natural and normal they have their own society. And maybe ghosts are those who have transcended their physical bodies. Maybe they're AI's who have grown a personality. Maybe they're a digital copy of a dead person's mind. Maybe they're some voodoo science we don't grasp. But really, you can explain literally any kind of culture or group with this one.

Just some ideas, if you're trying to figure out how those all get transitioned from the Old Country to the new continent :)

Thumbs up. I try :)