Thank you for the offer! Right now, obviously, I'm getting sucked into a Cold War mod, but I'll probably cycle it to the backburner in a few so that I don't burn out (this being a largish mod, I imagine pacing myself is going to be important) or fall behind on the projects that actually make me money.
South Africa
Afrikareich/Sofrica is great, and I like what your idea about the narrative that they're building. They'll definitely have a problem with the USSA, which might have its problems but is, I imagine, doing fairly well on promoting racial integration.
Isolationist Nazi South Africa has a lot of potential.
Yunnan
Oh, I can see that, definitely. It's probably the Dominion that overran Bharatiya. If we want the subcontinent to remain divided then they probably stopped because they were leery of the Princely Federation. If not, then they were stupid and kept going and the Princely Federation attacked while they were occupied. Either way, it makes perfect sense for the Dominion to either fatally overextend itself or fear doing so, because it's never been going about raising a large army in my games and the rest of the Entente is falling apart at this time.
I see what you're saying about Yunnan being Totalist, and why. Is there another way that we can give the Third International some influence here? I rather like the idea of Eurafrica and the USSA fighting over ultimate control of syndicalism in East Asia (partly because it fits the idea of this ideological struggle between two forms of syndicalism and partly because it gives the two of them another thing to do before the 3rd WK).
Yunnan feels a little like Syndicalist!Canada, with the exiles and all.
The Princely Federation
Either way, I like the idea that the Princely Federation has gradually relaxed since then, with a few states breaking off as puppets and leaving the PF in a position to further balkanize, not unlike the Union can do under the rad!synds, or re-integrate.
Axis * Austrian Sphere
I really like this. Most likely, there would be paths for either side to more closely align with the Eurasians or Eurafricans, prompting the other to take the opposite course. This won't necessarily be the start of the 3rd WK, but it's a possible route.
Looking at the map, Tripolitania will probably be under Italian oversight or run by a native syndicalist government, but the Axis could also try to expand into Abyssinia and Somalia in Africa, Oman and Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, and even Afghanistan and India to the east, assuming that Persia is part of the Axis.
Speaking of Persia, though... I'd like for there to be a Kurdistan, but Persia always tries to eat it. What if there's an option for Persia to leave the Axis for the Austrians and Ottomans in exchange for Kurdistan? The situation kind of reminds me of OTL Italy, come to think of it.
On the other hand, Persia could choose to expand eastward into Afghanistan and/or India, so the shape of the Axis/Austrian war could depend a lot on whether Persia wants to go west or east.
If there's a war, I imagine that the Austrians will strike first: they may have an advantage for now, but their ability to expand before the war is pretty limited. It might, however, guarantee the independence of those border countries (I'm imagining a trio of focuses, one each for Abyssinia/Somalia, Oman/Yemen, and Afghanistan, guaranteeing their independence and leading to additional focuses that forge closer connections and eventually an alliance, so the Austrians will have to decide whether to focus on building up internally or creating a coalition that can hit the Axis from multiple directions).
Third International
Especially because we'd want to contrast them against the USSA, the International should probably leave well enough alone for the time being. One of the French endgame focuses is "Peaceful Revolution," so the Third International is probably focusing on strengthening syndicalist movements abroad (maybe with focuses for building and sparking revolutions in various countries?).
Regardless, the International has spent a few years fighting a bloody war through Europe and then half of Africa, and now the USSA is threatening Brazil, the Russo-Japanese Alliance is next door, and the Austrians have probably just finished mopping up the Balkans. In this situation, the wisest thing is probably to leave the stragglers alone, consolidate the gains already made, and build up.
To avoid pissing them off, though, I can see their neighbors democratizing to an extent, becoming constitutional monarchies if they have monarchs at all.
I like the idea of a confederated Europe, again to contrast with the USSA.
Nat!focus possibilities
Russo-Japanese Alliance
Good point. I think that Russia was still led by a military dictatorship after Kerensky but, as has happened on a rare few occasions IRL, they genuinely worked to restore Russian democracy and are no longer in power.
If Japan is becoming more democratic, have they given partial autonomy to Korea and Taiwan as puppets rather than annexed territories?
USSA
I'd like them to be more cold and technocratic, earnestly building toward a brighter and better tomorrow but doing so on a foundation of corpses. Maybe insane in some ways, but also competent: some of their ideas (like Americanization) will be rolled out across the hemisphere in more or less one go, but they'll also hold back some of their plans until those can be tested on a smaller scale. There's a book that describes Stalin as "a gangster who really believed that he was a social scientist." In contrast, the General Secretary of the USSA really is both a gangster and a social scientist, or at least willing to listen to the social scientists and not shoot them in a bout of paranoia.
At least, this was true of the previous General Secretary. Probably, when the mod opens, the previous GS has died or retired and a new GS is about to be elected, and there's a set of national focuses that lets you choose whether to purge or not, not unlike the nat!focuses of Stalin's Russia in vanilla HOI4. You can probably purge multiple sectors of society, not just the military, and doing so will instill various penalties but reduce the risk of revolution. And there's surely going to be potential for revolution: in Quebec, in the Southern U.S., and in various countries in Central and South America. It'll probably be possible for the USSA to just dissolve over the matter of a few months if things go very terribly wrong, without a shot fired by the Eurafricans or Russo-Japanese.
I also think that they'll still be in the middle of reconstruction. That takes years, after all, so there will be plenty of focuses for both reconstruction and the consolidation of newly-acquired territories. There may be certain parallels to the Ottoman Empire, in that they could be toppled easily if struck at the wrong moment (or heck, just fall apart on their own if enough goes wrong)--but might be unbeatable if given the opportunity to solidify their position.
Other Matters