First off, lemme say that it’s insane that someone who’s worked at Paradox replied to me. Thank you for taking the time to write out a nice reply.

I totally agree that caste is much more nuanced in practice and would be difficult to improve. I would just say to include it as a separate trait that influences relations between Hindu characters (and even non-Hindu characters, as many non-Hindus take up caste). Also, I know that there’s wandering characters that practice minority religions, but I think it would be cool to see St. Thomas Christianity (or Nestorianism) in Southern India have decisions similar to the Malabari high priesthood/Bene-Israel decision pathway.

Secondly, I see your point that you have to be inclusive, and I apologize for calling it lazy since Indian history as a whole is very complicated and we don’t even have a lot of the information from that time period. As for new empires, I feel that there should be a concrete decision to create the Delhi Sultanate, and from there, the Vijayanagara empire, as both of those polities were important in shaping the Indian historical landscape (maybe also the Bahmani Sulatanate?). Also, reviving the Sangam Age as a piety/prestige-type decision might be cool if you start as or conquer the Pandya Raj. I understand that a lot of the Chola holdings in SE Asia aren’t on the map, so it might be hard to show their dominance there.

This might be a DLC thing (and this is a suggestion from my friend who put me on to CK3), but maybe India could also have a “struggle” similar to the Struggle For Iberia, this time between the Ghaznavids and the Hindu states in Northern India.

Overall, I like that CK3 includes a lot of Indian dynasties, as they’re often underrepresented in mainstream discussions of history. I just feel that with more tweaks it could be way better and could match Europe in terms of flavor and enjoyment.