Re: New Reality Seeds
Gnosis
Current year 1965 A.D.
POD
1st Century A.D. different outcomes in obscure intra—Christian debates
4th Century: an influential Gnostic cult becomes Roman state religion. The new church teaches that the material world is the realm of chaos, dissolution, and illusion. It denigrates material science and secular learning as vanities.
Gnostic mob burns Library of Alexandria.
Roman Empire breaks up in West by end of 5th Century, Alexandrian/Eastern Empire lasts until 9th Century.
Islam never comes into being, but 7th Century Arabs convert to a strain of Gnosticism hostile to Roman/Alexandrian church.
No Pepinids/Carolingians. Avars conquer Frankland/Gaul.
No monks preserving texts, no Medieval Scholastics, no University of Paris. No Early Modern European Scientific Revolution.
European colonial/imperial development is retarded.
TL 3 600 to 1550 A.D.
TL 4 1550- 1900 A.D.
TL 5 1900 – present day
Civilized nations reached early TL within the last two generations. Tech is equivalent to Napoleonic Europe, with scientific theories less well-developed.
Great powers:
• Persian Empire
• Chinese Empire
• Hindustan
• Javanese Empire
• Inka United Provinces
• Avar Dominion
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