New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by ericthered

As a general thought, what type of divergences will completely kill off europe's rise to power? I'm not talking about bringing someone else to power, just not having europe's dominance come up.

Europe's advantages are pretty good, it would take a great deal to knock it down forever. A harsher Little Ice Age that started sooner and lasted longer combined with changes in Catholic Theology that made all math beyond arithmatic sinful might make a start. If all pre-Christian and Non-Christian writtings were held to be diabolic in inspiration and only Bishops and higher ups were allowed to read the Bible, or perhaps, like the Yazidis only the highest riligous authority was allowed to read sacred texts, you might limit literacy enough to stop Europe's rise.

More likely you'd simply get an Islamic conquest, an Islamic European Reformation, and European forms of Islam bitterly attacked by Near Eastern Moslems the same way the Orthodox Christians slam Western Christianity. Europe's geography and resources both promote civilisation and thwart a Universal Imperidum.