Fall of Rome without Christianity

[punkrockbowler805]

So POD is no Christianity. All empires fall so the Romans still will. I would assume Rome stays a mix of Latin civic religion and imported mystery cults like Mithras and Isis. Maybe the empire falls from civil wars in the Tetrarchy. How do the dark ages look? Widespread Germanic paganism? Zoroastrian Persia filling the vacuum and expanding in the Balkans?

[eDGT]

I think SRegan's The Strong West Wind is a pretty good look at a world where Christianity never becomes dominant. Granted western Europe in that TL is dominated by an insular, dominionist Christian state, but they're global pariah's. An alternate interpretation for Britain and Ireland could be boynamedsue's never finished TL.

Here's also the world map, plus Bruce's interpretation of the settings future.

So yeah. I think that German invaders in Gaul, Iberia, and Italy will probably adapt a bunch of the popular Roman cults to their own mythologies and deities. So Mithras would be combined with Wotan or Tyr, that sort of thing. Further north though they're just going to stay about the same. Maybe if a Viking Age picks up and a decent writing system is adopted there might be a more uniform Norse-Germanic mythology. Britain is probably going to end up with with Britons and Gaels adapting Germanic and Norse gods to fit in with their own deities as well, with the different areas emphasizing the Germanic or Celtic aspects depending on who's settled there.

Serapism is kind of cool, so it would be interesting if that could take off in the Eastern Empire, but I don't know enough about it to comment. Maybe in Anatolia it can mingle with elements of Zoroastrianism.

[punkrockbowler805]

Agreed that Britain would end up Celtic under Norse Viking influence. I think a Mediterranean with Gothic run Roman succesor state's and the rest other tribes remaining Germanic culturally would result. Maybe more Huns without the pope bargaining with them. I think Sassanid Persia would takeover Anatolia and the Balkans and Egypt.