AHC: Worst Case Scenario For Christianity After The Fall of the Roman Emoire

Your mission is simple: with a PoD no earlier then the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D, construct a worse case scenario for Christianity (of all sects and branches, with worst-case meaning as few followers as possible) that does not involve total depopulation of Christendom. You are allowed to use plagues to weaken nations, but try to avoid it as much as possible.

Extra points for paganism taking Chrisianity's place. 500x points for having Christianity die off altogether.

Begin!
 
the only thing that comes to mind is a typical Islam-wank


POD 610 A.D. - a storm hits Heraclius' fleet, sinking most of it and killing him.

Phokas continues his incompetent rule and Constantinople falls in 626. The Persians however severely weaken their position with attempted invasions of Greece and Carthage. Maybe add a civil war or two, and when (after the appropriate butterflies create a more aggressive version of Islam) the Arabs come knocking, the entire house falls down. Meanwhile the Avars settle in the Balkans.

By ~700 AD the Arabs have pushed as far west as Morrocco and as far north as the greek coastal areas. The Balkan interior is dominated by Slavs, who eventually convert to Islam.

By 750, instead of attacking Spain, Italy is invaded and more or less conquered all the way to the Alps.

Spain follows cca 820. When the Caliphate breaks up, both Spain and Italy manage to stay united instead of fracturing and, over time, grow predominantly muslim.

Islam meanwhile continues to spread among the Slavic tribes to the north.

With a bit of luck, the Maghyars, if they still arrive in Pannonia, convert to Islam as well.


When the colonial Age comes, have muslim Spain do at least as well as the christian one in OTL and be very thorough with the conversion of native Americans.

If some muslim states get an industrial revolution at around the same time as the europeans, then maybe a great deal more of Africa might turn muslim as well, even more so if they beat Nubia and Ethiopia early in the game.




Alternatively maybe something involving Zoroastrianism becoming popular ?


Getting Graeco-Roman paganism back up to strength with any POD after Julian the Apostate is IMO impossible, and even with everything going right for Julian I'm not sure it has any reasonable chances.
 
If Christianity disapears or become a small thing, Islam may not even be there - there was christians in Arabia, and with the jews, seeped the idea of One God around, and so....
 
If Christianity disapears or become a small thing, Islam may not even be there - there was christians in Arabia, and with the jews, seeped the idea of One God around, and so....

Getting rid of Christianity before Mohammed but after 476 is ASB, unless you're land a dino-killer and eliminate most of the human race or something. I agree that Islam wank is probably the best way to do this.
 
Alternatively maybe something involving Zoroastrianism becoming popular ?


Getting Graeco-Roman paganism back up to strength with any POD after Julian the Apostate is IMO impossible, and even with everything going right for Julian I'm not sure it has any reasonable chances.

It doesn't have to be Greco-Roman. It could also be Norse, Germanic, Russian, etc.
 
the only thing that comes to mind is a typical Islam-wank


POD 610 A.D. - a storm hits Heraclius' fleet, sinking most of it and killing him.

Phokas continues his incompetent rule and Constantinople falls in 626. The Persians however severely weaken their position with attempted invasions of Greece and Carthage. Maybe add a civil war or two, and when (after the appropriate butterflies create a more aggressive version of Islam) the Arabs come knocking, the entire house falls down. Meanwhile the Avars settle in the Balkans.

By ~700 AD the Arabs have pushed as far west as Morrocco and as far north as the greek coastal areas. The Balkan interior is dominated by Slavs, who eventually convert to Islam.

By 750, instead of attacking Spain, Italy is invaded and more or less conquered all the way to the Alps.

Spain follows cca 820. When the Caliphate breaks up, both Spain and Italy manage to stay united instead of fracturing and, over time, grow predominantly muslim.

Islam meanwhile continues to spread among the Slavic tribes to the north.

With a bit of luck, the Maghyars, if they still arrive in Pannonia, convert to Islam as well.


When the colonial Age comes, have muslim Spain do at least as well as the christian one in OTL and be very thorough with the conversion of native Americans.

If some muslim states get an industrial revolution at around the same time as the europeans, then maybe a great deal more of Africa might turn muslim as well, even more so if they beat Nubia and Ethiopia early in the game.




Alternatively maybe something involving Zoroastrianism becoming popular ?


Getting Graeco-Roman paganism back up to strength with any POD after Julian the Apostate is IMO impossible, and even with everything going right for Julian I'm not sure it has any reasonable chances.
Battle of Tours and a Muslim William the Conqueror. Russsia converts to Islam. Christian is a German and Scandinavian was converting to Christianity around this time. Germany gets converted in a *30 years War / alt. Crusades.
Poof, Christianity is gone as a state-sponsored entity in Europe. Ethiopia is the last Christian state...
 
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Worst case would be something that keeps Christianity from ever coming into being.

Perhaps the Macabees fail and the Jews are fully Hellenized before Rome comes along?
 
Battle of Tours and a Muslim William the Conqueror. Russsia converts to Islam. Christian is a German and Scandinavian was converting to Christianity around this time. Germany gets converted in a *30 years War / alt. Crusades.
Poof, Christianity is gone as a state-sponsored entity in Europe. Ethiopia is the last Christian state...


having the muslims conquer France and England with the POD at the battle of Tours would be like having the 6th Army take Stalingrad and then link up with the Japanese. They're so far from their base of operations and neck-deep in hostile territory it's not even funny.
 
having the muslims conquer France and England with the POD at the battle of Tours would be like having the 6th Army take Stalingrad and then link up with the Japanese. They're so far from their base of operations and neck-deep in hostile territory it's not even funny.

The siege of Constantinople would be better. If the Moslems convert the Bulgars and Balkan Slavs, they are well placed to conquer Italy as well as Spain. Since Garmany was still half heathen, and Eastern Europe, Russia and Scandinavia wholly so, they are liable to be converted, which leaves a Western Christendom reduced to Gaul and the British Isles, both of which could be conquered later.
 
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