[HoneyBadger]

Hm...This whole discussion gives plenty of fuel to my idea that there should be more than 3 ages. Also, I'm thinking that it would be very nice if you have spell-lists that-while shared by more than one nation-are not universal. You could then have nations influencing other nations and adding spells to their list-kind of like gunpowder being brought over to Japan by the Portuguise/Dutch.

If the Jomon nations traditionally have never had, say, most of the Evocation spells, and by Late Era, suddenly they do, that would be an interesting facsmilie of gunpowder.

I'd really like to have the ability to take away from the main spell list, but I'm not sure if that's fully doable yet.

I've been thinking lately, what the world would be like today if gunpowder had never been invented. Maybe old Genghis Khan slaughtered a few different Chinese and tore down a different town or two in an alternate universe, and in the process nipped gunpowder in the bud.

You'd probably have things like steam-tanks, flame-throwers, and ofcourse advanced crossbows and the like, but warfare would probably have stayed with an emphasis on melee combat, horse-calvalry, and the longbow/crossbow for a much longer period of time. Personal armor would be much more advanced, since it wouldn't have to stop a bullet, but it would have to make your knight more surviveable, which means it wouldn't have a long period of obsolescence. Chemistry itself would probably be a lot more primitive-mustard gas might be on the "cutting edge", and used on a regular basis-as horrible an idea as that is. Ofcourse, it wouldn't be long before gas-masks caught up. Wars might also last for hundreds of years, since they wouldn't be nearly as dramatic or intense.

Eugenics would have probably both caught on and stayed on, as the ruling powers sought to breed more powerful, longer-lasting knights, while democracy and communism would have both suffered (communism probably more than democracy, since atleast some of the nobility through the church would have heard and admired of the Greek example, but then Russia wouldn't be so backwards, compared to the rest of Europe, and that might take the pressure off a bit.). I could definitely see communism popping up in other places than Russia though. Ofcourse, Nazi-style Fascism, with it's xenophobic hatred doctrines and willingness and ability to breed "supermen" would have gone over a lot easier and smoother. The French revolution probably would have still happened, but in America, the colonists would have required a lot more support from their home states, and the Indians wouldn't have had nearly as much of a disadvantage, and would probably still be powerful, especially the Iroquois Nation-both united and in a position to trade with the Europeans. South America ofcourse would still be ruled by the Aztecs, Incas, et all. China itself would probably actually be *more* powerful militarily without the invention of gunpowder-but then, their culture would be the most affected by the loss of fireworks.

Just to bring it back on topic, you might eventually have seen Europe settle into the kind of complacent society Japan was in, in the 15-17th century, only influenced by the ideals of chivalry, rather than the ideals of bushido.
It might not be as good as we'r starting to have it now, but then again, it might not be that bad, either.

If you just took away gunpowder and it's by-products (fireworks and all the centuries of chemical research and safety-practices that goes along with them, black powder, possibly the internal-combustion petrolium engine, probably dynamite, maybe sulfa-drugs) you'd have a much different world, different societies, and a very different battlefield.