User talk:9988/Fantasy universe tier scale/@comment-47205-20110224074028/@comment-47205-20110224092946

Well, it's not a perfect comparison. The Classical Period turned into the Middle Ages in Europe becasue of the collapse of the Roman Empire; in other places in the world there was more of a smooth change between the time of their empires and the Renaissance (but again, the "Renaissance" was really a European concept).

Also, gunpowder isn't something that should be independantly developed in multiple classical nations - on Earth it was only developed once, in China, and spread from there. It's a pretty unusual mixture of chemicals to make, when you think about it; not one that's going to be developed by multiple civilisations.