[quote=@AlphaBlue]
I did have an idea that might fit though, since the bronze age does not seem possible.

What if: During the 1300's, the Black Death ravaged Europe. Spreading across the continent, the plague took no prisoners as it slaughtered farmers, artisans and royalty. Finally, after over 10 years of destruction, the plague seems to have finally dissipated. What peasants find however is their nations ruined, the populations decimated, and their rulers either dead or exiled. Through the ashes of destruction, new nations are to be born, ruled by daring men and women.

We could do something like this. That way, new nations can emerge, some even based off of old ruling kingdoms, etc. We could even retcon it further, making the plague last even longer and killing even more people then historically. The game would have a slight apocalyptic edge to it and allow player creation.
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You are aware that's pretty much happened, minus total national destruction. The Crown has a way of finding new heads so there wouldn't have been a total political upheaval, even if the Black Plague took more. If anything, it would cause a shift in the social framework in these nations; just to a greater extent.

It's that sort of business that laid the beginning ground works of what would be the Renaissance. But assuming everyone dies sort of thinks ill of everyone at the time and implies they're dumber than they were. They had their ways of handling disease.

Frankly, the easier thing to do would be to go a fictional world. They way no one takes anything for granted, misrepresents everyone poorly, or has to make some wild and stupid event happen just so we can turn France into the medieval United States of Gaul.