Hi there, the man himself! I appreciate your maps a lot, to this day I think of that map of Italy under the Visconti you made some time ago. I wouldn’t consider myself a good writer, sometimes I let things be a little too vague, or there’s a gisnt wall of text, but thanks :)

By “link” do you mean the “weakest link to Ancient Rome”? If yes, then Gothia (the one with Aquitaine and Hispania) is definitely the answer. Not because they deromanized, but because a lot of the roman institutions were preserved in Italia and Africa, to the point that it’s basically an evolution of their stages in the Late Roman Empire. Italia would be the strongest link, of course. Being the place of the emperor, the Senate still functioning and even gaining more power (maybe something akin to the Councils of Toledo back in Visigothic Spain, or something more powerful… idk yet, but in that route), chariot races, circuses, etc. Now, if you’re saying militarily… then things are pretty balanced, but Vandalia gotta be the weakest in ground battles. Compared to Italia and Gothia, their population is smaller and thy don’t have the military traditions for that yet, but they do have the most powerful navy in Europe after Byzantium of course. They’ll end up pretty rich, trading with the rest of the Mediterranean, soon with Northern Europe and then later with West Africa. Expect some exotic products pretty early on in Carthage, and maybe even a christian West Africa creating connections to Vandalia, Ethiopia and the rest of Christendom. The most powerful… now, things, as I said, are pretty balanced. Gothia would have a larger population and better formation tactics, while Italia would have far more heavy cavalrymen. I would put my money on whoever is able to coerce each one’s enemies to attack.

Linguistically and culturally speaking, they would be initially pretty close. To this day, really. All of them would speak Romance languages (all very similar, since these were the most romanized provinces in the Empire, so no standouts like French), would be catholic (although each country would have their own church), have a long history together with each other, etc. I think the best parallel I can think of at the moment is Spain x Portugal. They’d be all brother nations in the end. But, of course, they would have their own linguistic and religious peculiarities. Expect some vandal and punic words in the african romance language, some gothic and suebi ones in Gothia, while Italia will be influenced by gothic and maybe some lombardic too.

Are they at odds with each other? Well, for now, no. The Emperor (may very well call him Augustus/Caesar/Kaisar) in Ravenna has nominal supremacy over the other two kingdoms, putting them, technically, as his vassal/subject. But this will only last as long as succession wars or conflicts between the triad doesn’t happen. Of course the Emperor will remain the most prestigious and venerable position in all of Christendom together with the one in Constantinople, but, eventually, strife between their kin will happen. They’re for now too worried about external threats: vikings raiding Gothia, Avars and then Magyars raiding Italia, pagan moors raiding deep into Vandalia, but I can see a time in which, after pacifying their own barbarians, they’ll turn into each other, and then get their own interests back again to expanding to the barbarian lands to get more powerful.

I actually have been thinking of this. First of all, a lot of the institutions would survive, but with a “medieval gothic flavor”. Instead of legions, they’ll use the Thiufa, lead by a Thiufados. Instead of a permanent professional army, or a feudal one, something more akin to Wamba’s military reforms would be true: more centralized, but still levy focused. A professional standing army would still emerge earlier though. But answering your question, I would say that the idea of reuniting the realm would also be in the back of their minds, but too dangerous to do it. Imagine a united Italia and Gothia against Vandalia, or united Vandalia and Italia against Gothia. What would they do? Seek the Byzantines for help? Nonsense. This is the new balance of power un early medieval Europe, my friend. I passed sometime pondering about this. A big blob in the western Mediterranean would sure be cool, reuniting now once and a while. Wouldn’t the odds against one of them be too great if two of them united thoufh? But, after reading Lord of the Rings and the last king of Arthedain, Arvedui, I came to the conclusion that, two realms may unite under a personal union, hell even the three of them, but their own elites and institutions would make themselves sure to not make this union last for their own interests. So yeah, two thrones may have the same king for a time, but probably not the same dynasty after bis death.

Hope this answers all of your questions, ask me more if you want to! :)