Here's a snapshot from a Christianity-screw/Paganism-wank medieval timeline that I am working on. The PoD is that Charlemagne dies during the Saxon Wars and as a result the Frankish Empire descends into decades of infighting from which it never fully recovers and Widukind lays the foundation for a Pagan Saxon Empire which halts the eastward spread of Christianity. Here's what Europe and the Mediterranean look like circa later 10th Century:
Some background:
The Saxons have just finished a series of extensive military conquests under the command of Emperor Sigfried II, who is basically a Saxon Alexander the Great. Which is to say that he is a competent and extremely lucky military commander with a lot of good generals, who inherited a military and Kingdom the the previous few generations had been steadily honing to perfection and he attacked at a time when all of Europe was at its weakest due to a mixture of the Magyar invasions, the Muslims and Christians getting into a big scrap and the Viking Age still going strong. This is not sustainable, however, and after Sigfried's death the Empire will decline rapidly, although they will still remain one of the main powers in Northern Europe for some time.
Light Green are the various Irish Petty Kingdoms.
Dark Green are Muslim states. They aren't a single unified power I just haven't figured out their political divisions yet.
Yellow are Saxon tributaries.
Beige are Saxon vassal states.
Because they weren't conquered by the Franks and Christianised the Avars remain a distinct culture and regional power. The recent invasion of Pannonia by the Magyars, however, has displaced them leading to a mass migration and invasion of south-eastern Germany (around OTL Austria and Southern Bavaria). This invasion significantly weakened the Kingdom of Bavaria. After the Saxons conquered the remaining parts of the Kingdom of Bavaria the Avars chose to bend the knee.
The Kingdom of England is descended from the territories of the Danelaw, which were more politically unified and had military support from Saxony, which went on to fully conquer the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, although they needed a little help from the Welsh to finish off the last holdouts in the South (hence why Wales is bigger). Inheriting a more literate and socially complex society the Anglo-Danes have largely assimilated into Anglo-Saxon culture, although they haven't embraced Christianity. Unlike the Saxons, who have a tendency to persecute Christians because they haven't quite gotten over the burning of the Irminsul, the Anglo-Danes have a well established tradition of religious toleration, due to ruling over a population that is vastly Christian, which has allowed them to play different Christian sects and schisms against each other. Whilst nominally a vassal of the Saxon Empire in practice England remains very independent from Saxon interference and will completely break away from Saxon control in the aftermath of Sigfried's death. At present the other Kings of Britain currently recognise the English King as the Overlord of Britain, which was a form of Suzerainty during that time period where they swear fealty to the individual at the time but not their kingdom which means that such bonds formally end when the Overlord dies. They also have extensive ties to the Norse enclaves in Ireland and the Islands and will eventually absorb them into the Kingdom.
Wales is currently ruled by a puppet King installed the the English, following a period of religious unrest, in the hopes of stabilising the region. Said King is in a rather precarious position and come the turn of the Century, when all the fun millenarian cults start springing up, Wales will eventually be incorporated into England as an Earldoman.
The Bulgarians, Khazars and Abbasids teamed up to dismember the Byzantine Empire between them. The Khazars still convert to Judaism as IOTL and I'm in two minds over whether or not to have the Bulgarians join them or remain Pagan.
Illyria is a predominantly Slavic Pagan Empire in the Balkans that also took a bite out of the Byzantines and is currently looking to expand into Italy and Greece. Still not worked out the details beyond their existence and immediate goals.
The remaining Christian Kingdoms currently form a buffer between the Saxons and European Muslims. Whilst each side could probably take them if they were fully committed it would be a long and difficult fight and they would end up fighting a more powerful enemy at the other end. The Christians are probably a little closer to the Muslims than the Pagan Saxons and Umayyads are playing up the idea of them being the protectors of the Peoples of the Book in Western Europe.
1. Strathclyde
2. Kingdom of the Isles and other Norse settlements
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. Geatland (remains an independent kingdom due to Saxon interference in Scandinavia)
6. Various Finns and whatnot
7. Kingdom of Aquitaine (in time they will fill the vacuum caused by the collapse of Saxons control in northern France, as well as absorb the neighbouring Christian Kingdoms and will form the core of an alt-French Kingdom)
8. Kingdom of Burgundy
9. Duchy of Provence
10. Kingdom (or so they still insist) of Lombardy
11. Duchy of Ravenna
