Alternate History Thread IV: The Sequel
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The Strategos
Thanatos
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Chapter 1: Earths Funeral Dirge
Chapter 2: Mouth of Sheol
Chapter 3: Flames of Purgatory
Father Bernard slipped his fingers over the worn cross, speaking every word of Latin he had ever remembered hearing. Nam etsi ambulavero in medio umbræ mortis,
non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es. He was not sure what it meant, but a wandering monk had taught him it in exchange for some food. The monk had told him to say it whenever he needed something from God, for of course God would pay more attention to the language of the Holy Word and Mother Church. Now, Father Bernard hoped that monk was right, for if ever he needed God, this was that moment.
To his left, a baby started crying, provoked, no doubt, at the sound of screaming outside the walls of the church. Vainly the mother attempted to hush it. However, the baby proved perceptive, hearing the tension in its mothers voice, it became even more frantic.
A sudden crash turned everyones attention away from the baby and towards the door. This crash was quickly followed by several others in quick succession. Evidently, the barbarians had finally turned their attention towards the church and what they supposed was the loot it contained.
Dont worry, Father Bernard spoke in what he hoped was a soothing voice to those huddled for sanctuary in the church. God will protect us.
Unfortunately for those seeking refuge in the church, Father Bernard was proven to be a liar. At the next blow, the door caved slightly in, and at the blows that followed, collapsed completely. In swarmed the five barbarians, each holding an axe larger than themselves. Fortunately for the Father, the barbarians were in a hurry, so they didnt have time to properly torture him in order to find out where the valuables were hidden. Still, the Father took comfort in his last pain-ridden moments that unlike the heretics to the East, he would be guaranteed a spot in Heaven. And at his dying moments, Father Bernard was faced with a divine puzzle. Who would suffer the worst torments in Hell, those Eastern heretics, or his own killers, those thrice cursed Vikings?
While the children of proud Mother Rome fought amongst themselves, in the sand-swept regions of Arabia, a man preached a new Truth, one whose message was authenticated by the glorious angel he had received it from. Around this charismatic figure the divided tribes of the Arabs gathered. Soon, fueled by religious fervor and strengthened by years of petty warfare these tribes spilled out of Arabia, bringing not only the sword, but also Allahs will.
Their first target was the weakened state of the Sassanids. Though still formidable, the Sassanids had never really recovered from the overwhelming defeats they had suffered against the Huns so many years before. Though a series of dynastic changes had installed great kings on their throne, these kings could do little except hold together their Empire and hold back their aggressive neighbors. Also, while these dynastic changes had made great warriors kings, it had also bled the Sassanids dry through the ever more frequent civil war and strife. Thus, when the holy warriors from the south came, they found the Sassanid Empire practically begging to be conquered, a feat which they accomplished by 643 CE, a mere eleven years after the Prophets death.
From this conquest they spread west and south, conquering the Hunnish led Palestine by 647, while they were involved in one of the numerous Egyptian religious wars. This conquest naturally led them to Egypt itself, where their hostility to both religious factions and brutal treatment of those who resisted quickly pacified the religiously exhausted residents. This led to a surprisingly short campaign which was concluded by 649. After a short period of reconsolidation, by 651, the Arabs were again ready to take the offensive. At this point, the conquerors split their forces, one moving north towards Anatolia, the other continuing west along the coast of Northern Africa.
The northern army quickly ran into a foe who proved much more formidable than any of their conquests before, the powerful Roman Empire of the Franks. Though originally the Franks all fought on foot, warfare with the cavalry dominated Gothic kingdoms to the west and Huns to the south provoked them to develop their own formidable branch of cavalry. Armed with both bow and lance, the Frankish cavalry was diversified enough to handle both the heavy Gothic cavalry which relied on shock combat as well as the lighter Hunnish cavalry. The Franks were also well led, their diverse battlefields giving rise to a military class who was equally adept at dismounting cavalry to solidify their infantry as using their versatile cavalry to charge a wavering enemy.
The first major battle of the Frankish-Arab War occurred outside of the important Frankish city of Antioch. There, the Arab advance guard was defeated, and the Frankish counterattacked southward, threatening Damascus itself before being pushed back in a series of sharp battles. While that front stabilized south of Antioch, another Arab strike managed to capture the Frankish province of Cyprus in 653 CE.
Meanwhile, the other main Arab thrust was westward, in an effort to secure Egypts western flank and spread Islam. From their base in Egypt, the Arabs crushed the homoousion supporting Kingdom of Cyrene, before continuing westward, meeting the powerful Kingdom of Carthage. This enemy the Arabs pushed back to Tacape before meeting defeat there. However, a renewed offensive in 662 CE defeated the Kingdom of Carthage, cumulating in the capture of Carthage itself in 665.
This conquest, however, brought the expanding Arabs to the attention of the Roman Empire of the Vandals, who had maintained extensive trade with the Kingdom of Carthage. This led to a Vandal attack on Arab Carthage launched from the Vandal province of Sicily. The naval battle of Utica ended in a Vandal victory, which allowed them to land forces in northern Africa. The Arab conquerors were betrayed by their subjects, who opened the gates to their homoousion brethren, joining them in expelling the Arabs, who were forced to withdraw south, creating a stable border just north of Gigthis by 670. This defeat, combined with the stalemate against the Franks in the west, virtually ended the Arab expansion to the north and west. With the sole exception of the on-again, off-again border wars and the failed expedition against Crete in 742 CE, from then on, the Arabs focused their expansions to the south and east, as well as to various internal revolts and consolidations.
It was the feast day of Saints Primus and Felician, and the various monks of the Lindisfarne Abbey were preparing for the Lauds. Unfortunately for them, it would be the last prayer service they would conduct, as raiders who would eventually be known and feared as Vikings attacked the abbey, killing or enslaving the monks who worshipped there and taking the abbeys treasure as loot. Though not the first raid by the people known as Vikings, the fame of the abbey and brutality of the raid would cause the tale of the abbeys destruction to be spread throughout the courts of Europe.
The attack on Lindisfarne would signal the start of the period described by more than one chronicler of the time as the Second Age of the Pagan. From the Saxon kingdoms on the British Isles, to the Lombard kingdoms of Hispania, even penetrating as far as the Arab kingdom of Egypt, no kingdom with a coast was safe from the Vikings. While it is true that the Vikings were for the most part raiders, there were four significant settlements which would prove crucial to the history of Europe.
The first of these settlements also was the site of the first great raid, the British Isles. While at first coming only to raid, these raiding groups continued to grow larger and larger, until what can only be described as a full invasion occurred in 865 CE. From their newly won base at Jorvick[1], the Vikings continued to expand, conquering several small Saxon kingdoms. This expansion was temporarily checked by the kingdom of Wessex in a series of battles starting in 871, but by 878 the Vikings were again on the offensive, and in 897 destroyed the last independent Saxon kingdom.
Meanwhile, the Vikings were also pushing into Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe had long been a battleground between the competing homoousion and homoiousion parties. These religions had in many places divided itself along the lines of old tribal rivalries, adding religious hatred as yet another excuse to constantly war. By 859, the Varangians, as the Vikings were known by the locals, had either conquered or forced into tribute many of the warring tribes. Combining settling with conquering, the Varangians continued to expand, quickly establishing a crucial trade route that ran north to south, and, along with the tributes extracted from the various tribes, added to their wealth.
In Gaul, the Burgundian Empire suffered heavily under the Viking advance. Though large, the Burgundian Empire was fragile, both militarily and socially. Added to this were the plenteous navigable rivers and a vast coastline, which proved access both to the borders and interior of the empire. Settlers began arriving on the coast in the late 880s, and though the Burgundian Empire was saved by the successful defense of Paris in 890, by 900s, the Vikings had created a strong state in northern Gaul, officially a Burgundian vassal, though in fact independent. Though starting out with heavy Norse influences, by the mid 900s, the Viking settlers had intermingled to such an extent with the Burgundian natives that all that was left of their Viking heritage was a bastardized Norse tongue and the name of their land, Normandy.
The Mediterranean also did not escape from the ravages of the Vikings either. The raids of the Vikings against the Lombard Kingdom of Hispania partly contributed, along with internal difficulties and other external pressures, to the collapse of the Lombard Kingdom. Though the kingdom rebounded in 950, its North African territories would remain lost to it. These North African territories eventually came under the control, not of the Vikings, but the Berbers, who took advantage of the Lombards weakness to expand into southern Hispania as well. Though the Viking settlement in southern Hispania quickly fell to the Berbers, it did provide a crucial stepping stone for their more lasting raids into Vandal North Africa and Italy. In the early parts of the 900s, Viking raiders and pirates interrupted the grain shipments from Sicily and North Africa to Italy, sparking bread shortages and famines. Taking advantage of this weakness, the Vikings managed to conquer Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily and Carthage, and even managed to make a presence in southern Italy. However, by the late 900s, the Vikings had lost the momentum. The unsuccessful siege of Rome in 982 saw the highpoint of the Vikings advance. Though maintaining a foothold, the Vikings were pushed southward and both Sardinia and Corsica were liberated soon afterwards. Mirroring the earlier Burgundian response to the Vikings, the Vandals also acknowledged the Viking claim over Sicily, southern Italy, and Carthage in return for becoming vassals. Also mirroring the events of Gaul, the Viking settlers and conquerors soon merged with the natives, adopting both their Christianity as well as other social customs.
As 1000 CE dawned, the emphasis turned less on mere survival, and great kings once again thought of expanding. The problems lay, not in finding an excuse to engage in war, but to decide which excuse to use. For both the homoousion and homoiousion parties, opportunities surrounded them. Palestine begged to be freed from the Muslim infidels, Egypt once again beckoned to be fought over, and central and eastern Europe called to be cleansed from the last of the pagans. And then, there was, of course, always each other, the great heretics who had long been a thorn in each others side. Added to this, was, of course the matters closer to home for various kings, the petty feuds and promise of border wars. Meanwhile to the east the armies of Islam gathered once again, either to be set loose in a glorious heavenly war, or once again wasted in the quicksand of politics and civil wars. Finally, to the north the former strongholds of Vikings once again gathered, perhaps once again to make the kings of the world fear their name.
And the men of the earth roared their battle cries, and the stars of the sky shook in their places, and once again the heavens went to war Anonymous Chronicler, Written in the Year of Our Lord 1000
[1] York
Chapter 2: Mouth of Sheol
Chapter 3: Flames of Purgatory
Wars of Heaven
Chapter 4: The Kingdom of Heaven is Like Unto This
Chapter 4: The Kingdom of Heaven is Like Unto This
Father Bernard slipped his fingers over the worn cross, speaking every word of Latin he had ever remembered hearing. Nam etsi ambulavero in medio umbræ mortis,
non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es. He was not sure what it meant, but a wandering monk had taught him it in exchange for some food. The monk had told him to say it whenever he needed something from God, for of course God would pay more attention to the language of the Holy Word and Mother Church. Now, Father Bernard hoped that monk was right, for if ever he needed God, this was that moment.
To his left, a baby started crying, provoked, no doubt, at the sound of screaming outside the walls of the church. Vainly the mother attempted to hush it. However, the baby proved perceptive, hearing the tension in its mothers voice, it became even more frantic.
A sudden crash turned everyones attention away from the baby and towards the door. This crash was quickly followed by several others in quick succession. Evidently, the barbarians had finally turned their attention towards the church and what they supposed was the loot it contained.
Dont worry, Father Bernard spoke in what he hoped was a soothing voice to those huddled for sanctuary in the church. God will protect us.
Unfortunately for those seeking refuge in the church, Father Bernard was proven to be a liar. At the next blow, the door caved slightly in, and at the blows that followed, collapsed completely. In swarmed the five barbarians, each holding an axe larger than themselves. Fortunately for the Father, the barbarians were in a hurry, so they didnt have time to properly torture him in order to find out where the valuables were hidden. Still, the Father took comfort in his last pain-ridden moments that unlike the heretics to the East, he would be guaranteed a spot in Heaven. And at his dying moments, Father Bernard was faced with a divine puzzle. Who would suffer the worst torments in Hell, those Eastern heretics, or his own killers, those thrice cursed Vikings?
While the children of proud Mother Rome fought amongst themselves, in the sand-swept regions of Arabia, a man preached a new Truth, one whose message was authenticated by the glorious angel he had received it from. Around this charismatic figure the divided tribes of the Arabs gathered. Soon, fueled by religious fervor and strengthened by years of petty warfare these tribes spilled out of Arabia, bringing not only the sword, but also Allahs will.
Their first target was the weakened state of the Sassanids. Though still formidable, the Sassanids had never really recovered from the overwhelming defeats they had suffered against the Huns so many years before. Though a series of dynastic changes had installed great kings on their throne, these kings could do little except hold together their Empire and hold back their aggressive neighbors. Also, while these dynastic changes had made great warriors kings, it had also bled the Sassanids dry through the ever more frequent civil war and strife. Thus, when the holy warriors from the south came, they found the Sassanid Empire practically begging to be conquered, a feat which they accomplished by 643 CE, a mere eleven years after the Prophets death.
From this conquest they spread west and south, conquering the Hunnish led Palestine by 647, while they were involved in one of the numerous Egyptian religious wars. This conquest naturally led them to Egypt itself, where their hostility to both religious factions and brutal treatment of those who resisted quickly pacified the religiously exhausted residents. This led to a surprisingly short campaign which was concluded by 649. After a short period of reconsolidation, by 651, the Arabs were again ready to take the offensive. At this point, the conquerors split their forces, one moving north towards Anatolia, the other continuing west along the coast of Northern Africa.
The northern army quickly ran into a foe who proved much more formidable than any of their conquests before, the powerful Roman Empire of the Franks. Though originally the Franks all fought on foot, warfare with the cavalry dominated Gothic kingdoms to the west and Huns to the south provoked them to develop their own formidable branch of cavalry. Armed with both bow and lance, the Frankish cavalry was diversified enough to handle both the heavy Gothic cavalry which relied on shock combat as well as the lighter Hunnish cavalry. The Franks were also well led, their diverse battlefields giving rise to a military class who was equally adept at dismounting cavalry to solidify their infantry as using their versatile cavalry to charge a wavering enemy.
The first major battle of the Frankish-Arab War occurred outside of the important Frankish city of Antioch. There, the Arab advance guard was defeated, and the Frankish counterattacked southward, threatening Damascus itself before being pushed back in a series of sharp battles. While that front stabilized south of Antioch, another Arab strike managed to capture the Frankish province of Cyprus in 653 CE.
Meanwhile, the other main Arab thrust was westward, in an effort to secure Egypts western flank and spread Islam. From their base in Egypt, the Arabs crushed the homoousion supporting Kingdom of Cyrene, before continuing westward, meeting the powerful Kingdom of Carthage. This enemy the Arabs pushed back to Tacape before meeting defeat there. However, a renewed offensive in 662 CE defeated the Kingdom of Carthage, cumulating in the capture of Carthage itself in 665.
This conquest, however, brought the expanding Arabs to the attention of the Roman Empire of the Vandals, who had maintained extensive trade with the Kingdom of Carthage. This led to a Vandal attack on Arab Carthage launched from the Vandal province of Sicily. The naval battle of Utica ended in a Vandal victory, which allowed them to land forces in northern Africa. The Arab conquerors were betrayed by their subjects, who opened the gates to their homoousion brethren, joining them in expelling the Arabs, who were forced to withdraw south, creating a stable border just north of Gigthis by 670. This defeat, combined with the stalemate against the Franks in the west, virtually ended the Arab expansion to the north and west. With the sole exception of the on-again, off-again border wars and the failed expedition against Crete in 742 CE, from then on, the Arabs focused their expansions to the south and east, as well as to various internal revolts and consolidations.
It was the feast day of Saints Primus and Felician, and the various monks of the Lindisfarne Abbey were preparing for the Lauds. Unfortunately for them, it would be the last prayer service they would conduct, as raiders who would eventually be known and feared as Vikings attacked the abbey, killing or enslaving the monks who worshipped there and taking the abbeys treasure as loot. Though not the first raid by the people known as Vikings, the fame of the abbey and brutality of the raid would cause the tale of the abbeys destruction to be spread throughout the courts of Europe.
The attack on Lindisfarne would signal the start of the period described by more than one chronicler of the time as the Second Age of the Pagan. From the Saxon kingdoms on the British Isles, to the Lombard kingdoms of Hispania, even penetrating as far as the Arab kingdom of Egypt, no kingdom with a coast was safe from the Vikings. While it is true that the Vikings were for the most part raiders, there were four significant settlements which would prove crucial to the history of Europe.
The first of these settlements also was the site of the first great raid, the British Isles. While at first coming only to raid, these raiding groups continued to grow larger and larger, until what can only be described as a full invasion occurred in 865 CE. From their newly won base at Jorvick[1], the Vikings continued to expand, conquering several small Saxon kingdoms. This expansion was temporarily checked by the kingdom of Wessex in a series of battles starting in 871, but by 878 the Vikings were again on the offensive, and in 897 destroyed the last independent Saxon kingdom.
Meanwhile, the Vikings were also pushing into Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe had long been a battleground between the competing homoousion and homoiousion parties. These religions had in many places divided itself along the lines of old tribal rivalries, adding religious hatred as yet another excuse to constantly war. By 859, the Varangians, as the Vikings were known by the locals, had either conquered or forced into tribute many of the warring tribes. Combining settling with conquering, the Varangians continued to expand, quickly establishing a crucial trade route that ran north to south, and, along with the tributes extracted from the various tribes, added to their wealth.
In Gaul, the Burgundian Empire suffered heavily under the Viking advance. Though large, the Burgundian Empire was fragile, both militarily and socially. Added to this were the plenteous navigable rivers and a vast coastline, which proved access both to the borders and interior of the empire. Settlers began arriving on the coast in the late 880s, and though the Burgundian Empire was saved by the successful defense of Paris in 890, by 900s, the Vikings had created a strong state in northern Gaul, officially a Burgundian vassal, though in fact independent. Though starting out with heavy Norse influences, by the mid 900s, the Viking settlers had intermingled to such an extent with the Burgundian natives that all that was left of their Viking heritage was a bastardized Norse tongue and the name of their land, Normandy.
The Mediterranean also did not escape from the ravages of the Vikings either. The raids of the Vikings against the Lombard Kingdom of Hispania partly contributed, along with internal difficulties and other external pressures, to the collapse of the Lombard Kingdom. Though the kingdom rebounded in 950, its North African territories would remain lost to it. These North African territories eventually came under the control, not of the Vikings, but the Berbers, who took advantage of the Lombards weakness to expand into southern Hispania as well. Though the Viking settlement in southern Hispania quickly fell to the Berbers, it did provide a crucial stepping stone for their more lasting raids into Vandal North Africa and Italy. In the early parts of the 900s, Viking raiders and pirates interrupted the grain shipments from Sicily and North Africa to Italy, sparking bread shortages and famines. Taking advantage of this weakness, the Vikings managed to conquer Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily and Carthage, and even managed to make a presence in southern Italy. However, by the late 900s, the Vikings had lost the momentum. The unsuccessful siege of Rome in 982 saw the highpoint of the Vikings advance. Though maintaining a foothold, the Vikings were pushed southward and both Sardinia and Corsica were liberated soon afterwards. Mirroring the earlier Burgundian response to the Vikings, the Vandals also acknowledged the Viking claim over Sicily, southern Italy, and Carthage in return for becoming vassals. Also mirroring the events of Gaul, the Viking settlers and conquerors soon merged with the natives, adopting both their Christianity as well as other social customs.
As 1000 CE dawned, the emphasis turned less on mere survival, and great kings once again thought of expanding. The problems lay, not in finding an excuse to engage in war, but to decide which excuse to use. For both the homoousion and homoiousion parties, opportunities surrounded them. Palestine begged to be freed from the Muslim infidels, Egypt once again beckoned to be fought over, and central and eastern Europe called to be cleansed from the last of the pagans. And then, there was, of course, always each other, the great heretics who had long been a thorn in each others side. Added to this, was, of course the matters closer to home for various kings, the petty feuds and promise of border wars. Meanwhile to the east the armies of Islam gathered once again, either to be set loose in a glorious heavenly war, or once again wasted in the quicksand of politics and civil wars. Finally, to the north the former strongholds of Vikings once again gathered, perhaps once again to make the kings of the world fear their name.
And the men of the earth roared their battle cries, and the stars of the sky shook in their places, and once again the heavens went to war Anonymous Chronicler, Written in the Year of Our Lord 1000
[1] York
Symphony D.
Deity
Having actually sat and read it all, it's rather quite a nice timeline, though I'm afraid I can't contribute terribly much criticism or comment on it. One thing I have noticed is it's somewhat sparse for such a vast sweep of time, but I suppose that's to be expected. When do you intend to end it?
The Strategos
Thanatos
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It is done now.
Islam I will not defend at all, except for I wanted it, so I wrote it in (I do have a list of "after-the-fact reasons, so it is not entirely implausable that something like it would arise, but as I said, my main motivation was for story purposes, so I won't bother trying to defend it since at best, I could only show it is one possible [though perhaps extremely unlikely] event out of many).
The Viking territorial expansion actually followed OTL, except for in the Med. And you could (if you were inclined) to see even the Med as kind of following OTL since the Normans did much the same thing I had the Vikings do here. The only real main difference (other than, as I was saying, the Med) is the sucess in England.
Yeah, but this is a good deal earlier than the Norman Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and besides the Normans what followed the Guiscard (i.e. the Hautevilles) were more of a syncretic Franco-Viking mix that had also benefited from long exposure to European cultures. Comments on the Guiscard's military genius notwithstanding, they also moved through friendly France and Arelate into southern Italy, not through southern Spain. Taking advantage of the fact that the Roman Empire was fixed on Anatolia (and also conveniently suffering from Zoe and her horrid husbands) also helped, although the political fragmentation of the barbarian Mediterranean world should suffice I suppose.
das
Regeneration In Process
Good work, Strategos. Am looking forward to seeing what your next project is.
Some more detail might be useful here... Did Christianity spread into the Slavic lands early, and brought the religious disagreements with it to boot? Also, did the Varangians merely conquer what they did in OTL, or did they conquer, say, Poland as well/instead?
By the way, it may be well to create more... accessible alterante names for the two religious factions, probably along the lines of Roman/Byzantine (the homoiousion party had a Pope in Constantinople, no?).
I am also curious as to the differences between the Burgundian Empire and OTL Frankish kingdom; the former strikes me as somewhat more barbaric and decentralised, i.e. sans Carolingians. Actually, maybe the Vikings could conquer the entirety of northern Gauls if fighting a weaker Burgundian state, creating an independent monarchy there? Or at least Normandy may become a significant power upon Burgundy's feudal disintegration. Lombardic Hispannia is also of some interest. Cultural developments in the Frankish Roman Empire are also fascinating; a Hellenic-influenced Frankish language with the Greek alphabet seems likely, though I'm not too sure.
Some more detail might be useful here... Did Christianity spread into the Slavic lands early, and brought the religious disagreements with it to boot? Also, did the Varangians merely conquer what they did in OTL, or did they conquer, say, Poland as well/instead?
By the way, it may be well to create more... accessible alterante names for the two religious factions, probably along the lines of Roman/Byzantine (the homoiousion party had a Pope in Constantinople, no?).
I am also curious as to the differences between the Burgundian Empire and OTL Frankish kingdom; the former strikes me as somewhat more barbaric and decentralised, i.e. sans Carolingians. Actually, maybe the Vikings could conquer the entirety of northern Gauls if fighting a weaker Burgundian state, creating an independent monarchy there? Or at least Normandy may become a significant power upon Burgundy's feudal disintegration. Lombardic Hispannia is also of some interest. Cultural developments in the Frankish Roman Empire are also fascinating; a Hellenic-influenced Frankish language with the Greek alphabet seems likely, though I'm not too sure.
The Strategos
Thanatos
- Joined
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In response to the first part, as I mentioned near the end of Chapter 3, the two parties were much more missional minded than OTL Christianity, for the obvious competitive reasons. Primarily this "religious war" was fought in Germany and central Europe, but it spread through a combination of local losers fleeing eastward as well as the more official missionary efforts as each side sought to outflank the other (though it is doubtful that either party thought in those terms, more likely each more basely thought more converts=more military power=potential to crush the other). As it did in Germany, the religions spread more or less along traditional tribal lines, with traditional allies tending to convert to the same religion and enemies to the opposite. Of course, this only fueled existing hatred.
For the second, I originally intended to confine them to their OTL conquests, or perhaps a little less, after all, I already gave the Vikings some big breaks elsewhere. However, I am open to arguments on the contrary. After all, if Poland also fell victim to the religious plurality, it might have been destabilized enough that an outside force could easily knock it out, similar to the Muslim conquest of Egypt both in OTL and TTL.
They are perfectly accessible to Greek speakers, and really, who cares about non-Greek speakers? I actually was planning on calling them "Catholic" and "Orthodox," the names arising as each seek to lay claim to the tradition of the apostles for obvious propaganda reasons, but never got around to calling them that in the alt-hist, for no real reason.
The Burgundian Empire is, as you said, more barbaric (not having the benefit of Charlemagnes Golden Age, or any equivalent) as well as more decentralized. The thing that ultimately saved the Burgundian Empire was, as mentioned, the siege of Paris. Paris, of course, controlled access to the Seine. The lack of the gigantic OTL Imperial Army is here counteracted by the increased importance of Paris to the Empire which means more men and better fortifications up front. The defeat there caused all momentum to be lost by the Vikings as well as reinvigorating the Burgundians who retook the offensive. It was at this highpoint of Burgundian power that the vassal nature of the Vikings was agreed on. Of course, without the Viking threat to unite them, the Burgundians soon went back to their decentralized petty power politics. The Normans at this point have the power to style themselves kings, but have largely refrained, by keeping the title Duke it is easier for them to be involved in Burgundian politics. Naturally, this has sparked the increase of a new anti-Norman Burgundian noble party, so right about now the Normans have to make a decision, break from Burgundy completely and declare themselves kings, or make their own move in a bid to crush their enemies at the Burgundian court and solidify their power there (perhaps even taking on the title Emperor, or at the very least, making the Emperor their puppet).
Regarding the Franks, I am torn. The Franks early on would have found it useful to use Latin as the direct heirs to Augustus Arbogastes and claimants to be descendants of Rome. OTL Eastern Roman Empire didnt drop Latin until sometime after 610 when Heraclius took power and without the territories of Greece, Egypt, or Palestine, I cant think of many reasons for the Franks to do so earlier. That said, however, it seems reasonable to assume that the Orthodox (homoiousion) party would adopt Greek as its official tongue and that the Franks would eventually adopt the tongue of the church as well, though Latin might live on in official documents for at least a short while. Because of the population ratio, the original Frankish ruling elite would almost assuredly become assimilated into the local population, forming, perhaps, a Frankish-Greek bastardized common tongue (kind of like how Saxon and French combined into the unholy union which is English), with pure Greek existing only in the church and at court.
das
Regeneration In Process
Hmm, I thought this competition might help... By the way, the Byzantine Church being stronger than in OTL I suppose the eastern missionary efforts will be both more organised and more rigid; Greek may well be used as a church language in the Slavic lands as well. It certainly would be nice to see a more widespread Greek alphabet instead of Cyrillic.
Anyway, I suspect that the spread of Christianity will speed up pre-Varangian state-formation, with more well-formed regional principalities. Not that the Vikings couldn't conquer those all the same, ofcourse. Still, this and the religious disputes should bolster regionalism; Iskorosten (the capital of the Drevlians - most rebellious East Slavic tribe ever) is particularily likely to become an oasis of whatever religion is generally losing in the region, possibly even retaining a separate identity and Slavic ruelrs, seeing as it isn't on the main trade routes.
There was little in the way of a Poland to destabilise initially, I understand; however, religious spread might likewise speed up its rise - and subsequently it will fracture before the Viking Age is over. Vistula is a nice trade river, no?
I don't think they could hold on to those gains by any means, but it is possible in the short-term; if they hold out and assimilate, that too might lead to some interesting effects.
As an idea, it might make sense to call the homoousians "Trinitarian"; not sure about the homoiousians, but maybe they could be "Orthodox" or, more originally, "Patriarchal".
Then again, it will suffer from growing association with the Latinate Heresy.
Also, how far east does Burgundy extend?
The Strategos
Thanatos
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The term "Catholic" was used as early as 106 CE to describe the "true" Christian Church and is a frequent appellation to set apart "real" Christians from "false" Christians throughout patristic writings. It is virtually inconceivable that one of the parties wouldn't quickly move to monopolize that name for its propaganda value alone. Most likely, the west would seize it first, as it is a key phrase in the Nicene Creed.
Granted. On a only somewhat related note, it might be interesting to note (well at least its interesting to me) that Jerome most certainly would, in TTL create a Vulgate (though its OT would probably be much worse since he might not have the benefit of studying Hebrew) which would be considered the true scriptures (similar to some King James Only people today) in the west, while the Orthodox would undoubtedly seize upon the fact that they use the "original" Greek as proof that their opponents corrupt scripture, while they defend it. They may even embrace a pseudo-Muslim view of Scripture, where Scripture cannot be translated without being corrupted.
There is a very non-canonical map on the previous page, the pink blob represented my thinking at one point for their borders. The map will almost certainly be perpetually unfinished as I could never get central/eastern Europe to my satisfaction and have started to criticize my western Europe depiction as well.
das
Regeneration In Process
Problem is, both will probably seize it (wasn't the OTL Orthodox Chruch universal as well?); therefore a different term will be needed to actually differentiate between them.
Speaking of languages: might Latin be preserved in a more alive version in Vandal Italy, if it develops along Lombard lines but without a Carolingian invasion and other such disruptive events (Vikings aren't nearly as bad as far as scope is concerned)?
silver 2039
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So what happens if he ended up escaping to the US?
das
Regeneration In Process
In 1815, there was really no other possible outcome; the Americans needed the British way too much to risk even a minor diplomatic conflict over Napoleon.
silver 2039
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Hm....Didn't the war of 1812 finish just 3 years beforehand? Wouldn't there be lingering resentment against the British? How much could their relations have improved in just 3 years?
The Strategos
Thanatos
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While I haven't looked at all of them, the homoiousion creeds I have looked at all exclude the phrase "catholic" while most of them make reference to "orthodox" or their enemies as "heterodox," thus leading me to the conclusion that they would more likely use the term Orthodox to describe themselves while the west, under the influence of their own creeds which do use the word "catholic" would adopt the term "Catholic."
I was thinking Vandal Italy would be similar to the pre-Byzantine invasion of Ostrogoth Italy.
das
Regeneration In Process
It finished a year ago, but what does that matter? What was far more important was that the Americans felt their newly-spreading interests were threatened by the Spanish attempts to reconquer their empire in the wake of the recently-concluded Napoleonic Wars; and the British were the only ones who could really have done anything about it. Fortunately for the Americans, the British - or, at least, Canning - were likewise opposed to all continental European presences in the New World; therefore they managed to work out an alliance of convenience eventually.
The point is, the Americans were not going to antagonise the British - not over such an issue, at any rate - despite or, more probably, precisely because of the complicated relations.
Still, I think that Trinitarian might be a nice and fairly original epithet.
das
Regeneration In Process
Actually, small countries can sometimes add to volatility and versatility in a given region, and generally make cold wars (or, more appropriately, great games) more fun.
jeps
Arcadefire
I think I'll take montenegro? 
