Revolt of Rekyva

Reached its peak between 912 and 918.

Fought between the Canstori cult and the Liotainian rebels.

* **Amulius**: one of the rival priest-kings of the Canstori, between 913 and 914
* **Silvanus**: one of the rival priest-kings of the Canstori, between 913 and 917
* **Ascanius Faunus**: one of the rival priest-kings of the Canstori, between 913 and 918

### Rebels

* **Bishop Steponas of Rekyva**: Orthodox bishop of Rekyva
* **Prince Titas Saulius**: declared himself "Cezaris ir Imperatorius" after the war
* **Lukas the Convert**: former Canstori priest turned rebel leader
* **Avelina Tamara**: daughter of Bishop Steponas

## Course of the War

### Seige of Rekyva

Between March 912 and April of 1913, the Canstori under their priest-king, Vulcanus, beseiged the city of Rekyva in an attempt to destroy one of the centers of Orthodox religion in the province of Liotania Major. The city's inhabitants rallied under Bishop Steponas of Rekyva and resisted the seige.

The Canstori army suffered heavily during the winter of 912-913, and when a plague started in the camp in March of 913, Vulcanus decided to withdraw the seige. As the army withdrew, an avalanche (possibly sparked by the defenders) caused a panic in the ranks. Vulcanus was thrown from his horse during the stampede and killed. Casualties among the Canstori ranks were heavy, with over three thousand dead.

The event was seen as a sign, sparking a more widespread revolt in regions that had been afraid to resist. The death of Vulcanus also opened a power vacuum, with three different Canstori leaders declaring themself priest-king, initiating an internal civil war amongst the Canstori at the same time they faced massive revolt.

### Battle of Seda

In July 913, Ascanius Faunus, with an army of 8,000, crushes a revolting Liotanian army led by Prince Marius Littorius (4,000 infantry plus 2,500 cavalry), near the town of Seda. This victory results in rebels in the region of Neris being scattered, and ensures the Canstori have a foothold in the region until the final days of the revolt.

### Seige of Sasnava

In 913, a Canstori army under Amulius attempts to beseige one of the rebelling princes, Titas, in his mother's hometown of Sasnava. The siege collapses in October of 913 and Titas becomes one of the major military leaders of the Revolt.

### Battle of Pozaiciai

In spring of 914, Prince Titas gathers a small army of 8,000 men and descends from the mountains to fight the Canstori in the coastal plains (south of modern Svyturys). Amulius comes to meet him with an army of 13,000 and 72 war elephants. At Pozaiciai, Titas fights a rear-guard action to prevent the destruction of his force in the face of overwhelming numbers. It will be the first and only time he is ever defeated, although he prevents the destruction of his army.

### Battle of Neveronys

In August 914, Bishop Steponas leads 4,000 men from Rekyva, using secret trails over the mountains, to attack the Canstori garrison at Tvirtoves Kalnas. The Canstori commander, Consus, attempts to meet him with 3,200 men and eight war-elephants. Steponas outmaneuvers Consus using horrid terrain and picks the Canstori apart in a piecemeal battle.

The commander of the Canstori war-elephants, Summanus, surrenders to Steponas, converts to Orthodoxy, and joins the rebels, taking the name Lukas the Convert.

### Battle of Kujai Bridge

While attempting to relieve the Seige of Kairiai, Bishop Steponas marches north with 5,000 men and seven war-elephants under Lukas the Convert. He is ambushed by Silvanus at the Kujai Bridge in early October, and suffers losses. He is forced to retreat, abandoning Kairai to its fate.

### Seige of Kairiai

Beginning in April 914, a Canstori army under Silvanus beseiges the town of Kairiai, an orthodox stronghold. After the Battle of Neveronys, Bishop Steponas returns to Rekyva and prepares to lift the seige in September. His defeat at the Battle of Kujai Bridge disheartens the garrison, which negotiates terms in November, under the condition that their lives be spared. Although Silvanus agrees to these conditions, the town is emptied, and after a slaughter of civilians, the remainder are sold into slavery.

### Battle of Liepalotai

A battle between two Canstori armies, with the western Canstori led by Ascanius Faunus and, the eastern Canstori led by Amulius. Ascanius Faunus brings 12,000 men, 2,000 cavalry, and thirty war-elephants; Amulius brings 14,000 men, 5,000 cavalry, and 72 war-elephants. Clever strategic moves by Ascanius Faunus result in a pyrrhic victory. Amulius has lost the battlefield, but his forces inflicted serious (and potentially crippling) casualties on the western army. However, several of his advisors, believing they have lost, strangle Amulius and present his head to Ascanius Faunus.

### Battle of Posnia

Avelina Tamara, the daughter of Bishop Steponas of Rekyva, leads a cavalry raid into Canstori-controlled territory around Svedasai Bay; she has around four thousand light horsemen drawn from Rekyva and Tvirtoves Kalnas, as well as 700 "Amazon cavalry" from the Sirvinta valley, under Avelina's personal command.

Silvanus sends his cavalry commander Evandrus with 4,000 heavy cavalry, armed and equipped as heavy lancers, to hunt the rebel horse.

At Posnia, in August 915, Avelina and Evandrus clash in a drawn-out engagement. The intense heat of the afternoon tired out the heavy cavalry, and after four hours, Evandrus attempted to disengage, wishing to reach the Posnia stream in order to water his horses. Avelina obstructed this move, and forced the heavy cavalry into a blind valley, where they were trapped without water and surrendered.

### Battle of Eigirgala

Avelina launches another raid into Canstori-controlled territory, heading for the lush Eletrenai river valley and the Gulf Coast, with five thousand light horsemen, and seven hundred heavy cataphracts, recruited from Rokantiskes. Lukas the Convert, with three thousand infantry and fourteen war elephants, parallels her raid further inland.

Silvanus gathers his own forces to stop them, bringing seven thousand infantry, plus three thousand mounted Pictish and Antar mercenaries. He attempts to fall on Lukas the Convert as he crossed the Pyvesa River at the Eigirgala fords. Lukas the Convert hastily retreated over the ford and then defended it for five hours. Silvanus despatched his cavalry to sweep around the flank and attack Lukas's infantry from the rear.

Having received scouting reports of the Canstori movement, Avelina turned her cavalry toward Eigirgala, and caught the mercenary horse in the process of seeking the flank. Pinning them against the Pyvesa, she crushed them in a short and brutal engagement, then swept onward onto the flank of the main army.

The morale of the Canstori instantly collapsed; the army broke and fled, pursued until darkness by Avelina and her victorious cavalry. After this battle, much of the Eletrenai Valley and the Gulf Coast rose up in open revolt, hunting down scattered and dispirited groups of Canstori cultists. Silvanus barely escaped; he surrendered to Ascanius Faunus and was sent east, to fight Titas Saulius.

### Battle of Prienai

After swearing allegiance to Ascanius Faunus, Silvanus marches east with ten thousand infantry to dislodge Titas Saulius from Liotania Minor. Titas intercepts him on the field with eight thousand infantry and sixteen war elephants. Silvanus fights his way out of the trap but his army scatters across the countryside.

### Battle of Upyna

After the Battle of Prienai, Amulius Auster attempts to regroup a portion of the scattered Canstori forces, eventually gathering five thousand men, while Silvanus gathers another three thousand men to the north. Titas, in pursuit of the Canstori army, crashes into Amulius Auster's force at Upyna, where they have built fortifications. After an initial attack, Titas appears to settle down for a seige.

### Battle of Saravai

July 917. While a portion of his forces beseige Upyna, constructing their own fortifications, Titas marches three thousand of his men north to Saravai, where Silvanus is regrouping with three thousand men. A daring night attack sweeps into the Canstori camp. The Canstori leader is captured and his head placed on a pike, which is presented to Amulius Auster at Upyna, who surrenders and converts to Orthodoxy.

### Battle of Sviraiciai

After the defeat of Silvanus the prior year, Ascanius Faunus remains the sole Canstori priest-king, now in command of a tiny portion of territory around Neris. He decides to gamble by attacking Titas southeast of Neris.

In the largest pitched battle of the war, fought in March 918, Titas gathers 12,000 men, 5,000 cavalry and 40 war elephants, taking the field against Ascanius Faunus's western Canstori, with 18,000 men, 2,000 cavalry, and 20 war elephants. At Sviraiciai, Titas demonstrates the flexibility and strategic genius which eventually gains him his high reputation in later wars. His careful strategy and scouting from Avelina's cavalry allows him to lure Ascanius Faunus into a battlefield of his choosing, at Sviraiciai. A feigned retreat, with units in ambush, and then a Cannae-style double envelopment turned this battle into an utter catastrophe for the Canstori; only a thousand cavalry, including Ascanius Faunus and his bodyguards, escape the trap.

### Seige of Neris

The combined army of Titas Saulius and Bishop Steponas is admitted into the city of Neris by a side gate, opened by a group of citizens inside the city walls. The city is not sacked, but the Canstori cultic centers are plundered and destroyed; Ascanius Faunus is killed, and no further Priest-Kings are named.

Within a generation, the Canstori are virtually nonexistent.

## Results

Titas Saulius, justifying his claim as a direct descendent of the Reman emperor Marcellus Duilius, claims the title Cezaris ir Imperatorius" and declares a Revived Reman Empire, composed of Liotania Major and Liotania Minor.

To help build the popularity of his new regime, Titas converts to Orthodoxy and marries Avelina Tamara (although his son by his first wife remains the heir to the new throne). Titas expands his domain for the next thirty years, and presides over a sizeable empire by the time of his death in 949.

## Results

* Elimination of the Canstori armies
* Destruction of all cult centers
* Proclamation of the House of Saulius
* Unification of Liotania Major and Liotania Minor as the Kingdom of Liotania
* Orthodox Theophanite religion adopted as unofficial Liotainian religion
* Sharp decline and eventual extinction of Reman polytheism