Battle of Lefkada

Background
By the year 481, the Myzaean Empire was in total turmoil. With Rhynesa Kamanos, and Darios Nerras declaring themselves Emperor, the senate that formally elected rulers immediately elected their own candidate; Georgios Lekepanos. Georgios Lekepanos' failure to contain Darios Nerras' revolt led to his death, and with the rising star Konstanos Dragases relieving the city of Myzaea from Rhynesa's grasp allowed him to be elected Emperor of Myzaea.

Darios' army was marching east, and Konstanos spent his family's wealth on raising an army to meet him. Their scouts had fought one another, and though Konstanos expected to find Darios at Targos, he met him at Lefkada.

This battle was not only costly for Konstanos, it was devastatingly underprepared. Noblemen were put to the sword, and this extreme loss of life within the nobility created anarchy across the western border with the Kherjians.

Overview
At roughly noon the armies of Konstanos and Darios would meet, though at a hill with Konstanos sitting at the bottom. Battle was initialized by the iconic archaic skirmishing techniques made famous by the Prolesians centuries past. Without much cavalry, nothing was truly decisive. Once the experienced lines of Darios' legions met however, the situation began to turn.

From charging down a hill, a braced column of shields buckled. The fighting grew fierce, and as time wore on throughout the day, Konstanos' army began to falter. Without much cavalry, the archery section of Konstanos' army found little resistance and began withdrawing from behind their infantry to around the ranks. This flanking maneuver was ordered by Heraklion Dragases, son of Konstanos Dragases. Though extremely successful, Darios would route the archers with his small cavalry brigade, unsuspectingly killing the horseless Heraklion. Even with the archers routed, the damage had already been done. Darios and what had remained fled into Lefkada Castle, awaiting a miracle. The castle was constantly attacked by a hail of arrows, which were occasionally coated in flame, forcing the inhabitants to work during night to calm the fires before they grew out of control.

By morning Darios and what had remained sallied out in a vain attempt to not defeat the army, but kill Konstanos. The sally was met with a rain of arrows, their vicious charge crumbled before meeting Konstanos' line, and the castle itself was taken the same day. The battle itself was eventful on the fact that both parties not only suffered extremely high casualties, but that it technically lasted two days.

Had Heraklion Dragases not wheeled his archers behind Darios' line, perhaps Konstanos would have been deposed here. With few soldiers remaining on Darios' side, the rest had fled. Darios would not die during the sally, as he was seemingly not present. Though many assume and proclaim the death of the traitor, it would not be cemented.