This led to dissident groups forming to avoid oppression and establish the rule of the sword as the basic tool for survival in this mountainous region.

In 700 AD a large number of Cypriots who were war prisoners repatriated from Cyzicus Propontis joined and strengthened the power of the fugitive groups in the region, forcing the government to pardon these outlaws.

[citation needed] The name of Fikardou village was, according to this version, taken from the Greek: φυγά ανδρείου: fugitive braves' clan: Fikanrdrou.

According to Monastery sources in that period, fruits and olive-tree plantations had been established in its fiefdom of Lythrodontas and one of the main profitable activities of the Fikardou inhabitants were the harvesting Olea oleaster (young wild olive trees) from the forest.

With the criminal prosecutions of the Templars as heretics[3] The Knights of St. John inherited their privileges including Fikardou.