Book One, page 89

bravo1102 on Oct. 26, 2017

This page goes forward the handful of hours to just before dawn. We go back to the Nasnor archers (in fact it's the same two as seen back on page 39who are commanded by Countess Orshia last seen with her husband Armen on page 81.

We see here that the Nasnor Archers as a unit of women even bring their children to war with them. Camp followers historically were accompanied by their children and there are tales of units who adapted or apprenticed children for various tasks. One famous example were the arrow boys of the archers at Agincourt. They would fetch the arrows that missed and also dispatch survivors between attacks by the French. Since many of the Nasnor archers are in fact widows and other survivors of Norse attacks many are obliged to bring their children with them. And because of that they don't drink or party as hard as the rest of the army.

And also like most war stories there is the one unit that is the featured example. This unit will show up again and again. And I did hint about longbows versus horse archers–

As for the casual nudity? A different time, a different place before the invention of shame and the resulting sexualization of the unclad body. In cultures with casual nudity, bodies are not shameful or shocking and don't attract the wandering eyes and arouse lust as they do in cultures like ours. This was a time when people lived in single room houses. There was no privacy. There was no consideration of modesty.