There is therefore something of a discrepancy between the Sashan army on paper and the Sashan army in the field. A bit like the Echmen, only more so, because the Sashan actually believe. If the king has an inscription carved on a wall saying THIS PROVINCE IS DEFENDED BY A HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN, it inevitably follows that it’s true. Furthermore, it always was true and it always will be, because the king says so. That notional hundred thousand is represented on the ground by twenty thousand. Note the word represent. The hundred thousand are the truth; the twenty thousand stand for them, just as
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Again, the truth. Truth as represented on earth by symbols which is in turn represented by something tangible and incidentally totally different from "the truth."
