Right, Powl. I wasn't thinking of him as abusive because Nazhuret doesn't see him that way, but Powl admits that his own training methods do amount to dangerous psychological experimentation. And his physical-combat training was very harsh, even if what he was aiming at was getting Nazhuret to stop pulling his punches.

I guess Nazhuret really had no baseline for identifying Powl as abusive.

I find Nazhuret fascinating because he grows into a person who's capable of surrendering nearly anything to his king... except his conscience. It's such an unusual place to draw the line: not when your leader orders you to do something terrible, but before that, when you're asked to pledge fealty (which might someday result in such an order). And I do have a soft spot for heroes like Nazhuret who know perfectly well that they shouldn't get involved, but can't help themselves.

I'm sorry you didn't like Lens, because I think you'd love the octogenarian cross-dressing Mongol shaman in book 2. Or the queer, portrait-painting duelist in book 3. Or Navah! the young woman whose experimentation with firearms scares Nazhuret half to death (because guns are unreliable and could backfire).