The bold portions are what I have a problem with. All the rest I consider mere hyperbole, as formerly suggested.
The peasants are uncultured? I can see that if they were rogue, and I could see them described as different or weird. But to say uncultured is tantamount to saying that the nobles over them are inept at culturing them.
Earth embankments and woodworks? Really? They have a level 4 or level 5 fortress in Rettleville don't they? Maybe as a palisade or motte and bailey could I see that description, but if it's a fortress, that's not even close to being an accurate description unless that wood is freaking petrified.
The nobles live in the woodland too. To say living in a woodland is depraved... Is quite insulting and uncalled for.
Peasants uncultured? Well I won't try to defend that as not insulting, but the peasant culture in Barca would certainly be juxtaposed to Aurvandil's. But then, this is SMA and it wasn't uncommon for people to believe other peoples to be uncultured.
As for earth embankments and woodworks, well what is wrong with that? It would have to be an earthen embankment, to provide proper foundation since Rettleville is on top of a crag or whatever, as we can see on the Rettleville picture, as for wood works, well they live in a forest, and are you really saying they would have no woodworks whatsoever? Nor is it impossible for them to have incredibly high quality and intricate fortifications that partially consist of wooden sections. In a place like Rettleville, with only one approach, you wouldn't even need to have complete stone fortifications, and wooden sections would make more sense.
