[quote=Schaft and Fox]War and peace.[/quote]

I am not a medieval military historian, so I'm not sure what soldiers back then went through. In addition, most books detailing pre-gunpowder battles tend to focus on tactics and weapons, not so much on the participants (not the grunts anyways). With that said, a lot of my inspiration came from the experience of modern soldiers. [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Things_They_Carried][i]The Things They Carried[/i][/url], by Tim O'Brien, is a great reflection by a veteran. This novel really gets the struggles of a veteran trying to adjust to civilian life, and the comradery he missed. 

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Sledge]Eugene Sledge[/url] wrote about his journey from WW2 to post-war America in his [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_the_Old_Breed]two[/url] [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Marine_%28memoir%29]novels[/url], and portrayed in HBO's [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pacific_%28miniseries%29][i]The Pacifi[/i]c[/url]. Interesting thing about Sledge was that he distanced himself from the military when he returned; this guy avoided veteran reunions until thirty years later. 

As for the combat mentality, Evan Wright's [i][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Kill]Generation Kill[/url][/i] (and the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Kill_%28miniseries%29]TV series[/url]) describes it pretty accurately. I also took pieces of Wright for Madura's character.

[quote=@Dervish]
Well, plague victims tend to have a very high K/D ratio.  
[/quote]

Only if you count teamkills.