"I suppose they conducted a war just fine and I really shouldn't judge - except about Maitimo's relationship skills, that I will continue to judge."

"Be my guest. Mitros mishandled Iobel but not quite that badly. Although she did briefly consider orchestrating keeping the throne out of his hands over it."

"He did not mention that part!"

"She didn't consider it very long."

"It was a horribly stupid thing to do! But it'd be hard to consider for longer than it takes to meet my family - I guess Kantil'd be a responsible monarch -"

"That's the one she had in mind, yes, they had that dumb law about needing to get married and his girlfriend wouldn't put up with local vows but Iobel thought this amenable to plotting."

"Oh my."

"Apparently he was intrigued when she explained this to him but it was kind of in the middle of her laying out terms for marrying him."

Snort.

"Which seems to have worked out for them."

"They seem very happy. It's cute."

"Mm-hm."

"What is Nistar's girlfriend's name and what did she find objectionable about local vows -"

"I don't recall her name if Iobel even mentioned it but the vows are awful sexist garbage."

" - why? What an - odd thing to care about -"

"You know, I bet this has to do with the fact that you lot are not fertile all the time. Before humans invent birth control that's actually a really big deal, the being fertile all the time."

"...I guess I can see how that'd motivate some specialization and some differential investment in education but - how can you oppress people you're all married to, just isn't sustainable -"

"Oh, some places-and-times go farther than 'sexist wedding vows' - we never get as bad as the Ferengi but didn't you read enough about them for a proof of concept on oppressing persons one marries? Uh, if you can't be sure of paternity and the men are the ones with the money and education and so on and they really care about paternity a whole heck of a lot, that can justify a great deal of social control - have to have it absolutely verifiable that all the kids are his - and then it sort of metastasizes -"

"Ah huh." Sigh. "And then you outgrew it."

"Yep. Go us."

"it's awfully encouraging. Of course, you also outgrew your caste systems."

"They were never that widespread to begin with, but yeah."

"Did you grow out of it all before or after Revelation -"

"Both caste systems and sexism were both unambiguously on their way out by then but not all their social effects were erased."

"Would you have hesitated to do it if your world's - moral arc - was less clear -"