"The Zifartas in my country were that for a while, because we were mostly merchants. There are a few other examples I know of, which mostly involve dislocated ethnic minorities who ended up in new countries. But I suppose if you enforce religious Orthoxy, and your country is an island with limited immigration, you might not get such groups living here."

"Immigrants are very rarely approved, no. They're not of the original stock of Anadune and people think that's a godlier kind of person. People are terrible."

"Oh. Hmm. Should I be trying to look less foreign, then?"

"No, no, I promised my friend an exotic foreigner and we see too few of them to even have cruel stereotypes. Also I don't think you could."

"Really? Appart from the clothing issue, are you all homogenous enough that my physical features would stand out?"

"Only a little bit, but yes. The gods supposedly standardized our appearances when they supposedly gave us the island. Our geneticists think it was just a very strong founder effect."

"Huh. Fair enough. Back home, Zifartas are recognisable if you know what to look for, but we otherwise fade into the background. Anyway, where's your friend?"

"That's her home." They're in the gardens, which are expansive enough it's not obvious. She points. 

"Is this, like, the Elrosian district? Do they live clustered together?"

"Well, there's a lot of space between houses, but they live near each other, yes. They can't be around we smelly commoners. This is the garden; let's sit here and wait for my friend to say hello."

"Are there any rituals of respect I should know? Or can I get away with being an ignorant foreigner? If I'm speaking Adûnaic this well, will I be expected to have learned all your other subtle communication systems, too?"

"No, you'll be fine, Elrosian girls are very sheltered and silly."

"Hey," a voice says from a distance, and another young woman walks into view. "I resent that remark."

"No," Gimlith says, 'you just want assurance that I'm not speaking of you. You're silly, too, to be honest, but you have the potential to grow out of it, and it's not your fault. I'm sure being raised that way would make me silly and rather more impassioned than anyone about it."

"You? Impassioned? Who would believe such a thing." Carmen teased. She looked the newcomer over, admiring her aesthetics.

The clothing, of course. Definitely the clothing.

"Hey!" Gimlith says warmly. "I made it back as quickly as I could, Carmen was writing a book!"

"Translating..." She murmers, feeling unduly praised.

"It was hundreds of pages long."

"It was about two hundred in the original and way less than that in short hand," She blushed.

"Sounds like hundreds to me," Gimlith says. "Anyhow-" turning back to their host, "it's lovely to see you again! I knew I could trust you with Carmen, you're sensible that way. There's a guest house?"

"Yes," their host says, "no one's staying there until my parents and their servants come back from their summer place."

"If you don't mind me asking, how is this funded? Taxation? Rents from land ownership? Returns from investment? I know very little about your society and am curious about how it's organised."

She blinks. "How is what funded? Our estate? It's been in the family for three thousand years. We have interests in shipping and in agriculture and in city apartments, I think."

"Do you know how old your lineage is or how long this island has been settled?"

"Yes, of course! The island's founding marked the beginning of the Second Age, of which it's the year 3118, and Elros Tar-Minyatur, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather six times over, its first King, established our nation shortly thereafter."

"Wow. And you have records going back all the way to the founding of your nation? That's pretty cool. How is property inherited? Presumably Elros Tar-Minyatur has a lot of descendants at this point."

"Most parents only have one or two children," she says, "so as not to dilute their wealth and because it's what the Elves do. You usually either divide it or give it to the most competent."

"Oh. Well, I guess if you are able to have low variance in the number of children, that means you also have low infant mortality? Have you always had low infant mortality and a small number of children, or is that a recent change due to improving health care?"