Traits of An Outsider?

I'm planning a story in a fantasy-type setting (elves, dwarves, magic etc) where the story's continent has been overrun by vicious life-draining monsters. This has forced the surviving members of the continent's races to become one single united "kingdom" that is sealed off from the rest of the land.

Where the issue comes up is that there are several characters (three so far) who come from civilizations that still exist beyond the borders of this kingdom. Two of them are Deep Cover Agents while the third just wants a fresh start.

Either way, all of them are trying to hide their true origins from the people around them who believe their nation is the last bastion of mortal life. However there are some traits that leak through their efforts to blend in. Does anyone have any idea what these could be?

edited 24th Dec '16 11:45:29 AM by Swordofknowledge

-Unusual clothing. They would not be as trivial as "eww, you're wearing fall colors in the summer." Fashion develops in response to three things: The environment, individual needs, and whoever controls the fashion trends (often the wealthy and upper classes, especially royalty). If the "bastion of society" culture has a crapton of embroidery and beading because that's a mark of high status and they don't need to be constantly prepared to fight, someone who avoids them because a) embroidery/beading is colorful and draws too much attention, and b) beading is especially fragile and impractical if you need to be constantly prepared to fight. Similarly, if average citizens don't walk around wearing armor because they just don't NEED to protect themselves from life-draining monsters, constantly carrying your bow/sword/lance or wearing armor all the time is going to make people think you're a) paranoid or b) some sort of law enforcement. Which leads to the next point.

-The clothing and personalities don't match up. The dominant culture will probably have a basic idea of law enforcement behavior and customs, so if the outsiders try to pass themselves off as law-enforcement to explain "why are you wearing boring clothes and armor all the time?", they might not realize that law enforcement always wears a certain color for easy identification. Policemen in American society are informally called "men/women in blue" because that's their uniform color, so maybe the city guards are "Gold Cloaks" or "purple-bellies." But these people might not have a single stitch of gold/purple/blue clothing, and that would be WEIRD to the insiders.

-Lack of cultural knowledge. With those two points in mind, it would be even weirder if someone makes a lighthearted joke about how "gold-cloaks only work for whoever pays them enough, right?" and the supposed gold-cloak either doesn't know what they're talking about, or reacts the entirely wrong way by going "who the fuck would switch sides just because the new guy pays you more?" That's like someone claiming to be a former policeman, yet not understanding a joke about how "cops can be bribed with donuts and coffee." It might not get an immediate "OMG THIS IS AN OUTSIDER!" response, but it would be a little niggling feeling that something isn't right with what the outsiders say and how they actually act.

edited 24th Dec '16 1:32:11 PM by Sharysa

Accent. Or a lack of it.

Thanks for this well thought out and practical response, it realy helped. It's ironic because two out of the three (the spies) are actually embedded in the bastion kingdom's military as part of a plot to bring down/destroy the nation so those issues could be a big part of their problems when they first arrived.

Interestingly enough the only original trait I could come up with was swearing by a different god since the kingdom has a rigidly enforced state religion but again you provided some pretty viable additions and explanations.

edited 24th Dec '16 2:03:15 PM by Swordofknowledge

There is an old story that the German Gestapo of WWII used to drive around the sidewalk cafe's looking for spies. They could tell the foreigners by how they held their forks (in the "wrong" hand, apparently).

Yes, the Germans eat keeping the fork in the left hand.