I know this is a hot-button topic, but I want to try and address it with the respect it deserves. A common theme I see in the role-playing communities regarding Forgotten Realms is a tendency for players to use inaccurate lore regarding elves to start unproductive tirades against anything involving elves or elf roleplay, which detrimentally affects the players involved in such things. Or they only look at the endless number of poorly played elves on servers as their main source and it inevitably skews their perception of reading surface level lore. When I say this, I do not mean the people upset at how some elf players or Dungeonmasters (DMs) play their elves – that, I will address in another piece.
What I speak about is people who hate elves when they may have only just looked at the Forgotten Realms timeline and surface level lore, then keep it to that. I also speak about the people who just go out of their way to pettily snark and shame good, inclusive people who play elves. These being the same people who have driven away good elf players from my home Neverwinter Nights community alongside the bully players among elitists in the elf faction doing the same. In addition, I am also speaking of the people liberally comparing elves in the Forgotten Realms to the British Empire or white people, when more suited real life and historically flawed comparisons have made their mark in our history. I feel that perhaps if they knew the lore the way they project, this conversation would not happen, really.
Without too much further tangent, I am going to get into what I see most often get wrong.
“Elves Are Responsible for Everything Wrong in the Realms”
Before I get into this, please let me preface with the following: this is not an apologia of elven history. There are a number of terrible atrocities committed by elves. Some of these are unintentional consequences that eventually because they were so bad, no elves alive remembered they happened. Several notorious cases were elves trying to conquer other groups of elves, with non-elves being collateral during such periods (see: Crown Wars). In history also exists the one big hunt by the Eldreth Veluuthra after Myth Drannor fell, and I will not downplay the problems with that. Elves are flawed. The Crown Wars high magic curse of the Descent ritual accidentally hitting all dark elves versus just the evil ones per the Lost Empires of Faerun materials, another example. I have often enough done plots that did not paint them as always heroic while also trying to bring light to the elves who also resist the problematic elves’ influences in history or in society.
Unfortunately, elves are not the only ones who will cover up the blood on their hands in the Realms or forget about terrible events in their past. When I say this, I do not do so with the tone of a “both sides” sort of dismissal. Indeed, the Forgotten Realms timeline does highlight a notable number of elven atrocities, ones reflected in one massive cataclysmic event. A DM once said at the community where I attend: “Elves take time to decide something, but once they decide, they act swift.” The unsaid here as thus: their decision leads to something drastic, whether intentional or not. Steven Schend in the Greenwood Grotto had remarked on how these sort of events come from having a long-game view, after decades or centuries of attempts at peace do not work when discussing response to aggressors.
What people often overlook in Forgotten Realms history is what happened between those highlighted events on the Grand History of the Realms timeline. I do not recall the timeline noting the level or scale genocide Tethyrean humans had on not just elves, but non-humans for century of time, something only recently resolved. More low-key genocides against elves, such as regular hunting of elves by Amnians, Tethyreans, and Calshites, had happened for centuries prior. Shoon Empire had been marked by omnicidal actions leading to numerous human deaths, but also the death of thousands of not just elves, but demihumans in general, treated by Shoon as ‘just a Tuesday.’
Another overlooked example of genocide by other beings include how much destruction orcs and humans had done over millennia to land masses through encroachment and driving other demihuman groups to lower numbers. There is, of course, the conversation of how problematic both orcs and elves seem in the Forgotten Realms lore-wise, and that will be addressed in another write-up. Still, despite this, humans by players and social norms in the setting often receive the special privilege of having individual bad apples. They generally do not suffer the same level of consequences when it comes to one of their bad actors – of which, like anyone, there are many. Orcs get treated as either massively evil beyond the setting expectations (a problem on its own) or overlooked when it comes to blaming elves for problems.
I will not even touch Karsus’ Folly, because it did a lot of cataclysmic damage to the Weave, but so did the Sundering by the elves. This, I hear, and the latter bit is definitely a big mark that was left and so bad, very much none the elves of the contemporary Realms remembered this. Enough damage had marked Toril, but also time and space itself, that no proof of this event exists (for the most part) – short of the Tree of Souls planted; and only a few in Toril know of such a secret. There in the lore had been written a number of other deeds, though, where elves were definitely victims.
Jhamadath, for example, a human empire of psionics who enslaved or destroyed non-humans. At some point, the elves reacted with a undoubtedly destructive large tidal wave that wiped out the empire. Some would say the elves were too drastic, and they very much retaliated severely. Yet I have heard people who make the point of how terrible the elves were for this to be quite happy to see in our campaign a lich wanting to wipe out all elves over his own hurt feelings. Others might argue the stakes high enough because there existed no way to deal with how out of control the empire was for anyone not human. Authors confirmed elves had to either make the tidal wave through high magic or go extinct, and they still lost at least one of their civilizations over doing it. So, I suppose I will not argue about this much further.
Yuirwood possesses a long history of war with humans and only the past decades have the elven inhabitants – mostly half-elves – had a sense of peace, some of the humans moving away because they did not want the peace but to further encroach. This departure of these humans reminds me far more of “white flight” than the Retreat(s) ever did. The list goes on when it comes to human atrocities. While only glossed over on the Forgotten Realms timeline, over centuries, much damage and cataclysms have come from human encroachment pushing not just elves, but other fantasy species out.
There is also the whole fact that the Creator Races, then Dragons afterward, had brutal rulers of their own who did their share of atrocities and genocides to not only elves, but humans, as well. Even humans, a “Creator Race” in the Realms, faced oppression by groups with god-like powers. Non-human Creator Races per the source were so bad, a single spell destroyed mountains and created craters like the Dark Disaster among elves did. These beings in their actions were so egregious in their abuse and destruction, two deities notorious for not getting involved unless absolutely necessary did so. Corellon Larethian and Chauntea got involved with them per old edition Silver Marches and Savage Frontier materials. Chauntea did not get involved when the Sundering happened – though some might argue she probably should have – but she involved herself when the Creator Races ruled Toril. At the end of the day, the Creator Races sealed their own fate by an event as great if not greater than the Sundering, where their whole climate had been made uninhabitable so they could drive phaerimm underground.
Some might raise the argument that elves are interlopers and invaders in the case of the Creator Races. Yet if anyone looks at the lore, people may find them not unique to this. Numerous human groups reside in the Realms who are not native to Toril and were brought over by another group as slaves. Dragons, orcs, and other non-humans also had not been native to Toril. Would they be interlopers in a bad way in this case, too, now that they are freed and expanded to make civilizations on the continent? I would say not. This discussion also often ignores that wood elves branched into their own subspecies in Toril, so they became the only group of elves native to Toril, as well. To me, this becomes a moot point and just as people would be quick to condemn Nalavarauthortyl for her atrocities against humans (rightly so), the same people will excuse what the Creator Races did. A number either do not know of these facts, or remain ever quite eager to dismiss them – facts found in the lore – in favor of saying the elves are still at fault for all that is wrong with the Realms.
As a note: I have questions on the choice of having elves, orcs, other human-oid groups, and ethnically coded humans in the Realms being determined coming from another world, or worlds. I suppose something for me to mull over for a while before I decide to make a post on it. Moving on…
There are other examples I have missed here, but this should help deliver my point enough.
“Elven Atrocities Are More Common Than Human Atrocities”
Once more, when you go through the timeline, you do not see that what happened prior to the noted events, the in between, and after those timeline events. Perhaps during the Crown Wars era or a few other times – such as the Sundering – this may have held. However, that does not hold anymore and the lore has made clear humans have expanded and outgrown non-human groups, not just the elves. The good-aligned Demihuman pantheons enjoying a close relationship is no accident: they fear human expansionism.
What people often forget on the timeline: these events are stories. Stories focus on things exceptional because those things may draw more interest from the readers. Elves cracking half the world is exceptional and not the norm for them.
Stories much less cover the daily lives of average people of average cultures and races in the Realms or what they were doing because, well, they do not keep as much interest in average common people as there is in Grand Fantasy. People, from novice to experts in Realms lore, easily overlook these sorts of daily details covered in setting, race, or region specific source material. One thing that remains true irrespective of character races is that most people of any group are much less concerned with their race’s baggage as a whole, or the world as a whole, and their own settings, daily lives, their immediate neighbors, and so forth. The materials in the Forgotten Realms unless indicated otherwise, come with multiple unreliable narrators but also, more human narrators.
Thus, it becomes important to keep in mind that any of these specific events, beings, atrocities, or such being brought up do not make the timeline not because they are the example or the norm, but also because they are notable for not being the norm. For every cataclysmic event there exists thousands of years of mundanity or normalized oppressions – genocides, even – that inevitably have their impact on the world in time.
“Elves Never Do Anything About Their Problem People”
Perhaps it is more accurate to say that they may not have always handled their problem people the way they should have and not that they never did anything about them. In no small amount of irony, problem elves such as the dhaerow and the Daemonfey were in fact not completely wiped out when punished. Instead, they were banished in the case of the former and imprisoned in the case of the latter. People assume elves as either unnecessarily ruthless or they do not do enough, and yet these bad actors have been given non-death related punishments with no small amount of consequences. I will discuss these a little more soon enough. However, let us talk about what the lore suggests.
Leaf and Thorn, a 3.5 magazine article in Dragon Magazine, indicates that elves who become too evil are eventually found out and punished for it. They can even face death by their community if necessary to pay for their crimes. Elfshadow had Highlord Duirsar immediately execute any of the brutes he could catch who murdered Princess Amnestria. This in itself speaks anything but what people claim elves do (or not do) in the lore when their own are the villain of a tale. It also reflects what has happened in the Forgotten Realms to a small degree.
Kingdom of Ilythiiri atrocities deserve note in this section. The Kingdom of Ilythiiri perhaps the one most obvious case more traditional elves might cite for why drow of Eilistraee should not be considered part of the Elven People as more progressive elves might seek. For these traditionalists, it was this kingdom in their pillaging and ravaging the land that started the Crown Wars.
Ilythiiri faced punishment through the Descent ritual, a High Magic rite by elves intended only to affect evil dark elves, but unfortunately had long-reaching effects. This effect meant the magic ritual cursed an entire elven subrace. Per Lost Empires of Faerun, the intended outcome was not the end result, and the why is not known to this day.
According to some theories, Malkizid had interfered with the ritual to make it fail in quiet, being known for ‘cheating’ when it came to High Magic. Others suggested Lolth played a part, wanting to condemn a whole people so she could have pawns in her great game against Corellon. People who feel the Seldarine did not deserve redemption or grace might suggest even their interference, due to the impact of the Sundering, had played a role. Some of the same people who claim elves do not “do enough” to handle their problem elements often will be quick to claim this punishment harsh. I am not here to argue whether it was too harsh or not harsh enough, but to state what is.
People point out that the people who started the Crown Wars in the lore, the Aryvandaar Empire that became known as the Vyshantaar Empire, named after the evil clan Vyshaan, never had punishment. While they faced no banishment the same way the dhaerow did, I would say they were held accountable. I will explain why.
Aryvandaar Empire atrocities. This empire remains responsible for not only starting millennia worth of wars and the bloodshed involved but also the Dark Disaster that placed a crater in the world which became the High Moor. They also in that last portion wiped out a kingdom of elves because they refused to assimilate. Like the Ilythiiri, Aryvandaar also consorted with fiends. Their colonization efforts intended to reinforce a hierarchy where only sun elves could be leaders and everyone else had to serve them. Anyone who did not let them annex their kingdom faced bloodshed and either forcibly became colonized and assimilated, or massacred, or a combination of these.
After the Ilythiiri were banished, the Seldarine asked the elves to reconcile with eachother, but one mandate came forth from Corellon himself.
Aryvandaar Empire needed to be held accountable for starting the Crown Wars.
Before anyone could do anything, the Aryvandaar Empire began persecuting opposition, especially among the Seldarine priesthoods, fearing facing the same fate as their Underdark cousins. This led to massive rebellions, but also elven groups who sought to push back the Aryvandaar Empire and dismantle it as well as their leaders. Several princes of Vyshaan were said to have escaped, their fate unknown. At the end of the Fifth Crown Wars, the Aryvandaar Empire faded into history.
After the Fifth Crown War, the elves began to see eachother as unified as one collective group. Because of this, they have both a sense of solidarity as a group, but also take on the failings of their ancestors as their own. This means they by doing this all take on the burden of their tarnished past, whether they should take responsibility for it or not. It is worth discussing that some people who play elves downplay all of this except for the ‘one People’ aspect. I will address this in a separate piece, just as I will the problematic aspects of elf lore.
Some might suggest that the punishment of the Aryvandaar Empire as not enough and a double-standard because they did not have the Descent ritual happen to them. In our table, someone ran a plot on the premise of someone wanting to go back through time and do just that, but not realizing the long-term ramifications of interfering with time in such a way. Perhaps Vyshaan at least deserved that condemnation. Yet, what others often missed in this: the Aryvandaar Empire acted out enough to make it harder to do anything but fight them until their Empire crumbled to dust. Before any rite could be done on the remaining scions of Vyshaan, they escaped. This leads to the next major atrocity by evil elves in the Realms.
House Dlardrageth consorting with fiends for power. They saw it not enough to be one of the surviving sun elf houses of the Crown Wars, or to have a place in Cormanthyr. In the eyes of House Dlardrageth, who saw the Vyshantaar Empire as their time of glory, they yearned for those ‘golden days’ and saw war with other beings as making elves stronger. Many elves opposed this. Magic in elven bloodlines also waned in time, something the Dlardrageths lamented. Elven Faerun in their eyes gradually declined with allowing non-elves to flourish and thrive. So, they sought to increase their magic potency and political clout. No celestials in their right mind would aid the Dlardrageths in their ambitions, and draconic blood would appear too obviously monstrous for elven ideals of beauty. Thus, the Dlardrageths begun consorting fiends, especially succubi, in hopes to gain power and restore magic potency in their lines.
Elves found what happened and attempted to imprison all the Dlardrageths in their family keep within Cormanthyr along with the fiends they consorted. However, some of these scions of the family escaped and took refuge in a family holding, garnering sympathy from a northern elven realm known as Siluvanede, a place that also had leadership who dreamed of the days of Empire and actively persecuted Seldarine priesthoods. Around this time, Evereska became overcrowded and so this, combined with people trying to get away from the evil and elitism of Siluvanede, led to the formation of another kingdom built on anti-imperialist ideals. This place became known as Sharrven. Later, Sharrven made Eaerlann, concerned about the growing ambitions of Siluvanede that became a product of its corrupt leadership. These kingdoms acted as checks and balances to this despotic place.
The Dlardrageths successfully corrupted a significant number of noble families in Siluvanede before the main line Dlardrageths had been imprisoned by High Mages of Arcorar per Hellgate Keep and Cloak and Dagger materials. This was under the premise they would think about what they did for a few centuries. Later, fey’ri behind the scenes led the corrupted kingdom, Siluvanede, into waging war against Eaerlann in what became known as the Seven Citadels War, trying to restore the Vyshantaar Empire. Eventually, Arcorar, Eaerlann, and Sharrven defeated them and imprisoned the fey’ri. Like with the Dlardrageths, the elves saw these fey’ri would reflect on their evils done in a long-drawn reverie.
Because of the chaos of the Seven Citadels War and the High Mages who imprisoned the Dlardrageths died by enemy forces, no one could open the prison. Sharrven and eventually, Eaerlann, faced their end the few fey’ri who escaped the fate of imprisonment and unleashed demons on the kingdoms in different timeframes. This, combined with some Siluvanedenn High Mages teleporting in the future, ensured these enemies remained forgotten.
Often, again: people think about the snooty elves who ignore their history. Unfortunately, that is a player issue as much if not more as a lore issue. What people forget are the elves who did something about their evil kin who did bad. They forget that in the lore, like in Leaf and Thorn, elves have handled their evil elements when found.
Another example of this handling one’s own happened when Cormyr was given to the humans by King Iliphar. Around this time, an elf who would eventually become Nalavarauthatoryl, the Devil Dragon, sought vengeance on humans because of the death of her bondmate. She never stopped at the ones responsible, though, and sought vengeance on them all. As a result, King Iliphar exiled her from Cormyr. This is certainly not something Cormyr would do if they had a despotic ruler who took more forests from the elves or massacred them – not unless they had something to gain.
“Elves Are Like the British (or the French)”
This is an expansion to the point above: it aggravates me that some elf players in Forgotten Realms communities will project a sense of elitism and superiority they themselves feel beholden toward in the real world, the attitude bleeding into their character. This does for people outside of the elven playerbase give a sense of the elves being like the British. It introduces a dissonance between what the lore has set in its good and bad, and what people play. The disconnect leads to a sense of elves are always the problem versus sometimes part of a problem, as well as the idea that elves are entitled conquerors like the British Empire supporters. Moreover, it gives the impression to people new to the lore or people apprehensive about elf lore that this is the standard for elves. Because of this, people who do not like elves sometimes go out of their way to find everything wrong with elves even while consciously trying to not. I will be addressing this dissonance in another piece.
The apprehension some may feel toward elven roleplay is understandable. I have my own issues with British and French history, the latter in which is another comparison people make. However, I do not think the elves are like the British or, really, like the French in Forgotten Realms lore. Here is why.
First, we can probably draw any element of the real world and find it in the Realms because a lot of the setting does combine inspiration from it. The creators intended it that way because they were trying to avoid making a one to one parallel or analog. Ed Greenwood opposed having say, Kara-Tur and a few other regions because of how poorly done and yet too close to the real world tropes they were. So while there exists some characteristics that might resonate with British or French history with the elves, I feel that the elements people look at can be found across cultures. Elitism, imperialism, and a history of bloodshed goes across history. When I say this, I am not dismissing the pains of people who suffered from the British and French imperialist practices of the past. On the contrary, they are accountable to such. Nonetheless, I have to still recognize even my own people who the French colonized, or my Irish ancestors the British colonized, had their own issues with elitism or conquering peoples. All of this can be true.
Second, I feel like people dismissing elves as like the British or French in the Forgotten Realms makes it easier to minimize or ignore the nuances where they have legitimately been harmed by other groups. Such people skim over what happened in Tethyr after the one Eldreth Veluuthra extremist assassinated their king. Humans there did not just hunt down the one who did it, but became hostile and oppressive to all elves and by extension, anyone not human. This should feel familiar because it has happened in history, including more contemporary histories in the real world. Tethyrean history in the Realms had a moment where nonhumans had to hide in the forests and only in contemporary Realms time have the rulers changed that and made sure they had a place in the council advising their monarch(s).
If anyone wants to make real life comparisons, I find some others more accurate. Among these are Indian and Chinese empires in Asia, whose descendants will speak of coming from ancient civilizations. Ottoman Empire may be even a better comparison when one considers how the Dalelands that formed or existed within Cormanthyr Empire had been concluded by others to have a very ‘Balkan-like’ dynamic. I say this because these are cases of older civilizations that predate the British or French during the European Colonial Era. These empires and kingdoms also faced a decline and had dark sides in their history.
These also happen to be civilizations that either some tyrant in the past admired but only cherry-picked some cultural elements, or had tyrants misappropriated and ripped parts of the culture out of context. All the while, these same authoritarian sorts still despised the people who inherited these civilizations (see: Hitler and Indian History). This better captures how some human groups have both looked to and admired elements of elven magical culture but still wait for them to be numerous enough to consider them a threat or are actively killing them in some places. It also better emulates how a villain like the Daemonfey wanted to claim all elven legacy, but wanted all elves but their own (including sun elf agents) enslaved or killed. To me, this feels more accurate for how elven history and culture lives in the Forgotten Realms as well as how human groups have both looked at such in awe while wanting to have more land.
I also do not think the British or French empire comparisons for elves works because even though those empires crumbled to dust, the Western European and American dominance as a power still holds today. Some may argue that because of the popularity of elven based storylines and how only dragons and Cormyr can match the depth of lore they have in the Realms, they occupy this space, too. One examination though of how much power and influence they really have in the end challenges this assumption. While their magic technology may be more advanced than some other groups, and they can be deadly if provoked, that is not sufficient for determining overall power and influence one has in the setting. We have a number of countries in the real world with nuclear weapons, who could cause a lot of damage to the world if used, yet they do not all have the advantages that make them a dominant power.
Elves lack not only numbers, but the political influences in the Realms to be what they used to be. Even if they attacked others and wield magic, technological might to full extent, other groups that dominate other aspects of power in the Realms would wipe them out. This also applies for older civilizations that have survived while having dangerous weapons of their own, yet at any point people look to become a threat to West Euro-American centric hegemonies.
There exists a clear implication in Forgotten Realms lore, also, that when humans err, they will generally get away with it and are always treated as individuals, in the lore and by players. While a number of elves may be angry at humanity when it happens, they more likely hurt themselves with drastic measures than make a dent to human power and influence. One good example of this: the Eldreth Veluuthra, the extremist group that can be argued as bad as the Zhentarim on the list of evil/non-good aligned organizations while also an ecoterrorist organization in the Realms. Eldreth Veluuthra per the lore oppose groups who seek to keep peace and freedom in Realms, such as the Harpers and one can argue as well, the Moonstars.
Yet these two groups would cover for the Eldreth Veluuthra because they know if such a group became widely known by humans, more humans would aggress and encroach on elven settlements. They do this not because they consider elves precious – but for the fact they know the peace between elves and humankind delicate enough to where it only takes a few terrible elves doing baleful deeds before the rest pay the price. Elves know this, and to an extent they commonly feel responsible for their bad apples, even if just a matter of saving face.
“Elves Are White People, So the Retreat is Analogous to White Flight”
I will not lie, this assumption really dismisses the context writ in lore, making it all the more inaccurate. Elves partaking in Retreat did so because they lost a lot of numbers and needed to recover. Much of their time in Realms history, authors jokingly, have said ‘been in Retreat’ because they had repeatedly been in decline. More than one Retreat marks the timeline for the Lost Empires of Faerun supplement. Their time having surmounts of power had waned well before the first Crown Wars. Sun elven elitists in Aryvandaar recognized this, knowing something had to change quick for their kind, but unfortunately became among the evils anathema to many elves.
Ever since, elves continued to lose numbers or gone in decline no matter how often they tried to have a civilization. Civilizations, including and especially ones that stood against imperialism and elitism had been destroyed by demons and monsters. Thus, there have been a number of Retreats in their history.
This all particularly holds true in the most recent Retreat after the fall of Myth Drannor, where they lost over a third of their entire population on Faerun. Fertility rates also had plummeted for both elves and dwarves after the fall. A number of groups in the real world have made communities separate from others as a means to both have a sense of a thriving community while also trying to avoid dying out. Such communities need a space to help weather a world hostile to their existence. None would question the need to have space from more overpowering forces in the world (I certainly would not).
White flight in the real world had a very different reason for happening. With white flight, people who opposed desegregation in the United States, consciously or unconsciously, acted to move away from others. This led to all the resources following them, leading to a self-segregation designed to reinstate the very hierarchies these peoples’ societies intended to dismantle. It might make more sense to equate the sun elf district in Evereska self-segregating from other elves as similar (even if not same) to white flight. Perhaps going back far enough, one can say the making of Cormyr had a similar dynamic because of some elves withdrawing from the Wolf’s Woods once King Iliphar conceded to human rule of the region. With such in mind, this only holds only if we make similar comparisons to elitists in societies across history self-segregating.
As I say this, I also recognize because of how people have repeatedly played elves or sometimes even make stories about elves why this assumption might form. As much as I write all of this prose to criticize what elf-haters get wrong about elves, I know much of the fanbase treating them as white(-washed) people may just drive anyone from ever reconciling with what actually exists in the lore. These same problem elf players (or those of the same mentality) idealize Japan after watching anime while perpetuating huge one-dimensional stereotypes that leave East Asian peoples cringing. Yet no matter how much they are fans, they do not really delve as deep into the lore as they project themselves doing. I have a separate essay designed to criticize these sorts of people.
Conclusions
These are some of the areas of elven lore people who profess hating it sometimes get wrong. Elves are not always at fault in the Realms in the same way they may not always be heroes. They also do not serve as analogs for the British or the French in the storytelling. By extension of that, they do not racially code as ‘white people,’ if not for the sole reason humans have the hegemonic advantage in the setting and also the privilege of being treated as individual people. The setting has treated elves as ‘a thing in decline and in the past,’ while humankind clearly has the center of the stage. Though some elven settlements can and have painted humans in a broad stroke, there exist far more places and regions in the Realms where humans enjoy being individuals. In contrast, cultural reactions in the setting, players and dungeonmasters have treated elves as unable to do so no matter whether they are fans or haters.
Elves in their experience or their lore do not always stand out as separate from the rest of the Realms: they live as part of the Realms, whether people like it or not. The way people, both elf players and elf haters like to reframe their events as separate has never been something that sits well with me in our gaming table. I am fine with discussing their lore separately in a cultural context the way one might with regional humans, or dwarves, but even elves have a diversity of cultures regardless of how both elf players and elf haters treat them.
There are areas where the lore has issues, and that is something I want to address in a separate piece. If people want to discuss those problematic aspects, or consider how the way people play elves really make areas of the roleplaying community in the Forgotten Realms a chore to engage, we can definitely talk. When I have time, I will be addressing what a number of elf-fans get wrong about the very elves they defend and fawn over in the Forgotten Realms.
Otherwise, before anyone does any real literary analysis of elven lore with attempts to deconstruct it, or decipher racial coding in the lore, I really wish they would take the time to study the lore in-depth before doing so. Instead, some who seem to self-professedly hate elves make it a point of pride to not study the lore as in-depth as possible while speaking as if they know more than those who have.