Audark wrote:Power corrupts all things, when the elves achieved their height before the crown wars they became more and more powerful with their understanding of Mythals and High Magic. They had no common enemy left to fight to unite them, humankind had not even begun to learn magic nor be worthy of notice. The dragon empires had fallen, only the occasional orc horde was a threat, and they were always beaten back.
In their quest for knowledge and power they were corrupted, Elves are arrogant creatures, even more so when they truly had no challengers in Faerun. The dealt with demons, devils and dark gods. The Seldarine was sundered with Lolth being cast down to the pit. The Vyshaan empire oppressed and murdered whole nations.
I do not think it correct to view elves as peaceful creatures, in their long lives they may spend hundreds of years at peace, but elves are capable of a violence unmatched by the shorter lived races. Elves like to believe themselves superior, above baser things, but when pressed they are creatures of beautiful violence and terrible vengeance. They may be slow to the sword, but once they take it up, you never really know how much blood it will take to sate it.
The history of the elves is a terrible one, they achieved immense power in the adolescence of their time, and they lashed out with it like spoiled children. The elves that remain today live with that haunting past and try to be better than those who came before. They are still capable of the same violence and weakness as ever, but their collected horror at what their own power wrought has them slow to action, slow to combine with others and isolated in enclaves like Evermeet and Evereska. Even reclaimed Myth Drannor is just a city state, no longer the empire of the Cormanthor. I would guess that never again would you see an Elven nation or empire, precisely because they fear what they may become.
Elves, beautiful, graceful, kind and also terrible, wretched, bigoted and violent. The elven experience is broad enough to encompass this dichotomy. The view of elves as aloof, beautiful peace loving creatures I would say is more of a human impression of elves from afar, than anything nearing a true description of what elves really are.
+1
Well put.
Elves archetypically represent an 'otherliness' (influence of Tolkien), at the same time the elves of both Tolkien's world and FR are flawed in surprisingly 'mortal' ways; they are not gods or valar or angelic. While the elves of Middle Earth didn't quite have have Crown wars they had tragedy due to arrogance of the most powerful of them all giving way to pride, which led to the domination of Melkor (Sauron's boss), etc. Feanor's kin even slew other elves, though it only happened once as I recall. This is all pre LotR in the Silmarilion; by the time LotR unfolds they are already in their twilight and passing west, recalling the heights of their history in the distant past.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Yeah.... that's why Tolkien's the master, not Ed Greenwood.
Asking why elves are hated is like asking why America is hated.
Oh, and putting up posts like this from the Complete Book of Elves (there are far worse ones actually, if you're concerned about power/balance issues) is a sure fire way to draw out the elf hate.
