Here's my bias: Elves in 1e, 2e, 3e, tolkien, FR, Greyhawk,etc etc are basically superheroes.
They're humans,

• with magical powers
• superior grace and intelligence
• an elevated society who live in tune with nature,
• are all physical beautiful,
• are masters of arcane magic (usually the "original masters" who taught everybody else)
• the best swordsmen ever
• the best archers
• the best woodsmen
• ultrawise
• live forever.
• they have a long glorious history
• may come from some special magical land or live in a special magical land,
• and on
• and on
• and on

They rarely have anything that could be called a negative trait and when they do it's not something I think of as being important. (they're short, or their ancestors did something bad, or they have a low birthrate, or they're a little bit fragile).

Or their race is dying. Not that they actually die, that would be lame, elves are cool.
Elves travel to some magical elf-only heaven that's conveniently located on earth instead (usually some far off island). Occasionally, if you save the world you can go live with them. But if you're an elf (any elf) you get in to paradise-on-earth for free.

And yet they never really do anything in a fantasy setting. They just sit around on their crystal thrones at the edge of their magical woods with their hand crafted talking swords and look beautiful. Occasionally rare elf gets off their duff and does something (usually a PC, legolas, or a plot enabler, elron).
Or one of their pretty little elf girls falls in love with a protagonist human (like half of all fantasy novels ever).

I find this profoundly meh.
4e tried to tackle this by "splitting" the elves.


Elves: the roving bands of nature worshippers. I think is just a stronger concept; provided you're willing to make their nature worshiping a specific cultural thing. They live for ever and, as a group, they may be the most dangerous foe you could have, but they don't act as a group or get together or form nations because it's against their culture. (And they live for so long that their culture/religion/etc is very very strong)

Eladrin: you have what's left; the arcane intelligent otherworldy superhumans (in the vein of the elves Aerenal from eberron).
I get a sort of creepy alien vibe from them.

So what do these otherworldy superhumans do when they come to live amongst the humans? They make their own little empire, the Imperium.

I'd like it if we could have a group of eladrin who immigrated to the Imperium and dominated it. I love the idea of a democracy that is built on the rule of law and debate and high culture but isn't really democratic because these 300 year old jerks are camped out there.
I love the idea that, while they aren't evil, being really really old and really wise makes you somewhat callous about the lives of "lesser" creatures.
And, of course, the most callous people begin to accumulate the greatest power.

I'm not saying that all eladrin come from the Imperium, but I would like to have it as a group in the world. They offer an interesting threat/challenge.