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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CruelSummerLord" data-source="post: 3951037" data-attributes="member: 48692">It is because, for all their supposed grace, wisdom and power, the elves have ultimately failed to live up to their potential, forever fractured and divided as a race.  In no way, at any time, has the olven race ever lived up to its potential.  Its capacity for powerful magic...its ability to craft artworks of extraordinary beauty...its intimate connection with the land...all these things have not prevented the elves from struggling to survive.  Despite their thousand-year lifespans, their frailties and failings, their bitter internal divisions and struggles, have always divided the race.  By all accounts, elves could be one of the most powerful races, with their capacity for art, music, sorcery, and swordplay, and their renowned wisdom and philosophy.  But then, there has never been an elven "Golden Age"; instead, life has been an endless struggle against dwarves, humans and orcs for survival, even as the elves are riven and torn apart by their own intra-racial wars and conflicts.  Look at the elven chronicles and you will see disputes between elven kings, foolishness and stupidity on the part of the elven gods, hard-fought wars, not all of them victorious, against dwarves, humans and orcs.  Elves have formed kingdoms and traditions...but always has this experience been precarious, a potential always dreamed of but never achieved.  The great talents of the elves seem to bring them no joy, as the races of men and orcs, who lack many of the elves' talents, thrive and prosper in spite of this.  The long lifespans and memories of elves can thus be as much of a curse as a blessing, for centuries-long grudges and hatreds between elven peoples cause rifts that never have, and likely never will, heal.  The ghosts of the past exist all too keenly for the elves, a sense of what may have been, may yet be, in a fleeting dream so near and yet so far.  The elven race appeals to many humans because they are a bittersweet tragedy, a reflective mirror for the human race that allows us to contemplate our own failings...and our own potential.  <a href="http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=649" target="_blank">http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=649</a></blockquote>

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