Back When Elves Were Plentiful

[Esquire]

I've been thinking about this for a while, and the recent generic fantasy thread made me sit down and type this up. Elves in nearly all fantasy settings in which they appear are a dying breed, ancient and powerful, but rare. What would a full-scale elf society have been like, assuming all the usual traits (live in trees, love archery and magic, etc.)? How would elf cities interact? What would their politics, espionage, diplomacy, and commerce have been like?

[Formless]

Well, how long do they live? Depending on the setting it can very from hundreds of years to immortality, with the latter usually meaning that elves do not mate and were crafted by some god or mythological whatever and that's why they are in decline. That I imagine will determine almost everything about them that's different from humans. Almost. You can fiddle around with other aspects like their relationship to the natural world, but ultimately you can probably find analogous human societies to tell you what you need to know about that.

[fgalkin]

I've been thinking about this for a while, and the recent generic fantasy thread made me sit down and type this up. Elves in nearly all fantasy settings in which they appear are a dying breed, ancient and powerful, but rare. What would a full-scale elf society have been like, assuming all the usual traits (live in trees, love archery and magic, etc.)? How would elf cities interact? What would their politics, espionage, diplomacy, and commerce have been like?

Read The Silmarillion.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Guardsman Bass]

Honestly, it just depends on how you construct your elves, as Formless said.

In Tolkien's case, it's because the elves were immortal beings in a changing world with a very low birth rate, and thus they were constantly mourning the loss of everything around them that they'd known and loved earlier in life. They weren't so much in decline so much as they were gradually moving to a place that didn't change (Valinor), and the low-birth rate and history of conflict in Middle-Earth meant that their populations therein had shrunk drastically over time.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I've had to ask myself this very question in writing for an upcoming D&D campaign.

What would a full-scale elf society have been like

I imagine one of relatively little internal conflict and politicking. Typical depictions of elves include either long life or immortality, and this naturally breeds either a very long view on consequences for actions and the inherent wisdom of such a perspective, or aloofness to the point of outright apathy.

I think it's important to consider the proverbial Bad Apple, though. It stands to reason that not all elves would be on board with this wise and enlightened view on life and its consequences. Some might crave power for any number of reasons, some might just be nasty individuals or "damaged goods." Either way, it's conceivable that the occasional civil war or similar conflict might arise out of the aspirations of such a rogue elf. Elf Hitler, if you will. It would probably be a much less common occurrence than in human history, however -- Hitler's (and the many figures like him) rise to power hinged on exploiting a disgruntled, disillusioned, and easily-manipulated populace, which would probably be rarer in elf society.

How would elf cities interact?

This probably depends even more on your setting's elves. How human are they? Relatively human-like elves probably trade and engage in diplomacy in ways similar to typical human fantasy cities. More inscrutable and alien elves, however, might have ways of interacting which seem very strange to us. Arcane (in the proper sense) or esoteric protocols and traditions that literally go back thousands and thousands of years: Perhaps two cities engaged in a far-reaching betrothal of noble children eight thousand years before, which only just now is to be set in effect with the marriage proper, for example. That could be because the children set to be wed only very recently were born and came of age, or because it might be considered 'proper' in that elven society to court for a thousand years before sealing the deal.

What would their politics, espionage, diplomacy, and commerce have been like?

Again, this is highly dependent on the nature of the setting's elves. Are they human-like? Are they alien? Somewhere in between? How magical are these elves? Magic-elves might resort to purely magical means for their espionage, and might have magocratic politics. Elves, magic or not, are also likely to take into account their lifespans. A spy could be embedded hundreds of years prior to achieving the intended goal. Commerce, similarly, probably has a longer view. Trading quickly for goods needed now is unlikely -- chances are the elves have already planned for such eventualities. Instead, they'd likely be trading for things they need centuries down the line. A harvest of wheat last year versus the harvest this year are probably trivial concerns to elves.

[Guardsman Bass]

If they're long-lived elves with a low birth-rate (as in 1000 years of life or more), who primarily live with the same group of people in the same area for their entire lives, then I wouldn't be surprised if they lived in an absolute thicket of social ties and duties - to a degree that would be difficult to understand for shorter-lived beings like humans. They might not even have a whole ton of written laws and formal institutions in their society, as opposed to a massive set of norms and obligations to each other that are developed over their very long life-times.

Your elves could also be crazy perfectionists, with a lot of time to dedicate towards refining behavior, clothing, architecture, and the like in detail. There was an otherwise mediocre fantasy trilogy I read once that captured that, with the long-lived elves developing an incredibly refined sense of aesthetic (there was a funny sequence where the lone human guy is wandering around the elf city getting weird looks, until one of them finally walks up to him and tells him that his attire is appalling to look at).

Of course, this is all in a peaceful setting where not much changes for them on a year-to-year basis. If they're in an area where they constantly have to deal with geopolitical threats and shorter-lived enemies, then their diplomacy and trade will be centered in more "presentist" concerns.

Hmm. You know, there could be a good story where you take the stereotypical fantasy elves in a Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance-esque setting, with their ultra-low birth rate and extremely long lives, and then suddenly enchant them so that they reproduce at human levels. Chaos and hijinks ensue.

[Formless]

It actually always bothered me that in DND the elves were stated to grow up at the same rate as humans, bodily sexually and mentally, with the implication that they reproduce at around the same rate as humans. At that rate you would quickly be overrun by elves and half elves.

[Agent Sorchus]

The opposite end of the coin can also apply, with even moderate birth rates or large emigrant population of elves one can argue for a very ultra violent society. With constant expansionist wars used for both the slow expanse in territory and as a way of population control, with individual cities basically at a state of low level war for long periods of time and the occasional flashpoint. Resource that would be enough for a smaller shorter lived group might get run through in "short" periods by an elven group.

Or (with worlds with large unexplored frontiers and other similar regions) elves can become quite vagrant stretching into the extremes of the world without having to socialize much or learn any of the supposed peaceful and complexity of society that a smaller denser group might have.

(I'd actually argue that the DnD style goblins really should never be warlike, they already have short lives and literally everything finds goblins as snacks. They'd actually have a pretty complex society with lots of social obligations and dense generational interchangeability, since cooperation helps the individual more in general. And mobility would be harder with lower ages since it would take proportionally more of their life to move and settle in.)

[Ahriman238]

It can be done a number of ways.

Tolkien's elves (and most are based on his) are an idealized, almost angelic people. Part of that is that they're noble, brave and (with a few exceptions) kind. Part of that is how they never age, never get sick. They can run faster and longer, see and hear better, than humans. They create things which seem magical to others (elven rope, cloaks, lembas bread) but are to them merely good craftsmanship. They have a connection to both nature and the gods of Middle-Earth that others cannot understand. In short, they're like other people, just better in every way.

D&D does elves very similiar, though most people I know play them closer to being arrogant asses obsessed with their own superiority.

Palladium Fantasy had a different take, where ancient elves became so arrogant off their power, they got into an apocalyptic magic war with the dwarves, that more-or-less anihilated both parties. The surviving elves recast themselves as protectors and teachers to humanity, which they see as their natural successors in ruling the world.

A variation that really tickled me was Oath of Swords, where elves are human magic-users who traded their power for immortality. They are refugees from the Fall of Kontovar, but so is everyone else on the damn continent. The difference is the elves were personally around for the fall of civilization centuries ago, and the vast majority are still traumatized by the experience. Now, elf-human hybrids, like the Purple Lords, are long-lived, pointy-eared bastards who lord over everyone because of their perceived racial superiority.

WF/40K elves are subtle and powerful, and have little regard for the lives of other races, who would die shortly anyways. So any trouble they can use the Empire/Imperium of Man as catspaws and meatshields is fine with them.

Elves in Eragon are extremely unlikable assholes. This applies to everyone in Eragon, designated "hero" most of all.

[Lord Revan]

WF/40K elves are subtle and powerful, and have little regard for the lives of other races, who would die shortly anyways. So any trouble they can use the Empire/Imperium of Man as catspaws and meatshields is fine with them.

it's actually a bit come complex then that IIRC with the high elves/Craftworld eldar and to a degree wood elves/exodite Eldar being as you decribe, dark elves/dark eldar are another thing all together being total pervert pricks who cling to past glories and hedonism though with the added benefit no-one pretends they're one of the good guys and this is in a verse(even in the more optimistic Warhammer fantasy) where the good guys aren't afraid to do nasty things if it's needed.

[Guardsman Bass]

It actually always bothered me that in DND the elves were stated to grow up at the same rate as humans, bodily sexually and mentally, with the implication that they reproduce at around the same rate as humans. At that rate you would quickly be overrun by elves and half elves.

It depends on whether or not they have any form of birth control. But even with it, you'd expect them to urbanize and expand very quickly, particularly since young elves would have little prospects for replacing the existing elvish hierarchy aside from revolution, non-violent regime change, or emigration to new areas. Imagine if people born now were still living under the rule of King John (1166-1216).

Does anything particularly kill elves to keep their population in check? Nothing that I'm aware of that wouldn't apply to humans and other races in fantasy.

[Rogue 9]

It actually always bothered me that in DND the elves were stated to grow up at the same rate as humans, bodily sexually and mentally, with the implication that they reproduce at around the same rate as humans. At that rate you would quickly be overrun by elves and half elves.

What edition was that? In 3rd, elves reach maturity at around 100 years old.

[Formless]

Well, being that in the D&D game there are magicians who can turn you to stone and clerics that can heal broken bones through prayer, I'm guessing birth control is pretty trivial by comparison.

But then again, D&D is a generic non-setting where you have to decide how it all works yourself rather than a novel with one author writing exposition that is absolutely true. There are ways of explaining it, but they each come with different consequences that the game's designers would rather not talk about. For instance, lets say that elves do mature at the same rate as humans for the first twenty to thirty years, but that elven women have an unusually very high rate of miscarriage such that elven couples have to go to significant effort or wait a very long time in their relationship before they can expect to have children. Hence, elven marriages would have a problem of faithfulness, or else possibly just that loose relative to human ones.

Thing is, the population of true elves drops, but this is D&D and human-elf hybrids are common enough to get an entire racial profile devoted to them in the Players Handbook. Maybe half elves play a significant role in their society precisely because of how easy it is for a man to sire a half elven son or daughter? Maybe elven men feel free to be promiscuous with human women or even take advantage of their shorter lifespan to gain political influence in human nations? Imagine the elf version of the Godfather, only he's physically fit, and has been a womanizer for the last three centuries. Would make for an interesting villain, if nothing else.

Or then there is the possibility that elven women have the ability to put their pregnancy in stasis, and so they tend to do so until they are sure its a good time to have a child. Of course, this means the women would tend to hold a lot of power relative to the previous scenario, since it becomes quite easy to deny who the father is, especially once again in the case of a human-elf hybrid. What exactly happens when you have these slightly less long lived players in a society like that whose obligations are to a single parent?

Or maybe elves just have a very strong taboo against approaching someone under 200 and consider such "children" jailbait. Humans might just not be able to tell the difference, but imagine how much trouble they can get themselves in when visiting elven settlements!

Playing around with their reproductive lives like this shows how varying their behavior could be, but also makes them clearly a lot more alien than is normally depicted.

What edition was that? In 3rd, elves reach maturity at around 100 years old.

I think I am thinking of Third edition... but possibly the .5 update? In any case, I think it said that they were physically identical to a human at approximately 20 years old, and the rest could be a matter of mental development. Still, think of what an investment in childrearing it would be if it took 100 years for one to get to full maturity! The caretaker's jobs would never seem to end.

[Grumman]

It actually always bothered me that in DND the elves were stated to grow up at the same rate as humans, bodily sexually and mentally, with the implication that they reproduce at around the same rate as humans. At that rate you would quickly be overrun by elves and half elves.

What edition was that? In 3rd, elves reach maturity at around 100 years old.

They changed/elaborated on that in the Races of the Wild book. If elves took a hundred years to learn what humans do in fifteen, that's not exactly impressive, is it? An entire race of special ed students?

[madd0ct0r]

I was thinking about this yesterday. It's kind of hard to imagine lives when you are near immortal, but I could easily imagine the opposite -

what social changes would you see if all humans died aged 15? And that's how elves view us.

[Raw Shark]

It actually always bothered me that in DND the elves were stated to grow up at the same rate as humans, bodily sexually and mentally, with the implication that they reproduce at around the same rate as humans. At that rate you would quickly be overrun by elves and half elves.

What edition was that? In 3rd, elves reach maturity at around 100 years old.

They changed/elaborated on that in the Races of the Wild book. If elves took a hundred years to learn what humans do in fifteen, that's not exactly impressive, is it? An entire race of special ed students?

What if they get smart enough for critical thinking and so on at the normal human pace, but remain emotionally immature for decades? An entire human lifespan to grow out of being a teenager has more dramatic possibilities than a race of beautiful retards, IMHO...

[Esquire]

Maybe that explains the stereotypical elven superiority complex - anybody who has to survive a century of adolescence clearly deserves some sort of compensation.

I'm especially interested in Agent Sorchus' somewhat darker take on elf society, with constant wars as expansion used to control population pressures. Do we have any idea what the birthrate would be? Something above replacement level, obviously, but if individuals live somewhere between a thousand years and until killed that could be... (insert back-of-the-envelope calculating) anywhere above 1 per thousand individuals per year. I'd say that works as a minimum even if elves live forever, since there'd almost have to be at least one elf per thousand killed by a falling tree branch/giant spider/orc warband/tragic baking accident per year.

In an especially violent setting, you might see human women used to expand the population of half-elves 'quickly' to prepare for war, since they live longer than humans but mature faster than elves. I'm assuming, of course, that human/elf pairings have a higher fertility rate than elves do with each other.

[Patroklos]

The issue of immortal elves in a very non immortal world has always been interesting ever since I started reading Tolkien as a kid. It seemed that while different to a degree elves still shared every human vice and virtue as far as everyday life goes. They would deeply identify with places and people and institutions and all other manor of thing and would probably have to watch all of them die/change/be destroyed/whatever multiple times in their lifetime (most elves seem to die a violent death eventually at least those not in Valinor). From what I observed as the reader they take those hits as deeply as any human would but in some cases they are losing a friend of three hundred years, a wife of five hundred, a child of a millenium and they might go through several rounds of that. That could make anyone bitter especially when those loved ones are supposed to be immortal and you don't just have a long history together but are now literally missing out on a future eternity (a current experiance reality eternity, not a nebulous "I'll see you in heaven" one).

Given all that I would imagine any aged elves have a life of sadness, regret and loss. It would drive any human insane, and I don't see them depicted differently enough that you couldn't expect the same from elves. In fact it appears more than a few are lured to evil in Tolkien's world perhaps because of that.

[Formless]

Given that normal human beings do in fact go through those things without going insane, I'm pretty sure a being who is nearly or actually immortal probably learned to deal with it a long time ago. Its not pleasant, but eventually it does become an expected part of living.

For instance, think of it this way. Any elf that has human friends knows that their human friends will die before they do (assuming the elf isn't already 900). Now, to put yourself in the shoes of that elf, ask yourself, have you ever owned a pet? Maybe as a kid? A dog or a cat, lets say? Then you have probably also had the experience of having one die. You probably didn't regret it, and probably mourned at least a little. Now, have you ever owned a pet since then? Why, when you know that it will die and you will have to go through that whole mourning thing again? If its because you nevertheless valued the time spent with your pets, then basically you know what its like to be an elf.

In a way, this is one reason elves might be more inclined to live in the moment than other races do. The have all the time in the world to make plans and lay down roots and connections. They're freaking old for goodness sake. But if they don't stop to enjoy themselves today, they might miss whole worlds of opportunity. By contrast, a goblin that lives a maximum of, lets say, 50 years must plan for next year every year because otherwise he'll never accomplish anything with his short life. His time is precious for the opposite reason.

[Patroklos]

Given that normal human beings do in fact go through those things without going insane, I'm pretty sure a being who is nearly or actually immortal probably learned to deal with it a long time ago. Its not pleasant, but eventually it does become an expected part of living.

But they don't go through it over and over again over generations. And that human doesn't have any 900 year old freinds that die either.

For instance, think of it this way. Any elf that has human friends knows that their human friends will die before they do (assuming the elf isn't already 900). Now, to put yourself in the shoes of that elf, ask yourself, have you ever owned a pet? Maybe as a kid? A dog or a cat, lets say? Then you have probably also had the experience of having one die. You probably didn't regret it, and probably mourned at least a little. Now, have you ever owned a pet since then? Why, when you know that it will die and you will have to go through that whole mourning thing again? If its because you nevertheless valued the time spent with your pets, then basically you know what its like to be an elf.

You are assuming experiance with humans. In the case of Tolkien's elves humans showed up long after the elves so it probably was an entirely new concept.

I also take issue with your equivalency between pets and peope. I'm sorry but the relationship might approach it for some people in the extreme minority but no cat is going to equal losing a relation ship of multiple decades with a mom/dade/wife/kid got most.

And again, you are not accounting for losing fellow immortal companions. In most of these series the beginnings of the elves in question are within their living memory, so some of the really old ones may have friends and family they have never lost, until they do so 1000 years later and there is no human equivalent to losing a 1000 year old companion.

In a way, this is one reason elves might be more inclined to live in the moment than other races do. The have all the time in the world to make plans and lay down roots and connections. They're freaking old for goodness sake. But if they don't stop to enjoy themselves today, they might miss whole worlds of opportunity. By contrast, a goblin that lives a maximum of, lets say, 50 years must plan for next year every year because otherwise he'll never accomplish anything with his short life. His time is precious for the opposite reason.

Thats an issue with all immortal beings. What is the rush to do anything? Is achievement still satisfying when you have the opportunity to do anything 100 times? Can you achieve if there is always someone with 1000 years of experiance more than you eternally holding the best hunter/best smith/best brewer/etc.? Do the children of kings never get to come into their own and a lot of elves depicted have royalty? Hell, can you ever even become the cook when that guy has already been there for a millenium? If we think our expansion and sprawl is bad, just think of what that would do!

[Ziggy Stardust]

You are assuming experiance with humans. In the case of Tolkien's elves humans showed up long after the elves so it probably was an entirely new concept.

I also take issue with your equivalency between pets and peope. I'm sorry but the relationship might approach it for some people in the extreme minority but no cat is going to equal losing a relation ship of multiple decades with a mom/dade/wife/kid got most.

And again, you are not accounting for losing fellow immortal companions. In most of these series the beginnings of the elves in question are within their living memory, so some of the really old ones may have friends and family they have never lost, until they do so 1000 years later and there is no human equivalent to losing a 1000 year old companion.

Here's a question: do you think it's accurate to project human emotions onto elves? Human emotions and attitudes in this sense are evolved. The origin of elves will vary from fantasy world to fantasy world, but generally they are going to be magical creatures (or, perhaps, just another evolved race). So why would elves necessarily develop the same views relative to intimacy, attachment, and mortality as us? Our attitudes towards these are far from objective or universal as it is.

[Intio]

A lot has been said already so I will simply add what I can remember from some books I read many many years ago. There is a Dragonlance trilogy called "Elven Nations" which centres on an elven kingdom(s) and tells the story of a prince of the kingdom who, for various reasons, must go into self-imposed exile.

Through these elven characters you infer a sense of how they see the world, some of the points listed detail how elven societies see others yet this informs on their society nonetheless. (If anyone has read this trilogy more recently then you may be able to correct any errors below, but from what I can remember):

1) They had to reform their prison / slave labor camps to take into account human life-spans. The penalties used to be a fixed number of years, 80-100 for example, until it was noticed that human criminals never gave themselves up for even the slightest crimes: always fighting to the death instead. It was pointed out that the prison sentence for a mild crime was almost the entire span of a human life. I think they changed the law so that the punishment was a proportion of a criminals life.

2) They noted that human armies were very fast moving, one elf advising someone noted that human cavalry units were frightening to behold in full charge. I can't remember if the prose was subtle enough to imply that humans were almost like termites: spreading to press against elven borders, living and dying very quickly. That may be my own interpretation.

3) Human industry and intellectual achievement was noted for being exceptionally quick - gem cutting and a few other things were mentioned. Humans had advanced in these fields faster than elven society had in their own history. Pace of life, culture and the acquisition of wealth were also noted as being faster and more voracious than elven societies. The wealthy daughters of elven nobility were rumoured to spend scandalous amounts of time in human cities - getting up to who knows what.

4) The elves also had stark differences amongst their own nations - some 'frontier' living elves resenting the military forces sent by the elven capital to patrol the border, claiming that the patrols were more trouble than humans had ever been (or something to that effect). Other elves had spent so much time living in forests that they had never touched metal before: one elf was incredulous that there could be a substance which did not burn.

5) Many of the POV elves were from nobility so it is hard for me to say if their concern for bloodlines and family honour was due to their social standing or race, or both. What I remember was a general concern about the future, given the ambition and spread of humans.

Even with their own nations and large numbers 'protecting what they had' was of primary concern.

[Formless]

But they don't go through it over and over again over generations. And that human doesn't have any 900 year old freinds that die either.

This is a failure to see beyond your own perspective if I have ever seen one. My grandparents grew up during the Great Depresssion, and specifically remember experiencing the Dust Bowl. You know how much the world has changed in their lifetimes? They have also experienced the deaths of people they met decades ago, a proportionately similar amount of time as an elf loosing a friend they knew for hundreds of years. They haven't gone nuts or become bitter, they moved on and enjoy the company of their family as much as possible.

When you use the word "generations", think about what that means. You are talking about all this from a human perspective, but elves will measure "generations" in elven terms, and elven lifetimes. IF they talk about human generations, it will be like us talking about generations of cats or dogs, who live a fraction of our own lifespan. Why would they do this? The answer is, they wouldn't. The difference between animals and humans is immaterial, despite your bitching. Different species will necessarily have to come to terms with the differences between each other if they have coexisted in the same world for as long as most fantasy elves have with humans and dwarves and whatever else. You might as well have complained that elves don't see humans as pets for all the relevance it had to my analogy.

Talking about a species that naturally lives for hundreds of years is not the same as imagining a human who has had their lifespan extended to hundreds of years, no matter how similar to us elves may seem. No matter how much you try to drag this conversation into a Tolkein-Only zone, that's not what this thread is about. The OP didn't even mention Tolkien, so why should we assume his stupidities are all that matters? Frankly, I don't give a shit about that damn overrated hack; and even if I did, his elves clearly didn't go insane either, just overcome with nostalgia enough to move somewhere less chaotic than Middle Earth. Which honestly makes sense enough considering.

Thats an issue with all immortal beings. What is the rush to do anything? Is achievement still satisfying when you have the opportunity to do anything 100 times? Can you achieve if there is always someone with 1000 years of experiance more than you eternally holding the best hunter/best smith/best brewer/etc.? Do the children of kings never get to come into their own and a lot of elves depicted have royalty? Hell, can you ever even become the cook when that guy has already been there for a millenium? If we think our expansion and sprawl is bad, just think of what that would do!

I think you're trying to say two different things at once here, and the two thoughts are rather contradictory. On the one hand, yes, elves have a potential problem with both controlling their own expansion and with potential generational conflict. On the other hand, there is your apparent argument that they would have a problem with apathy-- kinda the opposite, and debatable as well. If I had the lifespan to not only go back to college to get ten different degrees, but moreover the time to actually do something in those fields, I think that would be the greatest thing in the world. Its like, there are so many things to do in your life that extending your life just means you get to do more of those things.

So elves might not be as individually competitive as humans, but who cares? Even in the real world not all cultures are as aggressively competitive as the West is. When I play a video game and it has an online leaderboard, I don't bother looking at it, because generally I know I will never get onto that leaderboard. I just care about beating my own high score. The same mindset can probably be applied to elves. If your grandfather is Master Yoda, you have two choices; you can obsess about whether you will ever be as accomplished as he is, or ask him to teach you in the ways of the Force. I think its clear which option is more productive.

[Patroklos]

Here's a question: do you think it's accurate to project human emotions onto elves? Human emotions and attitudes in this sense are evolved. The origin of elves will vary from fantasy world to fantasy world, but generally they are going to be magical creatures (or, perhaps, just another evolved race). So why would elves necessarily develop the same views relative to intimacy, attachment, and mortality as us? Our attitudes towards these are far from objective or universal as it is.

I don't think it is, but that's what we get in quite a bit of media. Some books and movies do a better job than others but some basically have the elves we see act like humans in all the ways that matter. Think about Legolas, probably the elve most people know the best due to the LOTR movies. The experiences of his day to day live don't really differ all that much from the other characters dwarf or human. His pace is the same from what we see, he gets angry and happy about the same things and he can die from everything the others can with the exception of age. THe only real substantial thing that sets him unequicably apart was he doesn't fear ghosts, which is stupid because we later see those ghosts can kill things just fine. He doesn't seem alien enough to approach things from a much removed from the human perspective than say a Spock character does. The dwarves were the same.

Tolkien's elves are not the only depiction of course but it is certainly the the gold standard in the greater world today and many authors versions rip his off. I only find this troubling in LOTR, the Silmarillion and Lost Tales have some drastically different depictions markedly setting them apart from humans . Even in the LOTR some of the really old elves have that alien feel like Galandriel but then equally old elves like Elrond were pretty much just old human dudes for all intents and purposes. Can you really point out the glaring separation between the wood elves of Mirkwood and any random humans?

So to answer your question no I don't think they should react like humans to such things which is why I question how characters like Legolas act inside the observed short term timeline.

[Lord of the Abyss]

I've just been reading Elizabeth Moon's new Paladin's Legacy series, where the elves play a major part. A few comments on her take on elves:

Even for immortals they are long lived; it's mentioned that some have disputes going back to before the formation of a local mountain range. A standard time period of theirs is the vanryn; ten thousand years, and it's not considered a particularly long time.

They are almost pathologically patient. It's understandable; one thing they always have more of is time, and they can simply outlive most problems. They are also very aware of how many unforeseen long term consequences there can be of an act. The problem is, they tend to wait until the time for any useful act is past; especially when dealing with non-elves, whose lives don't move to the slow elvish pace. Some of the major problems of the series are caused because of elves having taken this "wait and see" position.

Having such long lives, combined with a very good memory and a superhuman ability to perceive patterns leads them to look at every situation as a complex situation. "Now I know why elves never give simple answers, they don't think there are any simple answers". They see every act, every situation as interconnected, and as having long term unforeseen consequences far into the future. Which helps explain their tendency towards passiveness; they know from experience that a reasonable seeming act taken now can have major undesirable consequences decades or centuries in the future. Of course inaction has its own consequences (as is pointed out to them).

Also, they partly from their instinctive love of harmony, order & beauty and partly due to possessing strong powers of "glamour" (creating illusions and clouding minds) they have a tendency to prefer a pretty appearance to ugly reality. It's mentioned (by an elf, no less) that people who are immune to such powers like elves a lot less than those who aren't immune. They also as a result don't handle open, in-your-face conflict nearly as well as humans. While they aren't a dying race, they have far less territory than they used to because they tend to either win immediately or retreat; they just aren't emotionally equipped to handle long, grinding conflicts like humans are.