[Game help] enmity3
 
  The enmity between elves and deep elves is as deep and primeval as the
hostility between fire and water. What one must understand is that Good is as
ingrained into elves as Evil is into deep elves, in nature, in upbringing,
and in world view. To turn from this path is impossible....
  The nature of the elf/deep elf division has its truth covered in the murk
of the deepest prehistory. That difficulty, however, has not stopped scholars
like myself from pontification and speculation. Torrum Arcana scholar Wesley
Wifts, for example, claims it was simply a matter of evolution which "created
the roiling division in world view as well as physical appearance" (234, see
also Viorgin Curmen's chapter on the evolution of elves in his tome "Leap in
Form: A Study of Divergence"). That is, because it suited them better for
survival, the elves became "good" sorts who interacted diplomatically with
other races, while the cloistered deep elves grew self-oriented and
xenophobic in their separation. Even the attributes can be seen as natural
selection: the pale cast of the deep elf works well for a creature who sees
little of the sun, and the golden cast of elves works best for those who must
blend against trees and endure the light of the sun. The two races, goes the
claim, are both tributaries of the same river....
  Folklore supports the theory of an original race from which these two
cousins sprung. Imperial Scholar Nolis Porstoy points out that the myth of
Henkilo, despite blatant master-race propaganda and bias evident in "every
over-solemn syllable," may have a germ of truth to it (56). Careful study has
shown definite links in heritage between the two races, separated in the
polar opposites by some event so far-flung in the past we may never uncover
it, the "Halfling Universal Source Race" theory notwithstanding (Blunderbuck,
241-78)....
  Yet for being only skin deep, the differences are immense. Elves are
totally oriented towards the causes of good, deep elves to the causes of
evil. A change in one race's world view from one to the other is such an
enormous change that it cannot be done, for "such a severe change would
surely result in catatonia and internal and physical damage," (Shooth, 567).
Even a move to the neutral world view is impossible, as the pursuit of Good
and Evil is forever locked into the hearts of elves and deep elves,
respectively....
  
    ---Excerpts from "Racial Enmities: A Study of Self-Perpetuating Violence
Cycles," by Quarn Bagasill, gnome Professor Emeritus of Craeftilin University
 
See also: enmity enmity2