In Gillianis's living room, Jia Xiu finally learned from a bona fide Elf what Elves were all about.
The Elves of legend—otherworldly, elegant, dreamlike, lovers of nature and magic, art and craft, poetry and music, and every beautiful thing in the world—really did exist.
For historical reasons, the first Elves to meet and work with other races had been just that sort of Elf.
They'd made an indelible impression on the other races, especially humans, and their image had been immortalized in all kinds of ballads, epics, and legends.
Over time, the Elves had been given that label.
By the time the other Elves—the ones who weren't like that—noticed, the label had already been around for two or three hundred years.
They thought they'd caught it in time, but as far as humans were concerned, that image of Elves had already become an inseparable part of their traditional culture.
It wasn't impossible to set the record straight, but the Elves who discovered the problem chose not to.
Instead, they began to play the part of the Elves in those stories.
They thought the image other races, especially humans, had painted of them was so wonderful that they had no desire to correct it. If anything, they wanted to cement that stereotype.
So much so that the Elves even had internal laws requiring them to hide their true nature in public when other races were present, along with a strict code of conduct.
The whole race carried an enormous burden of expectation.
It was like whether anyone actually enjoyed traveling, working out, or baking.
Some people did.
But far more were just pretending to enjoy those things.
After hearing all this, Jia Xiu first thought it was absurd, then reconsidered and found it somewhat reasonable.
After all, Drow Elves and Elves