Something I waiver about making explicit in a footnote or not, but the prehistoric elves of Cuivienen in Of Ingwë Ingweron and the situation with Ingwë’s disabled parents and how they were ostracized and treated as worthless, ill-omen-ed, and shunned by their tribe is something I developed to show the difference between elves and humans. Some of it was motivated by disgruntlement with this rosy-tinted ‘Elven Society before Valinor was more accepting and pure and free’. that false-nostalgia bullshit noble-savage civilization and cultivation was the cause of all societal ills. But that as much I am hyper-focused on trying to infuse the early Stone Age ‘amateur archaeology’ into the fantasy setting, I kept the key difference in mind. Elves don’t get sick, no birth defects and genetic diseases, their fëa control their hora, more mind over body- and they don’t age. They don’t have elderly in their society they way humans do – the oldest still are the holders of more knowledge via their greater experience, but they don’t grow weaker as they age, bodies don’t start to decline, there isn’t this inborn compassion and understanding of everyone’s shared mortality, you don’t have grandmothers and grandfathers who while unable to keep up on the hunt like everyone else do contribute via their greater wisdom. No wrinkles, no age spots, no scars from illnesses, nothing to combat that ancient idea of beauty equals goodness. No ingrained biological element for augmenting compassion. I mentally tease myself about the probable Elf-Neanderthal connection, but this is not the case for elves. Tolkien’s elves are not the full on Fair Folk a la Discworld, not so alien and uncaring. But if Ingwë’s parents had been human, their tribe would, first of all, have a long history and experience with tending to tribesmen that couldn’t tend to themselves, and secondly, being more willing to do so.