guess this one isn’t an easy question at all, but how can the Elven attitude to other races be considered morally ‘good’?
The aggressively xenophobic, sometimes homicidal immediate reaction to any non-elf in Myth-Drannor for example. Every culture has their own definitions of good and evil, of fairness and progress, and their own moral code. These are seldom static.
Adventure and storytelling often lie in the clashes, and the learning/changing of personal and societal views.— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 17, 2021
So the alignment chart in turn can only really apply to singular characters, not a civilization or a society as a whole. Exactly.
Many elves would reject the very notion of other races judging them, but as with humans, dwarves, and others, individual elves who travel more, and have more contact with other races and places, tend to have broader views (more tolerance).
Halflings who…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 17, 2021
……live in human-dominated cities are among the most flexible and tolerant, particularly if they live in cosmopolitan cities (like the ports of Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate) and see many different folk, from many lands.
I’ve always seen alignments as a baseline for… determining the "usual prevailing views/attitudes" of a group (e.g. race or army), but even then, the lived experience of "this particular" group will largely determine their views. (If you're always raided by orcs, you'll see orcs negatively. If they aid you, no).#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 17, 2021
You're welcome!
Thankyou for the response by the way! I read through the entirety of Elminster’s stories again during lockdown 2020-2021 and it was a wonderful escape. In El in Myth Drannor, I repeatedly showed elves sneering at "lesser" humans…even as they displayed the same ignorance, decadence, folly, etc. they saw as "human nature."#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) October 17, 2021