The shame and self-loathing that being Elvin in a world of Men visits upon us has driven many to despair. We either try to pretend to be Men and mingle in their affairs or simply let our minds sleep.

Have you seen young people at shopping malls, dressed in all manners of outlandish costumes, with leather, feathers, piercings, wild hats, and so forth, hanging out at the video arcades all day? You might think of them as displaced youth truant from school, and they would not deny it. But in truth they are elves, sleeping whilst navigating Doom, inevitably becoming automatons to barely maintain their bodies until the return of some rescuing hero.

W e are scattered widely but thinly over this world, and it is difficult for us to make contact with one another without attracting unwanted attention. In this world of Men, Elves are worse off than the most distrusted classes. We do not even have ghettoized neighborhoods in which to pretend that all is well with the world. When will this shame end?

Next: Mannish Misconceptions