Its not just about the society of the long lived ones but its more important in the societies of the short lived races.
Long lived races gain the advantage of time that other races never gain. What are their disadvantages?
Racial animosity can come from anything. And a long life with no disadvantage is number one in my book. And in many other books also.
What if one evil elf decided he wanted to take over a human city. He has several human lifetimes to do it. Would anyone human notice before they die? Whats to say the Elves are not the real rulers of all the lands around the globe?
Jealousy breeds conspiracy theories which leads to an almost religious belief in something which leads to hatred and eventual war.
I can see why racism and sexism was removed from 5E but I just can not see how it could possibly be removed from some creatures who are so different than each other.
I'd imagine they're not because most elves don't give a toss about human cities in general, let alone ruling them.
And it's not that racism and sexism are "removed from 5e" but rather they are limited to specific cultures in specific settings - as they should be. Menzoberranzan Drow are very much a racist and sexist society, but that information belongs in a story featuring Menzoberranzan (like Baldur's Gate 3) where it can be given proper context. It does not belong in a generic Drow entry where the Drow in question might not even be from Faerun let alone that city.
The elves might not care about the humans but instead the humans could care a great deal about those secretive elves.
The elves could very easily be turned into the bad guys in some bad guys rise to power. A small minority of believers in this false narrative could rise to power quite quickly. They would have to be politically proved wrong and that would be impossible.
Their has been a ton of psychological investigation into crowd dynamics. In one case 6 people were placed in a room. 1 was told it was a test to see who was smarter. (in fact the other 5 were there to trick him.) They all gave the same wrong answer until an hour into the test the one guy changed his answers to match theirs.
It worked 100% of the time until a psych major was accidentally chosen and he realized what the test was from the first wrong answers.
The target of malicious lies has no defense. Once a few believe the lies they tend to last centuries.
I'd imagine they're not because most elves don't give a toss about human cities in general, let alone ruling them.
And it's not that racism and sexism are "removed from 5e" but rather they are limited to specific cultures in specific settings - as they should be. Menzoberranzan Drow are very much a racist and sexist society, but that information belongs in a story featuring Menzoberranzan (like Baldur's Gate 3) where it can be given proper context. It does not belong in a generic Drow entry where the Drow in question might not even be from Faerun let alone that city.
The elves might not care about the humans but instead the humans could care a great deal about those secretive elves.
The elves could very easily be turned into the bad guys in some bad guys rise to power. A small minority of believers in this false narrative could rise to power quite quickly. They would have to be politically proved wrong and that would be impossible.
Their has been a ton of psychological investigation into crowd dynamics. In one case 6 people were placed in a room. 1 was told it was a test to see who was smarter. (in fact the other 5 were there to trick him.) They all gave the same wrong answer until an hour into the test the one guy changed his answers to match theirs.
It worked 100% of the time until a psych major was accidentally chosen and he realized what the test was from the first wrong answers.
The target of malicious lies has no defense. Once a few believe the lies they tend to last centuries.
It could certainly be an interesting premise for a homebrew setting.