Gonna go full spergatron on the Witcher lore but I got curious after posting in the thread. Turns out Elves are in fact even bigger fuckers than I recalled. Fair warning if you don't give a shit about the universe lore this is just
speaks, Witcher Edition.
Pretty much every race with the exception of apparently Gnomes were not originally on the 'witcher world' (I don't recall what the hell its even named). Elves before they split into two major factions and Dwarves arrived because at the time they had more magic with the ability to open pathways into damn near any world they wanted.
The elves arrived then immediately warred with the Gnomes and Dwarves. Then did exactly what would later happen to them to a race of lizard people called the Vran. They straight out began conquering them, capturing some for study and use in genetic experiments. They also invented a virus to sterilize the Vran .. and also some of their own elven people if not properly vaccinated first. They then proceeded to build 'their' elven cities atop the ruins of the Vran's own cities. This was intentionally hidden by the elves but some very small amounts of proof were found both by humans and other researchers like cages filled with the bones of the Vran, statues of the Vran in previously not uncovered rooms and the like.
The elves naturally claim the Vran just 'mysteriously died out we have no idea' despite written evidence and the like being found by a Zerrakanian researcher. Aforementioned researcher was forced to flee back to their home country to avoid being killed by angry elves.
The conjunction that brought about the humans more or less limited how much the then unified elves could travel about. This is why those with the ability to freely travel or open their own portals were so valued and in some cases just straight up forced to reproduce. Ciri's ancestor had this same fate and due to stupidly long elven lifespans it even involved the same people.
Somewhere around this time Humans arrived and the Aen Elle basically decided 'Nah fuck this' and began enslaving unicorns who have the ability to open portals to other locations, they left and turned into the genuinely evil, dimensional hopping bastards they are for the rest of the story. They even at one point run into what is thought to be the original world of humans and genocide them off of it. They frequently return to the 'Witcher' world to capture both Aen Sidhe (the 'normal' elves) and humans for slaves, for profit, and because they view them with disdain.
The Aen Sidhe get the very same treatment they gave the Vran, except in this case they can actually produce viable off-spring with humans. They actually do so easier than with their own race because apparently something about human hormones makes elven reproduction actually work more efficiently. Even many hundreds of years before the books and the games all of the 'Elves' are at this point usually carrying a goodly amount of human blood. The reverse is also true for humans, nearly all have some elven ancestry. This is why the Aen Sidhe are comparatively tiny, lithe, and narrow shouldered compared to the giant Aen Elle.
Humans start out-fucking, out fighting, and out thriving the elves. This is partially because Aen Sidhe straight out didn't know what the fuck farming is or would do. They only relied wholly on whatever was naturally in the forests. So with humans not only being able to more efficiently breed with even these partial elves and with most young Aen Sidhe being the sort to join 'non-human resistance' groups .. the elves basically are doomed to die out. Even better at no point do the elves ever stop being arrogant fucks, no they refuse to learn from anyone else and think their ways are best.
Allegedly in the future the Aen Sidhe also flee the world (potentially via the help of Ciri) but not before DFEing literally ANYTHING involving them, or their appearance. How many remained alive is unclear but its likely they were a curiosity in history by that point.
TL;DR - Aen Sidhe got their just desserts then cucked so hard by humans that they fled reality the second it was practical to do so. They made life miserable for everyone involved with them.
