If a child is born with pointed ears nowadays, they are modified in the hospital to appear as the ears of a human. Historically this was not the case, because our ancestors knew that the elven race was unique and they visually and culturally distinguished themselves from the humans. They were formal when interacting, had an innate connection with flora and fauna, and they kept deer and owls as pets. The elves lived in cities where forest was abundant, and wherever their civilization was present they had sacred elven trees with pink trees and elven runes that served as their monuments, and wooden obelisks placed around them that told the histories of their people. The elves were the keepers of the Earth and they worshiped the same god of harmony from Lavenderism. They became adept at working with the spirits of nature and using life energy. Mushrooms of various kinds were also a large part of their way of life, because the sacred mushrooms provided them with visions and their properties were understood by the elven race who used to cure various physical and spiritual ailments. However, the elven race tends to be biased against modern medicine and modern society structures including laws and cultures.
They were masters of ranged weapons and daggers because their bodies were smaller than the human and neanderthal races, so the speed at which they could attack and the accuracy with their weapons were what allowed them to defend their forests for so long against the other races. The elves became arrogant though and began expanding their control to human tribes, sometimes sending elves into their communities to mix with them and eventually for elves to control the entire Pangea continent. For this reason places all over the world have populations with some elven blood.
The elves began ruling over the humans while races were still evolving, so regardless of someone’s ethnic heritage they still have elven blood. Even those without elven blood can be turned into elves by nature spirits, the god of harmony, or deified elven heroes or ancestors whose souls were held inside of sacred elven trees. This decision should not be made lightly though because you will no longer be human and you will get questions about your ears as well as possible eye and hair color changes. The DNA of a person who calls upon these spirits becomes hereditary.
The elven race began losing control over the world when the humans began resenting their rule. Before humans even had fire the elves had technologies and weapons made entirely from wood, as they believed the ground to be off limits because it was where they buried dead ancestors and where the roots of their sacred trees grew. They never used clay or metal and the closest they had were idols made of manure which did not survive until today to be discovered by anthropologists. However, humans wanted very badly to continue their use of clay and other resources that came from the Earth. This led to tribal wars where many of the elves were beaten to death. 1/10th of all elves survived. Some were captured and kept in the tribes either because they surrendered or decided to side with the humans. The elven kingdoms were destroyed and elves were forcefully assimilated into all groups of people. The elven spirits are still powerful though and calling upon the elven ancestors, heroes, spirits, and gods gains a response to this day.
Also depicted as having higher intelligence than humans, and living in forests, for some reason.