The Elves, also called the Skyborn Elves, were considered a higher and superior race in the world.
They were superior because they arrived already complete.
Five thousand years ago, when human tribes huddled in hide tents and fought over waterholes, when the concept of a 'kingdom' was less real than a dream, the Skyborn Elves simply... appeared.
Not as wanderers. Not as refugees fleeing some older catastrophe. Not as explorers seeking new lands.
They appeared as a civilization.
A superior civilization, definitely.
Back then, humanity wasn't really savage, but they were in the right transition toward the next step, and it was in such a time that they met the very first elves. Human tribes had learned to farm the river valleys and herd sheep across the high meadows. They built walls of mud and stone around their growing villages. They traded obsidian for salt, furs for copper, stories for other stories.
