User blog comment:SsVivid/What I Learned From MPD/@comment-24205786-20131016230849/@comment-24205786-20131106010925

Late reply, but a reply nevertheless!

The reason I believe elves should be more rare and seen as a myth is because their lifestyle dictates it. Elves are by nature isolationists and their religion is based around isolation from other beings. An elf that travels the world and goes around as an adventurer, hitting every bar in town and living as an explorer, doesn't seem like a very loreful kind of character, simply because it goes against what their beloved mother goddess taught.

There has only been a handful of elves that have ever crossed the Arandar mountain range since the fall of Baxtorian's kingdom and all of them, such as the elf who delivers their crucial message about King Lathas or the elf in Silverea who the monk (which I see as reliable) says must've had very pressing issues to go that far.

On the issue of the monk, Brother Samwell, I believe him to be a reliable piece of lore. He appears scholarly from what he tells us and is also in contact with senior magical experts. As he was going to Paterdomus for a pilgrimage, I don't think he is shut away in an abbey all the time. It is possible that he is some sort of travelling monk or at least a monk who makes trips around the world to holy sites.