User blog comment:Jimeee/Skryim DLC Details Leaked in 1.5.26 Update Files - The Snow Prince!?/@comment-4499741-20120428035245

well, from what i've read on TES Wiki, the Dwemer worked with the Snow Elves (dunno the [...]mer term for Snow elves), but then betrayed them, and forced them to eat a poisonous fungus that wrecked their eyes. if that was the only exposure, their descendants would be unscathed. But the dwemer kept on feeding them the fungus, mutating the genetic material (or tamriellian equavilent) to make the blindness a part of the Snow Elves' DNA (or tamriellan equavilent). this poisoning lead to them devolving into the ugly Falmer. but, it is very possible that a few snow elves escaped, and kept their species alive