User blog comment:Thedoucheinthenorth/A question of morality/@comment-166.82.160.163-20121212101212/@comment-26474238-20121212164020

It's a rather touchy subject. One that would be difficult to truly judge without bias. I mean, the snow elves had never had contact with men before. At that period of time in TES universe, the Atmorans were mostly still savage, hardly having much advanced culture. So the snow elves regarded them as mere beasts, which is a perfectly natural response to a new species moving into the area. (Especially since I doubt the two could understand each others' speech.) These new creatures encroaching on their lands was never originally a problem, and they lived peacefully together. But when they started over-populating and taking over the land, the snow elves decided to take matters into their own hands since these new creatures were upsetting the original balance of their lands. In my opinion, this seems perfectly logical. Harsh, yes, but all intelligent forms of life have proven to come to this conclusion when their way of life is threatened. Especially by what would be considered as mere beasts.