Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-11345660-20130908095939/@comment-7953253-20130928061114

I bet almost 85% of Snow Elves living in different regions of Skyrim at the time were not even aware of the Nords' migrations. 15% of Snow Elves decided they don't want Nords in their homeland, but without asking the opinion of every other Snow Elf in Skyrim, just killed them anyway. But the Nords had gone and killed all the Snow Elves they could find, even if their perceptions and beliefs varied from the Snow Elves that were responsible for the Night of Tears.

The Nords did not spare the Snow Elves living underground. The confused Snow Elves resorted to hiding underground, did not even know what was behind all the bloodshed on the surface world. Just read some of the 4 Ancient Falmer Tomes in the The Forgotten vale, once they're translated by Urag in the College of Winterhold