Something that has always baffled me was the opinions that Altmer have on what the ancient Snow Elves were like and if they thought Snow Elves could have been Mer that would be just a little under or as superior as their Altmer cousins. The reason I am asking is because there is not much lore as of right now about how the Snow Elves actually settled in Skyrim and from where they came from, whereas there is lore to Dunmer and Bosmer and how they are related to Altmer. My opinion is that the Altmer would think of the Snow Elves back in their glory days as just as superior to them but I also wonder if the Altmer think of the Falmer as failures by having their entire civilization decimated by just 500 Atmoran Humans. What do you guys think?

Every Altmer in Summerset considers Mer in the other parts of Tamriel as inherently "lesser" for simply not being High Elven. The fact that they were defeated by primitive man shows that they weren't "elven" enough to handle the brutes. Of course, they might view them in a sympathetic light, but nothing much else beyond that.

The 500 had support from the Dragon Cult and the war with the Falmer lasted well into First Era and overlapped with the Dragon War.