Something in their nature probably makes them reproduce less. No one is an elf in real life, so we will never know. Lol. But humans are the only species on earth that enjoy six (yeah i said six). For animals its just insinct and they get no joy out of it. Maybe that's how it is with elves. Maybe they only have six for reproduction. This means that since they don't care much for it, then they don't do it that much (less babies). But I do agree with you that it's kind of weird. Shouldn't there be elves from the beginning of time around? How come we don't see any? If there are, they can tell us about major parts in the past that we know little about (how elves got here in the first place). It's a rather big inconsistency.

It might indeed be a genetic predisposition - in exchange for their long life spans, their very ability to breed is impaired.

Nevertheless, being immortal is statistically impossible. Even if humans didn't age, statistical probabilities suggest that almost no one would live past 600 - you'd either get hit by lightning, run over by a car, crash in a plane, get eaten by a shark, etc etc....

I'll just pop in here and explain the elven fertility thing. The Real Barenziah books are the source of this info.
1) Yes, elves enjoy six just as much as humans. Dunmer women in particular are said to be promiscuous.
2) The elves in TES have a sort of... restriction? on births. Each pregnancy could be the mother's last. I'd say an elven woman giving birth four times would be a miracle. In the books I mentioned, Barenziah, the queen of Mournhold, has an affair with the emperor. It's been a while since I've read it, but I think it was Tiber Septim, who later became Talos. He's a jerk.
When she inevitably became pregnant, Tiber forced her to get an abortion, knowing full well that she might never have another chance.
So compared to humans, who can theoretically pop out a new little screamer every nine months, elven couples will have less children even with 4-5x longer lifespans.
And the elves are not immortal, but naturally live longer and age slower. Good bloodlines and amount of magic use also are factors in extending their lives further. Divayth Fyr, for example, is an insanely powerful Telvanni lord, and in MW is 4,000(?) years old

Thank you for shedding light on this subject . It seems that interesting info is always hidden in unsuspecting books. Y do you say Tiber Septim is a jerk? I don't know much about him, but he couldn't have been that bad if he becomes a major god in the nordic pantheon

The legendary Dragonborn called Tullius Stormcloak conquers Cyrodiil and reunites the Fouth Empire under a new Dragonborn Emperor. Dragons and tongues fill his vanguard, and all true Sons of Skyrim and all those loyal to the the Empire of Man swell his invincible army. He stands at the spearhead, Shouting down the armies that stand before him until the Thalmor tremble at his might, and ever try to slay him as his very existence renders all their plotting as dust. He is Tal(OS) reborn. HE IS CYRODIIL COME AGAIN!

Tam! RUGH!

i explain that in the paragraph below, the affair and abortion. He's not exactly the one-sided beacon of perfection everyone says he is

Good and divine are completely unrelated. Akatosh betrayed and murdered Lorkhan and ate his body. Talos killed several of himselves.

In real mythology, Odin was the god of wizardry, war and murder. Zeus had a habit of murdering and r-aping left and right, and he was the king of all gods. Gods don't have to be good, even though the Abrahamic one that most western cultures are inured in tends that way.

I don't want to get into politics (I do), but abortion to save his loved one's life isn't bad. He shouldn't FORCE her, but if shes cool with it...

Well, there has to be something "good" about him if he has like 1000's (hundreds??? Don't know the pop of Skyim) of people venerate him

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/real-barenziah-complete

He killed a lot of people. They deified Julius Caesar, and he killed Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Tiber Septim killed a lot of filthy decadent Nibeneans, roughnecked peasant Colovians, and those snooty Altmer.

In fact, the only people he was bad at killing were Dunmer and Redguards.

There never has to be something good about pagan gods, just something necessary.

Oh, but his existence does keep time from unraveling into nonlinear chaos, which is why the Thalmor hate him. That's pretty necessary, I think. And kinda badass, which is way more important than good when you make gods.

Ya he svcks. That as the first time I ever read all of those books. Thanks! Definitly interesting story. Does anyone know what happened to the town of Darkmoor? It is supposedly near Whiterun, which makes me think that Fort Greymoor was once apart of it (and obviously the name of the fort is very similar to Dark Moor).

Never said he svcked. Just that what is necessary isn't always what is good or pleasant. There has to be a Talos/Lorkhan figure or Time gets all wobbly.

I just meant that what he did svcked. He sholdn't have had to do it, but he did.