too true, I suspect that reading this thread expecting to hear new ideas you'll be happy. . .but a search for consensus will lead to disappointment.
If we want to delve odd angles, the last time I used elves extensively:
(Credit for the original inspiration to Orson Scott Card "Speaker for the Dead"
Elves are plants, not animals.
First life
they are mobile humanoids (The pointy eared tree huggers you'd expect)
When they die, their body, which is actually a mobile seed form, attempts to root and become a tree.
Second Life
As sentient, but immobile trees, they can communicate telepathically by touch.
Mobile first life elves tend them, they send out roots and branches to touch other 2nd life trees to form a vast interconnected network/community.
The interconnected network of 2nd life elves form the "Enchanted forest" type setting the elves live in.
Reproduction is done between a mobile form and a tree form.
So. . .as first lifers, generally the form a PC would choose, they are curious and adventurous, they explore and live life to the hilt. . .they have no fear of death at all in first life. . .mostly they fear dying too far away from the forest, where they'll be stuck alone without anyone to talk to, tend them, or reproduce with when in 2nd life. Elves end up being less concerned with dying, and more concerned with being sure someone collects the bodies of the dead to be moved to a proper planting location . . .2nd life elves, as essentially immortal trees, end up with the long-perspective, risk averse personas normally associated with elves.