Alimentary Mortality

Rarely spoken of with gleamers (or races of people whose ancestors are native to realms of light) by the Elves is a belief that the cause of their cursed mortality is the consumption of the flesh of children of the sun by the elves when they came to the first world. Like a poison or infection passed down to their children, Alimentary Mortality is a plague the elves cannot escape. With only sustenance from the material realm available and the contamination of the essence of every living elf on the material plane by their ancestors, no Fae'erie kin born here can evade the curse.
Hidden in the idea of Alimentary Mortality is fodder for the accusation that elves consume the dead of their enemies, contributing to the myths surrounding the topic, and fear of the elves violence. Additionally the shadow folk find personal shame in the knowledge that each successive generation of their kind lives shorter and shorter lives in the first world due to this affliction. A diminishment is implied in the accomplishments and greatness achievable by individuals as their separation from the shadowy realm of Fae'erie grows, and heightened is the reverence of ancestors, the Queen of Fae'erie and their cousins of her realm who were never cursed with mortality.
Visitors to the first world from the Faerie Queen's court and the plane of shadows have adopted the custom of never consuming anything while here, although they are typically gracious in their refusal of hospitality, and they also deny visitors to their realm the rites of hospitality or refreshments if it is requested. Some scholars of other races have accurately proposed that this denial of rites is a further means of protecting the faerie realm from the taint of mortality, even without knowledge of the belief in Alimentary Mortality among the elves.
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Originally written for 2024 Summer Camp challenge answering Condition A degenerative disease