Well, Valin would like to speak an his observational and entirely unbiased opinion now.
Okay, so, personally, Daryl, I'm against you using elves. I love elves, played one in dragon age origins, I'm a die hard bosmer fan, but I feel like the typical elf doesn't fit in this world. I would fully support a elf that was completely different from common fantasy worlds (short maybe, perhaps evil, more toward the elf that is known by people who aren't aware of fantasy lore) However that's not what you want, and I can see why.
Now, here are my reasons why. First, I don't think this world needs to have anything that is commonly used in fantasy. I recommend that anything we take from another fantasy world, we portray in a completely non cliche way. (Giants being kind isn't a very common thing, and we did it.) I say, that the compromise should be Daryl creates his own race, that is exactly what he needs, and then there is no issue with it being cliche and such.
Now, if I remember correctly back to my argumentative essay classes, I need to recant your argument now, to prevent you repeating the same argument with me, over again. You're saying it isn't that big of a deal because there is only a couple of elves. We don't have a problem with the characters, we have a problem with the race and the lore behind it. By your argument, the dwemer aren't a big deal in the elder scrolls because there is only a handful of characters that are dwemer.
In conclusion (see what I did there, I really went back to classes.) I say that it's fine if you want to create a new race in the rp, but I recommend it is actually a "new" race. Now, i never said you "had to" I only reccomend, I can't make you do anything, nor do I want to make you do anything. However, from what I have noticed from a lot of RP's, is that if a lot of people are giving you advise, it might be best to at least consider it, but once again, I can't and don't want to make you do anything.