Would be funnyI don't know how elves manage to have pale skin in a damn desert.
Elves of Mabinogi, what's your secret?
My guess would be that dark skinned elves don't fit into the idea of elves that the developers have, otherwise they'd be drow elves, course they didn't always live in a desert, that was caused by a curse., so...Magic!
Yes, elves used to live in the forest a long time ago before the curse on Iria took over which turned the forest/oasis into some desert and... well, if you want to be fair... isn't the Courcle people who -live in the forest- (and considering elves have the forest/oasis so I'd say that's a similar atmosphere) pretty dark-skinned? Plus not to mention, the Iria Chapter (G4 to G8) was loooooooong time ago so most the developers who did it isn't probably around now... it depends on if you think that the current existing elves (as individuals) lived in the forest or if it was their ancestors... plus the timeline is pretty unknown on when this happened so...
Also... ???
Heck, we even have three (one being event) elf NPCs who have tan/dark skintones in Mabinogi yet we elves can't have the dark skin options... Why, Nexon/DevCat?!
Elf NPC #1... from the Samhain event.
Elf NPC #2... one of the lost elves in Connous.
Elf NPC #3... one of the elven Cheer Squads from the jousting arena.
So yes, they do exist.