nostr:npub1lnzm7z9lye2k22rlsy8hh9j426dl4kd54wh0endygjgax9q6nx9qusk8dk related fiction idea (free):

1. human empires have the well understood curse of "good times create weak men"

2. elvish empires have the well understood curse of "we have zero productivity lmao. nobody ever wants to work hard"

3. a human empire ruled by a caste of elves, however, is unstoppable. It's never destroyed by success because elves just live so long that they don't forget hard times, the elves can make 500-year plans and trustworthy deals, and there are so few elves that taxing humanity for anything they want is a drop in the ocean of wasteful corruption that a human government would inflict on the same population.

your main character can be some bitter liberal who is deeply offended by elvish privilege, and works to undermine them, and in the process goes on a disillusioning tour of human-governed empires.