Faerie Elves: Elven Subraces Simplified

When I first played D&D 3.5, it was very exciting to me that not only could I be a charming, fleet-footed elf, but that I had dozens of choices for what kind of elf I could be.  After quite a bit of waffling between the dozens of possibilities, I ended up backing down and going with a half-elf despite the low-crunch benefits of it.  I just couldn't get enough meaningful background on any one elven race that separated it from every other one.  Wood elves make sense, but what separates them thematically from wild elves?  Aquatic elves sound awesome, but I will likely be on land most of the time anyway.  What on earth is a grey elf?  At least as a half-elf the confusion about the finer points of elven life could be in character.

This original battle with elven culture grew into a distinct dislike of the knife-earred archer-mages that until very recently has endured.  I've now decided that in my games I will do away with the multitude of elven subraces and cut things down to three types of elves with a single stat block.  If a player wishes to change the stat block I tend to be fairly flexible, but these are the three core variants that I allow.  The elves are no longer just vaguely connected to the faerie, but thematically partially fae creatures.  In a sense, the elven races are the continued lines of half-faerie.