It's certainly been said that the elves merely ask the spirits to lend their power, but there was never an occasion (even anecdotal) when one was denied. There's not even any baseline scenario when that might happen - the MC is pretty confident he'd be able to split landmasses or raze entire countries, meaning he's quite sure the spirits will comply with such intent. At this point one can just consider this the high elves own power.
I'm a little confused, but I believe you both already agree that the MC, Aesir, and high elves in general are exception and what he can ask from the spirits isn't something most other elves can.
Now, I don't know about lending power, but we have seen an example of a spirit not agreeing with Erina way back in chapter 3.
Combined that with chapter 2 where an experienced adventurer like her misunderstand that spirits hate the stench of iron, we can probably conclude that normal elves barely even understand spirits, much less "using" them.
I'm more curious on what the caravan planned to do if it wasn't for another interverence, but this is fine.
I'm a little confused, but I believe you both already agree that the MC, Aesir, and high elves in general are exception and what he can ask from the spirits isn't something most other elves can.
Now, I don't know about lending power, but we have seen an example of a spirit not agreeing with Erina way back in chapter 3.
Combined that with chapter 2 where an experienced adventurer like her misunderstand that spirits hate the stench of iron, we can probably conclude that normal elves barely even understand spirits, much less "using" them.
I was talking exclusively about High Elves, though. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that. My point was, that if the MC feels he could ask for help in brining about widespread destruction on the scale of a country or even better, an entire island, then there's probably no limit for what he could ask and get granted, unless it was truly outside of the spirits power. If that's the case, the "request" is just a formality.
It's not "using" but "asking." When borrowing spirit's power, it depends on the spirits themselves wanting to respond or not. Beside the high elves who they love unconditionally, spirits only favor a few individuals regardless of race (such as the case of two children on grassland). The only advantage that elves have over humans is their ability to see spirits, but it still doesn't help if the spirits don't feel like helping -- or in many cases, it boils down to miscommunication. It's like talking with a foreigner who doesn't speak your language through a bunch of gestures, you never know if other party truly understand you.
The high elves simply don't concern with what other races doing. They have one grand mission which is to keep the world functioning, so everything else is just inconsequential trifles.
True, it is more like asking, and not all elves can do it as well as others. But you also gave a counter argument with your language comparison. The spirits love high elves the most, but high elves also have a great affinity towards communicating with the spirits. High elves are born close to the spirits and is in a way spirit themselves, and have the talent to fluently converse with the spirits.
Meanwhile elves are loved by the spirits as well. Not as much as high elves, but the spirits love them regardless. The most important thing that can hinder an elf's spirit arts is their talent at communicating with the spirits. Some simply have better talent at it than others, same as not all humans are good with language. But all of them have at least some affinity towards the spirits, along with the ability to see the spirits. This means that, with enough effort, even the worst at spirit arts among them can ask for some effect from the spirits. That is why elves are considered so powerful, because spirit arts is more powerful than traditional magic, and unlike humans who only have a few people with a talent for magic the elves are all able to ask the spirits for help in some way.
What is really keeping them down is their isolationist nature and long lives. By which I mean that if they don't realize that there is a serious threat in the outside world, that they will not put too much effort into practicing their spirit arts for combat (they don't force effects, they ask the spirits, but they still need some skill at communicating with the spirits in order to get the desired effect and with enough power behind it) as there is simply no drive for it. They have hundreds of years left to gradually work on it. They still have members who can fight of course, as they are often busy culling the powerful magical beasts that breed within the forests. But without them keeping a close eye on their surroundings they can easily become surprised and ambushed. Another way their isolationist nature is a weakness is because while it is understandable for them to live mostly alongside other elves in homogenous communities and countries (that way they will be safer, more full blooded elves will be born, and their culture and way of life will be preserved), they went too far and completely closed themselves off from the outside world. By having a few elves travel towards human nations and interacting with them (such as through the Elven Caravan, which becomes a big trade organization in the long run, whcih has influence on many countries and even has direct influence within a human Republic), they can build relationships to preserve their survival, without having to resort to the same methods of "conquest and control" that the humans practice out of necessity due to their weaknes, and which the elves (once they get pushed into it or they have a strange affinity towards it) are far better at than humans are.
That is also a theme later on in the book, when
in the mid western region the elves have all fled their forested homes and formed an elven country on their own. Aesir mentions how they have an elven woman there with a talent for farming, and also mentions just how much better the elves are at it than humans are. In fact, how much better elves are at most things that humans do when they are forced to it in the same manner that humans are always forced due to their lack of magic and being an overall much weaker race. Keep in mind that the country is 80-90% forests or something, with the small parts that are not having been used by friendly humans in the past, who fled to surrounding countries when some of the other surrounding human nations made continuous raids to get desirable elven slaves, but who taught the elven woman how to farm, with the only reason they have a food shortage is because much of the available open lands is near the border and they need to secure that border first (which Aesir does, after which they have plenty of food production with only a very small amount of land available to them, all due to their spirit arts which most are able to use to some extend). He mentions that with better food production, the number of elves will increase exponentially as well, and because the elves are much much stronger than humans individually, that it will become inevitable that the elves will become the dominant race in the future, and will likely drive the humans to extinction just like how they were busy driving the elves to extinction. This prompts the elven woman to mention how she will give up on their farming hobbies after things settle down, and most of the other elves return to their forested homes. Though in a later chapter she mentions how she will instead help lead the country and "conquer and control" herself through her power in order to help the elves and change the status quo a lot more into the favor of the elves.
Basically, the way the elven woman I mentioned in the spoiler sees humans, is that they are ultimately obsessed with two things: Conquest, and Control. She mentions how the humans always try to conquer and control the world and others around them, citing an example of dogs, on how they domesticated them after "conquering" them, so that they could control them. She states that that is also why they farmed, to conquer and control the land so they can survive, as they are a weak race. She states herself that she is unusual for an elf, because like humans she too has a desire to "conquer and control", and that if other elves started adopting the same practices should they get pressed enough by the humans, that the elves can easily become the dominant race instead, and bring humanity to the brink of extinction (which is what happened in the Witcher 3 game, where elves traveling between worlds became the dominant race when they arrived at another world which was already fully occupied by humans). If the elves ever adopted farming, they could sustain more of their numbers, and though it took longer for them to grow they would eventually grow much more powerful than a human, which would shift the entire landscape, and which was something that Aether was terrified of.
She also mentions two solutions on how elves can make sure that humans don't enslave or hunt them down: The first is that the elves should interact with humans and create ties, make themselves valuable trade partners and build relationships. The second one is that they must exterminate the humans whenever they see them arrive anywhere near their settlements, or just exterminate them in general. She also mentions how both options are not things that elves typically do, with how they are isolationists and how they value life (even the lives of humans, to an extend). This is why the elves were being slowly brought to the brink of extinction by the weaker but more driven human race. However, should elves become aware of the threat of humanity, they could far better respond to it: Either creating ties to human nations, and even gaining seats of power within those through companies like the Elven Caravan, which would be easier for them due to their longer lifespans and thus greater build up of skill and influence. Or become like the humans: Conquer and Control the lands around them (dwarves and elves also "conquer and control" in the same manner she mentioned, but not to the same extend), allowing them to sustain a larger population, and train their people to use the spirit arts for combat, with them potentially driving back the humans to the point of exterminating them if they can't control them enough.
Fortunately, Aesir came along, and pushed for the elves to take the first option. The second option would see either the humans conquering or exterminating the elves (who got the jump on the isolationist elves, which the elven woman even mentions was their own fault for ignoring the world around them, causing said world to bear down upon them), or the elves conquering or exterminating the humans (with the elves being pushed into conquest and control themselves, which they are far far better at when push comes to shove). Hence my mention of the rock/paper/scissor relationship that they have. Elves are much better at magic, but they lack the same drive humans have due to them being stronger individually. Give the elves a drive, and they become unstoppable.
I was talking exclusively about High Elves, though. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that. My point was, that if the MC feels he could ask for help in brining about widespread destruction on the scale of a country or even better, an entire island, then there's probably no limit for what he could ask and get granted, unless it was truly outside of the spirits power. If that's the case, the "request" is just a formality.
High Elves are almost exclusively loved by the Spirits, and will become Spirits themselves once they get old enough.
While the spirits might decline a request from a regular Elf, and more so a Half-Elf, High Elves don't face the same problem.
IIRC, the High Elves simply seclude themselves due to some ancient wisdom.
Based on how much impact even the little "hobbies" Aesir involves himself in have (eg: magic weapons, putting the current dwarven king on the throne, etc), it's a damn good thing there aren't any other eccentric High Elves.
Imagine being any other country in the world and knowing there are living, walking nukes.
Elf-kind would be feared and possibly eradicated as a precaution.
I don't recall them having any such duties. They are're a "primodial" race tied to the world's creation, like the other other ones, but as far as I remember they don't do anything related to that. They just are. It has however been mentioned that enough turbulence in the world might awake the dragon and that would mean the world ends. So if they really are concenred with that, they better get off their asses.
Ah right, it would step into the spoiler territory, a very heavy one at that. To keep it simple:
High elves and spirits' task is terraforming the world into habitable place, hence the enormous power they can wield at will. If they stopped, the world would slowly revert back to the primordial chaos state, and that's a true world ending event unlike dragon reset.
Ah right, it would step into the spoiler territory, a very heavy one at that. To keep it simple:
High elves and spirits' task is terraforming the world into habitable place, hence the enormous power they can wield at will. If they stopped, the world would slowly revert back to the primordial chaos state, and that's a true world ending event unlike dragon reset.
High Elves are almost exclusively loved by the Spirits, and will become Spirits themselves once they get old enough.
While the spirits might decline a request from a regular Elf, and more so a Half-Elf, High Elves don't face the same problem.
IIRC, the High Elves simply seclude themselves due to some ancient wisdom.
Based on how much impact even the little "hobbies" Aesir involves himself in have (eg: magic weapons, putting the current dwarven king on the throne, etc), it's a damn good thing there aren't any other eccentric High Elves.
Imagine being any other country in the world and knowing there are living, walking nukes.
Elf-kind would be feared and possibly eradicated as a precaution.
Honestly I agree for the most part except for the spirits declining requests. As I stated in my previous long post above (which was only approved recently, so it likely didn't get caught in the conversation), the spirits love the elves too (they just love the high elves more, and the high elves are better at communicating with them), but the elves just have a harder time "communicating" with the spirits than the high elves have. They all have some talent at it, but not all have the same level of talent. Meaning that if an elf has trouble communicating with the spirits, they can (with a lot of effort) at least create some efects. Their problem was less that not all elves could use spirit arts enough, but moreso that they isolated themselves and didn't have time to prepare for the imminent danger. Elves are individually powerful, but if they are caught unprepared they will be at a disadvantage.
Though I suppose the spirits not being able to understand commandments is a way of saying they decline requests. So I suppose your argument is fair as well.
Dragons CAN end the world if they wish to, but that isn't their original purpose. In the design of the Creator, each immortal race has a specfic task:
Spirit + high elf: terraforming the world and creating life (plants & animals).
Giant: historians who record all things in the world.
Phoenix: transporter & messenger, connecting high elves on the ground and giants on the cloud.
Dragon: protecting the world from external threat. Normally they should be stationed in outer space.
The dragon's "soft reset" is actually a stopgap measure devised by the five immortals themselves, to help fixing their youngest sibling's (the gods) mistake.
Dragons CAN end the world if they wish to, but that isn't their original purpose. In the design of the Creator, each immortal race has a specfic task:
Spirit + high elf: terraforming the world and creating life (plants & animals).
Giant: historians who record all things in the world.
Phoenix: transporter & messenger, connecting high elves on the ground and giants on the cloud.
Dragon: protecting the world from external threat. Normally they should be stationed in outer space.
The dragon's "soft reset" is actually a stopgap measure devised by the five immortals themselves, to help fixing their youngest sibling's (the gods) mistake.
Yup, I honestly quite like that. Apparently the world has a much more chaotic basis than our world, and needs the spirits and high elves to give it some form (that or our world also has spirits and we are just unaware of them, storywise I mean of course).
True, it is more like asking, and not all elves can do it as well as others. But you also gave a counter argument with your language comparison. The spirits love high elves the most, but high elves also have a great affinity towards communicating with the spirits. High elves are born close to the spirits and is in a way spirit themselves, and have the talent to fluently converse with the spirits.
Meanwhile elves are loved by the spirits as well. Not as much as high elves, but the spirits love them regardless. The most important thing that can hinder an elf's spirit arts is their talent at communicating with the spirits. Some simply have better talent at it than others, same as not all humans are good with language. But all of them have at least some affinity towards the spirits, along with the ability to see the spirits. This means that, with enough effort, even the worst at spirit arts among them can ask for some effect from the spirits. That is why elves are considered so powerful, because spirit arts is more powerful than traditional magic, and unlike humans who only have a few people with a talent for magic the elves are all able to ask the spirits for help in some way.
What is really keeping them down is their isolationist nature and long lives. By which I mean that if they don't realize that there is a serious threat in the outside world, that they will not put too much effort into practicing their spirit arts for combat (they don't force effects, they ask the spirits, but they still need some skill at communicating with the spirits in order to get the desired effect and with enough power behind it) as there is simply no drive for it. They have hundreds of years left to gradually work on it. They still have members who can fight of course, as they are often busy culling the powerful magical beasts that breed within the forests. But without them keeping a close eye on their surroundings they can easily become surprised and ambushed. Another way their isolationist nature is a weakness is because while it is understandable for them to live mostly alongside other elves in homogenous communities and countries (that way they will be safer, more full blooded elves will be born, and their culture and way of life will be preserved), they went too far and completely closed themselves off from the outside world. By having a few elves travel towards human nations and interacting with them (such as through the Elven Caravan, which becomes a big trade organization in the long run, whcih has influence on many countries and even has direct influence within a human Republic), they can build relationships to preserve their survival, without having to resort to the same methods of "conquest and control" that the humans practice out of necessity due to their weaknes, and which the elves (once they get pushed into it or they have a strange affinity towards it) are far better at than humans are.
That is also a theme later on in the book, when
in the mid western region the elves have all fled their forested homes and formed an elven country on their own. Aesir mentions how they have an elven woman there with a talent for farming, and also mentions just how much better the elves are at it than humans are. In fact, how much better elves are at most things that humans do when they are forced to it in the same manner that humans are always forced due to their lack of magic and being an overall much weaker race. Keep in mind that the country is 80-90% forests or something, with the small parts that are not having been used by friendly humans in the past, who fled to surrounding countries when some of the other surrounding human nations made continuous raids to get desirable elven slaves, but who taught the elven woman how to farm, with the only reason they have a food shortage is because much of the available open lands is near the border and they need to secure that border first (which Aesir does, after which they have plenty of food production with only a very small amount of land available to them, all due to their spirit arts which most are able to use to some extend). He mentions that with better food production, the number of elves will increase exponentially as well, and because the elves are much much stronger than humans individually, that it will become inevitable that the elves will become the dominant race in the future, and will likely drive the humans to extinction just like how they were busy driving the elves to extinction. This prompts the elven woman to mention how she will give up on their farming hobbies after things settle down, and most of the other elves return to their forested homes. Though in a later chapter she mentions how she will instead help lead the country and "conquer and control" herself through her power in order to help the elves and change the status quo a lot more into the favor of the elves.
Basically, the way the elven woman I mentioned in the spoiler sees humans, is that they are ultimately obsessed with two things: Conquest, and Control. She mentions how the humans always try to conquer and control the world and others around them, citing an example of dogs, on how they domesticated them after "conquering" them, so that they could control them. She states that that is also why they farmed, to conquer and control the land so they can survive, as they are a weak race. She states herself that she is unusual for an elf, because like humans she too has a desire to "conquer and control", and that if other elves started adopting the same practices should they get pressed enough by the humans, that the elves can easily become the dominant race instead, and bring humanity to the brink of extinction (which is what happened in the Witcher 3 game, where elves traveling between worlds became the dominant race when they arrived at another world which was already fully occupied by humans). If the elves ever adopted farming, they could sustain more of their numbers, and though it took longer for them to grow they would eventually grow much more powerful than a human, which would shift the entire landscape, and which was something that Aether was terrified of.
She also mentions two solutions on how elves can make sure that humans don't enslave or hunt them down: The first is that the elves should interact with humans and create ties, make themselves valuable trade partners and build relationships. The second one is that they must exterminate the humans whenever they see them arrive anywhere near their settlements, or just exterminate them in general. She also mentions how both options are not things that elves typically do, with how they are isolationists and how they value life (even the lives of humans, to an extend). This is why the elves were being slowly brought to the brink of extinction by the weaker but more driven human race. However, should elves become aware of the threat of humanity, they could far better respond to it: Either creating ties to human nations, and even gaining seats of power within those through companies like the Elven Caravan, which would be easier for them due to their longer lifespans and thus greater build up of skill and influence. Or become like the humans: Conquer and Control the lands around them (dwarves and elves also "conquer and control" in the same manner she mentioned, but not to the same extend), allowing them to sustain a larger population, and train their people to use the spirit arts for combat, with them potentially driving back the humans to the point of exterminating them if they can't control them enough.
Fortunately, Aesir came along, and pushed for the elves to take the first option. The second option would see either the humans conquering or exterminating the elves (who got the jump on the isolationist elves, which the elven woman even mentions was their own fault for ignoring the world around them, causing said world to bear down upon them), or the elves conquering or exterminating the humans (with the elves being pushed into conquest and control themselves, which they are far far better at when push comes to shove). Hence my mention of the rock/paper/scissor relationship that they have. Elves are much better at magic, but they lack the same drive humans have due to them being stronger individually. Give the elves a drive, and they become unstoppable.
Also, what I like is how different these elves are from the Witcher elves, as well as the Forgotten Realms elves and Tolkien Elves.
The Witcher elves are less good aligned elves (or they are good aligned and simply have been pushed to desperation by the humans and their desire to dominate), and more orientated towards magic and long term gains. Their countries are much cleaner, as they can use magic to work things out, whereas the humans need to "conquer and control" (as the elven farmer woman from the elven nation of Shiyou mentioned in the Tensei Shite High Elf ni Narimashitaga story) everything around them in order to survive. The elves from the Witcher universe are more "human", as they have female elves who have a more human mentality and easily get bored (as opposed to most elves for whom the flow of time is less tedious, though of course still tedious enough due to them living for hundreds of years) and got bored and decided to lay around with humans instead of their elven partners due to degenerate boredom, and ended up getting pregnant more easily due to hormone malfunction when laying with the younger human race, causing them to constantly opt for co-existence with humanity, even though this was slowly killing the elves as the humans became more numerous and the elves became weaker over time, leading to the humans exterminating the elves. Basically their race was magically gifted, had long lives, and was more elegant, but they were also very human in that their women basically betrayed their own race because they couldn't admit that they simply wanted to lay with human males due to their own boredom and became allies of humanity in that way by constantly wishing for multi racial societies. The elves who fled arrived at another world where humans were the majority instead, and once there they began to exterminate the humans, to the point that all humans on the world were dead, and they then decided to open portals to other worlds and capture humans there as slaves, especially human females, and with the female elves hencefort being forbidden from laying with a human man again.
However, while I like the mature spin in a sense, they simply didn't feel like elves to me. Elves are still mostly good aligned, and I like how in this series the themes are also mature but it also explores other ways that they can actually co-exist while still being segregated so that there won't be a case of humans becoming always stronger and the elves becoming weaker over time, though I suppose they can still opt for that when pushed to the brink, like
what happened to the elves in the far west, who opted to exterminate all the humans after their southern population was turned into slaves for 700 years
In this world, the elves were in a bad position because they isolated themselves entirely, and didn't realize what was happening outside of their forest homes. Meanwhile in the witcher series the elven women had a more human mindset and many betrayed their elven men in order to copulate with the younger human men, causing them to opt for multi-racial societies, or to opt for co-existance while humans were slowly but surely encroaching upon their lands. The elves in this world feel more like elves, with the elven women having a more elven mindset (fidelity, intelligence and the ability to use that in long-term thinking, and a more balanced mind that is better at self-reflection), and with the elves living both apart from humans in their own homogenous societies, as well as among humans through the elven caravan (while making themselves indespensible due to the good they provide to humanity) thanks to Aesir. Though I suppose the idea was mostly Irena's idea, as she has lived among humans and understood that while humanity as a whole might be all about "conquest and control", they also had many individuals who wanted to do good and would defend them if they build up a good enough relationship, which makes more sense than the Witcher series, where it feels very dark and grim. Don't get me wrong, I very much believe in the evil of humanity, with the whole: "Mankind is tempted towards all evils", due to their desire to "conquer and control", but I also believe in individual humans being capable of great heroics and inspired said heroics into other people. This series captures that much better, while still being realistic and being honest about humanity's vices.
This series captures the elves in a very good yet still realistic way, better than other series, though it depends on the writer who is working for said series at the time I think. The Forgotten Realms series for example constantly talks about how elves are becoming less and less each year, which is sort of a theme that was inspired by the Lord of the Rings series, but doesn't do that much with that aside from "well that is just how it goes, so let us invite the humans within our lands to co-exist together or let us all go to Evermeet our magical island we created with our High Magic". Though to be fair, the humans and elves have a common enemy with the orcs and other evil races (actually evil races, due to influences from evil gods, with it requiring the sacrifice of the only good aligned drow god Aelistrae to get some of the drow to no longer be an evil race and become Seldarine drow), so they are less likely to try and exterminate each other. That said, the humans ARE still encrouching upon their lands. It also doesn't help that some later writers wrote the concerns off as "unnecesarry", with most elves agreeing that their worries are unfounded, to the point that groups like Eldreth Veluuthra are seen as an "unnecesarry embarassment". Though to be fair they do seek to kill all humans, instead of trying to find ways to fight against the slow encroachment upon elven lands. The Moon Elf hero Ysuran Auondril of Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance was once a member: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ysuran_Auondril
Though I suppose the elves do have a very positive reputation with the humans (aside from a few foresters), due to them living among humans and even having high level positions among them, while also simultaneously living for the most part in their own elven conclaves and cities, so I suppose it is somewhat similar to how Aesir envisioned a long term solution.
Plus a lot of elves are returning from their huge island of Evermeet, so the number of elves in the sword coast is actually steadily increasing now. Elves live longer lives and are better at both arcane and divine magic, so they have far less natural deaths than humans have. Even as the average elf becomes an adult between the age of 50 and 110 (basically, the age of 50 for elves is the age of 15 for us humans, and the age of 110 is the age of 21 for humans). I imagine most elves still being kids at just before 50, but then getting a growth spurt, with them looking like teenachers and young adults between the ages of 50 and 110.
Though this is a bit inconsistent, because in the Drizzt books we find out that Drizzt was a young adult at the age of 30, so perhaps for drow they mature faster? Or perhaps elves in general mature and grow much faster when under severe stress? The latter sounds pretty accurate for live within a drow city, so that might simply be them developing much faster in order to survive.
Meanwhile the elves from Dungeon Meshi become adults at the age of 80, and can only live for up to 500 years when compared to the elves of the Forgotten Realms.
But yeah, as long as they can keep their forests safe and homogenous by securing their borders, and make good relationships with other humans, they can stay relatively safe. Though the problems arise when they are not able to do so, like what happened to the Yuirwood: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Yuirwood where constant encroachment upon elven lands by human settlers caused the elven forest to largely shrink, and the vast majority of the forest's inhabitants to become half-elves. So it really depends on how well they can protect their lands against human encroachment while being powerful enough to dissuade human conquerers from taking over their nation entirely.
Dragons CAN end the world if they wish to, but that isn't their original purpose. In the design of the Creator, each immortal race has a specfic task:
Spirit + high elf: terraforming the world and creating life (plants & animals).
Giant: historians who record all things in the world.
Phoenix: transporter & messenger, connecting high elves on the ground and giants on the cloud.
Dragon: protecting the world from external threat. Normally they should be stationed in outer space.
The dragon's "soft reset" is actually a stopgap measure devised by the five immortals themselves, to help fixing their youngest sibling's (the gods) mistake.
Ah right, it would step into the spoiler territory, a very heavy one at that. To keep it simple:
High elves and spirits' task is terraforming the world into habitable place, hence the enormous power they can wield at will. If they stopped, the world would slowly revert back to the primordial chaos state, and that's a true world ending event unlike dragon reset.
Honestly, thinking about it a bit, I think the writer has written a pretty interesting setting overall. You honestly feel for all the characters, and you see some very positive moments, yet it also feels very realistic on how humanity as a collective would act.
What is more, he captures how it would feel for an elf to outlive everyone else due to his long life. As well as the general peaceful and kind elven mindset, which is more "good-aligned" when compared to humans, yet is able to do what is necesarry when push comes to shove.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of elven being masters of arcane magic and high magic, like in the forgotten realms setting, but this take on elves being more isolationist and being natural practicers of spirit arts (like deedlit from record of lodoss war) is a great idea as well. I think the closest compromise we had for such a race and class combo in western media was the Spirit Shaman from Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, like how it was used in Mask of betrayer (which is an amazing game btw, even after all these years): https://nwn2.fandom.com/wiki/Spirit_Shaman
We didn't get much after that. Though in Pathfinder 1st edition (which is 99% the same as D&D 3rd edition, basically a copy) they did introduce the Shaman class again: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/shaman/ And you can use this homebrew document (which I strongly recommend Pathfinder users to use to up their experience) to take the Spiritual alternate racial trait for the elf race (see the last page) to exchange your +2 intelligence and some other racial traits, and instead gain a +2 to Charisma and Wisdom: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XNgxsZwfWU4QQHTSIA9UInIaSkgb7uiI/view?pli=1 And if you want to go fully Deedlit mode (being a shaman who can still use weapons really well) just use the conversion of the Spirit Hunter from the Pathfinder video games: https://matlx.notion.site/Owlcat-Archetypes-c85feefb2fc846249ac9b8cfe79f01e8 (see "Spirit Hunter (Shaman) [Editor’s Tweaks]" for the most balanced conversion).
The above is a bit of a round about way for westerners to play a spirit loving elf people in western roleplaying, but at the very least you can tell that the creators of these contents all had a love for the Record of Lodoss War series, and how it positively influenced roleplaying
