Elementals

Elementals are "native spirits." They are largely identical to other spirits (like Angels or Demons), except they left the spiritual planes to settle the material world a long time ago.

Nature and Organization

Elementals build themselves physical bodies made out of soil, water, fire, magma, and other relatively simple materials. An "element" in the magical sense is simply anything that an elemental is an embodiment of. Elements do not exist outside elemental spirits and abilities descended from them.

Unlike angels, elementals have no grand king or all-encompassing hierarchy. Each elemental-inhabited region has its own organization, sometimes with an undisputed ruler and sometimes not.

Since they have been native to the material plane since before human civilization, they are not involved in the conflicts between angels and demons. They were very powerful in the ancient past, but human expansion has chipped away at their territories, leaving them rather weak and withdrawn in the modern era. As native spirits, they do not return to the spiritual realm if their physical body is destroyed; they simply remain as local spirits unless sealed or destroyed via soul magic.