Elvish Renewal Ceremony

Once a generations, all elves around the world participate in a great communal ritual, each group in their own way. Few elves live to the this event twice, and they are considered blessed. The purpose of this ritual is to renew the strength of bindings which allow elven life loops to last far longer than humans ones. This also explains elves greater natural affinity for magic than humans. This difference is most pronounced for the decades following the ritual, and decreases for centuries, almost sinking to the lowness of humans, before refreshing and staring over. The ritual is difficult, and dangerous, especially as it involves direct contact with gods, something elves are required but far fewer humans ever experience. While humans see this as another unfairness of the world, the elves recognize the danger and cost of these events, and how dangerous the gods inherently are. This ritual varies by culture and primary god.   For the broken elves it is a formal ceremony and tournament, consisting of many honor duels, and culminates in a display of martial spell-craft which binds the raw power of the world to the elves.   For the wood elves, this ceremony is performed on a much smaller scale, where each village sends an individual champion into the wilderness to force, trick, or convince the local lords and ladies of the fey to sacrifice their powers. They are not always successful, which is why wood elves are often considered the least powerful, or at least the most variable because they have the most local control, but since the ritual is fundamentally communal for all elves they never suffer too much for failing.   Salt elves sail through the storm of their god, and are charged by his lightning if they make it through   The thorn elves god releases a number of mythical monsters onto their island, and each slain powers the ritual, though many elves die in each attempt.   The city elves have the least dangerous ritual, simply reaffirming their allegiance to their god through worship and a festival, though any festival with a god as guest is dangerous.