Hmmm... I do know that there's only one or two humanly sentient magical species in this world, and elementals are one of them. There's probably one rather prolific 'mundane' species that can harness magic via harnessing other beings who are magical, but humans, or whatever you might wish to make them (and do have fun with that if you want ;)), aren't capable of using magic on their own. Though some do study it extensively anyway, to put the creatures to use. The elementals, by nature, prefer to be wherever their element is, of course, and if it's provided in a civilisation setting, they're allright with that. But the other species, and I'm thinking gryphon here... Is much more prevalent in a natural setting. They don't like progress, it means having to adapt to it and they live too long to want to adapt more than twice in one lifetime... :P

I'm assuming, for the sake of what I imagine Aylen to look like, that there is something that looks at least a little human. But if you want to go with sentient seapigs... I can always edit. :P