Those stories dealing with the application of Magic on the lives of the people in the story and generally not employing a high level of technology.
The level of magic can be quite high, where the main focus is on the use of that magic or with magic as a major part of the background, or it can be fairly minimal where the magic is limited to a small part of the population with a negligible effect on the majority of the population. The level of technology is generally equivalent to Mediaeval Europe but the later Riftwar settings are early Rennaisance.
A relatively recent trend are the Urban Fantasy books from such authors as Mercedes Lackey, which are set in the modern world, though still dealing with elves and magical beings.
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