What do you consider the necessary elements of high fantasy?

[Cait]

Ale enjoys the way Brandon Sanderson balances epic, high fantasy with earthy humor in book two of The Stormlight Archives, Words of Radiance. "Yes, there are gut-wrenching, serious, dark moments, but Sanderson balances that with a bouncy levity that's borderline Pratchett in its honesty." (Cannonball Read 13)

[Raven]

A "good" fantasy needs to take you out of "this reality" and put you into theirs. Which is the mark of any good book: I'm not a black child in Harlem, but I am IN Harlem with Walter Dean Myers. I am not under the ocean living in a new community, but I am there Songs of Power by Hilari Bell. (etc.)

However, I like my fantasy to be relatable. I might be on a space ship in the middle of an intergalactic war, and my main character is a lizard person, but I want to know these people/beings. I can believe the sun blows up, but I want it to "connect" with me. And it needs to "move the story along" and not be for shock and awe. But again, any good writing should do that.