We could say the same about the pontiff or Ariel.
But I kinda don't want to believe the elves. Mostly because Potimas was shown to be a racist on top of all his shadiness to the half-elf servant now in Shun's adventuring party. Oh, and the fact that his routine method is assassination and kidnapping. Sophia beheaded him specifically for a reason, we just haven't seen it yet.
The pontiff controls the masses of people, and Ariel just uses straightforward brute force.