>>94753495
> magic has a cost

Obvious depends on the cost, but the simple fact that it costs *something* means that there is always a pro vs con to its use. Small uses of magic may be cheap, but one must assume that larger scale/more potent magic costs more to use. And I doubt what it costs is measured in coin. Maybe its some of your vitality and it just leaves you exhausted, and over-taxing yourself can have you consumed by the spell entirely.
Maybe it requires an external fuel, like magic crystals, which must be painstakingly gathered and hoarded. Unless whatever it costs is plentiful and easy to source, it makes sense for magic users to want to keep the secrets of magic close to their chest because every other magic user out there would be in competition for the same scarce resources so its better that no one else knows its true value.
Either way, it provides a simple answer of 'why not just use magic to do X?', which is 'because you can't afford that'.

> magic has deleterious effects on the world
If people know this, magic is likely seen as a terrible art and magic users would be hunted down and killed without the protection of a king who vouches for them. Lets say that you casting a spell drains the land around you, turning good soil into lifeless ash that can never support life again. You wouldn't want people doing that shit willy-nilly, which means that magic is now a tool of last resort in case of emergency where the terrible cost it has on the land has to be outweighed by whatever other problem it is that you need magic to solve... or it become the weapon of evil men who know what the cost is but do not care. If you are a conquering army sweeping across the land, what do you care that the land you leave behind you is poisoned for centuries by your magic? Not your problem, you just keep moving on like a plague of locusts.

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Should magic have consequences?