That's more or less what Merlin suspected to be the case.
"In my day, magic was still fairly commonplace. Sages and druids, fairies and other phantasmals, and so on. Those with power might still be feared, but no more than one would fear a wild beast or an armed enemy knight. In the modern era, it's quite the opposite: while mages still exist, most of the world doesn't know of it, and wouldn't believe in it if told, anyway. Most people would probably laugh and mock anyone making such claims."
Needless to say, it allows those remaining mages to go about their business without much concern of being hunted down by the general populace.
"In the interim, however, when such things were becoming scarce, but humans still remembered how real they were, well, for a time things like witch hunts were fairly common."
no subject
"In my day, magic was still fairly commonplace. Sages and druids, fairies and other phantasmals, and so on. Those with power might still be feared, but no more than one would fear a wild beast or an armed enemy knight. In the modern era, it's quite the opposite: while mages still exist, most of the world doesn't know of it, and wouldn't believe in it if told, anyway. Most people would probably laugh and mock anyone making such claims."
Needless to say, it allows those remaining mages to go about their business without much concern of being hunted down by the general populace.
"In the interim, however, when such things were becoming scarce, but humans still remembered how real they were, well, for a time things like witch hunts were fairly common."