High Magic & Low Magic

The philosophical debate between High Magic & Low Magic is the central conflict of this campaign and the spark that started The Fracturing of the Shards

High Magic & Low Magic

Every time magic of any kind is used, it fundamentally breaks the laws of conservation of energy. There will always be something lost or gained. Put in its simplest form, High Magic is when energy is gained in the use of magic, and Low Magic is when it is lost. Both magics can be considered equal in overall power when pushed to the limits. One is not just objectively better than the other. Both can access all 6 schools of magic, and there has yet to be a spell discovered that can only be accessed by one type of magic. However, there is a lot of pragmatic and cultural feelings about both in the world, and the players will explore this through the Operation Rougarou campaign.
Low magic generally is easy to learn and cast magic relative to High Magic. Common folks with enough dedication can learn low magic cantrips if they spent enough time and effort, and with a decent teacher. When casters are learning magic, they often start with low magic as they become familiar with magic as a whole, then depending on the context will switch to high magics. Though each group of people feels differently about the subject.
Before The Fracturing of the Shards, most places culturally, at least in major areas, did not think twice about the two types of magic outside of those who cultural or philosophical issues.

Views of Magic

Before The Fracturing of the Shards, most places culturally, at least in major areas, did not think twice about the two types of magic outside of those of individuals groups and classes. They were both styles that were just different and as old as magic itself.
Wizards and many formally taught casters take the ideas that low magics are great teaching techniques. However, generally, it is believed that you graduate into using high magics, and it is the final form of becoming a wizard. Before the advent of Low Magic Crystals this allowed casters to utilize spell casting foci in a pragmatic sense.
Clerics & Paladins entirely avoid the use of low magic. They believe that their power and use of magic comes straight from their god, and as a result, the major religions refuse to use anything else.
Druids and the native people are incredibly diverse in their beliefs. From tribe to tribe they differ from entirely low magic to entirely high magic and everything in between. Rangers being closely related to druids are just as diverse depending on where they learned their magics. Bards & Monks are similar to druids as they vary from teachings to teaching.
Fighters, Rouges, & Barbarians often employ the use of low magic, as not full-time students of magic, it is easy for them to pick up and use in their duties.
Sorcerers & Warlocks are incredibly rare and most people do not believe they exist outside of fairytales. It is unknown currently how their magic works to most people.
Finally artificers being the newest class of the world, almost entirely utilize Low Magic Crystals and therefore low magic in their research. However, some are classically trained wizards and employ some high magic in their tests.

Low Magic Crystals

Low Magic Crystals were discovered in The Shadowed Canyons in 728. They are a brilliant light blue crystal that seems to glow from within. These crystals when mined have a significant amount of magical energy stored within them. With study it was found that these crystals could do two major things; have magic spells and abilities embued into them, and facilitate a great amount of energy from its surrounding to utilize for itself. What this means is that people trained in magic can create crystals that when used cast spells, and anyone not trained in magics now has access to them on a mass scale.
It did not take long after the discovery for people to understand how impactful these would become to society. Quickly people experimented with them and were able to imbue all manners of spells. This leads to people's general way of life being made easier in a lot of ways, especially in The United Shard where subsistence farming was a major way of life. Quickly industrialization rapidly took hold and machines were not being used to replace manual labor. Many fields of study and work now found uses for these crystals as they became available to the masses.
However many people found issues with these Low Magic Crystals. At first, were those who opposed low magic in general, but as time progressed more and more opposing viewpoints were raised. A major one being that the low magic crystals took a lot of energy out of their surroundings in a much greater way than the previous casting methods. Others have pointed out that they do not know how limited the resource is. Many though just wish for it to be studied more before its mass consumption.
The culmination of these feelings between different groups of people resulted in the actions taken during The Fracturing of the Shards .