A large part of the magic is mostly referenced as historical stories, and then something happened where the magic went dormant (e.g. dragons got smaller and sma

A large part of the magic is mostly referenced as historical stories, and then something happened where the magic went dormant (e.g. dragons got smaller and smaller over generations until they just stopped hatching). The present day story takes place at a time when the magic seems to be just coming back into the world (spells to create wildfire suddenly started working much better than they used to). For most people in that world, magic has never existed outside of legends, and much of the knowledge on how to use it is gone or at least not available to most people (probably only in historical records at the Citadel). The TV adaptation also downplays the magic more, either out of budgetary reasons or to keep it more accessible to a general audience.