Contrasting a high magic society to the rest of a setting

[jjordan]

Just kind of brainstorming:
-If the magic is unlimited then the society has probably wiped itself out. So the magic is a limited (though still very abundant) resource AND/OR the use of magic is strictly controlled.
-The blue magic dust is already a limited resource.
-Treat magic from the leylines as a finite resource, like water in a water-scarce area. People are only allowed to draw so much of it. Owning the rights to draw that magic is a significant source of wealth? Magic court to adjudicate claims?
-Magic casters are required to be certified by a central authority?
-The blue dust can be consumed and doing so is an act of conspicuous consumption that demonstrates wealth? Turns the eyes blue. Grants the ability detect magic at all times? Addictive? Coming off of it is painful? Even deadly?
-Body modification used to demonstrate affiliation? Purple hair is the mark of a particular house/gang/faction?
-Lots of protective charms in the forms of body modification, wearable items, clothing which protect from illusion, mind control, and other spells that people might use to alter behavior.
-A trade in emotions/memories? The poor can sell their most vivid memories via encode thoughts spells.
-Automatons like golems, unseen servants (and visible servants) are common. Others make use of modified humanoid servants. Sub-species of the various character species serving the very rich/powerful? E.G. Blue gnomes whose entire, very small in number, species serves the wizard who created them?
-Come to that, the very powerful might have their own pocket civilizations inside their towers and homes.
-People using encrypted telepathy to communicate? Is this a basic line that divides the haves (magic-users) from the have-nots?
-Self defense using force weapons and telekinesis rather than physical weapons?
-Is there an entire section of the city that can only be accessed by those that fly?

Bear in mind that the problem with a high-magic environment is going to be the player tendency to steal anything they can. If you make a bunch of standard magic items commonplace they are going to load up on those by one means or another and unbalance the game in the lower magic areas.

I'd suggest a few new spells that can function in both high and low magic areas but keep the number of magic items that will actually work away from the city low. The personal descriptor/status icons, for example, could be the result of a modified glyph spell but actually powered by the life-force of the wearer. Magic items might draw directly on the ley-lines rather than being self-powered, making them effectively useless when too far from the ley-lines/city.

So far as presenting this stuff to the players I would suggest foregoing awe and focusing on foreign. I suspect this high-magic society will look down on physical tools. Armed and armored adventurers would be both an amusing curiosity and a dangerous sight. People will wear soft kit and advertise power through different mechanisms. The size of their entourage. Access to the power of the ley-lines. Conspicuous consumption of resources (including magic, using spells like fly with abandon).