Not necessarily. Depending on how long your secret world has existed, there is a thousand years worth of time for different factions/clans/races to act. It would be super unrealistic if those within it only had the idea to take over the world at the back end of those thousand years.

Think of the societies we have now in our world. It doesn't exactly take long for them to go to war over land or plunder. What makes *this* faction, which is by necessity so MUCH more powerful than everyone else, different in that regard? What motivation do they have to STAY secret?

I too would fight over having the biggest mountain, so I get it.

Oooh, any specific examples?

Yes, that's why I included the last line of my main post: (until the events of the plot kick off, of course).

When I say unanimous, I am not speaking literally. Obviously the villain in any one of these stories is OFTEN someone who wants to take over both worlds; but there it is: 'The Villain'. Looking at Harry Potter, wizards are recruited from all over the world. They each have different backgrounds, different cultures, different views, different beliefs, and different childhoods; so why is it that it took UNTIL Voldemort for the idea of "Hey, why are we hiding out again?" to seriously arise? Surely this should have been a REGULAR thing the wizarding world contended with. And IF they're contending with it... why? Why is it the 'good' decision to not rule everything? Why did the board of directors decide on THAT approach vs any other? Etc.

Again, 'they felt their aspirations wouldn't get enough traction', but why is that? Why is the wizarding world one centered AROUND non-interference? Why is THAT the default? So on, so forth.

Certainly. I found that Dune had excellent world building in regards to its 'magical' component. The Bene Gesserit Witches, while possessing incredible powers, are also essentially conditioned to be completely subservient and possess little to no ego unto themselves, preventing any individual member from a desire to exert direct control (yet even this isn't wholly true; as the group has their own ambitions and desires that they carefully keep hidden THROUGH this subservience, and because their abilities are too subtle to be effective in direct confrontation).

Vampire; The Masquerade (though a game) has good world building in regards to its secret vampire society, with the explanation as to the masquerade having little to do with humans and more to do with the fact that they're all too busy killing eachother to want to deal with *another* foe. Despite this, plenty of vampires DO inhabit high society and government positions, and keep themselves hidden more out of fear of other vampires than what humans would do.

Avatar, The Last Airbender (though a show) had great world-building where you can see the direct results of the magical system on the society within it. The Earth Kingdom's landscape/cities all function AROUND the ability to Earthbend and it has the most intricate transit system of all nations due to this reason. The Fire Nation has the most advanced technology of anyone, far surpassing all others, because they have a unique, portable, accessible heat source constantly at their disposal. Etc.

One that took me out of it? Harry Potter, just at the top of my head. A master wizard has enough power to wipe out dozens of battalions with a flick of a wand or assassinate select individuals with ease and you're telling me they all borderline-unanimously decided to keep to themselves out of every human conflict ever? Come on now.

I didn't mean to suggest that magic should cancel out medieval society, because even in fantasy worlds built from the ground up they go through a medieval period, all I meant was that said society would grow and develop *alongside* these magics and having them and their effects integrated into their society, rather than nothing being particularly different. If your world includes a group of superpowered humans who HAVEN'T followed the trend of literally every other powerful group to ever exist... why is that? There ARE reasons why people who have vast power wouldn't want to *exert* that power, but it has to be more believable than "We just didn't want to", and IF that's the explanation, then what is the CULTURAL reason that enforces that? Is it some kind of religious orientation that commands pacifism? If you try to deviate, do you lost your abilities? Etc.

Same with regular fantasy. If, within your fantasy world, there exists a group of people who are able to approach a noble and command them to give up all of their gold and this noble is magically bounded to obey, there HAS to be some legal recourse from that or military protection preventing it. There's no way a world would exist where such powers were learnable that a society would just let slip under the rug.

How do you mean? There's no reason why magic cannot be integrated (whether in urban fantasy or regular fantasy), it just often isn't.

I agree with everyone else here. For starters, while it's okay to not read novels (or, really, engage in ANYTHING that you don't want to) for your own reasons, the reasons you state don't seem the most healthy.

Which, hey, I get; I get upset with myself when I can't get through puzzles quickly or get gold on a challenge run or whatever, but that is decidedly a *me* issue rather than an issue with the product or medium itself.

If it makes you feel that bad, then don't worry about forcing yourself through it. Your life is your own, and you owe it to nobody to live it a certain way. But it may behoove you to introspect and find a deeper meaning as to why it upsets you so much, as this kind of feeling could stop you from taking enjoyment in a lot of other parts of your life too.