A large amount of recent high fantasy is steeped in gore yet most of yours happens off-screen. No, I don't think it was conscious. I just happen not to like graphic violence unless it's absolutely justified. More magic is evident in the The One Kingdom but it still plays only a secondary role. I do think about magic and its place in the books.
Magic becomes just another special effect.
I'm really a great admirer of Tolkien, and one of the things about the Lord of the Rings is that there is very little overt magic in it. The practitioners of magic were not all-powerful and they used their abilities only in certain situations. I liked that approach. Yet Middle Earth seems charged with magic all the same. Let the world you create be infused with magic and wonder.