Magic in war took many centuries to develop, in part because mages were afraid of what might happen as a result of early encounters with the indigenous beings. But the concept of magic in war was alien for a great many centuries. And since magical spells could not produce weapons any faster than they could be made--and certainly couldn't wield them--it was largely abandoned. But human ingenuity always finds a way to better destroy its fellow human, and imagination provided alternate routes, which gradually became refined over the centuries: turning battlefields in a given space to liquid mud, transforming arrows to original wood form, etc. Later developments in dark magic led to more lethal spells, such as balls of fire and so forth, though light-magic mages pretty much kept pace with defensive spells. So basically, dark magic used in war depended on the element of surprise (such as a new spell) or a superior mage who could perform faster than the opposing mage could defend. Because magic hasn't form, political leaders prefer the relative trustworthiness of physical objects, and the trained skill to use them.

There have been some fairly spectacular exceptions, but those get treated in the Histories.

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