>>96154093
Magic as it was reputed to work in our histories were often chalked up to weaponized coincidence or circumstance. Suddenly dropping dead from a heart attack, getting hit on the head by a rock accidentally, etc. The ability to kill someone from the safety of your basement, a thousand miles away, in total anonymity, is significantly more terrifying than any sniper could ever hope to be. That's a war ending, or war starting, type of power. Even the implications of just how you're causing such things to happen should scare the magician (if they're actually aware), and it could be likened to paying an unseen assassin. Sorcery was synonymous with assassination for millennia.