The Protocols of Hesh, which prevent the destructive use of magic, have created an interesting technological situation.

There’s nothing in the Protocols to prevent the defensive use of magic, so magical protection (against conventional weapons), for those who can afford it, is available, making it hard to attack them.

At the same time, the Protocols can be stretched to allow magical countermeasures against magical defenses, so a lot of ingenuity has gone into producing these, effectively taking everyone back to square one (conventional weapons against conventional defences) – provided both sides are about equally supplied with magic. (Plus counter-countermeasures and so forth.)

There has also been a lot of work done on magic to enable non-lethal forms of attack, intelligence-gathering, and rapid deployment of troops (and their countermeasures). None of these are forbidden by the Protocols. Nor is the adaptation of magical devices not originally created as weapons, for example compressors used to power airguns.

So two forces that are magically equally matched, and have countermeasures for all of each other’s defenses and non-lethal attacks, are still reduced to running at each other with sharp things a lot of the time.

Disabling with non-lethal magic is tricky to do. Most things that disable people can potentially kill them. Freezing their limbs is the most promising avenue.

The Code of Willing includes rules of war intended to limit the destruction and loss of life that war brings, and even prevent it from getting started. Magical treaties, such as that between Koskant and Denning, are commonly employed between neighbouring realms to keep the peace.