Natural and Unnatural Magic
  1. Notes

Natural and Unnatural Magic

In Ashes of Delphi, all the gods have different magical domains and all grant different magical powers but all those powers fall into two types - Natural Magic & Unnatural Magic.
The Unnatural Magic is both harder to perform and more likely to draw the attention of other divine or supernatural entities. 
Natural magic appears to follow the laws of consensus reality. It's subtle, explainable, and can be rationalised by witnesses. For example, a hunter's arrow looks like it is going to miss but then bounces off a tree and hits its target after a prayer from a follower of Hunter Goddess Artemis - it could looks like chance or could be. Or if a worshiper of Poseidon calls upon that gods affinity with horses to make their stead catch up with the rider in front it could just be a burst of energy - it wasn't - but it could have been.  
Natural magic works within the fabric of accepted reality. When people witness it, they can explain it away as coincidence, skill, or luck.
Unnatural magic openly defies consensus reality in ways that cannot be explained within the usual course of events. For example a follower of Ares shoots flames out of the end of his sword - that just doesn't normally happen. Or the worshiper of Poseidon's horse starts to breath fire. Again hard to explain away.
These things get noticed.
The gods are watching. But so are others. Creatures of chaos. Creatures best left undisturbed.