Magus

General Information

Game Information

For boss information, see Magus (Monster).

Chrono Trigger

Full Name(s): Magus, Janus Zeal
Japanese Name(s): 魔王 Maou, meaning 'demon king' or 'magic king', ジャキ Jaki
Theme: Battle with Magus
Age: Indeterminate, around 30 (Radical Dreamers)
Species: Human
Home Time: 12000 B.C., 600 A.D.
Home Area: Magus's Lair, North Cape, Zeal, Zeal Palace
Weapon Type: Scythe
Weapons: DarkScythe, Hurricane, StarScythe, DoomSickle
Magical Element: Shadow
Single Techs: ☆Black Hole, ☆Dark Bomb, ☆Dark Matter, ☆Dark Mist, ☆Fire 2, ☆Ice 2, ☆Lightning 2, ☆Magic Wall
Triple Techs: Dark Eternal, Omega Flare

Magus was born Janus, heir to the Kingdom of Zeal and brother to Schala. Janus was known to the kingdom's citizens as introverted and usually kept in seclusion, but during the game he is seen upset and pacing Zeal's cities. He kept a purple cat named Alfador as a pet, called "his only friend" by one citizen. Though believed to be inept by many, Janus possessed magic power exceeding all others. Upon the completion of the Mammon Machine and the transformation of Queen Zeal, Janus suppressed his power to avoid suffering in the same manner as Schala and his mother. Before Crono intervened in time to save the world, Janus attended the Ocean Palace christening and was swept up in a temporal distortion caused by Lavos. In the new timelines, Janus can be seen confiding in Schala concerning his dislike of his mother. She consoled him by giving him her Amulet, which he would later wear around his hip as an adult. Janus also warned Crono that one in his group would soon die. As Crono descended to the Ocean Palace, Melchior watched over Janus, though the two soon disappeared into a black portal at the time of their original departure.

Janus emerged from the distortion in the Middle Ages, where a Mystic leader named Ozzie seized him. Ozzie apparently discovered his magic potential, and Janus eventually became the leader of the Mystics (known as the Great Magus) and changing his appearance. Magus continued harboring a secret goal of revenge on Lavos. To gain power necessary to summon and confront Lavos, Magus led the Mystics in war with humanity, achieving a deified status among them. His three top warriors were Ozzie, Slash, and Flea. Ten years before 600 A.D., he slew the head knight of Guardia, Cyrus, and changed his squire Glenn to a Frog. The two were attempting to acquire the Masamune, a legendary sword thought to be the only weapon that could defeat Magus. In 600 A.D., Magus completed his preparations and attempted to summon Lavos. Crono and Frog, believing he created Lavos in the Middle Ages, interrupted him at his lair and battled him at length. Magus revealed that he was merely summoning Lavos while the incomplete spell activated, causing a temporal distortion that sent Crono's group to 65,000,000 B.C. and Magus to his original time period.

At home in Zeal, Magus realized that with the nearing activation of the Ocean Palace, he would once again have the chance to destroy Lavos. To gain access, he appeared to Queen Zeal as a prophet from a mysterious land and used his childhood knowledge to predict future events. He was instated as director of the Ocean Palace's construction, possibly imprisoned the Gurus, and warned Queen Zeal and Dalton of Crono and his group. Once Crono and his friends were subjugated in Zeal Palace, Magus threatened to kill them. Schala and Janus pleaded, and Magus compromised by having her lock them out of the time period by sealing a time gate. He then attended the christening of the Ocean Palace, awaiting the moment of Lavos's awakening. Once the creature arrived, he threw off his disguise and tried to kill Lavos, but was beaten swiftly and left to watch Crono die. Powerless, he was saved with Crono's remaining friends by Schala, who used her pendant's powers to transport them to land. He then went to the North Cape to reflect on past events. When confronted by Crono's friends, he revealed his identity as Janus and informed them of a way to revive Crono, whom he simultaneously ridiculed. The player can opt to kill Magus at the North cape at this point, but the sequels show that this didn't take place.

Magus joined Crono's friends, traveling with them for the duration of their quest. Along the way, he met the Guru of Time, Gaspar, who recognized him as Janus. He also encountered Ozzie, Slash, and Flea, who criticized him for using the Mystics as a tool to gain personal power. Magus defeated them and retrieved his best armor and weapons at their fort to prepare for the final battle. Atop the Black Omen, Magus defeated his mother, calling her a "pitiful woman duped by Lavos." After killing Lavos, Magus returned to Leene square in 1000 A.D. with the other heroes and silently departed to 12000 B.C., most likely to search for Schala. If the player chose to kill Magus, his curse on Frog is broken at the game's end. In the PlayStation version of the game, the curse is lifted regardless of whether he dies. It can be assumed that in the original timeline of the story, Magus succeeds in summoning Lavos and brings about his own death, ending the war with the humans. Crono's interference in the process saved him from this fate in the Keystone Timelines.

Surviving the darkness through incredible persistence and determination did not leave Magus without a little cynicism, and his lines in Chrono Trigger are some of the most quoted and parodied in the RPG community. His most famous lines are revealed in an ending as being uttered shortly before the Ocean Palace Incident, in which he masqueraded as the Prophet:

 [Magus]
   If history is to change, let it change! If
   the world is to be destroyed, so be it!

   If my fate is to be destroyed...
   I must simply laugh!!

   I'm coming, Lavos!

Tech Learning:

☆Lightning 2: Already Learned
☆Ice 2: Already Learned
☆Fire 2: Already Learned
☆Dark Bomb: 400 TP
☆Magic Wall: 400 TP
☆Dark Mist: 400 TP
☆Black Hole: 900 TP
☆Dark Matter: 900 TP

Chrono Cross

Magus was originally planned to be in Chrono Cross as Guile, but this was scrapped after the designers realized his story would be too difficult to integrate. In the Chrono Cross Demo, Guile is referred to as Gil (Magil's name in Radical Dreamers) in the debug room, a relic of this plan. He is referenced as Janus in the game within a letter from Lucca to Kid. Some fans like to think that he influenced and helped Belthasar to save Schala specifically as part of his plan to thwart the Time Devourer, but this currently has no canonical basis. According to the Principles of Time and Dimensional Travel, Magus, as he had no participation in Chrono Cross, will not have any memory or way of discovering it ever happened unless he was fortunate enough to be in the End of Time or another location on a scale of Time Error. If the former is true, Magus probably knows little about the fate of Schala, or her current whereabouts. Guile is basically the same as Magil—interesting, intelligent, good-natured, eloquent, and prone to having a bit of fun. Guile especially excels at the last point in his frequent toasts to enigma and lighthearted bet with the fortune teller. Because of the events of Chrono Trigger DS (shown below), it is possible that Guile is Magus.

Magus is rumored to appear in the form of a shadow during the reading of Kid's letter. Additionally, his most famous lines are echoed by Kid on Opassa Beach:

Kid:
   If the world's gonna
   be destroyed, then let
   it be destroyed!
   If history is gonna be
   changed, then let it
   bloody well be changed!
   I'll show you what
   Radical Dreamers
   really dream about!

Chrono Trigger DS

Chrono Trigger DS reveals that Schala and Lavos, before becoming the prototypical Time Devourer, experienced an intermediary evolutionary stage—the Dream Devourer, capable of feeding on thoughts, memories, and dreams across time. Magus located Schala and tried to free her to no avail. Schala awoke long enough to tell Magus that his attempts were futile, and no power could be used to save her. She admonished him to live out his life in other pursuits before the Dream Devourer would destroy everything. Magus protested but was sent away, and eventually sacrificed his identity in abject frustration over Schala's fatalism and predicament. He hoped that whatever the remnant of his identity, he would be able to find something new and interesting. After erasing his identity, he woke in a forest, feeling a need to search for something that he couldn't quite remember. Then departed to begin his search.

It's a fun possibility that Magus's waking up Schala played into Belthasar's plans for Chrono Cross. Specifically, Belthasar planned for Schala's creation of Kid during a moment of rare lucidity for the Zeal princess, and Magus may have just created this moment of lucidity by waking her up with force.

The Chrono Cross HD remaster's secret credits scene strongly suggests that Guile is indeed Magus, with his memories voluntarily erased, except for some last fragment of Zeal. Nonetheless, the scene calls his mask silver instead of gold (as shown in-game), making this scene even more confusing.

Radical Dreamers

Origin: Zeal
Spells: Black Wind, Inferno, Light Cutter, Levitation, Luminescence, Sacred Host, Search Spell, Unlock Spell (see the Magic (Radical Dreamers) entry)

Magus is Magil in Radical Dreamers, somehow having discovered Schala's reincarnation in Kid and having made his way to the modern era. He adopted a human appearance, charming and mysterious personality, and a refined air and carriage. Disguised as Magil, he saved Kid from her first attempt at revenge for Lucca's death; afterwards, he accompanied Kid on her thievery missions. Serge often wrote of his seriousness and immense power and described his face as stunningly handsome in one scenario. Magil retained a quiet and collected personality that, coupled with his uncanny ability to move in and out of shadows, made him an enigma. When he spoke, his words were direct, focused, and cultured, though he was known to smile or make jokes on extremely rare occasions. During Le Trésor Interdit, he wore a mask and blue cape and was responsible for the group's safety from enemies, as he alone had a mastery of magic (a Goblin was even shocked to see a human with such magical prowess). At the final battle, he was held back by Lynx and unable to protect Kid until she used the Chrono Trigger. After time returned to normal, Magil quickly escaped with Kid, who now knew of her status as the former Schala.

While Magus's identity as Magil is never stated outright in the game, the plot, several clues, and a direct statement by Chrono series writer Masato Kato confirm this.

Glancing back over my shoulder, I notice a silhouette silently emerge from the
grove.
Magil...
This associate of Kid's is known to us only as 'Magil of the Shadows'.
I know next to nothing about him, except for the fact that he somehow knew Kid
before I came into the picture.
A high-class magician of some sort, he looks to be about thirty. He usually
keeps to himself, though.
The top half of his face is covered with a mask at all times. I've never even
seen what he really looks like.
At times, it seems as though I'm hanging around someone from another world --
traveling with this pack is definitely an interesting experience.
Kid's quiet about her past too, but it's like I know her entire life story
compared to how little I know about Magil.
From time to time I find myself wondering who he is, where he came from, and so
on. I'd ask Kid, but I get the impression she knows as little about him as I do.

"Apparently a pious being such as this may roll its eyes from time to time."
The simple fact that Magil tried to make a joke just there makes me stop and
forget where I am for a second.

And with that, I accidentally knock Magil's golden mask off, sending it
falling down through the night sky to the ground!
Gulp... did I just do that?
This is the first time I've ever seen his true face.
Even for a guy like me, I'm taken aback by his looks. His hair sways in the
moonlight, as his piercing blue eyes survey the environment below.
His beauty is different than a woman's... there's some sort of a fierce,
intrepid quality about him.
He is truly... a beautiful person.

In the original Japanese (in the Gil: Caught between Love and Adventure scenario), Gil originally gave the cookies away instead of eating them all. Riddel also calls him Gil; Gilbert is Demiforce's invention. Another difference is that In The Shadow Realm and the Goddess of Death, Magil originally left Kid and Serge coldly after defeating Lilith. Furthermore, Magil used a combat style called the Kakuya martial art:

ギルは、武器を持たない。かぐや流の格
闘術を持って敵を粉砕する。故に、倒され
た相手は全身紫色だ。キッドは、真っ赤
にするけど……。

Magil fights without weapons. His "Kakuya Martial art" can crush foes in the way.
So, that fallen goblin is purple all over, while the one beaten by Kid is red (stained by blood)...

Japanese Equivalent

In Chrono Trigger, Magus's name was Maou, explained below.
In Radical Dreamers, Mick Van Jovi's name was トウバンジャン (Taubanjan, or in Chinese phonetic alphabet, Doubanjiang), which means thick bean sauce or bean paste.

Thanks to utunnels

Name Origin

Depending on the kanji used, Jyaki can either mean imp or evil aura. Janus was the Roman god of doors, beginnings and endings, and so on, depicted with two faces (looking towards the past and future). Fascinatingly enough, the Greek for Janus is "Ἰανός"—which, if you squint, almost looks like "Lavos". Happy coincidence or did Square choose this intentionally?

Daniel Krispin: Magus is the singular form of Magi, or wiseman/user of magic. It is a Latin word, and was originally derived from Persian (though it came to mean sorceror). Its most simple Anglicized equivalent would be Mage.

The word Magus also comes from Simon Magus, the same Simon in the Acts of the Apostles who offered Peter and John money for the power of the Holy Ghost. Read the account for yourselves. Later Christian historians are unanimous in condemning him as a heretic. One story says that he tried to ascend to heaven as Jesus did, only that the prayers of Peter and Paul brought him crashing down again. Regardless, the word Magus has been passed down to mean a sorceror of great power and evil. Only the account contained in the Acts, however, is considered reliable by Biblical scholars.

Maou (Magus's Japanese name) Means 'Demon King'. In Buddhism, the Demon King is either a deva, asura, or an allegory for a great obstacle which hinders enlightenment in Buddhism. It can also be used to refer to Satan, the Judeo-Christian devil, or Mara, the Buddhist devil. Looking at Magus's role in the game, all definitions for Maou seem to fit.

The original "Magus" is not Chaldean. The Chaldeans were a group living around the area of Ur (if anyone knows were this is, that is; it is in mid-Iraq nowadays, some ways south of Baghdad.) The term 'Magi', however, has something of a different origin. It comes to us directly from Latin, wherein the word Magus is used to denote a wise man or even sorcerer. In this context, the true pronounciation is Mah-gus. I would also wager, with reliable surity, that Magi would then in Latin be Mahg-ee, even as angelus is ahn-gel-uhs, with a harsh g. However, in Ecclesiastical, that is, Church Latin, the pronounciation of this g becomes a j, thus yielding our modern 'ain-jel'. A similar thing, I believe, occured to Magi, and it became 'Mah-jai'. It is not certain why Magus did not suffer the same fate, yet it appears to remain in common speech similar to the old Latin, save for the a, which is now an 'ay', rather than a short 'ah'.

Now let us take another step backward. Just like the example of 'angel', magus comes from the Greek/Hellenic vocabulary (where angel is aggelos, the gg being pronounced ng.) Magus here is written as Magos, with the o being pronounced as the u in but - there are different versions, however, depending on the part of speech it is, such as Magous, and Magou, but they are mostly incidental. Of interest, however, is that Magos is not directly a word for sorcerer or magic. Tekhnay, or skill, is the more indigenous word. Magos does, however, figure into at least one other word meaning magician, and that is Magikos.

Anyway, here things become a little shaky. Magos is not a native Hellenic word. It is rather Persian. Now, the confusion between Persian and Chaldean is understandable, as the Chaldeans lived in an area that was at a time occupied by the Medo Persian Empire. But natively, the Persians live south west of the area, and are about as far east a people as one can get without being on the doorstep of India. Now, the Persians and Medes came to power in succession to the Neo Babylonians, in the mid 500s BC. The historian Herodotus (the first historian, actually) speaks of a certain Median tribe or caste (here seems to be a hazy area for me, as different sources speak of it differently), a member of whom he termed a Magos (or, in English, Magian.) This word, according to one site (and a wiki-pedia one, so I approach it with caution) comes from Magupati, a Persian word, and certain roots denoting strength. One says that magus actually, in origin, means 'mighty one'. Also said is:

The Persian word is a u-stem adjective from an Indo-Iranian root *magh "powerful, rich" also continued in Sanskrit magha "gift, wealth", magha-vant "generous" (a name of Indra). And, far, far more reliable than these wiki sites, the Oxford Dictionary speaks of it as coming from magu-s, which I take to mean that the s is an addition to a root-word. By this, I think that the original Persian pronounciation did indeed use the harsher g sound rather than the j. But whatever it may mean, they came to be known as priests and astrologers, hence the Hellenes usage of it to denote magicans, whence the Latins and later we inherit it. And it can then be, with near final conclusivity, that the proper, if not common, pronounciation of Magus is Mah-gus.

Analysis and Theory

An article exists solely devoted to Magus's mysteries, titled The Many Mysteries of Magus.

Media

Images

Janus Sprites
Magus Sprites
Magus Techs (SpritersResource)
Magus Attack Sprites (SpritersResource)
Prophet Sprites
Magus Statue
The Prophet at the Ocean Palace
Ocean Palace Incident Displacement
Magus attempts to kill Lavos
Magus attempts two
Magus searches for Schala
Janus (FMV)
Magus
Magus Battle
Magus Battle (V-Jump)

For Chrono Cross, the team drew Magus in three different stages of his life, eventually opting for the eldest one before removing Magus's backstory entirely and creating Guile.