Magus

The singular form of magi; referring to a sorcerer, a warlock, or perhaps just someone of great wisdom(and thus mystery).


Also an... undescribable book, by John Fowles. Humanity, love, responsibility, intrigue, deceit, reality - about these all and more and less. Breathtaking.

Character from the Marvel Comics universe. He first appeared in Strange Tales #178.

The Magus is Adam Warlock's future self, in a timeline where he has turned out to be quite the villain. He got to be this way because the Magus would come back from the future, beat up his younger self, then give him to the In-Betweener to be worked over for centuries by Lord Chaos and Master Order until it was inevitable that he become the Magus. (Aren't time loops fun?) He has all the powers of Adam Warlock, as well as his soul gem.

Adam Warlock is the chosen champion of life. This applies to the Magus, even though he would commit genocide using his Universal Church of Truth. Eventually, the Magus had taken over all of the universe that he had come into contact with. Death did not like what was going on with Life's champion, so she sent her champion Thanos to stop the Magus' plans. Thanos helped Adam Warlock erase the Magus' timeline from existence, so Death would triumph over Life.

So the Magus had never existed...until Adam Warlock got a hold of the Infinity Gauntlet and effectively became God. To ensure infallibility, he expelled all good and evil from himself. The evil side became the Magus. This time, the Magus was just a shade of Adam Warlock, but he was extremely crafty. Through a series of manipulations, the Magus gained the Infinity Gauntlet. (This was in The Infinity War.) However, the reality gem was a fake, and so ultimate power was not his. He was promptly absorbed into the soul gem. A power-stealing villain named Siphonn (or some such thing) stole the soul gem from Warlock for a brief period of time. Because Siphonn did not have the same degree of control over the gem as Warlock did, the Magus was able to escape before Warlock reclaimed the gem. Lately, the Magus has been harassing the new Captain Marvel, using new power-stealing abilities he picked up from Siphonn.

Back to
Chrono Trigger
WARNING: SPOILTERS AHEAD

Magus is a powerful sorcerer from the Dark Ages. He is a master of shadow magic, and is also well versed with the other elements. When he is unable to use his magic, a scythe is his weapon of choice

Magus's true name is Janus, Prince of Zeal. He is the son of Queen Zeal, and brother to Princess Schala. He was a child during the construction of the Undersea Palace and the Mammon Machine. He was present during the activation, and stood witness as Lavos was summoned. Lavos created a series of gates, one of which Janus fell into. When he awoke, he was surrounded by Ozzie and the Mystics in the Middle Ages.

After demonstrating his power to the Mystics, and being chosen as their leader, Magus declares war upon the humans. This is merely a ploy, however, as his true goal was to summon Lavos. His plan was to call forth the entity, and kill it, as revenge for the destruction of Zeal.

This plan was interrupted, however, by Crono and his friends. They barged in on Magus in the middle of the summoning, and forced Magus to devote some of his attention to them. Magus still managed to call Lavos, who again opened a variety of gates, sending Magus back into the Dark Ages.

Many years older then when he left, Magus returned to Zeal but was unrecognized even by his own family. He took up the guise of a prophet, and used his knowledge of the events that would happen to gain the Queen's trust.

He used his influence to again be present when the Mammon Machine was activated. Crono and his posse arrived at the same time, to do battle with Lavos. However, Lavos killed Crono, and Magus was unable to defeat the beast alone. Just in the nick of time, Schala transported the group away from the destruction.

Magus climbed up North Cape to watch the destruction of the world. Frog follows, and confronts him. Instead of a conflict, though, an uneasy alliance is formed between the two, with the goal of defeating Lavos.

On the subject of Chrono Trigger, an interesting note on Magus's name: in the original Japanese, Magus went by Maou, which meant "demon king". The Mystics, naturally enough, were called Mazoku ("demon race/tribe"). Also, Magus's given name, Janus, was Jaki in the Japanese version, which was a pun on "evil aura".

All of which makes Magus slightly more sinister (as if he needed any help...).

Thank you to Hyena 20 for your translation efforts