MAGUS2

MAGUS

Virtually nothing is known about Magus. If indeed he is the Simon Magus that some claim him to be, his earliest appearance would have been in Samaria, where he was a great sorcerer who was rebuffed by Saint Peter. It is believed that Simon Magus then went on to found Gnosticism which is a belief system based on the premise that God is a pure spirit and had nothing to do with materiality. The Supreme Being was more of a force of inherent laws such as nature than one of manifested principles. This was in direct opposition to the Judea-Christian belief that God was an entity of matter as well as spirit.

Outside of the reference to Simon Magus, the only thing known about Magus is that he is the father of Lilith. On one of his journeys throughout the world, he came to Spain and met the mad Queen Juana. Juana, who was not really insane, realized her only chance at staying alive was to play at being mad so she would not be a threat to her husband or son. Magus, for reasons known only to him, stayed with Juana for awhile. When she asked to join him in immortality, he told her that she wasn’t able to because she lacked the ability. But he did give her a daughter, Lilith. Years later, when Saint Germaine came under the wrath of the Spanish Inquisition, Juana freed him on the condition that Lilith would join Germaine and his kind.

Lilith, under the misconception that she was the original woman that existed prior to Eve, was shown her origins by Saint Germaine. She then went to join her father in his hidden sanctuary where he does his best to retreat from the world.

Interview with the Creator of Magus

(Appeared in Caliber Rounds)

Gary Reed is the creator and writer of Magus, a new addition to the Caliber lineup. Here, editor Joe Martin gets Gary to reveal a little bit more information about the series.

JM: Magus is someone that might be familiar with the fans that have read Saint Germaine. He was said to be the father of Lilith, Germaine’s ex-companion and now his enemy. Care to elaborate?
GR: Well, he is the father of Lilith. And this invalidates everything that Lilith thought to be true of herself. As shown in the pages of Saint Germaine, she thought that she was the original first woman, the one that according to many traditions and legends, actually predated Eve. However, this was shown not to be true and now she is on a voyage of self-discovery and her father is the key to her understanding.

JM: So, this is a series about the relationship between Lilith and her father, Magus. What about Magus himself, how much do we find out about him?
GR: Not much at the beginning. We find out his origin which is the precept for the first storyline. Magus is Simon Magus, the sorcerer who is mentioned in the New Testament. But there’s a lot more in this story than just building from that brief mention. We find out early on that Magus, to become an immortal, has made a pact with another sorcerer. That is Beezlebub, the Lord of the Flies. Beezlebub is also in the bible and no, he is not the devil. He was a king, a ruler.... he was never one of the rebellious angels cast off into hell. His connection with that came out of Milton’s Paradise Lost, it was never part of the official canon of the Judeo-Christian religions. But, most people think of that because so many have extrapolated Milton’s work, as well as Dante’s, right into the mythology of the religion. Whether you believe in the bible as fiction or fact, the works of Milton and Dante are definitely fiction but now they’re intertwined together with the religion for a lot of people.

JM: Magus is definitely a horror series but like so much of your stuff, it can be viewed as very philosophical. Is that a conscious decision?
GR: Not really. Primarily, it depends on what or who I’m writing about. If you have a character like Magus who is almost revered as a God by his students and he’s lived a very, very long time, it can be expected that he would be philosophical. But if you have a character that acts on reaction mainly, then that character is more emotional and responds in kind.

JM: Even though it’s full of strong imagery and a great deal of historical notes, this series…I have to say, is really kind of creepy. Did you enjoy writing this?
GR: It’s a very fun series to do. Here you got this rotten bastard, Al-haquat who enjoys inflicting pain on people and you got Lilith who steals men’s memories from them and then you got the more physical evil of Beezlebub whose body is composed of flies. And then you have Magus, who may be the most powerful of all yet can’t use any of his abilities because of an oath he swore centuries ago. It makes for some interesting situations.

JM: One thing that I’ve wondered about is that if you have these immortal type characters such as Magus and Lilith, as well as Saint Germaine, why are they so secretive? Wouldn’t they possibly be more public...or at least known more by the covert government agencies?
GR: Well that is really a concern that I’m very conscious about. After all, we’re trying to set up the Caliber Core universe on as much reality as possible, even though we bring in these obvious fictional elements and people. Yet, we want everything to fit in with a cohesive and coherent logic. Saint Germaine was known for a time and even now, many of the New Agers attribute a great deal to him. His brief period of seeking fame will be covered in the pages of that series in an upcoming storyline. Lilith was a later addition to this world and she adapted the lower profile that Germaine began keeping. As for Magus, he has consciously retreated from the world and seeks to find an understanding beyond what humanity can offer him and that is covered in the series.

JM: Obviously, Lilith was a character in Saint Germaine so that connects Magus with that title. How does Magus fit in with the rest of the Caliber line up?
GR: Well, not only does Lilith connect with Saint Germaine but Saint Germaine connects with Raven Chronicles and Kilroy as those characters have appeared in Saint Germaine. That, therefore, connects Magus there. But Magus really is a stand alone character. Just like any of the characters that cross over, if they have their own title, then they are essentially separate. It’s just fun to have them inter-connect with one another.

JM: After reading the first issue, there’s a really interesting character called Al-haquat. What’s up with him?
GR: He was created to be a throwaway character initially but I’ve had so much fun with him that I want to use him quite a bit. In fact, there will be a long part of the third or fourth issue that will explain his origins a bit and of course, that will show more of the Beezlebub character as well.

JM: What about Beezlebub, the Lord of the Flies? Can we expect to see more of him outside of this Magus story?
GR: That might be revealing too much too soon. Right now, Beezlebub’s main goal is to retrieve his right that Magus promised him and that will be covered in he initial storyarc of Magus. Essentially, Beezlebub made Magus what he is…and now Beezlebub wants to collect his price. And the price is a price that Magus doesn’t want to pay but doesn’t really have much choice.

JM: You’re creating and/or writing quite a few of the Caliber Core titles. What should people expect from Magus after looking at some of your other work?
GR: Although many of the titles are related to the same universe, a lot do have different appeals. We think, however, if you like one Core title, you’d probably like all of them...maybe not to the same degree but they definitely in the same vein. Yet there are differences, it’s not just one huge title broken into fragments. If you like Saint Germaine, then Magus is for you. Helsing and Seeker are a bit less philosophical in nature as they’re much more than just traditional adventure tales.

BACK TO MAGUS