Triggered to Thinking

The Character of Magus in Chrono Trigger

The character known as “Magus” takes a central role in the plot of Chrono Trigger. Does the character named Magus employ some of the traits of the magus in the ancient world? First, we need to examine the character and traits of Magus in Chrono Trigger. Magus is presented in Chrono Trigger as a shadowy figure that uses shadow magic. He sports a cape and attacks his enemies using a scythe. Magus originally came from the ancient kingdom of Zeal, which was enamored of magic and depended on the power of Chrono Trigger’s primary antagonist, the extraterrestrial being known as Lavos. Magus’s childhood name was Janus, and in an accident, the Mammon Machine, a device used to harness the power of Lavos, sent him into the Middle Ages (Client Challenge, n.d.).

A young Janus was found by Ozzie, a leader of the Mystics, or the monster army. The young Janus was able to defeat the imps that Ozzie used to attack him. Ozzie then decided to raise Janus to eventually become the leader of the Mystics, and that is when he took the name “Magus” (Client Challenge, n.d.). Later, after Chrono and Frog fix the broken sword of the Masamune, they confront Magus at his castle in the Middle Ages. The party assumed Magus had created Lavos when, in reality, he only summoned it, and their intrusion interrupted the summoning. After the battle with Magus, Magus and Chrono’s team are sucked into a time vortex and find themselves in the prehistoric age.

Chrono and his party eventually travel to the Dark Ages and encounter the ancient kingdom of Zeal. Magus used his knowledge of the past to become an advisor to the Queen of Zeal. In Zeal’s kingdom, he is known as “The Prophet,” and he warns the queen of the arrival of Chrono and his party. Schala, Janus’s sister, breaks them out of captivity out of concern for their lives. Magus, disguised as a prophet with a cloak, stops the group and demands that Schala close the portal through which Chrono and others entered the kingdom of Zeal. Chrono is later able to obtain the Epoch and travels back to the kingdom of Zeal, and enters the Ocean Palace. When Lavos appears again, he ditches his disguise as a prophet and tries to fight Lavos while Chrono is killed. He then tells the party that Gaspar, one of the former gurus in the kingdom of Zeal, could potentially revive Chrono.

The character and actions of Magus show similarities to the magi of ancient history. Eric Vanden Eykel notes, “The Greek word magoi is the plural form of the singular magos. Strictly speaking, magos is an adjective, which means the primary function is to say something about whatever noun is attached to” (Vanden Eykel, 2022, p. 21). The English words magic, magician, and magical are all derivatives of the Greek magos. The similarity between Magus’s shadowy appearance and being a strong magic user is apparent. Many of the game’s other characters do learn magic, but they obtain this power from a being known as Spekkio. Also, two of the characters in the game, Robo and Ayla, do not have magical powers.

Secondly, the term magos was used in the Christian New Testament to describe the wise men who visited the birth of Jesus. Blue Letter Bible describes a magus as an oriental wise man, false prophet, or sorcerer, and the name given to wise men, soothsayers, and interpreters of dreams (Matthew 2 :: New International Version [NIV], n.d.). The term magoi was used in other contexts in the ancient world. Herodotus, the historian, recounted a story where two magoi attained political power through trickery in Egypt. There is a man named Cambyses, a son of the Persian king Cyrus. He had a dream where he saw his brother sitting exalted on a throne, and, being threatened, he ordered his brother to be exiled to Persia (Vanden Eykel, 2022).

Magus shows similarities to the magus from the ancient world. His cunning knowledge of the past allowed him to convince the Queen of Zeal that he was a powerful oracle. He could also be seen as a sort of dream interpreter, but his motivation was focused solely on defeating the being known as Lavos. Furthermore, his special knowledge about a potential plan to revive Chrono after his death suggests a special type of knowledge. Before the distortion caused by the Mammon Machine, Magus may have acquired special knowledge from the wise men in the kingdom. In conclusion, based on Magus’s special knowledge and personality traits, his name is significant in relation to the magus from the ancient world.

References

Client Challenge. (n.d.). Magus. https://chrono.fandom.com/wiki/Magus

Matthew 2 :: New International Version (NIV). (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/niv/mat/2/1/t_conc_931001

Vanden Eykel, E. (2022). The Magi: Who they were, how they’ve been remembered, and why they still fascinate. Fortress Press.