Gary Reed is the creator and writer of Magus, a new addition to the Caliber Core lineup. Here, editor Joe Martin gets Gary to reveal a little bit more information about the series and how it ties into other Caliber Core titles such as Saint Germaine.

CALIBER: 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?

GARY REED: 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.

CAL: 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 Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies. Beelzebub 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 Miltion’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.

CAL: 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. For a more open type of presence, we have another series upcoming that deals with some of those aspects in The Disciples which is scheduled for a fall release of 1998. That will give more information in that arena.

CAL: Obviously, Lilith was a prominent character in Saint Germaine so that connects Magus with that title. How does Magus fit in with the rest of the Caliber Core 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. There’s a character called Al-Haquat in Magus who was created to be a throw away character initially but I’ve had so much fun with him that I want to use him quite a bit. He’ll be making other appearances in other Caliber Core titles, so the connections will be strengthened.

CAL: What about Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies? Can we expect to see more of him outside of Magus?

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 the initial story arc of Magus. From there, who knows. There’s a big world out there and I think there’s a lot of fascinating characters out there that we can play with. We don’t have to have a villain of the month appearing in the different titles. That’s not the goal of the Caliber Core universe.

CAL: 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 although they’re much more than just traditional adventure tales. Try them all!

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