> Someone once asked me why I solo’d with the Magus class. That was the day I learned you could pick more than one.

>

> -Jun Soh Gage, First Champion of Section G

There’s a certain irony in our first Champion’s legacy not being his contributions to the martial arts or the foundations of gladiocracy, but the droves of romance novels, stage plays, and bottles liquors named in his honor. By all accounts, Gage the Virtuous wasn’t that exceptional of a fighter, even in an era where almost nothing was known about the JOYs and exceptional fighters were as rare as damascene. Other warriors of the first era have better claim to that fame. Like Morrigan or Loveless or Asmodeus, or even the Creators themselves. But no one’s going up to the bar and ordering a shot of Scorro’s Spear.

Gage outlived his contemporaries in the same way he surpassed them: adaptation. No one knows exactly what day the JOYs entered the world. It happened around, or during, whatever cataclysm separated our era from the one came before, when JOYs didn’t exist. There’s no true word for the time when the world started over. Some call it the Upending. Others, just the Cataclysm. Even the Dark Age, for obvious reasons.

Any stories about that world- except the pop-culture dramatizations- have been sealed under lock and key since before anyone alive was born. Fortunately for my younger self, I was given an aunt who had a few of those keys. I spent too many bored summer days reading the dustiest files I could find on the Metro Blockhouse servers; some of which were last edited nearly seven hundred years ago, likely during the Dark Age. Though even those were stripped and censored of any significant information.

And don’t even bother looking for anything from before then. Out in the villages, our culture predates even the gladiocracies and the Creators, though it’s mostly just religious mumbo-jumbo and tea rituals for farmers. In the wider world, the only evidence you’ll find of a world before the JOYs is oldTech machinery- analog stuff, like speakers and scoreboards and repulsorfields that have to plug directly into a power grid, and can’t pick up their energy remotely.

Still. The Metro Blockhouse’s servers have their secrets. With seven hundred years of backlogged history to lean on- not even counting whatever is on the oldTech machines down in the basements- I was able to read between the lines of those romance novels to make a pretty accurate theory of what our First Champion was really like. Turned out those books are better for something than eyeshade while I was napping out on the porch.

First: Gage was a solo classer. Surprising, given that our Section has a battle-earned reputation for the pedigree of Martial Artists we produce, and booky Maguses are about the furthest thing from a fistfighter that you can get. But solo classing itself was pretty common back in the day. Before the gladiocracies, existence was a constant, frightening war for survival. There were no governments. No conveniences of an interconnected society like we have today. Just warlords and the brutal kingdoms they ruled. Each with their own rules and laws; some barbaric, others a humanitarian shadow of the old era. Though even they obeyed the same universal we do.

Only the strongest shall rule. It’s true even when all other reason collapses.

In the Dark Age, there wasn’t a massive stockpile of training materials and class knowledge you could search up on the ‘Net, nor a societal pipeline to funnel kids right into fighting proficiency in their classes. Combat styles and class-specific tech had to be developed from scratch. The basic understanding for how to mentally grasp sixth-sense energy was something developed over the course of decades, not months. Even navigating the JOY menus wasn’t something well understood. Reasonable, then, that people would only dedicate themselves to one or two classes at most; not three as is common today.

What that specialization led to was a style of class mastery where flexibility, not raw power, became the most prized asset. Even if they were easily understood, simple classes like Martial Artist or Duelist were little good for survival, and could combat few other classes on their own. Supportive classes like Innovator or Guardian couldn’t carry out offensive duties solo. One the flipside, the build-a-build classes like Mecha and Modd were highly popular for versatility and survival skills. Which left the Magus class at a special impasse between the two.

While theoretically one of the most versatile classes of all, on its own, Magus has almost zero defensive or offensive dominance. It’s vulnerable in the close range, too slow to beat a bullet in the long range. And in the Dark Age, where JOY capabilities were complete unknowns and the Creators themselves still walked the world, the Magus class had no extensive lists of pre-populated spells that have been painstakingly cultivated for every imaginable situation by class researchers over the course of centuries. You were given a book with infinite pages between its covers, and every one of those pages was blank.

Picking a class like that in the midst of the Dark Age would actually be suicidal. Which is why I think Gage didn’t have a choice in it. Either it was chosen for him, or he didn’t know what he was getting into when he signed the dotted line. Or he had someone to teach him. Someone who already knew how to fill a couple pages in that book, and could give him pointers on the rest.

He mentions her in his letters from time to time, that woman. He called her Sensei. Not in the way that they mean at a dojo or martial artist locker room fightslang, but in a way that’s rooted in the culture of the villages I come from. The old language that hardly anyone still speaks. She was his Teacher, Professor, Doctor. And I think she was all of those, based on the number of things Gage says she knew. Only once does he call her by the nickname Apple. Her true name was a blank space in the text, so she had to have been important. Or dangerous. Dangerous enough to erase almost every mention of. In other words,

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Creator dangerous.

With her help, Gage took the first steps down the Magus path and became one of the most iconic pillars of the class. Flexibility was the core his entire fighting technique revolved around. While he might not have the best control of a fireball spell, another Elemental he was travelling with might be able to multiply the destructive potential tenfold. While he couldn’t defend himself from a blade, he could create a force dome to shield an entire group of fighters at once. And the more companions he fought beside, the more places he travelled and the more spells he acquired from the locals, the greater his flexibility became.

In a way, Gage used his JOY even better than most people do today. He understood that simply because his JOY wouldn’t augment him with the aim assist of a Gunslinger, the durability of a Guardian, or mastery over a single domain of matter like an Elemental, there was nothing stopping him from casting Spiritual Weapon and learning how to swing an ethereal lance himself. Even if he wouldn’t be as good at melee combat as a grandmaster Duelist, he could still learn to fight from one.

That flexibility is a principle that’s pervaded the class, and even the grander ideas of combat, ever since. Maguses are jacks-of-all-trades, mimicking abilities that are eerily similar to those found in the other JOY classes, just without the same power or control. Where a Shield spell will shatter at a single hit, a Guardian’s warding sphere can take on a rain of missiles from five Mecha simultaneously and still be standing on the other side. But a Magus can fire off an Electric Arc, cast a teleportation spells, and inundate themselves with a plethora of buff enchantments before a fight even begins. Their only limiters are the knowledge in the spellbook and the pool of mana they draw on to cast spells.

If you’ve read the chapters on the other Shaper classes, Magus mana is no different from a shapeable energy like ki or a primal element. Its only noteworthy factor is that it’s a fixed cap of energy that regenerates slowly while a Magus isn’t casting. That cap can’t be raised by training like a ki fighter can with their heart, nor can one just draw more mana out of the air like an Elemental can. Maguses instead train by increasing the speed, accuracy, and ease of delivery that it takes to cast a spell.

Normally, each spell has a fixed cost of mana determined by a long mathematical formula that involves complexity of intent, magnitude of impact, et cetera. A JOY will pick up the intention of the spell a Magus wish to cast as soon as they begin, but speaking the cast faster, more accurately, or more effortlessly has the additional benefit of decreasing the mana it takes to cast. So the more you specialize and practice with specific spells, the less mana they take to cast, and you can repeat the cast more times before you bottom out on energy. And because you don’t truly have to speak to cast a spell, for a much higher cost of mana, you can cast one simply through intention without relying on words. Handy in a pinch, that one.

Though there’s no official delineation between the two, most Maguses separate themselves by their primary method of casting. Book Casters carry a physical spellbook on their person, recording spells and keeping the incantation / rune transcription / offering component for each. Heart Casters… cast from the heart. I’d respect them a bit more for that, but in the Magus world- this is just hearsay, I don’t hang with that crowd- they’re generally looked on as the lazier variety. But hey. They do tend to memorize their spells better and cast them way faster, because they don’t have to go flipping through a book to find the right one. Though they obviously can’t keep track of as many as a Book Caster. They tend to be more specialist, focusing on reducing the mana cost of a few select spells.

As for how a Magus is supposed to go around finding those spells for their repertoire, there’s a few routes. The ‘Net has a couple hundred basics you can download for free- basic stuff like laundry spells, breath freshening buffs, a point-light enchantment you can put on a stylus. Most class-specific courses at school will start introducing more flexible and impactful spells, though you won’t learn anything revolutionary there. For heavy hitting spells, signing up for extracurriculars at a dojo is the best way. But for the real elite stuff, the kind of stuff that makes reputations, you have to either learn enough about spellcrafting to write it yourself, or nab an incantation from a really powerful fighter. No self-respecting fighter gives out their custom spells for free though, so good luck on that front.

I’m sure a real Magus could bore you to death talking about the minutiae of spellcrafting, but I’m as much of a fish out of water here as I was at the gala with Cal. My way of fighting is my way of living: simple and straightforward. Books and studying are the anathema of a good ki fighter. I know, I know. Ironic. Here I am, studying a book anyways. Believe me, Cal rags me enough about it already.

Attached is a list of a few of the spells that have been or can be seen throughout the FRAY series, with descriptors per their entry in the JOY system:

> LEVITATE (Memento Mori, 4.13): Suspend the target object up to one meter above a flat, grounded surface. The object may be pushed or will itself into movement while suspended.

> MOCKING IMAGE (???, 4.6): Create an illusory second skin that can absorb a single instance of damage from any source. The illusion dissipates realistically according to the nature of the damage.

> STARBURST (???, 4.6): Compressed dark matter, mhm?

> SPELL DILATION (???, 3.7): A metamagic extension that buffs the next spell cast. Doubles the length of duration-based effects, and converts instantaneous effects into duration-based effects.

> AVARITIC ARSENAL (???, 3.7): Buff used on a held object. At will, object translocates back into hand.

> ENERGY CONDUCTION (I – V) (???, 3.7): Self-buff to allow incoming ki energy to be stored within the body for a short duration, rather than dealing damage on impact. Increases natural resistance to burnout from over-amplified ki.