Hugh of Emblin

**Info**
History
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Quotes

Hugh is the main character in the Mage Errant series.

Fan art of Hugh by Reddit User: u/lwrentay

## Hugh Stormward

Hugh Stormward, formerly Hugh of Emblin, is one of the protagonists of Mage Errant. Originally a terrible mage in the mountain academy of Skyhold, he develops into a powerful archmage over the course of the series. He is a warlock with multiple warlock pacts, the first to the sphinx Kanderon Crux and the second to his three friends. At the end of the series people start calling Hugh and his friends the Hand of the Sphinx. Hugh and his friends have been sent off the world of Anastis so that they can obtain alien magic and become Named. Hugh has 12 affinities from his warlock contracts which is an absurd amount: crystal, stellar, planar, stone, steel, scent, wind, water, lighting, healing, bone and dream.

## Appearance

Hugh is short, skinny, has dark hair and was quite forgettable at the start until various events bring him into the limelight. His eyes change over the series. They start off brown but he now has glowing, obnoxiously green eyes, from attuning his aether crystal and his eyes have been changed into sphinx eyes through his warlock contract with Kanderon. This means he now has clearly unnatural green, cat-like eyes. His eyes resemble a cat's, with slitted pupils that can further constrict when he is using them.

Hugh can appear intimidating. In *The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells* upon entry to Havath he was described as:

> Hugh came slower than the others, the nodes of the Stormward’s Crown glowing brightly enough to hurt... His green crystal eyes seemed to glow from the inside, and the usually nervous, forgettable-looking mage looked like some dispassionate, powerful archmage who had decided that annihilation was simply the most convenient way to deal with a minor problem.
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## Personality

Hugh suffers from immense social anxiety and anxiety in general. At the start of the series Hugh horrifically shy and bad with people. This was amplified by Bakori who was manipulating his emotions. However, Bakori did not create these feelings, Hugh is a nervous wreck at times due to his upbringing. His abusive aunt and uncle were cruel and neglectful towards him which resulted in his inability with people. Hugh went into hiding and despair for several days after a fight with Talia. As the series progresses Hugh manages to partially overcome his self doubt and feelings of worthlessness but still feels terrible in crowds. He is noted to escape by jumping out of windows and using levitation cantrips to slow his fall from the mountain of Skyhold just so he doesn't have to go through crowds. He is loyal, kind and curious, but also shy, awkward and insecure. He has a passion for learning and exploring, but also a fear of failure and rejection. His anxiety will likely effect him for his entire life as Hugh was worried about poverty despite having enough money to buy a village in Emblin. Hugh likes the outdoors.

> Hugh was pretty sure that his calm, relaxed state would be an anxious, terrible one for a normal person.
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## Abilities

### Mana Reservoirs

Hugh has absolutely massive mana reservoirs. Unlike regular warlocks, who have tiny mana reservoirs, Hugh has absolutely huge amounts of mana. This allows him to use far more mana in each of his spells. His mana reservoirs have grown even larger from the proprioceptive link spells which constantly put a drain on his mana reservoirs. His mana reservoirs size means he can make many warlock contracts compared to regular warlocks who can only form 1 or 2 contracts.

### Warlock Nature

As a warlock, Hugh has no naturally occurring affinities but instead must make pacts with powerful magical entities to develop affinities. Hugh can form warlock contracts by mingling his mana with another entities', and using a complex spellform with instructions set into it which determine the rules the both of them must obey. As a warlock Hugh also has the mana technique will imbuing. Warlock pacts cause the mage on both sides of the pact to have their mana reservoirs grow which makes warlock contracts an attractive option to great powers.

Hugh has two major warlock contracts and a connection to Mackerel:

Kanderon Crux
Hugh's first warlock contract was with Kanderon Crux. The old sphinx gave Hugh access to her three affinities: crystal, stellar and planar. Hugh can feel Kanderon through their warlock pact. This pact has many clauses more than recommended, including numerous protections for Kanderon against Hugh and demands that Hugh brings her a new book each year. Kanderon wishes that she had amended the pact after she grew to care for Hugh. Alustin uses this overly designed pact to attack Kanderon.
Mackerel
Hugh formed a bond to the labyrinth stone that would become his aether crystal book, later named Mackerel, when he pacts with Kanderon. Hugh can feel Mackerel through their bond and can even forcefully enter Mackerel's alien mind.
Four-way warlock pact with Godrick, Sabae and Talia
Hugh has a four way contract between himself, Godrick, Sabae and Talia. This contract has zero clauses leaving them all greatly vulnerable to each other - demonstrating the trust they have. They can feel each other through this pact for tracking and determining injuries. This pact means that each of the group has the other three's affinities, collectively granting them: crystal, stellar, planar, stone, steel, scent, wind, water, lightning, healing, bone and dream affinities. This pact prevents Kanderon's pact with Hugh being attacked again. Kanderon said that this warlock bond will allow the group to share power in "fascinating ways."

### Affinities

Affinities are the "elemental" types of magic that a mage can use. As a warlock, Hugh's affinities are developed based on his contracts with other entities. Affinities cost more mana than cantrips but are significantly stronger. To cast his spells Hugh has to visualise the spellforms and then channel his mana through the mental image. Overlapping domains of affinities like crystal and stone or bone and healing produce powerful compounding effects that are stronger than either affinity alone. As a general rule, the more specific an affinity the move powerful it is.

#### Crystal

Crystal is Hugh's most commonly used affinity. He got this affinity from his contract with Kanderon. Crystal affinities have great versatility due to the fact most stones are crystalline so he almost always has materials to work with. Due to the overlap of crystal and stone, Hugh can wrestle control over crystalline stones very easily and can manipulate them effortlessly. One of the most important aspects of crystal magic is the ability to determine the patterns crystals are made up of as this understanding allows Hugh to force crystals to grow. Crystal magic uses very few spellforms. Crystal magic struggles to manipulate substances that have a mess of multiple different crystal patterns.

**Crystal Levitation**

Hugh and Alustin adapted a few levitation spells to work with crystal mana. One of them allowed Hugh to control the direction a crystal moves with a thought. Kanderon taught Hugh how to levitate stones that have many different patterns that would normally be difficult to manipulate. Hugh can readily alter crystal based levitation spells to target specific types of crystals. Hugh also uses his crystal magic to launch his wardstones at high speed.

**Proprioceptive Link**

The proprioceptive link spell extends Hugh's sense of proprioception to the crystal he casts this spell on. The spell automatically channels some of Hugh's mana to move the linked crystals and ignore the weight of the crystals if Hugh is holding them. This spell causes Hugh to constantly pull mana from the aether to power the spell which helps grow his mana reservoirs but increases how long it takes for his crystal mana reservoir to refill. The proprioceptive link spell doesn't need to be constantly visualised, once Hugh casts the spell it lasts until he uses a specific spell to end the link. When Hugh used the proprioceptive link spell on a quartz crystal it began to rotate Hugh's head autonomously.

**Pattern Linking**

The pattern linking spell is one of Hugh's most used spells. This spell is used for growing, shaping and binding crystals. The spell focuses Hugh's crystal mana through his affinity sense to directly influence the pattern of the crystal. Hugh can use this spell to adjust crystals into any shape he wants and he can focus crystal grains to adjust the pattern that makes up crystals into ward spellforms. When Hugh uses this spell to shape crystals they form as he envisions them often forming threads of crystal to shape into ward spellforms or forming sand into quartz spikes. This is the most versatile spell Hugh has ever used because of its ability to manipulate any type of crystal from quartz to ice to feldspar to any other crystal.

**Pattern Unlinking**

The pattern unlinking spell is a counterpart to the pattern linking spell. This spell breaks down the pattern of any crystals Hugh targets. This allows Hugh to cause crystalline materials to fall apart, separate or break.

**Crystal Deflection**

Hugh has improvised a spellform for pushing crystals (and crystalline materials like rocks) away from himself.

**Melting Resistance**

Hugh can use his crystal magic to prevent, or limit, crystals melting.

#### Stellar

Stellar is another affinity that Hugh got from Kanderon. Stellar mana is mana hungry as it is effectively magic for plasma manipulation and Hugh needs to create containment components to prevent the starfire cooking him when he begins to generate it. This is Hugh's most offensive affinity. Stellar affinities have a small overlap with lightning affinities with lightning mana being capable of forming containment for stellar mana. Stellar affinities work on any world as it is an affinity for all stars.

**Starbeam**

The starbeam spell is the first affinity based spell Hugh even cast. He did this instinctively when attacked in the labyrinth under Skyhold. The starbeam spell is an advanced version of the starbolt spell. It shoots a massive bolt of starfire with waves of heat and light from Hugh's hand.

**Starbolt**

Starbolt spells are one of Hugh's most common attack spells. It is a complex spellform with over half of the design dedicated to forming a containment for the starfire. The containment part of the spell forms first as a sphere of ripples. This sphere then fills with starfire and launches from Hugh's hand. The starbolt releases huge amounts of heat and light when it hits something. According to Kanderon, Hugh's first use of the spell was more than enough to cook a human.

**Stellar Cutting Spell**

Kanderon gave Hugh the spellform for a powerful stellar based cutting spell. The spell generates a few inches of of starfire in a stream from a bottle shaped containment field. The spell is too unstable for use in combat. Hugh modified this spell by removing the containment aspect and simply used a ward to protect himself from the starfire - this modified spell managed to punch through Amalda Veil's aether crystal armour.

**Light Amplification**

Kanderon also gave Hugh a spell that amplifies the light of his starbolt spells in an attempt to blind Hugh's enemies.

**Beacon**

Hugh knows a stellar beacon spell that releases light slowly. Hugh can also modify this spell to control when the beacon ignites. The beacon spell takes the form of a burning sphere that releases light. Hugh can also use this spell to release powerful light bursts described as painful, actinic radiance."

**Stellar Nullification**

Hugh has the ability to snuff out, weaken, detonate and destabilise stellar and solar spells cast by others.

**The Eye of Heliothrax**

Although Hugh can not cast Heliothrax's signature, city melting spell - the Eye of Heliothrax, he took careful notes whilst ascending to obtain the Tongue Eater's resonator, and he was likely the only person to ever study the spell from as close as he was. Hugh determines that the Eye is dozens of lenses, one way mirrors and an enhancement aspect to the light and the Eye forces the light to become more orderly. This allows the Eye to beam down melting rays of sunlight. Hugh records all the structures of the Eye that his stellar affinity sense picks up.

#### Planar

Hugh's planar affinity is the third affinity he got from Kanderon. It is one of the most lethal affinities with mistakes being fatal and absurdly complex maths needed for each induvial spell. Planar spells each need adjustment based on current conditions. Kanderon has trained Hugh with planar magic best suited to an immortal - pocket dimension growth and creation. Hugh has contemplated learning several other aspects of planar magic: teleportation, planar scrying, distance warping and spatial inversions. Planar magic is one of the few types of magic that no-one has naturally. Planar affinities work on any worlds unlike spatial affinities. Each planar spell requires days or weeks of calculations in advance.

**Location Description**

Hugh knows how to perform the calculations for describing locations in planar spellforms. This is useless on its own but Hugh used this to make his Crown nodes act as a ward without being connected - as the description defined the nodes as connected even though they are not.

**Range Extension**

Huge managed to apply some spellforms on Sabae's staff that allows her to apply her magic a through the staff, extending her tiny magic range.

**Teleportation Resistance**

Hugh can prevent other people teleporting him and his friends. This works through the warlock pact between Hugh and his friends. The ability causes internal itching and pain.

#### Stone

Hugh's stone affinity from Godrick. Due to the overlap of stone and crystal, Hugh can wrestle control over crystalline stones very easily and can manipulate them effortlessly.

**Stone Weakening**

Hugh knows a stone spell, little more than a cantrip, that is designed to weaken stone. Hugh had to modify this spell to accept more mana that he can not help but use. Once modified the spell creates a web of cracks through stone from where Hugh taps.

**Stone Fracturing**

Hugh has a more powerful stone magic spell for weakening and fracturing stone at a range.

**Melting Resistance**

Hugh can use his stone magic to prevent, or limit, stone melting.

**Stone Shaping**

Hugh has a stone spell that lets him shape stone into various shapes including walls.

#### Steel

Hugh's steel affinity comes from Godrick. Hugh made his steel affinity siege magic so he can only cast one steel spell every time his steel mana reservoir fills. This attack is massively powerful because it uses all Hugh's steel mana.

**Steel Launching**

Hugh has a steel mana spell to launch steel at high speeds. Hugh uses this spell to launch steel spikes. Because this is siege magic, the steel moves at very high speed with a lot of power behind it.

#### Scent

Hugh got his scent affinity from Godrick. Scent affinities overlap with wind affinities. Hugh has minimal ability with his scent magic.

#### Wind

Hugh's wind affinity comes from Sabae. Wind overlaps with water and lightning affinities for storms which is one of the most common types of magic for great powers. Wind also overlaps with scent.

**Breeze**

Hugh can create a light breeze around his hands.

**Acceleration**

Hugh has a spell that calls a tailwind him to accelerate his movements. Hugh can also propel objects around with wind magic.

**Wind Shield**

Hugh can cast wind shield spells. Wind shields are spinning wind domes that surround the caster which block attacks.

**Wind Control**

Hugh can manipulate wind and control its direction. Hugh can move wind around which he has used to replace the stale air with clean air from his pocket dimension tattoo. Hugh can also try to stop someone breathing by manipulating the air.

**Trajectory Adjustment**

Hugh can use wind mana to adjust his trajectory.

**Windlode**

The windlode spell, a Kaen Das created spell, pulls in the heightened mana from storms into Hugh's wind mana reservoirs to recover wind mana. Hugh can also use this spellform in wards to make wards draw in power during storms.

#### Water

Hugh's wind affinity comes from Sabae. Water overlaps with wind and lightning affinities for storms which is one of the most common types of magic for great powers.

**Water Blast**

Hugh can blast water in any direction he choses. Hugh can do this to launch water at his enemies and then drown them.

**Cooling**

Hugh can use his water mana to cool things down. Hugh can freeze water into ice.

#### Lightning

Hugh's wind affinity comes from Sabae. Lightning overlaps with water and wind affinities for storms which is one of the most common types of magic for great powers. Lightning affinities have a minor overlap with stellar affinities being able to construct the containment for starfire.

**Lightning Bolt**

Hugh can use lightning bolt spells.

#### Healing

Hugh's healing affinity comes from Sabae. Healing affinities are common for body modifications. Hugh's healing affinity overlaps with his bone affinity. Hugh has no training with his healing affinity.

#### Bone

Hugh got his bone affinity from Talia. Bone affinities are one of the most common affinities for body modification. Bone affinities overlap with crystal and healing affinities. Bone and crystal allows for easy manipulation of the physical structure of bones and bone and healing affinities overlap on the healing aspect.

**Bone Enhancement**

Hugh knows and is repeatedly casts a bone mana spell that will gradually reinforce his bones over the years making them 3 times more durable than the bones of normal person. Because of Hugh's Limnan magic his bones are reacting to the enhancement at a far faster rate meaning that his bones will be fully reinforced over about 2 years instead of 5.

#### Dream

Hugh's dream affinity comes from Talia. Dream affinities are rare and Hugh has minimal experience with this affinity due to the dangers. Dream mages maintain their exact appearance during dreams. Dream affinities are meta-affinities which means they mimic the abilities of multiple otherwise non-contiguous affinities which is why dream affinities are so strange.

**Dream Comprehension**

Talia gave Hugh the spellform for a dream spell that lets him more easily comprehend the dreams of another person that he has entered.#

**Dream Communication**

Hugh knows a dream spell to contact another person through a dream.

### Spellform Construction

Hugh knows two types of spellform construction: improvised spellform construction and standard spellform construction.

**Improvised Spellform Construction**

Improvised spellform construction is the act of creating spellforms on the fly. Hugh can readily modify any cantrips he wishes to combine effects, determine how much mana they use, adjust the targets of the spell and more. Improvised spellform construction is considered a dangerous thing but considering Hugh only does it with cantrips it is not a significant danger.

**Spellform Construction**

Regular spellform construction is a difficult task. Hugh was taught in a class by Emmenson Drees about spellform construction. Spellform construction is the act of designing and creating new spells. It is immensely difficult to create spells and whilst Hugh has been taught about the subject he has done little more than meddle with cantrips and mess with the exact type of crystals that his crystal spells manipulate.

### Cantrips

Cantrips are a basic type of magic that almost everyone can cast. They have minor effects that don't rely on affinities as the power they use is limited. Hugh breaks down regular cantrips by accident as he accidently dumps too much mana in every cantrip. He has to use his modified versions that accept more mana. Like affinity based spells, cantrips must have the spellforms mentally visualised to produce their effects. Cantrips can be powered by any affinity. Hugh can modify cantrips to combine their effects into a single spellform.

**Fire Starting**

Hugh knows the cantrip to light what he targets on fire. However, this has limited utility because it is a cantrip making it weak and inefficient, generally useful for setting sticks or small objects alight.

**Light**

Hugh can cast the light cantrip. The light cantrip is naturally designed for the spellform to accept more mana so Hugh didn't unintentionally destroy this spell but instead he can produce a very bright light.

**Levitation**

Hugh is most skilled in levitation cantrips. Hugh can modify these in seconds to suit his needs, aiming the spell and height. Hugh can use this cantrip effortlessly, levitating himself and others easily - even managing to stop the deaths of him, his friends and Rhodes and his friend when they fell in Skyhold's Labyrinth test, which is far more than a cantrip should do. Hugh can also modify levitation cantrips to act as buoyancy spells.

**Cleaning**

Hugh can cast cleaning cantrips which remove filth from the target.

**Water Testing**

Hugh has a cantrip to test how unsafe water is to drink.

**Cloth Drying**

Hugh has a cantrip to dry cloth.

**Contraceptives**

Hugh knows the contraceptive cantrips.

**Anti-Glare**

Kanderon taught Hugh a cantrip to shield his eyes from blinding light, like his starfire spells, but the spell also protects his eyes from other light sources blinding him.

### Wards

Wards are physically created spellforms in a sequence with trigger conditions that can produce a great number of effects when powered with mana, either from Hugh or from the aether. Wards work by altering the rules for the area they surround like preventing fireballs entering a warded area. Wards can be defensive, offensive and utility based. Hugh is a monster with wards, a specialist and even intimidating Alustin with his skills. Hugh can rapidly produce wards in most environments by restructuring the pattern of crystals (being present in most stones) into ward spellforms. Wards are off mana efficient but rapidly begin to cost more mana the bigger they get and they can produce effects irrespective of affinities. Hugh's skills with wards start exceptionally good, improved by his will imbuing that lets him alter his wards with just focus instead of physical changes and after his lessons from Loarna of the Vault, he grows to an absurd level. As of book 7, Hugh has gained a reputation outside of Skyhold as being an excellent wardcrafter. Like with affinities, wards grow in strength the more specific they are, with Hugh managing to adjust wards to even apply to the time of day which allows him to block monsters far stronger than himself. Hugh can alter who his wards target with just his willpower or he can use spellforms built into the wards. Hugh can bypass and break wards made by other people. Hugh's wards can recover over time if physically damaged by the crystal structure regrowing. Hugh knows pretty much everything about wards in a general sense so Loarna had to teach him about highly specialised and highly debated warding information.

**Barrier Wards**

Hugh can produce wards to protect against physical objects entering the warded area. Hugh can detonate his barrier-based wards which destroys both the physical ward lines and the magical barrier parts in a blast. Hugh can form his barrier wards into multiple shapes including domes and walls.

**Detection Wards**

Hugh can ward objects that detect specific mana type coming towards the object.

**Alarm Wards**

Hugh can make alarm wards which link to glow crystals causing them to flash when the ward is crossed.

**Blast Wards**

Hugh can create wards which blast whoever crosses them with force creating cuts and bruises. The wards can also push people with bursts of force.

**Noise Muting Wards**

Hugh can produce wards that limit sound exiting an area. He can also prevent people listening into an area.

**Dream Protection Wards**

Hugh can produce wards which prevent outside entities entering his dreams.

**Attention Wards**

Hugh can create attention wards that make things hard to notice. Hugh can use this to hide places or people from observation. These wards push people's attention away from the warded area. Hugh can also use attention wards to attract people to an area like he did with his hidden bedroom - which now attracts sad, lonely, young mages to give them a safe place in the world, until they no longer need the room and then another mage will find the room. Hugh can adjust his attention wards in various ways like making things outside the ward hard to notice.

**Acceleration Wards**

Hugh learned the spellforms to create a ward that accelerates a move object forward from the Kaen Das stormward book. The ward reduces wind resistance and redirects the wind hitting the object upwards and the gap in the air pulls the object forward. Hugh first used this ward on the sandship the Moonless Owl.

**Stormwards**

Hugh can produce stormwards, barriers that protect from storms. Hugh is famed for his creation of a stormward around Theras Tel. The stormward produces a a barrier of white light that shields from storms, including sandstorms. It prevents storms entering the area and stops storms that exist within the area. Hugh used the windlode spellform so that the storm's mana would fuel the ward. Because the windlode is a Kaen Das family secret he had to conceal it with a mess of jumbled lines. Hugh attuned his aether crystal to the stormward around Theras Tel which allowed him to channel far more mana than normal - power to match a great power.

**Anti-Scrying Wards**

Hugh can create wards that block common methods of scrying. Extensive methods of scrying like farsight affinities bypass these wards. Hugh also knows the ward spellforms that notify him if someone is using a specialised scrying technique to bypass his wards.

**Insulation Wards**

Hugh can create wards that act as an insulator, allowing air to move but trapping heat.

**Locking Wards**

Hugh can apply wards to doors that only allow set people to open them.

**Anti-Toxin Wards**

Hugh can create wards to prevent dust, smoke and toxins entering an area.

**Explosive Wards**

Hugh can create explosive wards that detonate and destroy things around them.

**Flame Wards**

Hugh can make wards that set anything that cross the ward lines on fire.

**Filth-Repelling Wards**

Hugh can create wards which repels filth.

**Lightning Wards**

Hugh can create wards that prevent lightning entering.

**Light Limiting Wards**

Hugh can create wards to block out the excess light from the inside of the ward to match the ambient light.

**Mosquito Wards**

Hugh can create mosquito wards.

**Material Wards**

Hugh can create wards that block certain materials crossing. He can do this for whatever material he decides and this can have great impact by preventing metal, for example, crossing which would rip the earrings from people as they cross.

**Momentum Magnification**

Hugh can create a ward that massively boosts the momentum of a person who uses it.

**Redirection Wards**

Hugh can create wards that accelerate attacks away from the ward.

**Corridor Wards**

Hugh can form invisible paths with walls and a roof. Hugh can form these wards over a large distance with only the parts around where he stands are active. These are a hassle to construct. Hugh can also make small platforms instead of entire corridors.

**Structural Wards**

Hugh can make wards that help the warded object remain intact from direct impacts.

**Gravity Resistance Wards**

Hugh can make wards that resist gravity changes which protects him from gravity magic.

**Light Emitting Wards**

Hugh can create wards that emit light.

**Sound Emitting Wards**

Hugh can produce wards that make sounds.

**Spinning Wards**

Hugh can create a ward that spins around and redirects force. This only works with circular wards.

**Air Filtering Wards**

Hugh can create wards that filter air to make it safe to breathe.

**Temperature Wards**

Hugh can make wards that prevent excess heat entering an area.

**Light Control Wards**

Hugh can form wards which control how much light goes in or out of the warded area.

### Mana Techniques

Hugh has a mana technique, will imbuing, from his nature as a warlock. He also developed siege magic.

**Will Imbuing**

Will imbuing causes Hugh to add more will power to a certain type of spell. In Hugh's case this is wards. It allows him to modify wards through will power and not physical changes to the spellforms. This gives him great control over his wards allowing him to make on the spot adjustments.

**Siege Magic**

Siege magic is a mana technique that permanently warps an affinity. It works by constantly emptying the mana reservoir into a single spell which then prevents that affinity being used for anything other than one massive attack.

### Alien Magic

Kanderon has instructed Hugh to obtain magic from alien worlds with his friends so that they can all become Named. Hugh has obtained magic from Limnus which makes his body adapt faster. He is currently on the world of Raigon to obtain memory improvement magic. Kanderon has told the group that they must decide what alien magics to pickup but she recommends passive magics that make them harder to kill.

#### Limnan Magic

Hugh and his friends spent a short amount of time on the alien world of Limnus which allowed them to gain the first stage of the world's magic. The magic from Limnus does not grant direct energy manipulation but instead grants body adaptions that are developed in response to the amount of stressors that are experienced. Due to the short time spent gaining magic Hugh can not go far outside the human range of adaptions meaning that he would be fine in a few degrees of temperature less or more, be a little more resistant to illness etc. The major benefit for Hugh was that his lungs healed drastically - it was not a complete fix but it was a major benefit. Limnan magic also provides a decent boost to physical strength.

#### Raigon Magic

The magic from the world of Raigon boosts memory capabilities and sensory processing. The first stage of Raigon's magic allows people to learn entire languages in a matter of weeks. It will take Hugh around 6 months to develop the first stage of this magic. Kanderon pushed for Hugh and his friends to get this magic for two reasons: to prevent their twelve affinity senses causing them to develop sensory processing disorders, and learning languages at a rapid rate enables them to act on foreign worlds.

## Equipment

### Mackerel

Mackerel is Hugh's attuned aether crystal. Mackerel originally started out as three separate objects, a blank spell book, an aether crystal bracelet and a labyrinth stone. Mackerel is a green crystal book with the orange labyrinth stone in the centre. Mackerel was named by Talia and despite efforts from Kanderon and Sabae, he(?) refuses to go by other names. Talia insists that Mackerel is a boy and taught him how to draw obscene images. Hugh can mentally communicate with Mackerel. Mackerel became confused when Hugh kept forgetting about Imperial Ithos whilst the Exile Splinter was still working. Pinecones overload Mackerel's understanding of reality and he believes that they are people eggs. Mackerel has the function to block magical scrying and it feels like scrying into a labyrinth. Mackerel is physically sturdy and is very strong. Mackerel can also use enchanted items independently of Hugh. Mackerel can eat and store books and paper and reproduce them on his crystal pages. Mackerel also eats books without much thought. Notably he ate Hugh's communication diary (which made him violently sick) and he also ate Galvachren’s Bestiary which again made him ill. Mackerel was also improved by Limnan magic allowing him to pickup a fully armoured Godrick. Mackerel is, in simple terms, a sentient green crystal book with an orange stone in the front cover, that can hold an near infinite amount of books in its pocket dimension.

### Stormward's Crown

The Stormward's Crown is a set of fist sized crystals, each crystal called a Crown node, that can be used as recombinant non-contiguous wards that Hugh can form by manipulating the crystal nodes with his mind and some mana. The proprioceptive link spell was used on the nodes allowing Hugh to feel them as an extension of his body. Lots of the spellforms inside the crystal were built to empower the proprioceptive link and the spellforms repeated and iterated in a pattern that descended to the smallest scales within the quartz, almost down into the base-level pattern that made the crystal a crystal. Hugh can easily control them with his eyes closed and they pose no risk of hitting him when they are spinning around him. Hugh can only send the nodes up to 200 feet away from his body. The nodes have been tricked through planar magic into believing they are connected. The Crown only works because of Hugh's will imbuing and a set of spellforms that enhance will imbuing. Hugh can alter the properties and sizes of the wards with a thought, letting some materials pass through but not others — or some people and not others. He could adjust the shapes, like polygons, cages, walls, bridges, domes and any other shape he thinks of and form wards from them. When in it's 'armour' state it is a dozen fist-sized crystals orbiting around Hugh's body, another dozen hovering near each of his major limb joints and another dozen that a slowly rotating halo behind his head, all of which are ready to be assembled into non-contiguous wards. Hugh invented the Stormward's Crown so that he would have a defence on him at all time that could be set up in an instant. If a node is broken it hurts Hugh's head.

### Belt

Hugh used the enchanted belt as a strap for Mackerel. Mackerel can use the enchantments on the belt without Hugh. The enchantments are for launching force and frost blasts. The belt is described as a "long, thin belt" and the spellforms glow when it activates.

### Scent Absorbing Marble

The marble started off as a hollow, glass marble with complex spellforms carved into it. The spellforms were highly complicated and the orb eats scents that it comes into contact with. Overtime the orb and its spellforms have been filling with muck and vapours. Once the orb is full it will need to be carefully disposed. The marble was made by Godrick with the help of one of Skyhold's enchanters.

### Force Boots

Hugh got a pair of boots that have force enchantments. They work through bursts of force launched from their soles, which help the wearer run faster, kick harder, and jump absurd distances. Hugh's boots do not have their own mana reservoirs but are "absurdly comfortable". His new boots were from and unidentified creature and the wool is similar to lamb's wool in terms of softness and the wool was a buttery gold colour but highly resistant to muck. It was later mentioned that Hugh's boots have self repair enchantments.

### Storage Tattoo

Hugh has a tattoo on his arm made by Kanderon with her planar affinity and by using some of Mackerel's pages. Kanderon could use Mackerel as he is a planar attuned aether crystal. The tattoo is usually invisible except when active and it glows the same green as Hugh's eyes and Mackerel's pages. Hugh's tattoo's storage space will grow slightly faster than his friends as Mackerel is Hugh's attuned aether crystal. The storage space started at the size of a small closet but can grow massively over time as Loarna's storage space was the size of a warehouse after several decades. The tattoos are anchors for extra-dimensional spaces. That space acts as a new direction in space and Hugh can take anything from any part of the space.

### Mana Battery Ring

Hugh, Talia, Godrick and Sabae each have an aether crystal ring from the use of an aether crystal in their 4 way warlock pact. Each ring has a different colour with Hugh's being the same green as Mackerel. The rings hold a small amount of mana but they are growing over time. The mana is less responsive than the mana from Hugh's mana reservoirs and it refills slower. Each ring has all the affinities of the group due to their mana mingling inside the warlock pact. This means that each ring has crystal, stellar, planar, stone, steel, scent, wind, water, lightning, healing, bone and dream mana making the rings invaluable.

### Wardstones

Little stones that Hugh can launch. They are grown with his crystal magic and are covered in wards that are packed with energy. Upon hitting something with enough force, they donate and release enough force to break bones and launch people across rooms.

## Senses

### Affinity Senses

Hugh's crystal affinity sense manifested proprioceptively, which is not the rarest type of affinity sense but not that common either. Hugh's scent affinity allows him to feel the materials that others are smelling. He can also feel winds shifting and how stale the air is with his wind sense.

### Ward Sense

Hugh also has a developing sense for wards, which gives him a feeling for wards around him.

### Eyes

Due to his warlock pact with Kanderon, Hugh's eyes have shifted to be more like sphinx eyes. This grants him a great level of vision in the dark, enables him to see some types of invisibility based illusions, helps him adjust to light changes faster and grants him a weak form of eyeshine, the reflection of light to see better in the dark. Hugh's eyes also have better distance vision, a heightened ability to make out small objects closeup, and significantly improved color vision compared to normal humans. Alustin said that Hugh would not be able to see into the aether with his eyes, despite the fact that cats can. Hugh's eyes have also been warped by attuning his aether crystal. They have been changed from brown to green and they seem to glow the same shade as Mackerel.

### Pact Sense

As of the four way warlock contract with his friends Hugh, Godrick, Sabae and Talia can all share senses. Upon awakening from the pacting they all unintentionally received the other's sense however after an hour the pact got strong enough to stabilise the senses and they would have to actively try to send and receive their senses. If the senses had not closed off they would have been driven insane but with effort they can convey information like their location, distance and direction from the others and injuries, etc. meaning that the pact allows them to send high levels of information in the form of some kind of telepathy. Hugh also seems capable of sensing through his pacts with his affinity senses as he could sense Kanderon dreaming through his dream affinity sense. Hugh can also mentally communicate with Mackerel, who was caught up in his pact with Kanderon, thus creating a pact with the labyrinth stone that would become Mackerel. He could also sense Mackerel's pain through the bond just like how Kanderon could sense Hugh's life flickering through the bond at the battle at the city of Imperial Ithos.