Hugo Fairbanks (AU Hugo Fact) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
luredbypower) wrote2012-06-04 12:28 am
luredbypower) wrote2012-06-04 12:28 am
(no subject)
Mun
Name: Nadia
Dreamwidth Username:ladynadiad
E-mail: ladynadiad at gmail dot com
AIM: Same as personal journal
Current Characters at Luceti:
Leonhardt | Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky |eyesofstrength
Character
Name: Hugo Fact
Fandom: Ys Origin
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Time Period: The very end of the Blighted Blood area. After he has a chat with Dalles and spoilers happen, but before the boss battle with Pictimos and more spoilers happen.
Wing Color: Normally black. But for anyone who can see/sense demonic power/auras they will look like a demonic aura with pink, blue, red and black swirling together. (Warning: Spoilers in image)
History: And because Falcom games never get a decent wiki in English, here's a history from me. Thankfully it's a short game, so this won't be too bad or at least not as lengthy as Leonhardt's history section was. Obviously, there are major spoilers for the game in here.
To start with, anyone familiar with the main Ys series, especially the first two games should be aware that Ys Origin takes place 700 years before the first game. So if Adol's world seems pretty backwards, Hugo's is even more so, though he's from a time that is later spoken of in legends and from a place that few people in the future have ever seen and many don't even know it truly exists. Ys is a place where magic is commonplace and the people live alongside their twin goddesses. They lead an overall sheltered life and aren't even aware of the fact that people live in places outside of Ys. Because of the recent demon invasion, their land is no longer inhabitable and they had to raise their shrine into the air to have a place to live still. This happened about six months before the canon starts.
And now on to Hugo's own history. Hugo is the second son of one of the Six Priests, Cain Fact. As the second son, he wasn't supposed to be his father's successor, that should have been his older brother, Toal.
But at one point while Hugo was still a child, Toal made the decision to join the Holy Knights instead of being his father's successor and left that to Hugo. Toal knew Hugo was far more talented at magic and would do far better in that position than he would. At this time, Hugo was about six years old from the best estimate of the images given from this time, and he really doesn't remember his brother all that much. We know from Toal's own path that Hugo really adored his big brother before he left, so the hatred Hugo feels now appears to stem from the fact that the big brother he loved so much left him and never came to visit and then on top of that he basically had to live in Toal's shadow. Hugo's father likely didn't help these feelings one bit. The interesting thing is that Toal was actually a bit jealous of Hugo's own accomplishments and felt he was overshadowed by them because he wasn't as good at magic.
So Hugo grew up not seeing much of his brother who was disowned by his father for daring to join the knights instead of studying sorcery like any respectable member of House Fact would. Hugo did prove to be a magical prodigy and while his training was hard, he eventually grew in power enough to be officially named his father's successor. Due to this intense training that lasted for many years, Hugo had pretty much no friends. He's familiar with most of the sorcerers of Ys, but only a passing acquaintance with them.
He was taught to try and seek power where he could because those of the Fact lineage had the greatest magical power. Hugo wanted to please his father and show he was going to do well in his place, so he was happy to seek power to be able to serve the goddesses and Ys as best as he could. He wanted to make a place for himself, and not be a shadow of his brother. And he nearly had accomplished that.
Then one day Ys was attacked by demons in force. Even the powers of all their magic could not do anything to stop the attack. So the Six Priests raised the land around the Solomon Shrine to protect the people. Toal and his commander, Saul Tovah, opted to stay behind and buy them some time to raise the land. Saul died in combat, and Toal was missing and thought to be dead. He was praised as a hero, and yet again Hugo was standing in his brother's shadow and only known for being the younger brother of a hero.
Life was normal enough for a time on the floating island, as normal as it could be anyhow, but then one day the goddesses vanished. After they didn't return for days, the Six Priests decided to send a search party made up of the most skilled remaining among their sorcerers and Holy Knights. Among this group was Hugo.
Except Hugo had another set of orders along with finding the goddesses and aiding in their safe return: he was to find the traitor to Ys and kill him. The traitor that was his brother, Toal.
The group is sent to the surface via a transport spell. But the spell is interrupted by Dalles and the group is separated on the surface. Hugo finds himself at the base of a large tree that can speak to him, the Roda Tree. The tree tells him that the goddesses are in the tower that the demons built nearby. So Hugo sets off to the tower, leaving a message with the tree that if any others from the search party come by that they should be sent that way and he is safe.
He arrives at the tower and is greeted by some of the search party, Father Shion, Eolia and Dino. All three of them are in service to the priests and skilled sorcerers. Hugo offers to go and scout ahead while Dino searches for the rest of the missing search party. Father Shion grants him permission to do so and he takes off into the lower levels of the tower, called the Wailing Blue.
He explores around a bit, gets caught in an annoying teleport trap and then eventually meets one of the bad guys, Epona. They trash talk each other a bit and then battle and Hugo wins. He gets the Mask of Eyes from her and wanders around some more to find a way past that trap.
He eventually finds it when he finds Rico hiding in a hidden room. Rico gives him the blue necklace which protects from evil and that allows him to get past the trap at last. Here he finds more of the search party has arrived as he meets up with the other two sorcerers, Cadena and Miuscha. He wanders some more after talking to them and sending them to help Rico and eventually comes to confront one of the six demons that attacked Ys. He is able to defeat it and continues onward to the next area, the Flooded Prison.
The demons are growing stronger, and he also has to contend with a great deal of water flooding the area. A few places are even off limits to begin with because they are completely immersed and he'd drown. He keeps exploring and eventually runs into Epona again. Epona, of course, wants a rematch. Hugo goads her and tells her that she's just setting herself up for a loss by repeating things. So she takes the bait and ends up surprising him by summoning two demons.
Hugo definitely knows he's in trouble then and was starting to regret goading her, but then the demons turn and attack her. Epona is fearing for her life and in desperation asks Hugo to help her in exchange for her giving information. She'd mentioned previously about someone who resembles Hugo greatly, he's curious enough to agree. So he deals with one of the demons, and Epona deals with the other. She returns and tells him about a man they call "The Claw" who looks a lot like Hugo. Epona mentions her suspicion that they are brothers or something, which hits a bit too close to home and Hugo basically tells her to shut up and leave. She does leave and he continues onward, finding the blue dragon's scales to deal with the rest of the area.
The rest of the area is pretty uneventful, he trudges through it, gets new magic and then finds a room with a pillar and a giant centipede to fight. he wins that and heads off to the next area, the Guilty Fire.
Here, he finally finds one of the Goddesses, Feena. They have a short chat and then Epona and the man called "The Claw" arrive. It does truly turn out that The Claw is Hugo's older brother, Toal. The two of them fight, and while the battle is an optional win, going to assume a loss here for Hugo because it makes more sense with the rest of his path (that and he still loses even if he wins). Another of the enemy, Zava, arrives on the scene then and they take Feena into their custody. Zava orders Toal to kill Hugo and he moves to do this, but the Holy Knights and the sorcerers arrive to put a stop to that. They aren't in time to prevent Feena from being taken away, however, just to save Hugo's sorry butt. Everyone heads back to their base and discuss how to deal with all of this. The search party is also finally fully assembled with the last member being found and Dino returning with her. Father Shion then reveals that the Black Pearl had gone missing as well and everyone then moves out to find Reah, figure out a way to free Feena and to also protect the Black Pearl that is likely with Reah.
Hugo continues on and finds another artifact of Ys, this one with a fire element, and it happens to be the sword of Commander Saul Tovah who died in the battle Toal was supposed to have died in. Saul's ghost appears as Hugo is draining the artifact's power and expresses his concern about Hugo's lust for power and warns him that he still has time to choose the path of the righteous. Hugo doesn't listen to this and tells Saul to basically shut up because he's dead and obviously was too weak to win the battle. He continues onwards and finds a creepy area called the Devil's Corridor. Epona happens to overhear this and Hugo gets mad at her and asks if she is wanting to continue their fight, but she ends up leaving without a fight, how strange.
The Devil's Corridor is a nice little trap the enemy made. It transmits a creepy sounding music that literally will drive anyone who isn't a demon mad and then kill them. Hugo is stuck for a time here until he finds a Roo who gives him a hammer and gets a hint about how the Devil's Corridor works from Epona. He's finding it rather strange how Epona seems to now be helping him while still giving threats and saying how she'll happily kill him next time they meet. Hugo even asks her outright why she's doing this and she says she doesn't know. Actually, in Toal's path he comments that Hugo and Epona would have made a great couple if they met under different circumstances, and he's right, they do.
Anyway, Hugo deals with it just fine from her hint, shuts the music down, and gets past the demon boss in this area and moves on to the next area: Silent Sands. On his way up, he runs into Toal again. This time, they don't fight, though Hugo is more than eager to fight his brother again. Instead Toal basically berates Hugo saying that power he doesn't understand is worse than having no power in reference to what Hugo stole from Saul Tovah's sword. He leaves, but Hugo is very confused what he means because power is power, right?
Anyway, he continues onwards, gains the nice handy double jump ability and then finds Reah and the Black Pearl at last. He asks some questions of her about why they left and about Toal, but isn't too satisfied with her answers. He thinks she's hiding something and Toal did something to her to make her think a traitor should be let go. She has to go, but before she does she gives him an item to deal with the undead in the area. After that, he's contacted by Eolia via the Lila Shell and told of Feena's location, which is nearby.
He heads to the place where Feena is being held, a smaller tower called Rado's Annex. Inside he finds it is a trap and meets Zava. Zava taunts him a bit and then eventually sics one of her familiars on him because she wants to see the Eyes of Fact in action. He fights and wins and she's quite impressed and says he really should meet their leader Dalles. That doesn't go over well and eventually Zava leaves. Hugo goes to try and find Feena and only finds a very ominous looking door sealed with pure hatred. Hugo, being the moron that he can be, tries to use brute force to open the door. Well, brute force in the mind of a sorcerer, which basically means throw all his magical power at it. The door then throws it all back at him, knocking him backwards and he falls unconscious.
He wakes up and finds out Epona was watching over his dumb unconscious ass. Again, quite strange because she's the enemy and all and he'd think she would slit his throat while he was out cold. She claims she didn't because she's not that much of a sicko, but it's becoming more obvious that she likes him. Of course, Hugo is too much of an idiot to realize this and Epona is too afraid to admit to it, so she just says she doesn't know why and when he says they should just continue their fight, she laughs and says she's not too much of a sicko to attack someone who can't do anything more than mouth off. Really, Hugo just needs to learn to shut up at times. Epona asks Hugo why he hates Toal so much, and Hugo talks a bit about his childhood. From this, Epona figures out that Hugo actually does care about Toal a lot, but he's too afraid to admit to it and he's struggling to find his own place, and she understands this quite well since she has a big brother too, Kishgal. Hugo, of course denies all of this as he always does when someone is completely right about him and he doesn't want to admit to it. So he instead tells Epona she should just go like she was ordered to, and she does.
Hugo then consults with Cadena and Miuscha about opening the door, eventually they figure out how to open it and find Feena trapped within a barrier. The Holy Knights arrive as well and they all discuss some things. Feena then asks them to find Reah and the Black Pearl and to protect them.
Hugo then leaves, as he does so, Miuscha comes out and offers to be an ear if he ever wants to talk. Everyone seems so concerned about him, but he won't listen and ends up yelling at Miuscha and causing her to cry and run away. Cadena comes out and basically berates him for being an idiot. Poor Hugo really is feeling down at this point and realizes all he can do is just go on and help find Reah.
So onward he goes, beats another boss, and off to the next area: the Blighted Blood. Really, one can easily forget this place is a tower with these weird areas.
After some exploration, Hugo has yet another run in with Epona. She tells him Dalles is finally on the move and to be careful. Yet again she opts not to fight Hugo, claiming that they area is a bad one for a fight. He continues on and eventually runs into Yunica fretting over the other knights who were just petrified by a man in black robes, who has to be Dalles since we haven't met this one yet.
Yunica begs Hugo to help, but Hugo just doesn't know curses well enough to know how to break this one, only that it is a curse, and a powerful one. He tries to convince Yunica to get Cadena's help, but they end up saying things and Yunica gets very mad with him and ends up running away after telling him what good was all his power and that he's just basically a greedy asshole. He could have worded things better, but he did have a point that it was better to defer to an expert.
He continues onward since there is little he can do about the knights, and eventually he runs into Toal again. They chat, Toal gives him a replica Black Pearl that he claims will help the knights and leaves.
Then Hugo heads back to Rado's Annex and finds Yunica and the others fretting about how to power an idol that would help the knights. Then he sees what Toal meant and gives them the Black Pearl replica. Yunica runs off to help the knights and Feena thanks Hugo for the help. He leaves to go check on the knights, they are fine and give him the key needed to get to the guardian demon of that area and Yunica apologizes for her fit of anger and Hugo says he could have been more respectful. Overall, the knights all agree that they are in his debt and they will let bygones be bygones as far as his earlier behavior that made them mad and work together as best as they can towards their common goal.
So Hugo goes forward and as he's about to unlock the door to the guardian demon he finds a strange man in a black robe there, Dalles. Obviously the head honcho had to come out at some point and he's quite interested in Hugo.
Dalles offers Hugo something he just cannot refuse: power. He says he is willing to let Hugo try demonic power to see how it works with him, since Hugo declined the initial offer of just taking it. Dalles surmises that Hugo doesn't quite trust himself or understand the power and eventually wins Hugo over. True, Hugo is an idiot here, but one cannot help but realize that Dalles is quite the charismatic man at this time.
After Hugo receives this power, this is when he will come to Luceti.
Personality: Epona really summed up the first impression Hugo tends to give before their battle quite well. He's "...a regular stuffed shirt, too. Probably the dull and humorless type." and "...all stoic and moody, acting like you’re so much better than everyone else!" Hugo definitely does seem that way when a person first meets him. He does tend to be more of a quiet loner at first and to have no sense of humor at all and he does tend to be uppity towards anyone he deems to be lesser than him. Whether it be a lack of intelligence, talent, or anything else that places a person below Hugo's own standing, he will think less of them until proven otherwise.
Dull, however, turns out to not be a very apt description. True, he is smart and studious, but he also is very blunt and forthright which can make things interesting very fast. Hugo tends to annoy people real fast because of this trait. At the same time, one can definitely trust him to be honest and know he will not be veiling the truth or keeping secrets. He is willing to ask the questions that others would not ask because he values logic, intelligence, and dealing with things quickly over protocols and respect. This isn't to say he's not respectful and breaks rules for no reason, because he tries to be a good person. It is more that he's willing to be less respectful and ask the harder questions that no one else would ask. Basically, he's not going to be blindly loyal to someone just because of who or what they are. He's going to respect them for their words and actions. Though he is blindly loyal to his father, but his father has shown himself worth such loyalty, at least in Hugo's eyes.
He also does actually have a sense of humor, though a darker one. His interactions with Epona especially show this because he has no problem outright insulting her and laughing at her own insults. He also has no problem adjusting a first impression of someone as he gains more information about them. For instance, at first he took Epona to be an unintelligent savage, then as they got to know each other and she helped him at risk to herself and they got to know each other more, he came to respect her because she was a smart girl and he owed her. She just had a different sort of intelligence, one that came more from dealing with people and knowing what made them tick and she is a skilled warrior.
However, Hugo's biggest faults are with his own self image. He wants to be respected and for people to look up to him. As his father says, he's like a puppy performing tricks for a master, and he likes being that because he wants that praise and adoration. He wants the people around him to like him for being Hugo Fact, not because he's Toal Fact's little brother, or Cain Fact's son. He feels he deserves this sort of respect and does think highly of himself, but he goes about earning the respect of others in ways that actually seems to create more distance. He also has a dangerous and unquenchable thirst for power because he was taught that power is what he should seek and he equates having power to earning respect. After all, the most respected people in Ys have a lot of power. He's starting to understand that no one person can do everything, not even his father or brother can. He's starting to see that his thirst for power is dangerous, but he hasn't quite reached the conclusion that he would soon reach in canon, and that was what caused him to accept Dalles' offer even though he knew he shouldn't.
Strengths:
Physical: For all that Hugo is a sorcerer, he's definitely pretty tough and not squishy. He does have the weakest defense of the playable characters, but he can hold his own if hit. The Eyes of Fact and his rod are definitely very handy and decently powerful.
Also, should mention the items he has on hand here as there are some magical items and if it is all right, I'd like him to find all of these eventually:
Mask of Eyes: Allows the wearer to see hidden passages and objects, but hides living creatures.
Blue Necklace: A necklace that protects the wearer from evil.
Spirit Cape: Allows the wearer to gradually heal wounds when not moving.
Silver Chimes: Allows for the ability to kill undead creatures.
Earth Dragon's Claws: Allows the wearer to retain traction on slippery ground.
Of the items above, he can only use one at a time. The below items can be used in conjunction with the above ones, but only one at a time.
Crystal: Allows user to teleport to any activated Goddess statue. However, in canon a character was able to teleport to a random location in error, so with study may be able to be used to teleport to any known area that isn't dangerous.
Blue Dragon's Scales: Allows the user to hold their breath for a long time, great for use in underwater areas. When combined with an underwater plant that gives oxygen, it can allow for one to be underwater quite some time.
Lila Shell: Pretty much useless in Luceti unless he gets a hold of more of them, but basically allows for long range communications via magic. It requires the other person have one as well. Basically, it's like a magical telephone.
And the following items grant abilities as long as they are in Hugo's possession. If taken from him he would lose the abilities and it is possible someone else could gain the same or similar abilities from them.
Cerulean Flabellum: Gives Hugo his force shield magic (which is at max level)
Levinstrike Warhammer: Gives Hugo his trap mine magic (also max level)
Crimson Lotusblade: Gives Hugo his fire wheel magic (level 4)
Silver bracelet: Allows for the bearer to run very fast.
Gold bracelet: Allows for the bearer to double jump.
And lastly, since he did accept the demonic essence from Dalles, this is something that will come into effect in time. Dalles planted a command in that will cause him to go mad once he unleashes the power. The power itself comes out when his life is in danger, and it basically turns him into a demon. During this time, his magic is more powerful, comes more easily to him, he can use six Eyes of Fact instead of just two. In short, he becomes a demon with all the power to back him up. There is a demonic aura around him that gives it away, and his voice also changes and his eyes turn red. Personality wise, he does act like he is going mad and he's a complete asshole who acts on his baser ambitions to kill any weaker than him to gain more power. Basically, he becomes an empty shell with a shitload of power as Epona put it. He can be talked out of it if someone knows the buttons to push and has some respect from him (in canon it was Epona in his path, Toal in Toal's own path). Other options to deal with this are to knock him out or kill him. He'll mostly be his normal self to begin with, however, until Dalles' command triggers this power will remain dormant and unusable, but anyone who can sense demonic power will definitely notice something is off with him.
Mental: As stated above, Hugo is a magical prodigy. He learns magic very fast and is very good at what he does. His magical ability does make up quite well for his lack in physical strength. His true strength in battle is making sure nothing gets close enough to him to hurt him.
He also is an expert when it comes to most things magical. Though he does admit his expertise isn't so much with curses and hexes, he can at least identify one. He also can sense magical power or the lack of it and can also sense demonic powers.
Emotional: Hugo's a good person at heart and everything he does tends to be for a good reason. He's also very strong willed and ends up being one of very few who can shake off the demonic power he was given and ends up actually being immune to any attempts to use it against him. He's the type of person that once he sets his mind to something, he will do anything to accomplish it. He also is a calm person and can even deal with being insulted, even will find it funny and have a good comeback for it.
Weaknesses:
Physical: Hugo is a sorcerer, so he's not going to be as strong as a physical fighter. He is also a very normal human other than his magical talents. He's also not extremely fast or agile, though he is faster than Yunica is. He relies more on keeping threats at a distance and his magic than actually doing things physically. He also does have a tendency to use magic rather than physical prowess to accomplish tasks. For instance, he'd be more likely to use wind magic to float down from a higher place than to climb or use a ladder. He'd definitely be in a lot of trouble with no access to magic.
Mental: Hugo is definitely the sort of person who can see things that others cannot and isn't going to be blinded by what someone is. He also has a bad tendency to be blunt and disrespectful because of this. He has no hesitation at outright calling the actions of the twin goddesses stupid and is the only one willing to say so. Feena does admit he's quite right, but this is quite appalling to the others who would never say anything negative about the Goddesses. He's respectful in his words, but he will be honest and forthright even if that means causing someone offense. The only person he isn't honest with is himself, and anyone pointing out his faults will see him outright lie and deny it and he'll act more unsure of his words by hesitating and even stuttering.
Emotional: Hugo is definitely quite power hungry and this leads to him doing some rather stupid stuff. Right before his canon point he was lured into a trap to accept demonic power from Dalles. That is pretty much going to end up being a ticking time bomb waiting to go off and drive him insane.
Hugo is also very much a loner. In his quest for power and to please his father he gave up on the idea of having friends. He was also taught that Facts do not have power to please others, but for themselves. Though Hugo isn't quite like this, he does want to please others and he does care about what people think of him. He just tends to really go about it in stupid ways because he really just doesn't understand others very well. And while he isn't incapable of working with others, he just prefers not to. He will defer to an expert when needed, however. He is aware that it does little good for him to try and do something when someone can do it better, like he defers to Cadena in the matter of the knights being petrified because she knows more about curses. It can sometimes take some effort to get him to defer to another, because Hugo does want to do things for himself. he'd definitely agree with the statement "If you want something done right, do it yourself." because he acts exactly like someone who would say such a thing.
He's also pretty easy to annoy. Because he wants to please others and be respected so much, he tends to be easily set off with a lack of respect. He's also easy to manipulate because of this and his thirst for power. He was warned about Dalles, and still accepted the power. Though to Hugo's credit, Dalles is quite capable of a silver tongue and being charismatic. But Dalles definitely knew how to push all of Hugo's buttons in such a way to turn Hugo into his own little puppet. However, this weakness can be turned to one's advantage. If Hugo is being an idiot, he can be talked down by someone saying that his behavior will not earn him the respect of others. That is definitely the quickest way to get him to behave better and if he ever does become a demon, it will turn him human again. Logic and reason is really the best way to get through to him and persuade him.
Samples (ALL samples must be set in Luceti-verse.)
First Person: Have a link to his test run meme thread
Third Person:
Hugo hadn't been fully sure what to expect when he accepted Dalles' offer to try out demonic powers. He had expected the Darkling's leader to be full of it and out for his own agenda, but what he had expected was something more to lure him to their side.
He definitely hadn't expected to be transported to some strange place that was obviously outside the tower. Outside of Ys even since the air was so fresh and clean and he couldn't see Solomon Shrine nearby.
He also hadn't expected to find wings on his back that looked demonic in nature. They were small, so whatever he turned into is not something he's familiar with.
Or maybe he was killed when he was given those powers? Maybe that was Dalles' true intent. Rid himself of a powerful enemy and just skip the whole be driven mad with power part that he had feared would happen when he first had been offered it.
No, that can't be right. He did see Saul Tovah's spirit. That was an entity that had no body and he could see through. And the man knew he was dead and what killed him. And if Dalles wanted to kill an enemy, he had better ways to do so than to offer power. The sorcerer was capable of incredible magic, after all.
So where did he end up? And how was he to get back to the tower and ensure the safety of Lady Reah and the Black Pearl? And also end his brother's traitorous and miserable existence. The others in the search party would be worried about him and he'd hear no end of lectures from Cadena when he returned. And lose the tenuous respect he had earned from the knights.
Truly, he needed to get back. First and foremost, he needed to find his things. He could use the Lila Shell to contact Eolia and at least let her know something happened.
Name: Nadia
Dreamwidth Username:
ladynadiadE-mail: ladynadiad at gmail dot com
AIM: Same as personal journal
Current Characters at Luceti:
Leonhardt | Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky |
eyesofstrengthCharacter
Name: Hugo Fact
Fandom: Ys Origin
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Time Period: The very end of the Blighted Blood area. After he has a chat with Dalles and spoilers happen, but before the boss battle with Pictimos and more spoilers happen.
Wing Color: Normally black. But for anyone who can see/sense demonic power/auras they will look like a demonic aura with pink, blue, red and black swirling together. (Warning: Spoilers in image)
History: And because Falcom games never get a decent wiki in English, here's a history from me. Thankfully it's a short game, so this won't be too bad or at least not as lengthy as Leonhardt's history section was. Obviously, there are major spoilers for the game in here.
To start with, anyone familiar with the main Ys series, especially the first two games should be aware that Ys Origin takes place 700 years before the first game. So if Adol's world seems pretty backwards, Hugo's is even more so, though he's from a time that is later spoken of in legends and from a place that few people in the future have ever seen and many don't even know it truly exists. Ys is a place where magic is commonplace and the people live alongside their twin goddesses. They lead an overall sheltered life and aren't even aware of the fact that people live in places outside of Ys. Because of the recent demon invasion, their land is no longer inhabitable and they had to raise their shrine into the air to have a place to live still. This happened about six months before the canon starts.
And now on to Hugo's own history. Hugo is the second son of one of the Six Priests, Cain Fact. As the second son, he wasn't supposed to be his father's successor, that should have been his older brother, Toal.
But at one point while Hugo was still a child, Toal made the decision to join the Holy Knights instead of being his father's successor and left that to Hugo. Toal knew Hugo was far more talented at magic and would do far better in that position than he would. At this time, Hugo was about six years old from the best estimate of the images given from this time, and he really doesn't remember his brother all that much. We know from Toal's own path that Hugo really adored his big brother before he left, so the hatred Hugo feels now appears to stem from the fact that the big brother he loved so much left him and never came to visit and then on top of that he basically had to live in Toal's shadow. Hugo's father likely didn't help these feelings one bit. The interesting thing is that Toal was actually a bit jealous of Hugo's own accomplishments and felt he was overshadowed by them because he wasn't as good at magic.
So Hugo grew up not seeing much of his brother who was disowned by his father for daring to join the knights instead of studying sorcery like any respectable member of House Fact would. Hugo did prove to be a magical prodigy and while his training was hard, he eventually grew in power enough to be officially named his father's successor. Due to this intense training that lasted for many years, Hugo had pretty much no friends. He's familiar with most of the sorcerers of Ys, but only a passing acquaintance with them.
He was taught to try and seek power where he could because those of the Fact lineage had the greatest magical power. Hugo wanted to please his father and show he was going to do well in his place, so he was happy to seek power to be able to serve the goddesses and Ys as best as he could. He wanted to make a place for himself, and not be a shadow of his brother. And he nearly had accomplished that.
Then one day Ys was attacked by demons in force. Even the powers of all their magic could not do anything to stop the attack. So the Six Priests raised the land around the Solomon Shrine to protect the people. Toal and his commander, Saul Tovah, opted to stay behind and buy them some time to raise the land. Saul died in combat, and Toal was missing and thought to be dead. He was praised as a hero, and yet again Hugo was standing in his brother's shadow and only known for being the younger brother of a hero.
Life was normal enough for a time on the floating island, as normal as it could be anyhow, but then one day the goddesses vanished. After they didn't return for days, the Six Priests decided to send a search party made up of the most skilled remaining among their sorcerers and Holy Knights. Among this group was Hugo.
Except Hugo had another set of orders along with finding the goddesses and aiding in their safe return: he was to find the traitor to Ys and kill him. The traitor that was his brother, Toal.
The group is sent to the surface via a transport spell. But the spell is interrupted by Dalles and the group is separated on the surface. Hugo finds himself at the base of a large tree that can speak to him, the Roda Tree. The tree tells him that the goddesses are in the tower that the demons built nearby. So Hugo sets off to the tower, leaving a message with the tree that if any others from the search party come by that they should be sent that way and he is safe.
He arrives at the tower and is greeted by some of the search party, Father Shion, Eolia and Dino. All three of them are in service to the priests and skilled sorcerers. Hugo offers to go and scout ahead while Dino searches for the rest of the missing search party. Father Shion grants him permission to do so and he takes off into the lower levels of the tower, called the Wailing Blue.
He explores around a bit, gets caught in an annoying teleport trap and then eventually meets one of the bad guys, Epona. They trash talk each other a bit and then battle and Hugo wins. He gets the Mask of Eyes from her and wanders around some more to find a way past that trap.
He eventually finds it when he finds Rico hiding in a hidden room. Rico gives him the blue necklace which protects from evil and that allows him to get past the trap at last. Here he finds more of the search party has arrived as he meets up with the other two sorcerers, Cadena and Miuscha. He wanders some more after talking to them and sending them to help Rico and eventually comes to confront one of the six demons that attacked Ys. He is able to defeat it and continues onward to the next area, the Flooded Prison.
The demons are growing stronger, and he also has to contend with a great deal of water flooding the area. A few places are even off limits to begin with because they are completely immersed and he'd drown. He keeps exploring and eventually runs into Epona again. Epona, of course, wants a rematch. Hugo goads her and tells her that she's just setting herself up for a loss by repeating things. So she takes the bait and ends up surprising him by summoning two demons.
Hugo definitely knows he's in trouble then and was starting to regret goading her, but then the demons turn and attack her. Epona is fearing for her life and in desperation asks Hugo to help her in exchange for her giving information. She'd mentioned previously about someone who resembles Hugo greatly, he's curious enough to agree. So he deals with one of the demons, and Epona deals with the other. She returns and tells him about a man they call "The Claw" who looks a lot like Hugo. Epona mentions her suspicion that they are brothers or something, which hits a bit too close to home and Hugo basically tells her to shut up and leave. She does leave and he continues onward, finding the blue dragon's scales to deal with the rest of the area.
The rest of the area is pretty uneventful, he trudges through it, gets new magic and then finds a room with a pillar and a giant centipede to fight. he wins that and heads off to the next area, the Guilty Fire.
Here, he finally finds one of the Goddesses, Feena. They have a short chat and then Epona and the man called "The Claw" arrive. It does truly turn out that The Claw is Hugo's older brother, Toal. The two of them fight, and while the battle is an optional win, going to assume a loss here for Hugo because it makes more sense with the rest of his path (that and he still loses even if he wins). Another of the enemy, Zava, arrives on the scene then and they take Feena into their custody. Zava orders Toal to kill Hugo and he moves to do this, but the Holy Knights and the sorcerers arrive to put a stop to that. They aren't in time to prevent Feena from being taken away, however, just to save Hugo's sorry butt. Everyone heads back to their base and discuss how to deal with all of this. The search party is also finally fully assembled with the last member being found and Dino returning with her. Father Shion then reveals that the Black Pearl had gone missing as well and everyone then moves out to find Reah, figure out a way to free Feena and to also protect the Black Pearl that is likely with Reah.
Hugo continues on and finds another artifact of Ys, this one with a fire element, and it happens to be the sword of Commander Saul Tovah who died in the battle Toal was supposed to have died in. Saul's ghost appears as Hugo is draining the artifact's power and expresses his concern about Hugo's lust for power and warns him that he still has time to choose the path of the righteous. Hugo doesn't listen to this and tells Saul to basically shut up because he's dead and obviously was too weak to win the battle. He continues onwards and finds a creepy area called the Devil's Corridor. Epona happens to overhear this and Hugo gets mad at her and asks if she is wanting to continue their fight, but she ends up leaving without a fight, how strange.
The Devil's Corridor is a nice little trap the enemy made. It transmits a creepy sounding music that literally will drive anyone who isn't a demon mad and then kill them. Hugo is stuck for a time here until he finds a Roo who gives him a hammer and gets a hint about how the Devil's Corridor works from Epona. He's finding it rather strange how Epona seems to now be helping him while still giving threats and saying how she'll happily kill him next time they meet. Hugo even asks her outright why she's doing this and she says she doesn't know. Actually, in Toal's path he comments that Hugo and Epona would have made a great couple if they met under different circumstances, and he's right, they do.
Anyway, Hugo deals with it just fine from her hint, shuts the music down, and gets past the demon boss in this area and moves on to the next area: Silent Sands. On his way up, he runs into Toal again. This time, they don't fight, though Hugo is more than eager to fight his brother again. Instead Toal basically berates Hugo saying that power he doesn't understand is worse than having no power in reference to what Hugo stole from Saul Tovah's sword. He leaves, but Hugo is very confused what he means because power is power, right?
Anyway, he continues onwards, gains the nice handy double jump ability and then finds Reah and the Black Pearl at last. He asks some questions of her about why they left and about Toal, but isn't too satisfied with her answers. He thinks she's hiding something and Toal did something to her to make her think a traitor should be let go. She has to go, but before she does she gives him an item to deal with the undead in the area. After that, he's contacted by Eolia via the Lila Shell and told of Feena's location, which is nearby.
He heads to the place where Feena is being held, a smaller tower called Rado's Annex. Inside he finds it is a trap and meets Zava. Zava taunts him a bit and then eventually sics one of her familiars on him because she wants to see the Eyes of Fact in action. He fights and wins and she's quite impressed and says he really should meet their leader Dalles. That doesn't go over well and eventually Zava leaves. Hugo goes to try and find Feena and only finds a very ominous looking door sealed with pure hatred. Hugo, being the moron that he can be, tries to use brute force to open the door. Well, brute force in the mind of a sorcerer, which basically means throw all his magical power at it. The door then throws it all back at him, knocking him backwards and he falls unconscious.
He wakes up and finds out Epona was watching over his dumb unconscious ass. Again, quite strange because she's the enemy and all and he'd think she would slit his throat while he was out cold. She claims she didn't because she's not that much of a sicko, but it's becoming more obvious that she likes him. Of course, Hugo is too much of an idiot to realize this and Epona is too afraid to admit to it, so she just says she doesn't know why and when he says they should just continue their fight, she laughs and says she's not too much of a sicko to attack someone who can't do anything more than mouth off. Really, Hugo just needs to learn to shut up at times. Epona asks Hugo why he hates Toal so much, and Hugo talks a bit about his childhood. From this, Epona figures out that Hugo actually does care about Toal a lot, but he's too afraid to admit to it and he's struggling to find his own place, and she understands this quite well since she has a big brother too, Kishgal. Hugo, of course denies all of this as he always does when someone is completely right about him and he doesn't want to admit to it. So he instead tells Epona she should just go like she was ordered to, and she does.
Hugo then consults with Cadena and Miuscha about opening the door, eventually they figure out how to open it and find Feena trapped within a barrier. The Holy Knights arrive as well and they all discuss some things. Feena then asks them to find Reah and the Black Pearl and to protect them.
Hugo then leaves, as he does so, Miuscha comes out and offers to be an ear if he ever wants to talk. Everyone seems so concerned about him, but he won't listen and ends up yelling at Miuscha and causing her to cry and run away. Cadena comes out and basically berates him for being an idiot. Poor Hugo really is feeling down at this point and realizes all he can do is just go on and help find Reah.
So onward he goes, beats another boss, and off to the next area: the Blighted Blood. Really, one can easily forget this place is a tower with these weird areas.
After some exploration, Hugo has yet another run in with Epona. She tells him Dalles is finally on the move and to be careful. Yet again she opts not to fight Hugo, claiming that they area is a bad one for a fight. He continues on and eventually runs into Yunica fretting over the other knights who were just petrified by a man in black robes, who has to be Dalles since we haven't met this one yet.
Yunica begs Hugo to help, but Hugo just doesn't know curses well enough to know how to break this one, only that it is a curse, and a powerful one. He tries to convince Yunica to get Cadena's help, but they end up saying things and Yunica gets very mad with him and ends up running away after telling him what good was all his power and that he's just basically a greedy asshole. He could have worded things better, but he did have a point that it was better to defer to an expert.
He continues onward since there is little he can do about the knights, and eventually he runs into Toal again. They chat, Toal gives him a replica Black Pearl that he claims will help the knights and leaves.
Then Hugo heads back to Rado's Annex and finds Yunica and the others fretting about how to power an idol that would help the knights. Then he sees what Toal meant and gives them the Black Pearl replica. Yunica runs off to help the knights and Feena thanks Hugo for the help. He leaves to go check on the knights, they are fine and give him the key needed to get to the guardian demon of that area and Yunica apologizes for her fit of anger and Hugo says he could have been more respectful. Overall, the knights all agree that they are in his debt and they will let bygones be bygones as far as his earlier behavior that made them mad and work together as best as they can towards their common goal.
So Hugo goes forward and as he's about to unlock the door to the guardian demon he finds a strange man in a black robe there, Dalles. Obviously the head honcho had to come out at some point and he's quite interested in Hugo.
Dalles offers Hugo something he just cannot refuse: power. He says he is willing to let Hugo try demonic power to see how it works with him, since Hugo declined the initial offer of just taking it. Dalles surmises that Hugo doesn't quite trust himself or understand the power and eventually wins Hugo over. True, Hugo is an idiot here, but one cannot help but realize that Dalles is quite the charismatic man at this time.
After Hugo receives this power, this is when he will come to Luceti.
Personality: Epona really summed up the first impression Hugo tends to give before their battle quite well. He's "...a regular stuffed shirt, too. Probably the dull and humorless type." and "...all stoic and moody, acting like you’re so much better than everyone else!" Hugo definitely does seem that way when a person first meets him. He does tend to be more of a quiet loner at first and to have no sense of humor at all and he does tend to be uppity towards anyone he deems to be lesser than him. Whether it be a lack of intelligence, talent, or anything else that places a person below Hugo's own standing, he will think less of them until proven otherwise.
Dull, however, turns out to not be a very apt description. True, he is smart and studious, but he also is very blunt and forthright which can make things interesting very fast. Hugo tends to annoy people real fast because of this trait. At the same time, one can definitely trust him to be honest and know he will not be veiling the truth or keeping secrets. He is willing to ask the questions that others would not ask because he values logic, intelligence, and dealing with things quickly over protocols and respect. This isn't to say he's not respectful and breaks rules for no reason, because he tries to be a good person. It is more that he's willing to be less respectful and ask the harder questions that no one else would ask. Basically, he's not going to be blindly loyal to someone just because of who or what they are. He's going to respect them for their words and actions. Though he is blindly loyal to his father, but his father has shown himself worth such loyalty, at least in Hugo's eyes.
He also does actually have a sense of humor, though a darker one. His interactions with Epona especially show this because he has no problem outright insulting her and laughing at her own insults. He also has no problem adjusting a first impression of someone as he gains more information about them. For instance, at first he took Epona to be an unintelligent savage, then as they got to know each other and she helped him at risk to herself and they got to know each other more, he came to respect her because she was a smart girl and he owed her. She just had a different sort of intelligence, one that came more from dealing with people and knowing what made them tick and she is a skilled warrior.
However, Hugo's biggest faults are with his own self image. He wants to be respected and for people to look up to him. As his father says, he's like a puppy performing tricks for a master, and he likes being that because he wants that praise and adoration. He wants the people around him to like him for being Hugo Fact, not because he's Toal Fact's little brother, or Cain Fact's son. He feels he deserves this sort of respect and does think highly of himself, but he goes about earning the respect of others in ways that actually seems to create more distance. He also has a dangerous and unquenchable thirst for power because he was taught that power is what he should seek and he equates having power to earning respect. After all, the most respected people in Ys have a lot of power. He's starting to understand that no one person can do everything, not even his father or brother can. He's starting to see that his thirst for power is dangerous, but he hasn't quite reached the conclusion that he would soon reach in canon, and that was what caused him to accept Dalles' offer even though he knew he shouldn't.
Strengths:
Physical: For all that Hugo is a sorcerer, he's definitely pretty tough and not squishy. He does have the weakest defense of the playable characters, but he can hold his own if hit. The Eyes of Fact and his rod are definitely very handy and decently powerful.
Also, should mention the items he has on hand here as there are some magical items and if it is all right, I'd like him to find all of these eventually:
Mask of Eyes: Allows the wearer to see hidden passages and objects, but hides living creatures.
Blue Necklace: A necklace that protects the wearer from evil.
Spirit Cape: Allows the wearer to gradually heal wounds when not moving.
Silver Chimes: Allows for the ability to kill undead creatures.
Earth Dragon's Claws: Allows the wearer to retain traction on slippery ground.
Of the items above, he can only use one at a time. The below items can be used in conjunction with the above ones, but only one at a time.
Crystal: Allows user to teleport to any activated Goddess statue. However, in canon a character was able to teleport to a random location in error, so with study may be able to be used to teleport to any known area that isn't dangerous.
Blue Dragon's Scales: Allows the user to hold their breath for a long time, great for use in underwater areas. When combined with an underwater plant that gives oxygen, it can allow for one to be underwater quite some time.
Lila Shell: Pretty much useless in Luceti unless he gets a hold of more of them, but basically allows for long range communications via magic. It requires the other person have one as well. Basically, it's like a magical telephone.
And the following items grant abilities as long as they are in Hugo's possession. If taken from him he would lose the abilities and it is possible someone else could gain the same or similar abilities from them.
Cerulean Flabellum: Gives Hugo his force shield magic (which is at max level)
Levinstrike Warhammer: Gives Hugo his trap mine magic (also max level)
Crimson Lotusblade: Gives Hugo his fire wheel magic (level 4)
Silver bracelet: Allows for the bearer to run very fast.
Gold bracelet: Allows for the bearer to double jump.
And lastly, since he did accept the demonic essence from Dalles, this is something that will come into effect in time. Dalles planted a command in that will cause him to go mad once he unleashes the power. The power itself comes out when his life is in danger, and it basically turns him into a demon. During this time, his magic is more powerful, comes more easily to him, he can use six Eyes of Fact instead of just two. In short, he becomes a demon with all the power to back him up. There is a demonic aura around him that gives it away, and his voice also changes and his eyes turn red. Personality wise, he does act like he is going mad and he's a complete asshole who acts on his baser ambitions to kill any weaker than him to gain more power. Basically, he becomes an empty shell with a shitload of power as Epona put it. He can be talked out of it if someone knows the buttons to push and has some respect from him (in canon it was Epona in his path, Toal in Toal's own path). Other options to deal with this are to knock him out or kill him. He'll mostly be his normal self to begin with, however, until Dalles' command triggers this power will remain dormant and unusable, but anyone who can sense demonic power will definitely notice something is off with him.
Mental: As stated above, Hugo is a magical prodigy. He learns magic very fast and is very good at what he does. His magical ability does make up quite well for his lack in physical strength. His true strength in battle is making sure nothing gets close enough to him to hurt him.
He also is an expert when it comes to most things magical. Though he does admit his expertise isn't so much with curses and hexes, he can at least identify one. He also can sense magical power or the lack of it and can also sense demonic powers.
Emotional: Hugo's a good person at heart and everything he does tends to be for a good reason. He's also very strong willed and ends up being one of very few who can shake off the demonic power he was given and ends up actually being immune to any attempts to use it against him. He's the type of person that once he sets his mind to something, he will do anything to accomplish it. He also is a calm person and can even deal with being insulted, even will find it funny and have a good comeback for it.
Weaknesses:
Physical: Hugo is a sorcerer, so he's not going to be as strong as a physical fighter. He is also a very normal human other than his magical talents. He's also not extremely fast or agile, though he is faster than Yunica is. He relies more on keeping threats at a distance and his magic than actually doing things physically. He also does have a tendency to use magic rather than physical prowess to accomplish tasks. For instance, he'd be more likely to use wind magic to float down from a higher place than to climb or use a ladder. He'd definitely be in a lot of trouble with no access to magic.
Mental: Hugo is definitely the sort of person who can see things that others cannot and isn't going to be blinded by what someone is. He also has a bad tendency to be blunt and disrespectful because of this. He has no hesitation at outright calling the actions of the twin goddesses stupid and is the only one willing to say so. Feena does admit he's quite right, but this is quite appalling to the others who would never say anything negative about the Goddesses. He's respectful in his words, but he will be honest and forthright even if that means causing someone offense. The only person he isn't honest with is himself, and anyone pointing out his faults will see him outright lie and deny it and he'll act more unsure of his words by hesitating and even stuttering.
Emotional: Hugo is definitely quite power hungry and this leads to him doing some rather stupid stuff. Right before his canon point he was lured into a trap to accept demonic power from Dalles. That is pretty much going to end up being a ticking time bomb waiting to go off and drive him insane.
Hugo is also very much a loner. In his quest for power and to please his father he gave up on the idea of having friends. He was also taught that Facts do not have power to please others, but for themselves. Though Hugo isn't quite like this, he does want to please others and he does care about what people think of him. He just tends to really go about it in stupid ways because he really just doesn't understand others very well. And while he isn't incapable of working with others, he just prefers not to. He will defer to an expert when needed, however. He is aware that it does little good for him to try and do something when someone can do it better, like he defers to Cadena in the matter of the knights being petrified because she knows more about curses. It can sometimes take some effort to get him to defer to another, because Hugo does want to do things for himself. he'd definitely agree with the statement "If you want something done right, do it yourself." because he acts exactly like someone who would say such a thing.
He's also pretty easy to annoy. Because he wants to please others and be respected so much, he tends to be easily set off with a lack of respect. He's also easy to manipulate because of this and his thirst for power. He was warned about Dalles, and still accepted the power. Though to Hugo's credit, Dalles is quite capable of a silver tongue and being charismatic. But Dalles definitely knew how to push all of Hugo's buttons in such a way to turn Hugo into his own little puppet. However, this weakness can be turned to one's advantage. If Hugo is being an idiot, he can be talked down by someone saying that his behavior will not earn him the respect of others. That is definitely the quickest way to get him to behave better and if he ever does become a demon, it will turn him human again. Logic and reason is really the best way to get through to him and persuade him.
Samples (ALL samples must be set in Luceti-verse.)
First Person: Have a link to his test run meme thread
Third Person:
Hugo hadn't been fully sure what to expect when he accepted Dalles' offer to try out demonic powers. He had expected the Darkling's leader to be full of it and out for his own agenda, but what he had expected was something more to lure him to their side.
He definitely hadn't expected to be transported to some strange place that was obviously outside the tower. Outside of Ys even since the air was so fresh and clean and he couldn't see Solomon Shrine nearby.
He also hadn't expected to find wings on his back that looked demonic in nature. They were small, so whatever he turned into is not something he's familiar with.
Or maybe he was killed when he was given those powers? Maybe that was Dalles' true intent. Rid himself of a powerful enemy and just skip the whole be driven mad with power part that he had feared would happen when he first had been offered it.
No, that can't be right. He did see Saul Tovah's spirit. That was an entity that had no body and he could see through. And the man knew he was dead and what killed him. And if Dalles wanted to kill an enemy, he had better ways to do so than to offer power. The sorcerer was capable of incredible magic, after all.
So where did he end up? And how was he to get back to the tower and ensure the safety of Lady Reah and the Black Pearl? And also end his brother's traitorous and miserable existence. The others in the search party would be worried about him and he'd hear no end of lectures from Cadena when he returned. And lose the tenuous respect he had earned from the knights.
Truly, he needed to get back. First and foremost, he needed to find his things. He could use the Lila Shell to contact Eolia and at least let her know something happened.