Short and slight to the point of being waifish, Hugh does not command attention when he walks into a room. He attempts to compensate for this by making sure to always be decked in the latest Thrane fashions, but the more elaborate his garb, the more he seems to be swimming in it. The best he can usually hope for is looking overdressed for almost any occasion; at worst, people assume he raided the closet of a much larger older brother. His hair, while always cut to the latest style, is more like to be seen in disarray due to a nervous habit of running his fingers through it. His eyes, at least, are wide and intelligent, though his gaze is prone to wander back and forth, taking in everything around him as he experiences it. Likewise, his attention is hard to hold as he constantly finds new things to interest him.
Background
Hugh is the last child born in his family; the last that would ever be born, given the death of his father during the Last War. Hugh was too young to know his father; he does, however, have vague memories of the two older siblings who likewise fought on the Karrnathi front and died at the hands of 'soldiers' risen from the dead. Given this, bitterness towards both Karrnath and the undead was a given in the Reynald household during Hugh's childhood. Most would simply have to accept this bitterness as something they had no power over; for Hugh, at least, Karrnath always lay beyond his power. Undead, however, were another matter; the story of Hugh's entire education has been one of learning to never fear abominations of unlife.
Hugh was born gifted with a trace connection to the Silver Flame itself; the power to stave off death flowed from his fingertips before he was even weaned. As he grew older, he received training to enhance that spark of silver power. An ecclesiastical education was obvious; before his tenth birthday he was boarding in a Flamekeep academy receiving specialized training in matters both arcane and divine. Ultimately his insights into higher mystical matters proved superior to his knowledge of theology; though blending the two areas has always proved a matter of interest for him.
A number of his instructors had always thought Hugh would become a front line mage in the war upon graduation; Hugh himself always intended such. The war ending before he was out of school, however, made him feel he'd missed his chance to give back to the Silver Flame for the gift given to him at birth. It was to his surprise, then, that even in time of peace he was almost immediately called to service in the Cathedral of the Flame itself. There he received further specialized training, this time in matters social and diplomatic, upon the orders of an unknown benefactor. During this time he also came to the attention of a sect within the church known as The Order of the Pure, dedicated even more strongly to the tenets of fighting evil than the Church as a whole.
Eventually, after a few years of routine church duties, he discovered the benefactor who had brought him to the Cathedral in the first place was none other than High Cardinal Krozen himself. Hugh was given a position within the Cardinal's personal retinue as an undersecretary. In one of his few personal audiences with Krozen, Hugh was informed that the Cardinal had enlisted him with a specific purpose in mind; whether or not the circumstances for that purpose would ever present themselves was another question, but High Cardinal Krozen was never one to lack preparation.
