Hugo Tennenbaum, the first Wizard

Evocation Wizard (Level 12) Human man, Deceased

Hugo Tennenbaum was the first documented Human Wizard and helped found the current version of The University's Magic Department. He ultimately grew to become the most prolific and powerful human weilder of magic. His books, scrolls, and papers documenting spells are the foundation of the current academic understanding of magic. The famed Wizard recently passed away at the impressive age of 111, leaving the department to Professor Miller.

History

Early Life

Born in 1888, Hugo Tennenbaum originates from the southern Kingdom of Tayos, where his aristocratic family owned a large swath of enslaved elves for housekeeping. Hugo, a sweethearted little boy, loved the elves and they would talk, sing, and eat together (much to his parents' disapproval). His love for the elven culture grew stronger than that for his own, and he grew resentful towards his father.
At 17, Hugo helped a dozen of his parents' elven slaves escape and they went north to the City State of Sirom. They lived together as family, ans there he applied to the University, getting in quite easily due to his well funded childhood education. Hugo was a voracious student of physics in particular, helping his professor design some of the experiments used to demonstrate the laws of motion.
Hugo was particularly vexed by the laws of motion, because of how it seemed to apply to nearly everything except those odd little tricks his elven family would perform. That family, being long disconnected from the elves of the feywild, only knew minor feats and did not take the ability that seriously. But his work on the laws of motion made him even more curious about those abilities, what the superstitious humans termed "magic."

Establishing the Department of Magic

Hugo began spending more of his free time discussing magic with his elven family, as well as some of the elven faculty at the University. The University, still being rebuilt after the elven reclamation of Sirom, had not yet re-established its Magic department, all of its unique knowledge being descimated with the sacking of Sirom. Hugo and his brother Idi ultimately documented about 100 spells and conducted some magic theory experiments before they presented their work to the University's Board of Trustees, who approved the new Department of Magic in 1917. See Department of Magic for more specific details of its history.
At this point, Hugo still did not know any magic (nor had any confirmed cases of human magicians except for Hankor the Elvenhearted the first Warlock). But this did not hinder his enthusiasm. In the early years, Idi and Hugo would search throughout Sirom for rumors of magic and potential folk traditions that they could study and document them. With limited research budgets, the brothers worked with their few students to poke and prod and understand everything they could of the 150 or so spells they had catalogued at this point. Hugo was particularly interested in spells' seeming ability to defy physics.
Overtime, Hugo and his brother expanded the Department, bringing in a variety of students and professors from other disciplines. Professor Burnface aka Burnie proved to be a quick friend when he became a professor in 1935, and Hugo's interest in healing magics began to grow.

The First Wizard

In 1953, Hugo Tennenbaum made a suprise announcement that would define his career and the entire Department of Magic: through long study he was able to perform Shape Water, a trick he practiced with glasses of water in his office. He demonstrated these abilities sufficiently to the Alchemy Department, in charge of the physics research, and the University proudly announced this development to the world. Professor Tennenbaum would perform outside The University gates, entertaining passers-by and proving his unique skills (which soon began to expand into other cantrips such as Dancing Light) as well as entertaining himself.
Academic institutions from Lagos, Tayos, and the Western Confederacy sent their own human academics to confirm this phenomena and hopefully take the knowledge back home. Though they were unable to perform the magic themselves, they did perform a number of experiments together in an effort to prove/disprove the magic. This networking ultimately led to the Magic Documentation Consortium in 1957, a cross-campus effort to document and investigate claims of magic phenomena. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding, the non-Siromian branches of this project rarely investigate themselves, but do tip off the current Department of Magic at The University to potential leads.
The 1953 announcement also led to a huge influx of funding and applications for students. At first, he would take on about two dozen students of many backgrounds, roughly proportionate to Sirom's population (although only one orc). By 1960, Hugo had 4 human students (out of the 12 total he was mentoring) that could perform some cantrip spells. Hugo himself had found himself able to practice level 2 spells at this point. In 1961, a promising young student died while practicing the Poison Spray spell, a tragic controversey for the Department that long cast a shadow over Hugo's heart.
In 1964, one of Tennenbaum's students, Tiana Miller, collaborated with Professor Burnie to propose the Magic Investigation Team (MIT) which Hugo enthusiastically supported. While he did not go himself, he was heavily involved with the planning and coordinating, as well as interpreting data. Miller soon became Tennebaum's star pupil, and she was promoted to a Professor in 1967. Miller was a late bloomer, only being able to perform magic herself in 1975, but that skill was fostered under Tennenbaum's direct tutelage.
By this 1975, Hugo was 87 years old, an age unheard of in human beings, despite seeming fairly well preserved. This seemed to continue until 1995, when Hugo's health suddenly and sharply declined. By his death at 111 in 1999, Hugo had been able to practice and document many level 6 spells, making him the most powerful Human wizard on record. He was buried underneath the University's library, marked by a statue in the Magic section.

Former Students

Tiana Miller