Born freakishly tall, strong as an ox and slightly smarter too, Hugo the Magnificent, as he likes to introduce himself, spent the better part of his life living in a travelling circus. He spent his days inspiring awe while bending unbendable lead pipes, fighting with foolish challengers hoping to impress their sweethearts, and occasionally even getting shot from a cannon, at night he would pursue other calling. You see, like many others, Hugo always felt he was meant for better things, though in his case, with his limited vision, better meant a better circus and him as a principal.
It was this that lead him to pursue alchemical knowledge, along with bits and pieces of other sciences, depending on which books he could get his meaty hands on. While most of his knowledge never exceeded bounds of what could be described as "unremarkable", the mere fact that he taught himself to read could be taken as a grand achievement in social class.
However, alchemy is not a subject to be taken lightly, and one day, after a failed experiment meant to produce fireworks no other circus could boast lead directly and unfortunately to a large fire which saw the demise of a rare specimen of dromedary, Hugo the Magnificent has been chased away from the circus with the promise of never getting employed in this line of work again.
Distraught at this blow to his dream, Hugo pursued a career in prizefighting, for which he showed remarkable aptitude. Though somewhat lacking in finesse, he more than made up for it with sheer strength and long reach. If we said he spent a better part of his life in circus, then this was to be the worse part. The prizefighting circuit was filled with shady practices and shadier characters and Hugo became familiar with many underhanded schemes and scams, quite often being the target. In time, he learned to understand them, even though he would never deign to practice them himself.
His luck came and went as it pleased, as it is wont to do, and over time he began to realize that while he survived, this kind of life would never bring his dream to fruition. Maybe, he sometimes told himself, it is time for a change, though what kind of change, he didn't know.
Tall, burly, sporting a wide moustache and bald scalp, Hugo the Magnificent is rarely seen without chewing tobacco in his mouth. Though intimidating due to his physique, something of which he well aware, he is slow to anger and kind hearted. Despite spending his life presented as a circus freak, he came to see himself as an entertainer, and, on a good day, even a man of science, boasting about his qualities while altogether ignoring or even being blind to the scoffing he invites behind his back. While occasionally mocked (but only behind his back!) by people who don't know him, his friends know his good nature and eventually come to excuse his occasional bouts of prideful bravado. He has a strong voice and likes to use big words to "accentivate his eloquessence".