Hanson Alister

Warning: This page contains spoilers for every book of the Seven Realms series, in order.

Hanson Alister, also known as Han, Cuffs Alister, or Hunts Alone, is one of the main characters of the Seven Realms series and provides one of the primary points of view from which the story is told.

Appearance
Hanson is a tall, lean young man with extremely light blonde hair and blue eyes. He has a number of scars from his days as a streetlord, including a bump and scar tissue on his nose where it has been broken in the past, and a scar down one side of his face. Hanson is described as being handsome and vaguely aristocratic, with high cheekbones and a long straight nose. His outfits vary dramatically by context, but he always carries his ancestral amulet, described as writhing snakes carved out of some green gemstone with rubies for eyes. For the first sixteen years of his life, and the duration of The Demon King, he also wears thick silver cuffs around his wrists, which he is incapable of removing himself by any means. The cuffs absorb magic, and have the secondary effect of making Hanson particularly difficult to detect.

Story
Hanson's story is one of the two halves of the Seven Realms series, crucial in every way to the development of the plot and and the rich fictional land of the Fells. Here are brief summaries of his roles within each book, taken from the back cover of the books themselves.

The Demon King
"Reformed thief Han Alister will do almost anything to eke out a living for himself, his mother, and his sister, Mari. Ironically, the only thing of value he has is something he can't sell. For as long as Han can remember, he's worn thick silver cuffs engraved with runes. They're clearly magicked-- as he grows, they grow, and he's never been able to get them off. Han's life gets even harder after he takes a powerful amulet from Micah Bayar, the son of the High Wizard. The amulet once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millenium ago. With a magical piece so powerful at stake, the Bayars will stop at nothing to reclaim it from Han."

The Exiled Queen
"Haunted by the loss of his mother and sister, Han Alister journeys south to begin his schooling at Mystwerk House in Oden's Ford. But leaving the Fells doesn't mean that danger isn't far behind. Han is hunted every step of the way by the Bayars, a powerful wizarding family set on reclaiming the amulet Han stole from them. And Mystwerk House has dangers of its own. There, Han meets Crow, a mysterious wizard who agrees to tutor Han in the darker parts of sorcery-- but the bargain they make is one Han may regret."

The Gray Wolf Throne
"Han Alister thought he had already lost everyone he loved. But when he finds his friend Rebecca Morley near death in the Spirit Mountains, Han knows that nothing matters more than saving her. The costs of his efforts are steep, but nothing can prepare him for what he soon discovers: the beautiful, mysterious girl her knew as Rebecca is none other than Raisa ana'Marianna, heir to the queendom of the Fells. Han is hurt and betrayed. He knows no future with a blueblood. And, as far as he's concerned, the princess's family as good as killed his own mother and sister. But if Han is to fulfill his end of an old bargain, he must do everything in his power to see Raisa crowned queen."

The Crimson Crown
"Through a complicated web of lies and unholy alliances, former streetlord Han Alister has become a member of the Wizard Council of the Fells. Navigating the cut-throat world of blue blood politics has never been more dangerous, and Han seems to inspire hostility among Clan and wizards alike. His only ally is the queen, and despite the perils involved, Han finds it impossible to ignore his feelings for Raisa. Before long, Han finds himself in possession of a secret believed to be lost to history, a discovery powerful enough to unite the people of the Fells. But will the secret die with him before he can use it?"

Abilities
Hanson displays many abilities, both common and unique, throughout the series.

Physical
Hanson's time as the streetlord Cuffs Alister trained him in many ways, perhaps most obviously in hand to hand combat. He is proficient with a knife and more than capable of multiple ways of stealing money, be it through pickpocketing or holding cards. His time at the Marisa Pines camp gave him another set of useful skills, like plant identification and harvesting, shooting with a longbow, and bartering.

Magical
Hanson has an immense ability for magic, cited as generating more magical power than most wizards were capable of, and his amulet which was produced before the Breaking has fewer limitations that those held by his peers. Over his time at Mystwerk, and through his training with Crow (a metaphysical remnant of his ancestor, Alger Waterlow, only visible in Aediion), Hanson gains a vast knowledge of magic for all kinds of things. Among these, he frequently uses barrier spells and traps, magical fire, direct killing spells, illusion spells, and high magic healing.

After using his high magic healing on Raisa in The Gray Wolf Throne, Hanson becomes reconnected to his muddled ancestry with the Gray Wolf Queens, and from then on holds the same prophetic ability as the Queens, in which gray wolves appear to warn of trouble.