Also, Ichthys, would the mother of Lord Bayard be a person I should not consider as an option for a character?

EDIT: Another limit that might be had to this seeing magic thing, is the very simple fact that the more magic is used, the thicker it is liable to be in that area. If there are a lot of spells happening around Atlas, they are likely to blend together and create some level of difficulty for him to differentiate between a person, spell or wall if he has to move quickly and can't give this sense his full attention.