Lazlo Strange

Warning!!! This page contains numerous spoilers. Read on at your own risk!

Lazlo Strange
Alias(es)	Strange the Dreamer Strange
Gender	Male
Age	20
Classification	Godspawn
Race	Half-human Half-Mesarthim
Place of Origin	Weep, Namaa
Affiliation	The Great Library of Zosma (formerly)
Occupation	Junior Librarian (formerly)
Relatives	Minya (half-sister) Skathis † (father)
Status	Alive
Significant Other(s)	Sarai † (lover)
Appears In	Strange The Dreamer Muse Of Nightmares

Lazlo Strange is an orphan junior librarian, and has dreams of someday traveling to the mysterious city of Weep.

Appearance

Lazlo is a twenty-year-old man. He has wide and guileless gray eyes, long, heavy, brown hair with a glint of warm reds that's usually worn in a ponytail, and a crooked nose. His brows are dark and heavy. His features are strong and broad. "Rough-hewn" or "thuggish" is how others might describe him. His broken nose makes a sharp angle in profile and from the front it skews distinctly to the left. Lazlo's cheeks are high and flat, and the cut to his jaw haw the abruptness of an ax chop. His face lacks finesse or elegance. He has a raw, rugged look and sound. His voice is low, masculine, and raw but with an endearing hint of shyness.

After crossing the desert, Lazlo's whole body has changed. There's a hardness and sculpt to his body after so much hard manual labor. His arms are now corded with lean muscle. His palms are tough all over and the backs of his hands are as brown as his face. His eyes seem shades lighter now due to his darkened skin. He has squint lines around his eyes, and they are reshaped to be narrower. The line of his brow has been drawn forward and knitted between his black eyebrows in a single furrow. These small changes have transformed him from having a dreamy vagueness to having a hunting intensity.

After the discovery of Lazlo's heritage and history, his skin changes to the blue that all godspawn have.

Personality

Lazlo is a reader and lover of stories, myths, and legends; especially those about the mysterious city of Weep. He reads almost constantly. He's versed in three dead languages. He doesn't care that his obsession with the Unseen City and all its stories and ancient documents is seen as silly and a waste of time by the other librarians and scholars. Lazlo "couldn't belong at the library more truly if he were a book himself." Despite his quiet and scholarly manner, Lazlo has a "fire in his soul." As a child, he was always finding ways to slip off on his own, even though he knew it would result in a whipping. His upbringing gave him a profound sense of unworthiness.

Aptly referred to as a dreamer, Lazlo has a great imagination and is fascinated by new ideas. He is quite intelligent, intuitive, and believes that people are inherently good. He is not interested in fame, power, or riches. He has a dark sense of humor and often cracks sarcastic jokes. He can be charming and is optimistic and empathetic. He tries to understand the perspective of others instead of judging them. Lazlo has no idea how to interact with girls and doesn't believe they'd want anything to do with him anyway. He has a "shadow's talent for passing unremarked." Lazlo is honorable. He doesn't think like other people. "He believes in magic, like a child, and in ghosts, like a peasant." He doesn’t dismiss magic out of hand, and he doesn’t believe that fairy tales are just for children. He knows fairy tales are reflections of the people who told them and are flecked with little truths. Lazlo is deep, imaginative, original, and uncompromising.

Background

Lazlo is believed to be from the Kingdom of Zosma. He was orphaned as a baby by war, and brought to the Zermonan Abbey to be raised by the monks there. The monks gave him the first name "Lazlo" because it was the name of Brother Argos' uncle who was quiet because he had lost his tongue and baby Lazlo would never cry. "Strange" is the surname that all orphans in the Kingdom of Zosma receive. He was severely ill when he arrived at the Abbey. He was gray in color, and the monks didn't think he'd survive, but he did.

Lazlo did not like life in the Abbey under the harsh monks. The only part he did like was listening to old, senile Brother Cyrus tell stories. When Lazlo was five years old, he and everyone else suddenly forgot the true name of the city of Weep. The Zermonan Abbey is known for its scriptorium, and Lazlo was trained to copy, but not to read, Lazlo had to teach himself. At thirteen, Lazlo left the Abbey to become a junior librarian at the Great Library of Zosma. Lazlo created the Complete Works of Lazlo Strange, a book series all about the city of Weep. He says that he put his dream into these novels. One of them is called The Unseen City. It's been four years since Lazlo gave Thyon Nero the secret to transmuting gold.

Plot

Strange the Dreamer

Just as the Tizerkane arrive at the Great Library, Lazlo sees a mysterious and magical bird. She's a pure white, hook-beaked raptor. She's immense with wings like the sails of a small ship and each feather is as broad as a cutlass. Her edges aren't defined but seem to melt against the sky. When Lazlo tells Eril-Fane about seeing this bird upon his arrival, Eril-Fane agrees to take Lazlo to Weep as his assistant.

Six months after leaving Zosma City, Lazlo, the Tizerkane, and the delegates are about to arrive in Weep. These six months have made a big difference in Lazlo. He is more confident and self-assured. He has friends for the first time in his life, such as Calixte Dagaz.

Upon arriving in Weep, Eril-Fane informs Lazlo that he will be staying with his mother Suheyl, not at the Merchats' Guildhall like the others. Lazlo immediately enjoys being with Suheyl, and she quickly becomes one of his favorite people. Lazlo's job in Weep is to see to it that all the delegates have whatever they need. He spends his free time exploring the city and meeting its people. Eril-Fane brings the group to the north anchor so that they can see the mesarthium up close. After touching it, he discovers his skin has a faint dirty gray tinge that won't wash off but fades with time. He realizes that only his skin has this effect.

On his first night in Weep, Lazlo's dreams are visited by Sarai. She discovers that Lazlo can see her, something that has never happened before. Every night after she visits Lazlo's dreams but doesn't reveal herself or change a thing about them. Lazlo always dreams of the fantasy version of Weep he has created, and Sarai finds it beautiful. After seeing the mural of the Carnage, Lazlo believes he has seen Isagol in his dream, and can't reconcile the two women. On the sixth night, Sarai discovers that Lazlo is dreaming of her as he saw he last time. She becomes jealous of the dream Isagol and makes her disappear and take her place. They are both curious about the other, and begin talking. Sarai still doesn't reveal who she really is, letting Lazlo believe she is Isagol.

It's revealed that Lazlo is in fact a godspawn. His power is control of mesarthium, and thus his father was Skathis, making Minya his half-sister.

Muse of Nightmares

...

Relationships

Sarai

One night during Sarai's nightly outing, she stumbles into the dream of Lazlo and is quickly mesmerized by his thoughts. Sarai is immediately draw to Lazlo, and her feelings are only strengthened by his mind when she enters it. She decided not to scare him like how she would with the other villagers but decides to walk around in the world that he created in his dream. Lazlo doesn't really see her the first time she ventures into his dream, but the second time he does and frightens her. Lazlo, not knowing what or who she was, thought she was pretty despite the blue skin. Later on, Sarai goes into his dream again and she and Lazlo talk. After meeting each other a few times in Lazlo's dreams, they both fell in love. Lazlo tells Sarai that he thinks she's a fairy tale, that she's magical, brave, and exquisite. He tells her that he hopes she'll let him be in her story.

However, Sarai can't reveal what she is because she's scared of how he'll act. Eril-Fane and his wife go to the citadel where they're horrified to find Sarai and the other godspawn to be alive. Then the accident happens, causing the citadel to tilt. Sarai falls and is impaled by a pole. This greatly devastates Lazlo and triggers his inner godspawn abilities which allows him to balance the citadel. When he gets there, Minya offers to keep Sarai's ghost around if he does everything she says. Despite Sarai's protests, Lazlo agrees to Minya's deal.

Thyon Nero

Lazlo and Thyon are adversaries and hold a secret between them that "burns like alchemical fire." Lazlo used to admire and look up to Thyon. He was in awe of him like everyone else. Lazlo was never concerned with how Thyon acted or treated him, as he believed that boys like Thyon were trained to speak only in commands.

Now Lazlo feels like Thyon's prey. When Lazlo discovered Nero’s father beating him for his failure to turn lead into gold, Lazlo took it upon himself to find the answer. He found a children's book that explained the ingredient needed is the alchemist's lifeblood. He brings the book to Thyon's house, Thyon realizes that Lazlo had seen him in a moment of weakness, so he pushed Lazlo out the door. Lazlo left the book at Nero’s house and three weeks later Nero transmuted lead into gold. Later, when Nero questioned Lazlo about the book, Lazlo revealed that he did give Nero the secret to transmutation. In return, Thyon tries to destroy Lazlo's life work, take advantage of his knowledge, and take away his dream of going to Weep, all because he can't handle the idea that a "nothing" like Lazlo would have the "audacity" to pity him.

After beginning the journey to Weep, Lazlo's fear of Thyon lessons. He's no longer "a junior librarian at the golden godson's mercy anymore, and whatever awe he had felt for him was gone." But he still knows it's stupid to goad him. Thyon asks Lazlo barbed questions intending to discomfit Lazlo. Lazlo worries if Thyon still counts him as a cost because he's the only person who knows Thyon's secret.

Memorable Quotes

Strange the Dreamer

• "I'm going to Weep, he thought, and could have laughed at the pun..." - Lazlo Strange
• "One can't be irredeemable who shows reverence for books." - Lazlo Strange

Trivia

• He broke his nose when a volume of fairy tales fell on him.
• The spectral given to Lazlo to ride to Weep is named Lixxa. She has long white ears.
• Lazlo's first bath is at Suheyl's home, at twenty years old, and is the first time he experiences "the incomparable pleasure of submergence in hot water."
• Sarai says Lazlo smells of sandalwood and clean musk.