Laz of Urik

Laz of Urik

Biographical Details

Father: Drogu, dwarven gladiator of House Escrissar of Urik, killed in Urik's gladiatorial arena

Mother: unknown human woman, died during childbirth

Half-Brother: Khorbus, an elder gladiator mul half-brother, status unknown

Former Owner: Elabon Escrissar, a deceased High Templar of Urik; the Crown of Urik

Appearance

Laz was burned very badly by the Black Death of the obsidian pits. All over his body, he is covered with lacerations from serrated obsidian, especially along his arms, feet and hands. When he used his detonate power in the obisidian tunnels, shrapnel cut into his face, leaving scars. A "gift" from the Fire in the Dark, Laz's irises are burned black.

Childhood

Born in the 27th Year of the 190th King's Age, the Year of Wind's Reverence, or Free Year 2 in the calendar of emancipated Tyr.

Drogu, a dwarf of immense stamina and strength (21 strength/21 constitution) had become a cruel and evil gladiator in the stables of House Escrissar, a Urikite high templar family. Drogu was rewarded for his many victories by being bred to human women at a Urikite obsidian slave mining camp outside of Makla at the Black Crown Mountain. Sentenced there for crimes, real or imaginary, against Urik and its citizens, these slave women were brought bleeding from the obsidian mines for Drogu's pleasure, and the pleasure of other dwarves chosen by the templars. Once pregnant, these women were taken and placed in special pens, where they were forced to bring the pregnancy to full term, being well-fed and watered. At the end of the pregnancy, these condemned slave women would mostly die during the traumatic birth of a large mul child. The children would be suckled by the surviving women, and once the children were capable of maintaining themselves, they were taken by officers of the Urikite army, and raised to be slave-soldiers for their god, Hamanu the Lion of Urik, and king of that city. Laz was one of these mul youths.

Laz was harshly trained in the ways of the Urikite army, becoming brainwashed and a fanatical slave-soldier candidate. While still a boy, Laz's father Drogu appeared before him, having won his freedom by the hand of the King himself. Drogu still fought in the games however, although now as a freedman. Having completed the first half of his military training, Laz was on occasion given liberty to go with his father and to see him fight in Urik's Pit of Black Death, the Royal Arena. Laz saw Drogu fight several times, during which his brutal and evil father would butcher convicts, petty challengers, and sometimes worthy opponents. Drogu would never let any opponent live, despite the demands of the spectators, but since he never lost, he was becoming a great champion. At last Drogu had nearly enough money to purchase Laz's freedom, as he had done with at least one other of his sons, a mul named Khorbus, at which point Drogu intended to train Laz as a free gladiator who would fight in the arena. However, all this fell apart when Drogu accepted the match of the half-giant slave-gladiator Badwah. A monstrous and bloodthirsty champion from the city-state of Raam, Badwah hacked apart Drogu's living chest with his barbed battle axe, then smashed Drogu to death against one of the spiked obsidian pillars in the Pit of Black Death. Badwah removed Drogu's head and lanced it upon one of the spikes for all to see. All this Laz beheld for himself.

Adolescence, and The Rebellion of Xal'gren

Shortly after beginning the adult phase of his military training, a massive slave revolt erupted on the outskirts of Urik. The slave revolt was led by a human gladiator named Xal'gren. Although at first without any soldier-slaves, Xal'gren amazingly defeated several of the outlying town garrisons with only liberated field slaves and a small contingent of freed gladiators. His ranks swelled into the thousands. At length, Xal'gen came to Laz's garrison. An immense human man, Xal'gren was already a famous gladiator, and one of the champions of the city. With an impassioned speech demanding freedom for all, Xal'gren's awesome charisma washed over the assembled slave-soldiers-in-training, and so they turned on their training officers and slew them.

Laz participated in the rest of the rebellion, for as long as it lasted. Drawn by the leadership of Xal'gren, the human gladiator believed the Urikites would never let his slave army escape Urikite territory, and so he planned nothing less than the siege of Urik itself, the defeat of its army and templars, and the overthrow of the king himself. Such was the awesome power of Xal'gren's leadership and combat prowess that his slave followers soon fanatically believed that such incredible feats were possible.

In those tense days, Laz fought hard in Xal'gren's army, and on several nights soaked in the world-deep wisdom of the strange gladiator, during which times he would sing and talk to his followers. Preaching the most profound vision of freedom Laz had ever heard, Laz learned that Xal'gren desired no crown, but that instead he wished to free the slaves of Urik from their masters, and then return to the desert. Laz heard the songs and parables of Wind and Air that Xal'gren would sing, and he learned that Xal'gren had been raised by thri-kreen in the deserts of the Tablelands. Amongst the thri-kreen Xal'gren had learned the love of true freedom, and a reverence for the breeze, gales and airs that symbolized this freedom. Xal'gren seemed almost more than human, although he was a man, but declined the crown of prophet that many of his followers wished to offer him.

Xal'gren's two weeks of freedom ended with a direct assault and siege of Urik, as Rikus and the Free Legion of Tyr had done over a decade before. But just as Rikus had failed, so did Xal'gren. Xal'gren did not even bring down the gates. The slave army was routed by the legions of Urik, and his force was placed in double envelopment before the walls of the city. There was a great massacre of the rebelling slaves, and Xal'gren, the champion of freedom for Urik's oppressed, was taken alive, if much against his will, by the order of the king.

Laz's unit of "traitorous" boy-soldiers were fettered and disgraced. No longer candidates for slave-soldiers in King Hamanu's army, the entire battalion was sent to living death in the Royal Obsidian Mines beneath Black Crown Mountain.

The Fate of Xal'gren

Although Laz did not see it, he would soon hear of that fate of Xal'gren the Free. The gladiator was abused and thrown into the Pit of Black Death, where he was to be put to death before the eyes of the vengeful king by the most powerful and vicious monsters of the desert that the King's reavers could possibly find. Over the course of months, the great gladiator survived combat after combat, and at last in an open desert arena near the Lake of Golden Dreams, he slew a fire drake, perhaps the most powerful creature of the desert besides the Dragon himself. Now immensely popular within the city, Hamanu allowed there to be a final gladiatorial combat in the Pit of Black Death against a great champion. King Hamanu arranged for the Champion of Raam, the half-giant Badwah, to come to Urik to put an end to Xal'gren. The two great gladiators fought a horrendous battle, to a draw, and so upon the screaming demands of the fanatical spectators, Xal'gren was allowed to live and be sold to the great city-state of Raam.

Laz and the Black Death

Few fates are worse than being sold into slavery to

work in the quarry pits. The sharp edges of the

glassy stone will slice your fingers, hands, and arms

to a point of uselessness within days. -The Wanderer's Chronicle

The free winds of Xal'gren's revered spirits of the air stopped with the great gladiator's capture. Bereft of all hope, Laz and all his companions were doomed to die in the King's obsidian pits. Within a few weeks, all but the hardiest of the humans and half-elves of the rebellious slave-soldier battalion died or were put to death for exhaustion. For all but the strongest, the black glass amplified the heat of the afternoon to lethal levels, and the cruel guards spared no brutality for the condemned slaves.

However, the continued rumor of Xal'gren's survival gave Laz hope.

With his thicker skin and incredible bodily constitution, Laz, like many of his mul companions, survived, if only barely, the extreme harshness of the Black Death, as it was called. Remembering having once desired to emulate his father, Laz saw the handful of favored or even free dwarves come to seed the condemned human women of the mines. As time went on, Laz heard the horrid death howls of many of these women as they gave birth to more future mul slave-soldiers for the King.

Every day Laz would emerge from the pits, his body cut and bleeding, and the guards would push he and his fellow muls harder, for they knew the muls were traitors and that they could work harder then the humans. His skin became burned and hard, and his eyes singed from the blinding glare of the black obsidian. His feet, arms and hands became completely covered in cuts and scars from the valuable black glass. But Laz endured. Already blessed by his mother with a probing and speculative mind which could peer into the hearts of his fellow creatures, Laz's short time with Xal'gren had opened new and vast horizons for his mind. The songs of freedom he had heard for but a few days from the mouth of Xal'gren now spoke through him, and Laz imagined running free in the vast deserts which he could see from some of the harsh rocky perches of the mine camp. Like Xal'gren had done, Laz tried singing to the wind, even for aid, like the great gladiator had said an elder thri-kreen could do, to provide healing and protection from the woes of the world. No wind ever came for Laz, and he did not hear the Wind's voice, as he was sure that Xal'gren could.

By the end of the first year of such captivity, Xal'gren had been sold to Raam, and so the last great hope for the condemned slave-soldiers, that Xal'gren might lead another revolution to save them, faded from their minds. Despair and suicide began to take their toll. However, also by the end of the first year, a new hope came to fill the absence of the old one. Special templars came from the city who worked for the king's arena, and they chose several of those muls who had survived the year, for such muls had proved themselves exceptionally strong and resilient, and were thus deemed deserving for the chance to become a gladiator. Laz had been sent down one of the mine shafts when such templars came however, and was not selected, but it gave him the hope of being selected next time they came. Perhaps Laz could become a gladiator like Xal'gren after all.

Laz Explores the Depths of the Obsidian Mines

Another year passed, and Laz was passed up again for selection. A fiery despair had set in already, but at one point there was an impromptu attempted escape by many of the mul youths. They were stopped by the templars not far from the mines, and crucified so as to be exposed to death by the blazing glare of the obsidian. Laz watched as many of his old companions--some of the very strongest among them--die slow and transfixed at the edge of the pits.

By the third year, Laz was one of the few muls left of the original group, the rest either having died or been granted the blessing of enslavement somewhere else. Now however, although still very young, Laz was one of the more experienced slaves in the mines, and desiring his experience, the guards prevented Laz from being selected for gladiatorial training or any of the other hard labor positions away from the obsidian quarries that a good number of the other ex-slave-soldiers had been given.

Equipped as he was with the dwarven infravision of his father, Laz was sent out of the sun-exposed open pits and down into the dangerous obsidian tunnels, where special pieces obsidian intended for more unique purposes were quarried. Day after endless day Laz descended with small teams out of the blazing sun and into the murky and cool depths. Laz soon learned from the most experienced subterranean slave-miners how to rough-cut great slabs of obsidian, which it was said were refined by master slaves in Urik into strange stones and objects for unknown purposes.

By his fifth year in the mines, Laz was amongst the most respected slave miners in the camp, for he had become quite adept with the iron tools that were used to cut the strange and large shapes out of the obsidian. Laz was mentored by the most experienced slaves, and became privy to dark rumors of creatures and magic which lay at the center beneath the Black Crown Mountain. He was told by an elder human slave named Evrens that the high templar of the mines himself desired round obsidian balls, which had to be cut from perfectly pure and unblemished obsidian, and that such veins only existed deep beneath the earth and beneath the Black Crown. Laz already knew that the deep teams often tried cutting such obsidian, but that they were rarely of high enough quality for the templars. Nevertheless, entertaining a rumor that one who could cut such pieces of obsidian would be granted their freedom, Laz pursued such cuts of obsidian with vigor when the templars told he and his team to find such a piece.

Another year and more passed as Laz and his fellow deep miner slaves plumbed the depths of the obsidian tunnels and caverns, hoping that they would not run into the monsters that were rumored to wander the deeper places. Certain teams would disappear from time to time, and well-armed squads of templars would descend into the depths, but Laz never saw any such creatures.

One day, exploring the depths of the mines, the team found an exceptionally perfect section of obsidian, and so they went to work. Laz thought he had cut a promising piece that could be finished at the surface, but a highly experienced half-elf slave on the team named Niroko claimed that he had been responsible for selecting the perfect vain of obsidian, and demanded that he be the one who displayed the obsidian to the templars. Laz and others refused, and there was a struggle. Niroko, an accomplished thief before his enslavement, managed to take the rough globe from Laz, and ran down the tunnel and back towards the surface with the treasure. Laz's rage grew, and his psionic wild talent, which hitherto had been unknown to him, was released. The obsidian above the half-elf detonated, killing the half-elf instantly. The obsidian tunnel cracked and its ceiling fell, separating Laz from his companions, and threw him down a jagged fissure his own psionic power had created.

Laz and the Fire in the Dark

Where Laz fell, he found himself unable to see, his infravision somehow failing him. He could feel the obsidian all around.

With bones broken and his flesh badly bleeding from lacerations during the fall, Laz begged once more for the Wind of Xal'gren to guide him to his escape from the fissure, to heal his broken bones and to light his way. The wind did not answer, and so he prayed for any power that could hear him to come to his succor. There was still no answer.

At last, Laz's great will began to fade, and as he despaired, he clutched the iron piton he was contemplating plunging into his heart. In his desperation, the tip of the iron piton began to glow a low red color. Fixated on his own display of Will, the piton grew hotter and hotter, and its tip began to glow brighter and more intensely, and at last a tiny flame danced on the point of the tool.

Now with a light, Laz beheld that he had fallen into a strange corridor of what appeared to be very rare perfectly black obsidian that had somehow melted, as if from a great heat, at some time far in the past. Laz limped down the passage, and saw that the round seven foot diameter egg-shaped corridor went forward some thirty feet. There the corridor opened into a large chamber, forty feet high and teardrop-shaped perhaps, and completely composed of the very blackest and unblemished obsidian Laz had ever seen. The floor of the chamber seemed to be frozen in a molten state, like flowing pitch-black glass.

Upon walking into the center of the chamber, Laz's glowing red piton suddenly erupted into a blaze of fire. Alarmed, he threw the iron to the ground, and the fire grew greater, until it burned as a dark pillar in front of Laz.

All the while, Laz heard a great many indecipherable voices, speaking everywhere and nowhere. Laz stared upon the pillar of fire, which hurt his eyes, but he did not look away.

The voice from the flame said: "There can be no Freedom without Light, for in the Darkness there is Nothing at all... You call upon the Winds, but they cannot hear you here. This is My sanctuary, here at the door to the Heart of the World."

"Who are you?" Laz asked, staring into the fire.

"I am the Freedom you seek: the Fire in the Dark. Only I know the path to Freedom. Only the Flame can light your way. The Sun must set, but the Fire lights the way in even the deepest Dark."

"Why have you taken my night vision?"

"Look away if you wish to see the Dark. There is Nothing there. But if you look away you will never see the Fire again.

"Why do you appear to me?"

"Only the Fire can burn away and forge anew, and only the Fire can truly cleanse the world of the Darkness you would ask the Winds to but blow away. I am the Guardian of the Doors of the Dark, and you have summoned fire to find me."

"Where are we?"

"The Way is Sealed, for I have melted the Doors to the Heart of the World. None but the Fire in the Dark can pass here. Only Darkness lies beyond."

Laz stared downward and almost away from the flame, for it hurt his eyes greatly to look upon it.

"You alone have found me and are worthy to gaze upon me. Only I can light the way to your Freedom. Earth, Water and Air will not come to your succor. But the Fire in the Dark will its servant. Gaze upon me and see no more the Darkness, and forever after be illuminated by the Fire. Look away, and die in the Dark."

Laz looked into the fire. The voices, everywhere and nowhere, incomprehensible and without language, spoke to Laz. He stared into the fire so long that Laz's irises burnt black, and forever after he could not see in the dark as he could before. Never again did Laz look away from the fire.

Freedom

With new-found powers, Laz set and healed his broken bones, and with a whispered spell created a magical fire on another iron tool. He climbed out of the shaft from which he had fallen, and with the way back to the camp blocked to him, Laz explored secret ways in the narrowest of tunnels. Breaking into the lower vents of the volcano itself, Laz called upon the aid of the Fire in the Dark to protect him from the tremendous heat. Although badly burned and scorched, Laz emerged alive, and fled into the volcanic plains east of the Smoking Crown Mountains and away from Urik. There Laz met remnants of the Shesh, a chaotic federation of tribes of ex-slaves and the descendants of ex-slaves, who worship the lava and volcanoes of the mountains. The Shesh told him that Xal'gren had recently freed himself once more, and was gathering an army near Nibenay. Many of the Shesh warriors were going to help Xal'gren.

Laz began the travel to Xal'gren's camp.

Laz and the Army of Xal'gren

Laz returned to Xal'gren not long before the destruction of the main part of his army outside of North Ledopolus by Nibenay. He was welcomed by Xal'gren personally, and invited as a guest in Xal'gren's personal camp. The great gladiator actually took time to speak to Laz, for he remembered him from the Urikite revolution. Xal'gren seemed to know everything that had happened to Laz without Laz having to say much of anything at all. Xal'gren seemed to understand in a very profound way just what Laz had experienced in the obsidian cave. Laz also realized that Xal'gren's faith in the winds and air had blossomed since last they were together, for Xal'gren was now surely the friend of the air spirits, for he could command them and bring cooling and healing airs to his whole army, if he wished it. Once again overwhelmed by the spirit of Xal'gren, Laz's spiritual crisis/awakening blossomed in the company of the arch-gladiator, and although the slave general could not spend much more time with Laz, the short time he did spare would affect Laz for a long time to come. Knowing the great mental wounds and spiritual trauma that Laz had endured very recently as well as over the last seven years, Xal'gren recommended that a formal study of the Way of the Unseen might be able to calm, control and order Laz's troubled mind, soul and body. Laz agreed, and so Xal'gren asked his personal mindbender, the ancient dwarf Shardivan of North Ledopolus to instruct Laz in psionics. Although pretending only to be a village psionicist, Laz soon realized that secretly Shardivan was one of the most powerful psionicists in the all the Seven Cities, greater even perhaps than the sorcerer-kings themselves. Laz only studied with Shardivan irregularly over a three week period, but so great and deep was the dwarf's wisdom and insights that Laz made incredible steps forward, and very quickly.

Laz was not present for such destruction of Xal'gren's army by the Shadow King of Nibenay, for he had been meditating upon one of the dwarven pillars in the middle of the silt Estuary of the Forked Tongue that the dwarves of North and South Ledopolus had set up as guidemarkers for their great bridge across the silt. Laz was meditating there, for he had been instructed to do so by Shardivan.

Laz gathered with Xal'gren's new army, and completed his psionic training with the various minor psionicists that had joined the slave general's cause. Laz was present for the entire Balican peninsula campaign, and participated in most of the battles. Laz was pressed to stay in the rear so as to use his healing powers for the wounded.

After the conquest of Balic itself, Laz remains in Xal'gren's field army. His most recent campaign was the defeat of the rebellious former polemarch of Balican, General Xyestes. Distancing himself from the immediate front lines, Laz focuses on his budding power over Fire and the Way, which he is beginning to realize can potentially be far more mighty than the spear and shield.

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