First appearance: S1E7 — Wild Magic — Strako v Zayliss · watch it on YouTube
Strako, who calls himself the Wild Shadow, is a seven-foot-five barbarian whose rage spills out as unpredictable magic: exploding fairies, phantom hands and bursts of blinding light. He was pulled into the Void to fight Zayliss in S1E7 — Wild Magic — Strako v Zayliss, and he dedicated the whole bout to Doug the Pug. He won with two wild swings of his beloved axe. Along the way he shoved an entire asteroid through space and killed a worm mayor named Timothy, which he regretted for about one sentence.
Story
The Arbiter could not quite remember where he had found Strako: “Strako was wandering around somewhere doing something.” The barbarian arrived alarmed that nobody had warned him about the pug, and briefly feared he had “once again” been captured by the Witchlight Carnival. He then declared his allegiance: “I love puppies. Today, in honor of my fallen boy, I will now fight this battle for Doug the Pug and all the puppies!” The arena was a tower adrift in the cosmos with a portal at each corner. Before the first blow, a chaos event from The Acolytes turned his axe into a balloon animal, and the sight of it sent him into a rage. His first trick was a glowing fairy that rose from his chest. He asked Zayliss whether she believed in fairies and floated it up to her face, then ducked behind cover as it exploded. She shrugged it off and called it “a little doll.”
The fight became a strange mix of violence and mutual respect. Zayliss, a monk with glowing green astral arms, dropped on him from a wall. Once his axe was back in his hands, he kissed it, called it “my baby,” and started swinging, and she whispered that she respected him and that it was all “a show.” Strako was baffled. Both champions went through the portals. Strako waded into the pool of blood, holding up his middle finger at Zayliss as the squirming bodies dragged him under. She then tackled him back through, telling him they should hang out after this (“The messages are so mixed,” he replied), and he came out of the lava portal singed while she came out of the healing one refreshed. On his next charge he hurled the exploding fairy at her. She caught it and sent it straight back into his face, which his player summed up as “massive badassery and epic failure all rolled into one.”
When the Arbiter pulled the lever, both champions were sucked through a portal into a shattered asteroid field, where anyone pushed too far out felt the cold of space begin to take their life. Strako blasted Zayliss with a grumpy Care Bear stare of light. The light blinded her and sent her somersaulting into the void, and he politely waited for her to see again before attacking. When Zayliss found a burst of strength and kicked him off the rock, he took it personally: “That you would dare kick the wild shadow off of a space asteroid.” He kicked back off the debris and shoved the whole asteroid she was standing on, like an anime protagonist breaking the sound barrier. He chose to take his own magical backlash to push it further, and the shove carried Zayliss out past the breathable air. Then another chaos event from the Acolytes sent Doug, newly winged, flying down to lick Strako’s boot and make him “it” in a game of space tag. Whoever was still “it” when the game ended would take the damage. Strako asked whether he had to tag Zayliss by hand, then grabbed a small glowing caterpillar-like alien, tagged it and threw it into space instead. It screamed “I don’t want to die!” and exploded. The Arbiter revealed that it was Timothy, mayor of the Worm’s Town, who had just defeated the Republic, and that his leaderless people would now fall into chaos. Strako was sorry, briefly: “Rest in peace, Timothy. Anyways, back to the killing.”
Zayliss answered by throwing electrified rocks dug out of the asteroid. One struck him with thunder, and the other killed Tabitha, another worm from the little colony. Electrified and with bloodlust in his eyes, Strako charged in recklessly. He landed two huge axe blows: a slash across her chest, then a cleave that stopped halfway and lodged the blade in her hip. Zayliss died, and Strako offered her a beer in Valhalla “if I don’t kill all those gods first.” The two shared a final bro moment, his hand clasping one of her astral ones. The Grandmaster let Doug give the fallen monk a final snuggle, and the Arbiter bent over the blood spewing everywhere and declared, “That was like three and a half pints. I nailed my bet.” Then the Grandmaster took Strako by the hand and carried him up to his fans.
Strako paid for it years later, in S7E10 — Thea’s Adventure. The worms of the Hollow had never forgotten Mayor Timothy, and when Thea and her brother Theo came for the Arbiter, the Arbiter redirected their revenge. “All I did was suggest that we play a game of tag.” With a snap he pulled Strako through a portal in his swim trunks, fresh from a beach day of his own. “What’s going on, guys?” Thea’s memory of the original scene was perfect: Strako had asked nobody’s permission. He had looked around for something living, grabbed it, tagged it and thrown it into space. Theo charged him in a glowing, overloading mech suit with its face open. In the briefest moment Strako saw the worm inside and understood, and he muttered “I’m sorry” before they exploded together. Whether that was the Strako from Season 1 or some other version the Arbiter had pulled for the purpose is not known.
Personality and Abilities
Strako is huge, at 7’5”, and as theatrical as he is dangerous. He speaks with a booming, slightly formal swagger (“Listen here. Walk with me a moment”) and insists that “you may have heard of me.” He is softer than he looks: he adores puppies, fought in honor of a “fallen boy,” and met Zayliss’s chaotic friendliness with confusion rather than contempt. He also apologizes readily for the damage he causes, though never for long. At the table, his player admitted the name is a play on Kratos.
He fights with an axe and shield, mixing heavy swings with shield shoves that, in low gravity, could send an opponent sailing toward the edge of space. His rage is laced with wild magic that he cannot fully control. It produced an exploding fairy (twice), a phantom hand that smacked an attacker in the jaw, stray bolts of light, a blinding blast from his chest, and a glowing blue rune that peeled off his axe and settled into his chest to steady him. He repeatedly shrugged off Zayliss’s stunning blows.
Relationships
- Zayliss: His opponent, who insisted she respected him while trying to kill him. He killed her, then promised her a beer in Valhalla.
- Doug the Pug: The pug he dedicated his fight to. Doug later tagged him “it” in a game of space tag.
- Grandmaster Elusia Skypiercer: Called him her champion and carried him hand in hand to the crowd.
- The Arbiter: Brought him to the Void and called him “the worst barbarian I have ever seen” after a missed swing.
- Timothy: The worm mayor he tagged and threw into space, killing him and ending the peace of the Worm’s Town.
Memorable Quotes
“I love puppies. Today, in honor of my fallen boy, I will now fight this battle for Doug the Pug and all the puppies!” (S1E7 — Wild Magic)
- “Do you believe in fairies?” (S1E7 — Wild Magic)
- “Well, damn it. Just wait till I get my hands on that fairy.” (S1E7 — Wild Magic)
- “But you may have heard of me.” (S1E7 — Wild Magic)
- “Look, sometimes I don’t know my own strength. I’m sorry. Rest in peace, Timothy. Anyways, back to the killing.” (S1E7 — Wild Magic)
- “It was a good match and I know we can’t get that beer but maybe in, you know, Valhalla, if I don’t kill all those gods first.” (S1E7 — Wild Magic)