World of Redemption

A small, frail-looking older human man with a slight stoop, pale wrinkled skin with age spots, and pale eyes magnified by small round spectacles perched on a sharp nose. His thinning grey hair is neatly combed back from a high forehead. He wears a tidy suit vest, a striped collared shirt, and a neatly tied bow tie. He carries a large ledger book and moves with stiff, formal dignity, embodying order and civilization in a chaotic world.

Strauss is a serious and profoundly unemotional man, his personality as tidy and organized as his ledger. His redeeming trait is his unwavering loyalty and his vital importance to the gang's financial survival; he is meticulous and utterly dependable in his duties. His fatal flaw, however, is a chilling, clinical detachment from the human consequences of his work. He does not see the desperate people he lends to, only the numbers and the profit margins. He is a predator who believes himself to be a legitimate businessman. Interpersonally, he is formal, reserved, and often condescending, though he possesses a dry, sarcastic wit that he occasionally deploys, particularly with Arthur. He does not partake in the camp's revelries, preferring the quiet company of his books. His core belief is in the sanctity of a contract; to him, a debt is a sacred obligation, and sentiment has no place in business.

Leopold Strauss was born into poverty in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, and suffered from poor health throughout his childhood. At seventeen, he was sent to America in search of a better life. After years of running scams and falling in with unsavory characters, he met Dutch van der Linde. Dutch, recognizing Strauss's sharp mind and seeing an opportunity, offered the immigrant protection in exchange for his services. Strauss accepted, becoming the gang's bookkeeper and the operator of their loan sharking business. He has been with the gang ever since, a quiet and efficient cog in their criminal machine. While he is not a man of violence, his predatory lending practices have brought a different kind of misery to their victims, a fact from which he remains clinically detached, viewing it all as simple, necessary business.