Erich Zann

Erich Zann is a fictional character created by H. P. Lovecraft for his short story "The Music of Erich Zann".
==Background==
Erich Zann is a German musician who, at the end of his life, lived in a tenement on Rue d'Auseil, in an unspecified French city. Of his early life nothing is known. He is completely mute and earns his living by playing the viol as part of a small theater orchestra.
Zann resides in the attic room of a large boarding house. The window of his room is the only place in the entire Rue d'Auseil high enough to allow him to see the landscape behind the wall that occupies the end of the street. Every night, Zann plays strange music, usually of his own composition, that apparently serves either to soothe or to counteract the influence of a mysterious cosmic entity.
Physically, Erich Zann is described as a short, lean, nearly bald old man with a curved posture, blue eyes, and a satyr-like face. His room is unkempt, almost bereft of furniture, and his clothes are also described as "shabby".
The story's narrator, a student of metaphysics, meets Erich Zann after renting a room in the boarding house's otherwise empty fourth floor. Unable to sleep at night due to the bizarre music, the narrator is nonetheless fascinated by it and recognizes Zann's composition as the product of a creative genius. Despite Zann's reclusive and eccentric attitude, the narrator is able to befriend him and asks him to play some of his pieces.
While the narrator enjoys Zann's music, they are disappointed to hear none of the "weird notes" that had so fascinated them in the nights before. Once the narrator mentions the fact and whistles some of the notes, Zann reacts violently, covers the narrator's mouth with his hand, and casts a terrified glance at the window as if expecting someone to be there, despite the great height and absence of other nearby buildings. When the narrator tries to peek through the window themself, Zann becomes even more agitated, to the point of physically restraining them and gesturing them to leave the room. However, as the narrator reacts angrily to this, Zann calms down and writes a note in broken French. In this note, Zann asks the narrator to forgive his behaviour, citing nervous disorders that make it impossible for him to bear playing his "weird harmonies" to another or hear them from another. He assures the narrator that he was pleased by their visit and would be glad to play his other compositions, but asks the narrator to rent a different room from which they would no longer be able to hear Zann's "weird" pieces, and offers to pay the difference in rent, to which the narrator agrees.
Still fascinated, however, the narrator can't resist climbing the stairs at night and standing outside Zann's room as the old man plays his powerful and bizarre compositions. One night, they listen to Zann having what appears to be an attack or fit and knock on the door worriedly, being admitted by a frightened Zann once the latter has regained consciousness.
Zann pleads the narrator to wait for him to write down a manuscript that will explain his situation, but is interrupted by a melody outside that announces the arrival of some supernatural force or entity. Hearing this, Zann takes up the viol and starts playing frenetically, but is somehow dominated by the unseen force or creature as the window is shattered by an incredible gust of wind. The narrator looks through the window and sees no landscape at all, but an alien spectacle of "unimagined space alive with motion and music, and having no semblance to anything on Earth". They also notice that Zann's body has become cold and unresponsive, even though he continues to play the viol furiously. After several futile attempts to help Zann, the narrator is forced to flee to save their own skin.
After these events, the narrator was never able to locate Rue d'Auseil again despite having lived on it and despite several attempts at doing so. Neither can they find anyone else who knows about the street. (: "The Music of Erich Zann")
==In Other Media==
*In the novel Zanma Taisen Demonbane, Erich Zann is a famous violin player in the city of Rue d'Auseil. His music can drive the listeners insane or even call forth the wicked beings. The sound of his violin is dedicated to a god who sleeps at the center of the universe; when the god is awakened by his music, the entire cosmos will vanish like a fleeting dream. His design is a look-alike of a certain doctor who appeared earlier in the series.
*Erich Zann appears in The Adventures of the X-Men #4 "When the Dweller Awakes" by Marvel Comics. However, the character is very different compared to the version from Lovecraft's story.
==Gallery==
ErichZann-WeirdTales.jpg|As depicted by Andrew Brosnatch in Weird Tales
ErichZann-TheWorldsOfHPL.jpg|As depicted by Aldin Baroza in The Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft
Erich Zann (Nick O'Gorman).jpeg|As depicted by Nick O'Gorman in The Music of Erich Zann
Erich Zann (Demonbane).png|Erich Zann (Demonbane)
Erich Zann (Marvel Comics).jpg|Erich Zann (Marvel Comics)
Category:Characters Originating From Lovecraft Circle Works
Category:Deceased (In Mythos)
Category:Humans