Storm Bringer Stories

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Storm Bringer Stories
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The following is a summary of the Stormbringer/Elric Saga of stories as published in Chaosium’s 5th Edition of the Stormbringer roleplaying game. Rather than rewriting this excellent overview it is presented here with only minor changes.
The Elric Novels and short stories encompass approximately seven years of the albino emperor’s life. In order of events, the books are Elric of Melniboné , The Fortress of the Pearl , The Sailor on the Seas of Fate , The Weird of the White Wolf , The Vanishing Tower , The Revenge of the Rose , The Bane of the Black Sword , and Stormbringer .
A ninth book, Elric at the End of Time , contains two Elric tales among the works collected in it, but need not be considered a vital part of the saga. Of these, one takes place after The Sailor on the Seas of Fate , and the other fits between the last two stories in The Bane of the Black Sword .
A tenth (and similarly extraneous) book is Tales of the White Wolf , an anthology of Elric stories by various authors. It includes Moorcock’s short story “The White Wolf’s Song,” which takes place at an undefined time between the end of Elric of Melniboné and the beginning of The Sailor on the Seas of Fate . Finally, the Elric novel The Dreamthief’s Daughter was published in April 2001. This tale is not dealt with here.
Elric of Melniboné describes, less than a year after Elric has been crowned the 428th emperor of the Ruby Throne, how the machinations of his ambitious cousin Yyrkoon plunge him into the beginnings of his dark fate. Elric is forced to invoke Arioch of the Seven Darks, one of the Lords of Chaos, who has not manifested upon the earth for centuries. Using the power this gains him, Elric chases Yyrkoon, who has kidnapped Cymoril, the woman Elric loves, and fled Melnibone. In recovering her, Elric gains possession of Stormbringer, a rune-carved sword possessed of both malign sentience and the power to drain the souls of those it slays. A portion of this power transfers to the weak albino, giving him the strength he has needed, but at a dreadful cost. At the conclusion of the first book, having made the acquaintance of the human hero Rackhir the Red Archer, Elric leaves his cousin as regent. He himself goes adventuring in the Young Kingdoms for a year, in search of the knowledge to revitalize his stagnant, dying kingdom.
After several minor adventures vaguely described, Elric arrives at the desert city of Quarzhasaat, last remnant of an empire that long ago threatened Melnibone, in The Fortress of the Pearl . Here Elric is dragged into feuds between the rulers of the city, and is forced by them to embark on a journey in search of a legendary treasure. Crossing deserts and other planes, Elric at last returns to Quarzhasaat to destroy it, completing a sentence passed against the city by Melnibone centuries ago, but never carried out.
In The Sailor on the Seas of Fate , Elric learns something of his true nature, as he joins with three other aspects of the Eternal Champion to battle frightful twins who threaten the entire multiverse. Although this episode seems almost a dream to Elric later in his life, it has a profound effect upon him. Afterward Elric leaves the mysterious ship upon which he has sailed, taking his leave of its blind captain, and finds himself in a world beneath a blue sun. Here Elric meets Count Smiorgan Baldhead of the Isle of the Purple Towns. Befriending him, the two escape back to the Young Kingdoms, only to be caught up with the adventurer and explorer Duke Avan Astran, a Vilmirian of considerable fame. Duke Avan enlists Elric’s aid, which adds to Elric’s knowledge of his nation’s past, but the adventure ends in the duke’s death. Stricken with remorse, Eric returns with Count Smiorgan Baldhead to the Purple Towns.
After a short adventure at the far end of time, Elric returns to Melnibone as described in The Weird of the White Wolf , not to rule the Dragon Isle (as he had hoped), but to destroy it forever. Elric’s travels confirm his belief that Melnibone is an anachronistic parasite. Then his cousin Yyrkoon seizes the Ruby Throne, declaring Elric a traitor and himself emperor. Leading a fleet of Young Kingdom raiders, Elric attacks the Dreaming City, his home, and the reavers he leads pillage and burn the oldest and most beautiful city in the world. Attempting to save Cymoril, Elric accidentally slays her because of Yyrkoon’s treachery. Only Elric’s ship escapes Melnibone’s final, fiery breath, and he abandons and betrays Count Baldhead, his friend and ally, so he himself might live.
Next Elric meets Moonglum of Elwher, an adventurer from the Unknown East who proves to be Elric’s steadfast companion in the years ahead. An encounter with a minor Chaos Lord dashes Elric’s hopes of discovering the true nature of the universe. Elric has a brief affair with Yishana, Queen of Jharkor, earning the hatred of Theleb K’aarna, a Pan Tangian sorcerer who thereafter becomes his deadly enemy.
In The Vanishing Tower , Elric is involved with Myshella of the Dawn, the ultimate Champion of Law in the Young Kingdoms, saving her castle from destruction. Then, because of Theleb K’aarna’s manipulations, he is caught up in a battle against the beggar hordes of Nadsokor. Elric seeks refuge in Tanelorn, the eternal city, a haven for any whose lives are fraught with suffering, but he cannot find the peace that Tanelorn offers all others.
Riding through the desert that surrounds the city, Elric’s fate catches up with him again, and he is flung into another world, there encountering two aspects of himself as the Champion. Aiding them means Elric aids himself, and he returns to the world of the Young Kingdoms just in time to save Tanelorn from Theleb K’aarna’s wrath. Alas, Elric cannot save Myshella from the Pan Tangian and, with her dead, Chaos increases its influence upon the world.
Departing Tanelorn in The Revenge of the Rose , Elric rides east, to the Unknown Kingdoms, but is dragged back to Melnibone and back through time by the magic of his father Sadric, whom Elric believed long dead. Sadric is, but his spirit sends Elric on a quest through countless worlds in search of Sadric’s soul. It is concealed inside a carved rose-wood box stolen by the dead emperor’s body-slave several years ago. In saving his father’s soul, Elric saves his own from that which he most fears, his Melnibonean heritage, and learns something of the truth concerning Melnibone’s past. He also earns his father’s long-begrudged love.
The Bane of the Black Sword sees Elric reunited with Queen Yishana in Ilmiora, three years after their first meeting. There the albino finally has his revenge upon Theleb K’aarna, but at the cost of the life of Dyvim Tvar, his kinsman and one of his oldest comrades.
Fleeing the destruction he has wrought, Elric, with Moonglum, meets Zarozinia of Karlaak, a senator’s daughter lost in the ill omened Forest of Troos. Even as Elric begins to fall in love with this spirited young woman, his doom is upon him, and he sends another ancient civilization crashing to destruction by his passing.
Traveling with Zarozinia to her home, Elric weds her, hoping to find happiness. For the first time in years Elric puts Stormbringer aside, able to survive on drugs he discovered in Troos. Then he must reclaim the sword in an attempt to save his new home from the depredations of a savage eastern army. Successful, Elric is reunited with Zarozinia, and resides for a time in Karlaak by the Weeping Waste.
Stormbringer, the final novel of the Elric saga, sees the albino emperor’s doom embrace the world at large. Jagreen Lern, the Chaos-worshiping Theocrat of Pan Tang, unleashes madness and horror upon the earth. Zarozinia’s simultaneous kidnapping catapults Elric into action. Although briefly reunited with his friends and wife, in the end Elric’s destiny means their deaths at his hands, on the blade of his vampiric rune sword. Having gone on a desperate journey to another world to gain a magic horn with which the ravaged earth can be renewed, Elric himself is killed by Stormbringer. Dead, Elric still cannot know peace: his soul is absorbed, like the thousands of friends and foes whom he himself has slain, into the essence of the demonic black sword. The last words of the saga are spoken by the entity that is Stormbringer itself, as it laughs in mockery at the Cosmic Balance and all it stands for.
“ Farewell, friend,” it says to Elric. “I was a thousand times more evil than thou!”
Michael Moorcock’s Elric series had a profound effect on my life, in a most positive way, and also on my gaming buddies! Elric is, hands down, the most interesting character ever created in ANY genre! Thanks for sharing this summary of the books that I love so much!
You’re welcome Greg. You should really be thanking Richard Watts, he was the author of that fine summary. If you’re not already, I’d invite you to join a growing number of us old gamers of Stormbringer over at the Stormbringer Facebook group ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/320118915031859/ ).
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[Coming Soon] Elric: Rise of the Young Kingdoms to Kickstarter
Hawkmoon: The Roleplaying Game – Mongoose Publishing – 2007
Stormbringer’s Guide to Old Hrolmar by Richard Watts
Interview with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
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https://mailchi.mp/2a9a0e9c6955/pursuitofthepaleprince_v13-5305733 "
"Hi there - No sorry no official word... "
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Preview — Stormbringer
by Michael Moorcock




The epic tale of Elric of Melnibone, albino prince of ruins, moves to it's awesome conclusion -with the whole of the natural and supernatural world in mighty conflict - the final conflict, Armageddon. Elric holds the key to the future: the new age which must follow the destruction.To turn that key he must sacrifice all that he loves and risk his very soul.
The epic tale of Elric of Melnibone, albino prince of ruins, moves to it's awesome conclusion -with the whole of the natural and supernatural world in mighty conflict - the final conflict, Armageddon. Elric holds the key to the future: the new age which must follow the destruction.To turn that key he must sacrifice all that he loves and risk his very soul.
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Published
September 15th 1987
by Ace


(first published 1965)



0441787541
(ISBN13: 9780441787548 )


Moonglum , Zarozinia , Elric of Melniboné


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Heigh-ho, I sometimes fantasize about a law that would forbid older authors from going back and modifying their early works. A gross infringement of l …more Heigh-ho, I sometimes fantasize about a law that would forbid older authors from going back and modifying their early works. A gross infringement of liberty, you say? No doubt, but in my view the literary world would be a lot better for it. Michael Moorcock’s works are a case in point. Originally there were just two books in this series, Stormbringer, and The Stealer of Souls, and those are the best. Get the first editions of these two if you can, the remainder become increasingly dreadful. The same goes for the Runestaff series (4 books originally). (Other examples include Doc Smith’s Lensman series, Jack Williamson’s The Legion of Time, and many more.) Hope this helps. (less)



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Start your review of Stormbringer (The Elric Saga, #6)

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With Stormbringer , Michael Moorcock brings a superior fantasy series to a to formally effective and emotionally satisfying conclusion. I love the Elric series, and sometimes wonder if I rate the books too highly. After all, the prose, ranging from workmanlike to vigorous, is often evocative but rarely poetic, and the tales themselves run to cliche, with too many love-besotted sorcerers, too many queens with hidden agendas, and too many marvelous towers—chock full of monsters and demons—appearing
With Stormbringer , Michael Moorcock brings a superior fantasy series to a to formally effective and emotionally satisfying conclusion. I love the Elric series, and sometimes wonder if I rate the books too highly. After all, the prose, ranging from workmanlike to vigorous, is often evocative but rarely poetic, and the tales themselves run to cliche, with too many love-besotted sorcerers, too many queens with hidden agendas, and too many marvelous towers—chock full of monsters and demons—appearing at the conflux of the time streams. Here, however, Moorcock is at the top of his game. His prose is unusually concentrated and disciplined, and many of the plot elements he introduces are both surprising and pleasing. (My favorites? The quest for Roland’s horn, and—even better--the Sad Giant and his shield.) But the best thing about this book is the seriousness with which Moorcock treats his hero, his hero’s destiny, and the startlingly original universe—a world torn between Chaos and Law—in which his hero lives. For it is the brooding Byronic character of Elric himself, fated to kill those whom he loves, and the unique philosophical realm which determines the nature of that character, that together are the twin source of the Elric fans’ delight, making it easy to excuse the patches of mundane prose, the occasional narrative cliche. In fashioning Stormbringer , Moorcock has shown great courage, not flinching from the demands of fate or the requirements of his chosen universe. He brings the Elric series to its inevitable conclusion, and, in doing so, has crafted a thing of harsh beauty, as heartbreaking and bleak as Arthur’s battle at the plain of Camlann.
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"I think of myself as a bad writer with big ideas, but I'd rather be that than a big writer with bad ideas." -Michael Moorcock With this simple sentence, Moorcock reveals something troubling and endemic to the fantasy genre: that not enough fantasy authors start out with fantastical ideas. There are a lot of big writers out there (with really big books) who don't have very big ideas. But perhaps that shouldn't surprise us, since their ur-inspiration, Tolkien, has a remarkably vast amount of skill
"I think of myself as a bad writer with big ideas, but I'd rather be that than a big writer with bad ideas." -Michael Moorcock With this simple sentence, Moorcock reveals something troubling and endemic to the fantasy genre: that not enough fantasy authors start out with fantastical ideas. There are a lot of big writers out there (with really big books) who don't have very big ideas. But perhaps that shouldn't surprise us, since their ur-inspiration, Tolkien, has a remarkably vast amount of skill sadly limited by a very small vision, while Moorcock is the opposite: a man with grandiose visions who is sometimes limited by his meager skill. Certainly, Moorcock is capable of some pretty, frilly prose, and shows in this story, as in the tale which opens Elric's saga, that he is capable of providing a consistent tone and driving plot. But, at his core, he is still (at least through the early Elric stories), a pulp writer, and he admits as much in the introduction to 'Stealer of Souls', talking about how many of the stories were rushed, how some were written for money, that many disparate stories were combined to make saleable novels, and how most of these stories were explorations of ideas that he would only fully develop in later series. I admit I appreciate this straightforward humility much more than the pretension of many in the genre, and as usual, it is the most humble author who tends to produce the best work--it is almost as if some level of restraint and self-awareness was vital to being a skilled writer. Though not all of his experiments work out so well, like Leiber, the earlier writing seems to have the most drive and vitality. While this dark, mythic vision of Ragnarok might be the conclusion of Elric's tragedy, it actually comprises some of the earliest stories. Like the introductory story of the series, this one has a consistent arc of plot and tone, and is much more concerned with Elric's psychological struggles than some of the others, where he is more standoffish and archetypally mythic. There is also an interesting crossover here between Elric's story and the historical myths that inspired him--namely the Song of Roland , and it is an interesting choice on Moorcock's part to create a literal connection to his inspirations instead of merely a symbolic, allusive one. It is another sign of his authorial inventiveness and boldness to delve suddenly into pastiche and give his mythic world a very real connection to his reader's reality. Once again, I am struck by the fact that, reading the entirety of the original Elric tales, I have grossed about eight-hundred-fifty pages, and in that space, have gotten a character's life: his several loves, many companions met, befriended, lost, and mourned, empires destroyed, mythical realms explored, and a worldwide war begun, waged, and concluded. In many other fantasy series, I might still be waiting for the plot to actually pick up. Already I have gotten a depth and breadth that exceeds many longer works, and that is despite the fact that several of the Elric stories are experiments that never quite concluded, and thus acted as filler. I know that Elric is not quite an 'Epic Fantasy' (though it does have some epic scope), but it seems to me that too few authors actually have enough ideas to actually fill a series the length of the average epic. Moorcock does have a wealth of ideas, many of them promising and unusual, and it's unfortunate that Moorcock never quite explores them all, though he has said that for him, the Elric stories were just the opening forays for concepts he would develop more fully later, and so I look forward
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