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| Art: James Cawthorn, "Stormbringer", 1976 |
Dead God’s Homecoming (1963)
Chapter One
Six creatures serving Chaos sneak into Karlaak and successfully kidnap Zarozinia, despite Elric’s valiant efforts. Later, using sorcery and herbs, Elric resurrects one of the creatures he had killed in the struggle. The creature delivers a mysterious prophecy, suggesting that Zarozinia lies beyond an ocean, a battle and a kinsman. Elric recalls that the western kingdoms of Dharijor and Pan Tang have formed an alliance in order to make war on their borders. In response, Yishana of neighboring Jharkor has engaged the services of Dyvim Slorm and his Imrryrian mercenaries. Elric departs for Jharkor.
Chapter Two
Elric journeys on the Pale Sea towards Dharijor. On the way he learns that Jharkor, Tarkesh, Myrrhn and Shazaar have formed a coalition against Dharijor and Pan Tang. In the Western Marshes Elric finds a blackened landscape and receives a message from the Chaos demons, delivered by a witch-hag. In Sequaloris, Elric reunites with Dyvim Slorm and his Imrryrian mercenaries, Elric’s former kinsmen.
Chapter Three
The mysterious Sepiriz and his nine black brothers (messengers of Fate) ride chariots out of an erupting volcano and return to Nihrain, their 2000-year-old home. Elric arrives in Yishana’s camp and helps her prepare for a major battle with the enemy armies, led by Sarosto of Dharijor and the Pan Tang theocrat, Jagreen Lern. Sarasto and Jagreen Lern’s forces include tigers, Devil Riders and other mysterious creatures. The armies soon engage and Elric comes face to face with Jagreen Lern. Jagreen Lern knocks Elric off his horse, but does not pursue his advantage in deference to his Chaos masters. After Elric calls for a cavalry retreat, he signals for the winged men of Myrrhn to engage the enemy. Unfortunately the enemy army unleash their giant owls in response. With their forces decimated, Elric and Dyvim Slorm are forced to flee westwards towards the mountains. They later receive news of Yishana’s death and Jagreen Lern’s total victory. They decide to heed the undead Chaos creature’s riddle and head further west.
Chapter Four
When Elric and Dyvim Slorm are attacked by Pan Tang soldiers, Sepiriz and his Nihrain come to their aid. Back at the Chasm of Nihrain, Sepiriz tells Elric that his people had known the predecessors of the Melnibonéans. He also reveals that the runeswords were partly created to destroy the Dead Gods. Jagreen Lern has allowed the Dead God Darnizhaan to return, and holds Zarozinia as ransom for the twin runeblades. This would allow the Dead Gods’ return, which would foil Fate’s plan for the earth. Elric accepts Mournblade (Stormbringer’s sibling runeblade) from Sepiriz and loans it to Dyvim Slorm.
Chapter Five
Riding Nihranian steeds, Elric and Dyvim Slorm eventually reach the Vale of Xanyaw, and pass fleeing beings. The encounter Darnizhaan, who warns Elric that he and his world will be replaced by a new world of man unless the runeblades are surrendered. Elric gives the runeblades to Darnizhaan in return for Zarozinia, but immediately commands Stormbringer and Mournblade to destroy Darnizhaan under theor own volition.
Chapter Six
Elric, Zarozinia and Dyvim Slorm return to the Chasm of Nihrain. Sepiriz explains to Elric that they are fighting to guarantee a future Earth without the influence of Chaos, although they themselves will be forgotten. Elric also learns that he is an incarnation of the Champion Eternal (revised edition), fated to battle Chaos. Afterwards, Elric, Zarozinia and Dyvim Slorm ride for Tarkesh in order to sail to Ilmiora and then Karlaak.
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| Art: Robert Gould |
Chapter One
In Karlaak, Elric meets with several lords, princes and kings in order to forge an alliance against the forces of Pan Tang and Dharijor. However, the leaders of the Southern Kingdoms depart without joining the alliance. Elric makes plans to contact the Lords of Law through the hermits on Sorcerer’s Isle.
Chapter Two
Sailing from Jadmar, Elric and Moonglum observe some unusually destructive natural phenomena. Volcanoes sprout up on the open sea, and later they find themselves on strange gaseous waters. Off course, their boat crashes on the Serpent’s Teeth off Shazaar.
Chapter Three
Elric and Moonglum head inland on foot across a blackened landscape. A seer passes on a message from Sepiriz. When they reach the Hewn City of the Nihrain, Sepiriz appears and explains that the hermits on Sorcerer’s Isle have been unable to contact the Law Lords. However, Stormbringer’s brothers can be called upon to fight Jagreen Lern’s new supernatural allies, the Dukes of Chaos (Arioch, Balan, Maluk). He also mentions that in times past, when Elric had received help from unknown forces, it was the runeblade’s brothers who had aided him. Sepiriz teaches him the rune which will call Stormbringer’s brothers when needed.
Chapter Four
Elric and Moonglum ride for Pan Tang through a hellish, chaotic landscape. On the way to Hwamgaarl, City of Screaming Statues, they encounter Pan Tang warrior-priests, earthquakes and giant vulture-headed lions (which Elric distracts with a Melnibonéan chant). At Hwamgaarl, they fight their way through to Jagreen Lern’s palace. Lern appears in red armor and, seeing Stormbringer vitalized by the souls of his Pan Tang warrior priests, declines Elric’s challenge to single combat. The Chaos Lords appear in pleasing guises and try to change Elric’s allegiance. When Arioch attacks, Elric summons the vulture-lions to help him. The Chaos Dukes revert to unstable shapes and Elric pursues Jagreen Lern into the palace. After the Chaos Dukes defeat the vulture-lions, Elric calls upon Stormbringer’s brother blades to attack the Chaos Lords.
Chapter Five
After the Chaos Dukes and the runeblades have departed in their struggle (including Stormbringer), Jagreen Lern captures the now-weakened Elric and takes him aboard his flagship. The Pan Tang sorcerer plans to torture Elric slowly in return for his banishment of the Chaos Dukes (thus making his conquest more time-consuming). They sail for to meet the fleet of the Southern Kingdoms.
Chapter Six
While Jagreen Lern’s forces engage the fleet of the Southern Kingdoms, Elric is able to summon Stormbringer back to effect his liberation (during Elric’s captivity aboard Jagreen Lern’s flagship, he undertakes a lengthy dreamquest which is recounted in The Skrayling Tree, The White Wolf’s Son, “Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse”, “The Flaneur des Arcades de l'Opera”, etc.). Elric and Moonglum escape, leaving Jagreen Lern’s own ship in flames (although the fleets of the Southern Kingdoms are also destroyed). Back at the Isle of the Purple Towns, Elric is visited by Sepiriz, who warns him that with Stormbringer now revitalized by its brother swords’ power, Elric will have to exert more willpower than ever before to maintain mastery over it (although it will also provide him with the vitality taken from its victims more quickly).
Sad Giant’s Shield (1964)
Chapter One
In Bakshaan, Elric prepares the Eastern cities for battle against Jagreen Lern’s approaching Chaos fleet (now including Ships of Hell). Sepiriz arrives in a floating golden globe and tells Elric to quest for the giant Mordaga’s shield, which is immune to the effects of Chaos. Elric insists that he must first sail out to engage Jagreen Lern and his Hell ships.
Chapter Two
Elric journeys to Ma-ha-kil-agra (the Fortress of Evening) to rendezvouz with Moonglum. Elric speaks with a spy who has been horribly mutated by exposure to the forces of Chaos. Later he finds Zarozinia in his room, and tells her to return to Karlaak.
Chapter Three
The next morning Elric bids Zarozinia farewell and leads his naval forces towards Jagreen Lern’s fleet. Eventually a wave of Chaos is sighted on the horizon, followed by the Chaos Hell ships. Elric summons Straasha the water elemental and asks for his help, but Straasha can promise nothing.
Chapter Four
Elric’s flagship breaks through the first wave of enemy ships and heads towards Jagreen Lern’s flagship. He circles around the Chaos ships, allowing the main part of his force to engage the Hell Ships (and be destroyed). After grappling with Jagreen Lern’s flagship he learns that Jagreen Lern is actually on the Hell Lord Pyaray’s ship. As the Chaos ships crush the human flagships, Elric, Moonglum and Dyvim Slorm flee the grappled-together flagships and jump into the sea. Straasha takes them down to his undersea throne room, where he tells Elric where to strike Lord Pyaray in order to destroy his power over the Hell Ships. Elric ruefully learns that during the sea battle he had unknowingly killed one of his own generals with Stormbringer.
Chapter Five
After returning to the Fortress of Evening on the Isle of the Purple Towns, Elric finds with Rackhir the Red Archer. Rackhir reports that Jagreen Lern’s secondary fleet has successfully invaded the Ilmioran coast. Elric and his three friends journey to Karlaak where Sepiriz gifts them with Nihrain steeds (and lays a charm on Moonglum’s sword). Questing for Mordaga’s Chaos shield, Elric, Moonglum, Dyvim Slorm and Rackhir then ride towards the Weeping Waste and the Sighing Desert. During the journey Elric wonders if it would have been better to have remained a puppet, with no responsibility for his own fate. Days later, they sight the peaks of Mordaga’s Castle.
Chapter Six
While ascending the stairs on the mountain they are attacked by the vampiric leaves of sentient elder trees, possessed by demons. With Stormbringer and Mournblade’s help, Elric and Dyvim Slorm destroy the trees, stealing their supernatural power. Drunk on demonic energy, they next slaughter a small army on their way towards the castle gate. Elric accidentally kills Rackhir in the battle-fever. Up in the castle, Mordaga freely gives up the Chaos Shield in return for a peaceful death, but Moonglum kills him anyways, in order to satisfy Fate’s prophecy (and to indirectly avenge Rackhir’s death).
Chapter Seven
Returning to the Weeping Wastes, they learn that the nations of the East have fallen to the land-sailing Hell ships, and that Zarozinia has been captured by Jagreen Lern. Elric, Dyvim Slorm and Moonglum continue on through the chaos-warped land riding the Nihrain steeds. When they sight the Camp of Chaos, Elric rides forward alone, with the Chaos Shield protecting him from the warping effects of the Hell Ships. Fighting through swarms of animal-men creatures, Elric climbs aboard Pyaray’s lead Hell ship. Pyaray’s tentacles reach for Elric but he evades them and plunges Stormbringer into Pyaray’s soul-crystal, killing the Hell Lord. Pursuing Jagreen Lern, he finds Zarozinia, half-transformed into a worm. Zarozinia willingly impales herself onto Stormbringer’s point, offering up her soul to her husband. With Jagreen Lern now escaped, Elric rejoins his friends and they head towards Melniboné, the last remaining region untouched by the Chaos wave.
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| Art: James Cawthorn, "Stormbringer", 1976 |
Chapter One
Elric, Moonglum and Dyvim Slorm, the last remaining humans not corrupted by Chaos on the Earth, are unable to waken the dragons on Imrryr. Meanwhile a red sun remain still in the sky day and night, as time seems to stand still. Two weeks pass.
Chapter Two
While sleeping, Elric’s astral form visits Melniboné in its past, where ghosts of mastodons and the Green Empress Terhali still dwell. He meets his father Sadric, who states that Chaos has been affecting the land of the dead in strange ways. Sepiriz appears and takes Elric’s astral form to the Higher Worlds to meet with Donblas the Justice Maker and the other Lords of Law. The Law Lords tell Elric he must obtain the Horn of Fate from yet another dimension. Elric wakes and goes to the Tower of B’aal’nezbett to begin his journey.
Chapter Three
Stepping out over space from the top of the Tower, Elric is transported to a somewhat static world under a pale sun, ruled by Order. He encounters a barefoot dwarf, Jermays the Crooked, who tells Elric of the living corpse of Roland, another incarnation of the Eternal Champion. Roland, armed with his sword Durandana (a weapon of Law), holds the Horn Olifant, but was killed in betrayal. At Roland’s tomb, Elric meets the witch Lady Vivian, who gives Elric the key he needs to enter. When Elric takes Olifant, Roland wakes and attacks Elric. Elric beheads Roland and returns to his own dimension with Jermays’ help.
Chapter Four
Elric blows the Horn of Fate and wakes the Dragons of Imrryr, although Elric himself is greatly weakened. He is strapped to Flamefang and leads the dragons over a Chaos-blasted land to the Camp of Chaos by Karlaak. They find that an entire city has been constructed at the site, although it is abandoned. They soon find Jagreen Lern and his Chaos horde to the northwest, as well as several Dukes of Hell. The dragons unleash fiery venom on the horde, but the Chaos forces retaliates with lightning-like “amber spears” which are fatal to the dragons. Elric tries to attack Jagreen Lern but is forced to retreat, with the Chaos Shield barely protecting him against Lern’s lightning bolts. Elric is greatly weakened, so Flamefang flies down to the ground so that Stormbringer can take some souls and revitalize the albino. Revitalized, Elric attacks the Chaos Lord Xiombarg (in the guise of a woman) and defeats him, taking his strength. Dyvim Slorm and most of the dragons are soon killed, but Elric now has enough strength left to blow the Horn of Fate a second time.
Chapter Five
A bright ray of light allows the Lords of Law to arrive on the battlefield. As the Lords of Law and Chaos engage, Elric pursues Jagreen Lern. After defeating Jagreen Lern in combat amidst an erupting landscape, Elric prevents Stormbringer from taking his soul, and instead uses Moonglum’s blade to torture him to death. As the Higher Lords continue to battle, the Earth becomes “unformed”.
Chapter Six
Eventually the Law Lords successfully banish the Lords of Chaos. Mountains and plains form, and the Earth resumes its day/night rotation cycle. Sepiriz breifly appears and says farewell. Despite Elric’s resistance, Stormbringer kills Moonglum, giving Elric enough energy to blow the Horn of Fate a 3rd and final time to usher in the new world. Elric blows the Horn and a huge ghostly hand holding an uneven balance appears. The balance is restored, after which Stormbringer leaps up and kills Elric. Stormbringer then transforms and stands, says farewell to Elric’s corpse and flies into the sky.
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