Stormbringer
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- For the 1974 album by Deep Purple, see Stormbringer (album).
Stormbringer_Lancer_1967.jpg
Stormbringer is the name of the infamous sword featured in a number of fantasy stories by the author Michael Moorcock. Created by the forces of chaos, it is described as a huge, black sword covered with strange runes carved deep into its blade.
The blade has an edge capable of cutting through virtually anything, but its most distinctive feature is that it is sapient, with a mind and will of its own, and feeds on souls of those it kills. The blade's "owner", the doomed albino emperor Elric of Melniboné, loathes the sword, but is almost helpless without the strength and vitality it confers him. Stormbringer's hunger for souls is such that it frequently betrays Elric, turning in his hands and killing friends and lovers, adding to Elric's guilt and self-loathing even as he feels their lifeforce surging into himself.
Stormbringer has a 'sister' sword, named Mournblade, which was at one time wielded by Elric's cousin/enemy Yyrkoon. It is identical to Stormbringer in most regards, but at one point during the story when the two swords fought each other, Stormbringer was the victor.
Books by Moorcock about Stormbringer:
- Elric of Melniboné
- The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
- The Weird of the White Wolf
- The Vanishing Tower
- The Bane of the Black Sword
- Stormbringer
- The Fortress of the Pearl
- The Revenge of the Rose
Stormbringer is also the name of a role-playing game (also published as Elric!) set in the world of Elric, published by Chaosium.
The band Hawkwind, who have had a long association with Moorcock, released an entire album about the story of Elric and Stormbringer, The Chronicle of the Black Sword (1985). The song "Black Blade" by Blue Öyster Cult is also about Stormbringer.
Stormbringer makes an unofficial appearance in the computer role-playing game Nethack, with much the same attributes that it possesses in Moorcock's works (tendency to attack by itself, including friends; sucks the force of the living beings that it hits, etc). A number of Stormbringer-like vampiric swords appear in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, most notably in the adventure White Plume Mountain, whose cover art features a pale-skinned elf wielding a black blade called Blackrazor.
Stormbringer is also the name of a ZX Spectrum computer game starring Magic Knight.fr:Stormbringer ja:ストームブリンガー
External Links
- Stormbringer.net - Good overview of the Elric saga (http://www.stormbringer.net/telric.html)