Elric appears in Michael Moorcock's Elric sequence (first appearances in stories beginning with the novella "The Dreaming City", 1961; the collected novel Elric of Melniboné 1972). He is presented as the 428th emperor (styled Elric VIII) of Melniboné, heir to a long line of rulers whose political legitimacy rests on ancestral pacts and sorcery. Brought up in the decadent, long‑lived Melnibonéan culture, Elric is physically frail, scholarly, and morally introspective—at odds with his people's callous traditions—and comes to rely on inherited pacts (notably invocation of the patron Arioch) and, later, the black sword Stormbringer, events that shape his tragic, doom‑laden narrative within Moorcock's secondary‑world cosmology.
Primary descriptions portray Elric as albino and strikingly pale: "the colour of a bleached skull" flesh, milk‑white long hair, "two slanting eyes, crimson and moody," and "two slender hands, also the colour of bone." He is presented as beautiful but physically weak and anaemic; one passage depicts him emerging from the loose sleeves of a yellow gown.
Within the fiction Elric is an accomplished sorcerer and summoner who can call upon the traditional patrons of the Melnibonéan emperors—explicitly Arioch (named a Lord of Chaos and "Duke of Hell")—and uses ancient ancestral pacts and agreements with various non‑human beings. His rulership and magic are rooted in imperial institutions (including the ability, culturally, to summon dragons that sleep in caverns beneath Melniboné). Elric's personal power is also bound to the sentient sword Stormbringer, which grants him vitality and martial prowess but must be fed on the souls of intelligent beings and brings disaster to those close to him.
Weaknesses
- conditionphysical frailty and drug dependence prior to Stormbringer
- otherStormbringer's moral/cosmic cost (the sword consumes souls and ultimately claims Elric's own soul)
Wards
- othernone specified in sources
Ifrit
One of the most powerful classes of jinn in Islamic and pre-Islamic Arab tradition — a fire-born being of immense strength and cunning, capable of great works of engineering and terrible violence.
Marid
The most powerful class of jinn in Islamic tradition — beings of the sea, associated with the deep ocean, storms, and the granting of wishes at terrible cost. The classic genie of the Arabian Nights.
Naga
Divine serpent beings of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain cosmology — powerful guardians of water, earth, and underground treasures. Revered as deities in South and Southeast Asia.
Apsara
Celestial dancers and water nymphs of Hindu cosmology — beautiful semi-divine beings who dance at the court of Indra and, by his command, descend to earth to distract sages from excessive asceticism.
Rakshasa (Himalayan variants)
A Himalayan reception of the pan-Indian rakshasa motif: hostile or disruptive non‑human beings known from Sanskrit epic and Puranic literature, here noted where Himalayan sources and discussions intersect with the broader epic tradition. The supplied sources do not document distinct, well‑attested Himalayan folklore variants; the entry therefore presents primarily the epic/legendary profile as transmitted into Himalayan contexts in general references.
Eliwlod
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Elkanah
Elkanah is a human figure from the Hebrew Bible, presented as the husband of Hannah and father of the prophet Samuel. He appears as a patriarchal household head who practices annual pilgrimage to Shiloh and is variably identified in the biblical texts as an Ephraimite or, in Chronicles, as a Levite; later rabbinic tradition lists him among prophets.
Elli
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Elloe Kaifi
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Elpenor
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Elphaba Thropp
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Elrond
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Elves (Middle-earth)
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Elwetritsch
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Elyan the White
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Elymus
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Community Record
- [1]Elric of Melniboné (Wikipedia). Wikipedia contributors. "Elric of Melniboné." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [2]Elric of Melniboné (novel) (Wikipedia). Wikipedia contributors. "Elric of Melniboné (novel)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.wiki
- [3]Elric Of Melniboné - Sufficiently Advanced (forum/essay). Sufficiently Advanced discussion and summary on Elric of Melniboné.other
- [4]Omni Books 5 Elric 1 (archive). Archive.org scanned collection containing Elric materials.other
- [5]Michael Moorcock: Elric of Melniboné (fan/author resources). Steven H Silver's reference page on Michael Moorcock's Elric.other