Characters

This page gives an overview of some of the major characters from the books, afterall - much can be learned from a land or nation by examining its inhabitants. Click on any of the characters below to see a quote and character summary.
Ive used three types of font in the character descriptions - to show if the character is either Human or one of the eldritch Melniboneans, and Stormbringer gets his own font as he is a truly unique individual.

Elric, 428th Emperor of Melnibone

“Know this. Elric cannot have what he desires the most.
What he desires does not exist. What he desires is dead.
All Elric has is sorrow, guilt, malice, hatred.
That is all he deserves and all he will ever desire.”
- Elric to Myshella – The Vanishing Tower

Elric is a tragic individual, prone to self-pity and despair due to the vagrancies of his fate. He gains the epithet "Woman-slayer" after accidentally killing Cymoril, his betrothed, during the sack he leads upon his own city of Imrryr, and is also known as the "White Wolf."
After the fall of the Dreaming City, Elric roams the world for several years, bringing destruction wherever he goes, before settling in Karlaak By The Weeping Waste.
He is made the subject of several inferior ballads, and Elric and his sentient hellsword,
Stormbringer become infamous throughout the Young Kingdoms. For more, see the entry for Stormbringer.

Elric wears the Ring of Kings. It focuses the ancient pacts between the Emperors of Melnibone and the Elemental Rulers, Beast-Lords, and Plant-Lords of the world. The ring confirms that the wearer is indeed the Emperor of the Melniboneans; only he can cause the ring to aid him. Because of the ring, Elric sometimes needs only to call out simple verses to gain responses from ancient and powerful entitys.With the exception of Stormbringer, Elric avoids relying on Chaos. In times of need, he calls upon the Elemental Rulers and Beast-Lords. Elric's library in Imrryr is probably the greatest in the world, containing hundreds of grimoires, myriad summonings, and thousands of exotic spells. When he leaves Yyrkoon as regent and sets out on his travels, these books are lost to him. Apparently the entire library burns during the subsequent Sack of Imrryr.
Elric is naturally very weak, he usually has access to potions and drugs which seem to raise his energies toward those of an ordinary Melnibonean but it is when wielding Stormbringer that his abilities are powered to their fullest extent.

Stormbringer

“Elric contemplated his sword with a mixture of loathing and something akin to sensuality.
Some would say that it possessed both a mind and a will.
Others would claim it to be a demon in disguise.
Some believe it composed of the vestigial souls of all damned mortals, trapped within. "
- Elric to Anigh - The Fortress of the Pearl

Servants of Law forged Stormbringer and its twin, Mournblade, long ago, before the coming of the Melniboneans to this world, of Chaos to fight Chaos.
The sword - carved with runes and emitting a strange, black radiance, is sentient and malevolent. It moans and howls, and is capable of independent action, often against Elric’s own will.
After slaying many whom the albino loves and after the world has been consumed by chaos and a new world order has been established Stormbringer turns on Elric in one final act of treachery.
This soul stealing runesword is one of the most powerful weapons in any plane of existence, one cut from its black flame covered edge will result in the victims soul being consumed by the demonic entity who resides in the blade.

Theleb K'aarna

“He broke off, staring at the gibbering thing on the floor.
It had been a man. It had been Theleb K'aarna.
Now it was hunched and twisted - sitting in the middle of a broken
pentacle and tittering to itself. Suddenly, intelligence came into its eyes.
"Too late for vengeance, Lord Elric, " it said. "I have won, you see –
I have claimed your vengeance as my own."
- The Bane of the Black Sword

Duke Avan Astran

“Duke Avan laughed. "I went alone to Elwher when my men
deserted me in the Weeping Waste.
It is not in my nature to know physical fear."
- The Sailor on the Seas of Fate

Duke Avan is the ruler of Old Hrolmar, a city in Vilmir, and is possessed of considerable fame and a good reputation.
He is an adventurer, explorer and trader of the highest professionalism, has traveled to the World's Edge and the Unknown East, and faced many dangers.
Duke Avan makes Elric's acquaintance on a journey to the Unnamed Continent, and is there slain by Stormbringer.

Count Smiorgan Baldhead

"We do not brood we of the Purple Towns, " said Count Smiorgan seriously.
"And we are not fickle in our friendships. You know an anguish,
Prince Elric, that I'll never feel - never understand –
but I have already given you my trust. Why should I take it away again?
That is not how we are taught to behave in the Purple Towns."
- The Sailor on the Seas of Fate

Count Smiorgan is a sea-lord in command of a large fleet, as well as a noble of the Isle of Purple Towns. After encountering Elric in another plane, Smiorgan accompanies the albino back to the Young Kingdoms, becoming his friend for a short time.
It is partially through his influence that Elric is able to forge the alliance which sacks Imnyr.
After the Dreaming City is destroyed, Smiorgan dies when dragons burn the reaver fleet, abandoned and betrayed by Elric so that the albino himself might live.

Prince Gaynor the Damned

“Prince Gaynor, in a carved black chair at the head of his table,
which was swathed with a dark scarlet cloth, turned an enigmatic helm
towards Elric and said that he had always preserved certain standards,
even when in battle or in command of semi-brutes,
as one so frequently was, these days.”
- The Revenge of the Rose

Prince Gaynor is an ex-prince of the Balance, and though he loves it still, is forced by his fate to fight against the Balance and its champions across the myriad realms of the multiverse.
Gaynor now serves Chaos. He is immortal, and accursed.
It is possible that Gaynor the Damned is a particularly tortured aspect of the Eternal Champion being punished for an unimaginable transgression.

Queen Yishana

Yishana was not a young woman, neither was she pretty. Yet there
was an hypnotic quality about her tall, full body, her lush black hair,
and her wholly sensuous face. Few of the men she had singled out for her pleasure
had been able to resist her. Neither was she sweet-natured, just, wise nor self-sacrificing.
The historians would append no noble soubriquet to her name.
Still, there was something so self-sufficient about her,
something denying the usual standards by which a person was judged,
that all who knew her adinired her, and she was well-loved by those she ruled
- The Weird of the White Wolf

With the death of her brother Dharmit in the Sack of Imrryr, the ambitious and manipulative Yishana gains the throne of Jharkor. She proves an intuitive and clever ruler.
Yishana becomes Elric's lover on two occasions, but is eventually slain in battle against the armies of Dharijor and Pan Tang. King Sarosto of Dharijor takes Yishana's head, never again to show its sensual and sardonic smile, as a trophy after she is dead.

Princess Cymoril

"She knows that he [Elric] is bored and she knows, too, that she
is one of the few people of melnibone whose conversation interests him. "
- Elric of -Melnibone

Cymoril is Elric's cousin, and sister to the villainous Prince Yrkoon.
Her love for Elric maddens her brother. Cyrnoril is strong-willed and sure of
herself, with a questioning mind and keen intellect. She is not without sorcerous skills.
Cymoril's love for Elric dooms her, and she meets death on Stormbringer's blade, upon which she is flung by her brother.

Sadric LXXXVI, 427th Emperor of Melnibone

“Through most of his life Sadric had never known another woman than his wife,
for the Empress had died bringing her sole thin-blooded issue into the world.
But, with Melnibonean emotions (oddly different than those of the human newcomers),
Sadric had loved his wife and had been unable to find pleasure in any other company,
even that of the son who had killed her and who was all that was left of her”
- Elric of Melnibone, 1,1.

Zarozinia Voashoon

Without anger, she drew slowly away from him and with a slight smile
that had something of irony in it, pointed to the bed, where Storm bringer lay.
"1 see your other mistress still shares your bed, " she said."
- Zarozinia to Elric - Stormbringer

The Lady Zarozinia is the daughter of the chief senator of Karlaak. After a journey to Pikarayd, she encounters Elric in the Forest of Troos, and the two fall in love. Their wedding is the strangest ever seen in Ilmiora, and thereafter Zarozinia resides, with her moody husband, in Karlaak by the Weeping Waste, helping him ease his pain.
At the end of the world, after being warped by Chaos, Zarozinia throws herself on Stormbringer, so that her soul might be one with Elric's own.

Prince Yyrkoon of Melnibone

“His dark features, at once handsome and saturnine, are framed by long black hair,
waved and oiled, and his expression, as ever, is sardonic while his bearing is arrogant.
The heavy brocade cloak swings this way and that, striking other dancers with some force.
He wears it almost as if it is armor or, perhaps, a weapon.
Amongst many of the courtiers there is more than a little respect for Prince Yyrkoon.
Few resent his arrogance and those who do keep silent,
for Yyrkoon is known to be a considerable sorcerer himself.
Also his behavior is what the court expects and welcomes in a Melnibonean noble;
it is what they would welcome in their emperor”
- Elric of Melnibone

Prince Yyrkoon is Elric's cousin, and the bane of his early life.
Yyrkoon hates and envies Elric, and casts his sister into a sorcerous sleep to prevent her reciprocating the albino's love on two occasions.
A Dragon Prince of Melnibone, he is sadistic and quick-witted. After he twice usurps the Ruby Throne, Yyrkoon is killed by Elric, but not before he murders his sister, Cymoril, by throwing her onto Elric's runesword.
Yyrkoon has great sorcerous capacity, Though not quite as powerful as Elric, he is much more aggressive and impulsive. Matched against Elric's languor, those traits nearly carry the day.

Dyvim Slorm

“ [Elric] battled his way through the milling warriors of Chaos
and none could withstand him, until he came at last to the fallen dragon.
There was a broken body lying on the ground beside it, but of the runeblade
there was no sign. It had vanished.
It was the body of Dyvim Slorm, last of his kinsmen.”
- Stormbringer

After Dyvim Tvar dies, his son Dyvim Slorm becomes the leader of the Melnibonean war band Dyvim Tvar had led. Elric's cousin, Slorm is a true Melnibonean, tall and slender, with eldritch features and honey-colored hair.
He aids Elric against a rampaging Eastern barbarian army, and again at the end of the world, where he dies in the battle against the host of Chaos, wielding Mournblade – stormbringers twin blade.

Rackhir the Red Archer

“There was irony in his eyes and something of a smile upon his thin lips,
though the face showed that it had been through much experience, little of it pleasant.”
- Elric of Melnibone

Once a Warrior Priest of Phum, in the unmapped East, and a servant of Vezhan of Chaos, gaunt Rackhir abandoned his creed for a quieter life of thieving and adventure.
Chaos exiled him to another plane as punishment, where Rackhir encountered and befriended Elric as he journeyed to find Stormbringer.
Although for a time he became a resident of Tanelorn, Rackhir is eventually slain accidentally by Elric, during the quest for Mordaga’s Chaos Shield.

Jagreen Lern

“The Theocrat of Pan Tang, chief of the priest¬aristocracy,
was Jagreen Lern, who was reputed to have a pact
with the powers of Chaos and a plan to rule the world.”
- Weird of the White Wolf

He is the most evil individual in the saga, for without Jagreen Lern's aid and insane ambition, the Lords of Chaos could never conquer the earth.
Lern receives great power as a reward for his assistance, much beyond that already his as ruler of Pan Tang. Eventually Lern falls before Elric's rage, as seemingly do all who cross the doomed albino's path.