Michael Moorcock is easily one of the biggest influences on Dungeons & Dragons. Certainly, his contributions rival those of Howard or Tolkien in shaping the structure of the D&D multiverse. Indeed, one can barely talk about the Multiverse of D&D without invoking Moorcock.
When people talk about Michael Moorcock in Appendix N, they usually go straight to Elric of Melniboné, Corum Jhaelen Irsei, Dorian Hawkmoon, and the eternal war between Law and Chaos.
When I talk about Michael Moorcock and witches, I am not really talking about witches in the broom-riding, cottage-dwelling sense. I am talking about the pact-making sorts of witches. The ones who contact the beings from other planes (something that happens a lot in Moorcock's tales) and the ancient pacts that bind them.
Moorcock does not give us a village wise women. He gives us bloodlines that traffic with elementals, tribes that call heroes out of myth, and archetypes that echo across realities. His magic is not tidy. It is not academic. It is relational, dangerous, and deeply personal.
Which is why it works so well for me.
Elric the Prototype Warlock
Let’s be clear about something. Elric is not a wizard.
He does not memorize formulae in a tower and sling fire from careful study. His power comes from calling upon Arioch and other Lords of Chaos. He names them. He binds them. He bargains.
That is not arcane spellcasting in the later D&D sense.
That is a pact.
In the One Man's God post I wrote before on the Melnibonéan mythos, I pointed out that their religion and their magic are inseparable. The Lords of Chaos are not distant gods in shining heavens. They are immediate, responsive, volatile. They answer when called, but they always take something in return.
Elric’s magic is closer to a warlock than a magic-user.
Stormbringer itself is a kind of patron made steel. It feeds him power and keeps him alive, but it also owns him. That dynamic, that exchange of strength for service, is pure warlock logic.
And this is important when we talk about witches in Appendix N.
Because if Moorcock gives us a prototype warlock in Elric, he also gives us the larger framework that witches later inhabit in D&D. Magic is not a neutral force you manipulate. It is something you negotiate with.
That idea runs straight into warlocks, and through them, into witches who deal with dragons, animal lords, witch queens, and stranger patrons still.
Corum and the Old Religion
If Elric shows us the aristocratic pact, Corum shows us something closer to folk magic.
In the Corum stories, the human tribes are not sophisticated sorcerers. They do not maintain demon treaties stretching back millennia. They have rites. They have memory. They have belief.
And when the world is in peril, they summon Corum.
Not as a cleric would call upon a god for a spell. They call him as part of an older set of magical rules. A returning champion tied to the fate of their land, one who was prophesied. This feels less like wizardry and more like the Old Religion made manifest.
It is communal magic. It survives conquest and catastrophe because it is embedded in culture rather than codified in books.
If I were looking for Appendix N roots of the Wicce or of the Craft of theWise, I would not find them in shining cathedrals. I would find them here, in tribal rites that blur the line between prayer and spell.
The magic works because the people believe in the pattern. That is witchcraft.
It doesn't hurt that Corum and his people are often thought of as "elves" and that much of his tales are based on a psuedo-Celtic past.
Named Witches
There are very few named witches, and fewer still that are called "witch."
Myshella, the Sleeping Sorceress, is one. Though she is not called a witch, she certainly fills that role.
Jerry Cornelius is not a witch. Not by any stretch, really, but he is fragmented. Self-aware. Reality bending around him. He shapes his reality as much as reality shapes him.
Moorcock’s Eternal Champion is not a simple reincarnation. He is an archetype that keeps reasserting itself in different circumstances. And this is where I see the parallel to how I have played Larina over the years. Different systems. Different worlds. Different rules. Same witch. He is not a witch, but he and the other Eternal Champions have shaped my notions of my archetypal witches.
Moorcock’s Legacy for Witches and Warlocks
Moorcock’s influence on D&D is usually discussed in terms of Law and Chaos. Planes of exsistences and an eternal, if not Eternal (capital "E"), struggle.
But for witches, the more interesting legacy is this: Magic is relational. Magic is cyclical. Elric shows us the warlock bound to his patron. Corum’s summoners show us the persistence of pagan rites.
That is fertile ground for witches.
Not because Moorcock hands us a cottage and a cauldron.
But because he gives us a universe where magic is negotiated, myth returns, and some souls are simply meant to walk the long road again and again.
Getting back to the mythos in the Deities and Demigods proper I want to take a look at one filled with demons, elementals and other creatures of the multiverse. The Melnibonéan Mythos of Michael Moorcock.
The Melnibonéan Mythos is one of the two expunged mythoi from the D&DG, the other being the more popular Cthulhu Mythos. I talked about those myths and some of the controversy around them in a previous installment of One Man's God. I'll also talk a little more about that at the end, but first, Gods and Demons.
Elric of Melniboné was my gateway to Cthulhu. I had done all the high fantasy that was popular in the 80s and Tolkien in particular. But I was looking for something a little darker, something that also appealed to my same frame of mind that loved horror films. Elric then was the logical next step.
Maybe as much as Tolkien, the works of Michael Moorcock laid down the foundation that was going to be the lens of D&D. The alignment system, the multiverse, champions of Law and Chaos, all these things came to D&D via Moorcock. Though in truth for this piece I could also just say Elric since these are the mythos we are discussing today.
Melniboné and Demons
The tales of Elric and Melniboné are overrun with creatures called demons. Everyone from Arioch on down is referred too as a demon in fact. Elric's own ancestor, Terhali, also known as the Green Empress, ruled Melniboné for 605 years a thousand years before Elric. Her long life was attributed to her mother, who was a demon. Other creatures in the books are also called demons. Arioch himself appears in many Medieval grimoires as a demon and in Milton's Paradise Lost, Book VI, Line 371.
Whether or not these meet the AD&D Monster Manual criteria for a demon is to be decided. Let's explore some other details first.
Law & Chaos, Good & Evil
The battles in Elric's world(s) are not just of Good vs. Evil but of Law vs. Chaos. Chaos is shown to be a destructive, and often evil force. Elric and his kin are all dedicated to the Lords of Chaos and have pacts with many of these lords. So the "alignment" system of Elric's world view is the same as that as D&D really. It's where we get it in fact. So this does free up one issue; creatures described here as being Chaotic Evil are likely appropriately described in their own world and an AD&D one. We are not going to run into issues here of Chaotic Evil creatures that also protect mothers like in the Aztec myths for example.
Lords of Hell and Demons
The Elric saga takes a "multiple hells" view on the cosmos. There is more than one hell and they ruled over by Lords of Chaos. Some of these Lords are also explicitly demons. They are called such in the text. In many ways, One Man's God and my own games have evolved to be more like this point of view.
Demons vs. Elemental Lords
There are many creatures of power in the Elric tales (and Moorcock's books as a whole). Some are explicitly demons. Others though are classified as Elemental Lords. These creatures do not see to differ very much the Princes of Elemental Evil first seen in the Fiend Folio. In the 4e cosmology they would be called Primordials and the Titans and Giants are their offspring. This also fits in well with the mythology Gary was building in the GDQ series. So there are at least some relationships between these Elemental Lords and the Demons. But that is for another day. Though all of this leads me to two conclusions:
Many demons/creatures/lords of the Elric saga are very much like the demons of AD&D. Or maybe it is the other way around.
Elric might be listed as a "Magic-user 19th level" and "Cleric 10th level" but what he really is, using the current term, is a Warlock. In fact he might be the exemplar from which we draw from.
But more on that later.
Elemental Lords & Animal Lords
Before I get to the Demons, let's look at the various Elemental Lords Elric has pacts with or is able to summon. We can compare them to other examples in other AD&D works.
In the Melnibonéan Mythos, we have Darnizhaan (NE, Earth), Grome (N, Earth), Kakatal (CN, Fire), Misha (N, Air), and Straasha (N, Water). Generally speaking, these creatures are more powerful than the Princes of Elemental Evil found in the Fiend Folio. Which would track if these are the "Kings" and the others are just "Princes."
Elemental Lords are not the only creatures Elric encounters. There are also the various Animal Lords, or Master Types. These are almost taken verbatim for the Monster Manual II Cat Lord and in the later editions of AD&D/D&D. Among the Animal Lords are Fileet (Lady of Birds), Haaashastaak (Lord of Lizards), Meerclar (Lady of Cats), Nnuuurrr'c'c (Lord of the Insect Swarm), Nuru-ah (Lord of Cattle), and Roofdrak (Lord of Dogs). Back in the 80s we treated Meeclar as the Cat Lord before the "current" Cat Lord and Bast as the one before Meeclar. Gary would go on to support our claim in the 90s when he made Gord the new Cat Lord. all of this fit into our worlds very nicely.
The Demons
Let's get to the demons. There are lot of creatures in these myths are weird and Chaotic Evil. BUT, does that make them an AD&D demon? Well, some fit perfectly, others, we might need to file off some of the edges to make them fit.
Arioch (and Xiombarg)
Let's address the Chaos Lord in the room. Arioch. In the books he is Elric's patron. I believe he is even described as a Patron Demon. He often referred to a Lord of Hell, a Lord of Chaos and it is said he is worshipped as a god in many worlds. But is he a god? He is certainly very powerful. On the side of a God is the fact that he can have many avatars on multiple worlds (though in D&D 3 and beyond this would be called an Aspect), on the side of Demon is the fact that he can be summoned, sometimes even against his will. It is possible that Arioch (Knight of Swords), as well as Xiombarg (Queen of Swords) and Mabelode (King of Swords, and not in the D&DG) are Demons, they are just very, very powerful ones on the level of the Arch Dukes of Hell.
I am inclined to make them powerful Demon Lords/Princes. Their power is such that would disrupt the hierarchy of Hell (the AD&D Hell), but in the Abyss they can plot and scheme all the like. Again they have never been described as anything but Chaotic Evil. I would also argue that their stats in the D&DG might be a touch high. Elric did kill Arioch in the end.
Assassinator of the Gods
Back in the AD&D days we always combined this creature with Ma Yuan of the Chinese Mythos. Though they were not exactly the same. In this case, I am inclined to make this a completely unique creature.
Clakar
Chaotic Evil winged apes that can be used as guards. A bit like a summoned demon, but nothing about them screams demon to me.
Elenoin & Grahluk
These two are in a perpetual race war against each other. Not demons. I always thought of them as the female and male of the same species in a division that has gone very, very wrong. I say every few years both races have a "pon farr" like time where both are compelled to mate. While both can be summoned I took this more as they were responding to some other pact made. So they are not demons, but likely commanded or ruled by demons.
Kelmain
Humanoids from Limbo.
Mist Giant
More of a monster than a demon.
Mordagz
Now here is an interesting character. A former Lord of Chaos, he has been "demoted" to a Storm Giant. He could qualify as the classical definition of a demon; a former god reduced in power and status. His alignment though is Chaotic Neutral.
Pyaray
Now this guy. Lord of the Ocean Abysses. Looks like a demon. Commands a flotilla of sunken ships manned by undead sailors. his soul is stored in the blue crystal on his head like a demon amulet. Yeah, this one fits the demon description rather well. His 250 hp makes him a bit more powerful than Demogorgon, but otherwise he is a good fit. We also know that Pyaray and Straasha are bitter enemies. so if Straasha is an Elemental Lord, we can have Pyaray be a Demon Lord.
Quaolnargn
Ok. This one is explicitly called a "demon from the Abyss."
There are more creatures in the tales, but these are what appear in the D&DG.
Elric as a Warlock
The big surprise here is not that there are demons and elementals in this mythos, but that Elric might be better represented as a warlock rather than a wizard, or as he is described in the book, a sorcerer. We see Elric using magic, but mostly we see him summoning creatures to do his bidding. We rarely see him use the sorts of magics that one might expect of a 19th level magic-user/10th level llusionist/10th level cleric/5th level druid. However, all this magic can be used by a warlock.
I did a quick build with Elic for the 5th Edition warlock. I made him a tiefling to cover his demonic ancestry and it worked out well. But a better choice might be a Demonic Pact Warlock using some old-school rules.
My Warlock book for Swords & Wizardry would be a good fit here since I also re-classified the various demons to work with multiple "hells" and planes.
Elric of Melniboné
19th level Warlock, Demonic Pact (Melnibonéan) Tiefling Male
Spells: 1st: Black Fire, Charm Person, Command, Detect Magic, Mage Armor, Obedient Beast, Spirit Servant 2nd: Agony, Burning Gaze, Cause Light Wounds, Clothes of the Emperor, Grasp of the Endless War, Magic Circle Aganist Spirits, Share my Pain 3rd: Astral Sense, Circle of Respite, Clairsentience, Fiend's Shield, Lifesteal, Summon Winged Steed 4th: Arcane Eye, Call Imp, Divine Power, Fear, Spell storing 5th: Blade Dance, Conjuration of Elementals, Extend Spell (Greater), Song of the Night, Ward of Magic
*6th: Invisible Stalker **7th: Conjuration of Demons ***8th: Symbol
I rather like this.
And Arioch would fit rather well in my Warlock book too.
And finally,
The "True" Story of the Melnibonéan and Cthulhu Mythos in the D&DG?
