stormbringer

Stormbringer is a fictional magical sword appearing in Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné series, part of Moorcock's wider Eternal Champion cycle. The blade is described as a black, rune-studded sword with a will of its own. Stormbringer is a sentient weapon that drinks the souls and life-force of those it slays, granting its wielder great power and vitality while feeding its own dark hunger. Its thirst is a central element of Elric's stories, often complicating his attempts to govern his empire and his own desires. The origin and nature of Stormbringer are presented with ambiguity across the novels, sometimes linked to the forces of Chaos and to ancient runic lore. In the fiction, the sword is both a boon and a curse, enabling Elric to perform feats he otherwise could not, but at the cost of moral and existential corruption.

In popular culture, Stormbringer names the infamous blade and features in the wider mythos of the Eternal Champion. The term is also used in music; notably, Deep Purple released a song titled Stormbringer in 1974, the titular track of the album of the same name, which has become one of the band's best-known works. The sword has influenced fantasy literature and gaming through its archetypal image of a sentient, soul-stealing weapon.