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I've been reading the Elric saga recently, and I have convinced myself of a few things. Firstly, that the Elric saga is unfilmable; there's no way that anyone could do justice to these insane storylines. Secondly, the Elric saga is unplayable as an RPG. Statistics and numbers could not accurate portray the Lords of Chaos and the Champions Eternal. Thirdly, the Elric Saga is unplayable as a miniatures game, for the aforementioned reason. But, that's not why I'm here! I want some beautiful Elric miniatures, dammit! Maybe to use in some sort of skirmish, if not mass battles, fashion! Even if the results will be disappointing in comparison to the battles in the novels!

I've finished Elric of Melnibone, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, The Weird of the White Wolf, The Vanishing Tower, and The Bane of the Black Sword, and I'm nearly done with Stormbringer. What is immediately apparent is that the setting is basically Warhammer; whereas 40,000 was obviously cobbled together from about a half-dozen primary sources and a dozen secondary sources, one could easily do a search-and-replace of the names and locations in the Elric novels with more Warhammer-sounding names and you'd have a Warhammer novel. There appears to have been little to no obfuscation when Moorcock's setting was lifted whole-cloth and formed the very fabric which holds both Warhammer Fantasy and Age of Sigmar together.

Would this passage be out of place in a Warhammer or Age of Sigmar novel? "Scenes of terror were everywhere to be found. At one time they saw in the distance a frightful sight, a wild and hellish mob destroying a village built around a castle. The castle itself was in flames and on the horizon a mountain gouted smoke and fire. Though the looters had human shape, they were degenerate creatures, spilling blood and drinking it with equal abandon. And directing them without joining their orgy Elric and Moonglum saw what seemed to be a corpse astride the living skeleton of a horse, bedecked in bright trappings, a flaming sword in its hand and a golden helm on its head." and merely a few pages later Elric speaks to a man whose body was half-warped when "I entered the Realm of Chaos, lord. And Chaos did this, it changed me as you see. The boundaries are being extended. I did not know it. I was inside before I realized what had happened. The area of Chaos is being widened!". Of course, at my current spot in Stormbringer, Elric is set to retrieve a shield bearing the "eight-arrowed Sign of Chaos".

My point being, is that Warhammer is an obvious place to start for finding miniatures suitable for Elric. We know that Citadel once produced Elric and Eternal Champion figures; and that many of these sculpts, after their license ended, were used to form the Dark Elf and Chaos ranges.
However, I am not particularly interested in Oldhammer sculpts or the prices that many of them command. So much of Elric has been used for Warhammer, and then from Warhammer copied and replicated by other companies, that I feel this task shouldn't be too difficult. For example, Elric in his full armor, has a two-foot tall helm ending in a conical spike, with dragon detailing around the mouth and eyes - thus obviously the Melnibonean armor forming the basis for Citadel High and Dark Elf design.

Has anyone had success locating a range, or ranges, of suitable figures in 28mm-32mm scale, with modern sculpting (read: more realistically proportioned) sensibilities, to represent the Melnibonean armies, the peoples of the Young Kingdoms, the Lords of Chaos and all of their servants, be they demon or mortal?

I'm aware of Hasslefree's not-Elric, but that's a single figure unfortunately, and not wearing the full Melnibonean battle armor.

This might be totally fruitless, unfortunately.

 Mysterio wrote:
You can totally do an RPG set in the Eternal Champion setting - in fact, there have already been several, and some are even quite good!

I have the Chaosium releases and they definitely do not capture the absolute insanity of the Elric novels. They suffer tremendously from the "must put a numeric stat to everything" that plagues most roleplaying (ie, "roll"-playing), IMHO
Elric or Eternal Champion stuff I think would benefit from diceless roleplaying, but not like Amber.

For minis I'm thinking SBG as the system captures the power but fallibility of heroes better than any other system I've played.


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 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
How many realistically-proportioned fantasy ranges are there? Don't the realistically proportioned minis tend to have realistically dull armor and weapons?

Not necessarily. If, say, Darklands was based on history a from the 13th century instead of the 9th century then more of that might work (as the Elric novels have a lot of plate armor). Actually, Ysians might work for infantry from the Straits of Chaos - Pan Tang or Dharijor.

But in terms of realistically proportioned, I mean moreso than Oldhammer sculpts. I want to stay as far away from Melonhead McHamfists as possible.


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 JoshInJapan wrote:
I don't remember Young Kingdom armor/equipment being that well described, so I imagine you could use historical models with non-historical color schemes for those.

The novel Stormbringer is actually specifically what stoked my interest for Elric minis as Moorcock spends a little more time on physical descriptions - at least of the leaders and captains of nations allied against the Hordes of Chaos - than in previous novels (including the information on Elric's full battledress and Dyvim Slorm's dragon master armor). I'm fairly confident the Young Kingdoms can definitely be sourced from various historical kits (or combinations of kits). It's the weird fantastical stuff that has no good analog...

 Mysterio wrote:
I think you're on to something here - you should totally Kickstart this.

Better hurry though - many big fans of the setting are getting on in years - that nostalgia money will go somewhere else...eventually!

Anyone got any seed money? Gotta get that license, artists, and sculptors on board first! ^_^

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
If you absolute insanity, great sculpts and more realistic proportions, perhaps some of the Kingdom Death armor sets, when mixed and matched, could provide what you want.


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For that matter, it looks like Conquest will have some interesting designs.

Bob you are the best. Conquest does look to have some rather intriguing designs.

as for KD - I guess they don't sell sprues separately?

chaos0xomega wrote:
The old warhammer fantasy dark elves warriors minis (and I guess the new ones too?) basically match the description of the Melnibonean warriors in the first book (iirc, its been over a decade since I read the eternal champion books). Behaviorally they are probably a good match too.

Yep, as I wrote in my OP, Melnibonean models were sold as chaos and dark elf models after Citadel lost the Elric license. However, I do not seek "charming" oldhammer sculpts, but rather more realistically proportioned sculpts.


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 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
There's always eBay. During the last BF sale, KDM sold a hundred dollar bundle of all the armor kits, and I really hope they do that again.

I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for that!


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 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
It might be worth a look at the Hawkmoon range from Eureka (I hate their website so much)

http://eurekamin.com.au/index.php?cPath=87_126_855&sort=3a

wrong eternal champion, but some of the troops may cross over

Those guys are neat and may be usable!

But finding a core of Melnibonean infantry (that aren't ridiculous 80's sculpts) is proving to be quite difficult. I'd really like to have Dyvim Tvar and Dyvim Slorm's mercenary company of Melnibonean warriors represented somehow....


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This is my current favorite depiction of Elric in his battledress from Stormbringer.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Have you tried Heroforge?

I spent an hour fiddling around but it's very Pathfinder-y. Everything is mega-exaggerated. Thanks for the suggestion though!


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 Ancestral Hamster wrote:
Possible Melniboneans:

A funded Kickstarter - Late Pledges open 32mm
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lastsword/elven-lords?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=elven%20lord

From Lucid Eye 28mm somewhat Dark Age
https://www.lucideyepublications.com/the-red-book-of-the-elf-king

My god, these are fantastic! I'm investigating the use of the Last Sword Elves as Melniboneans, and the Lucid Eye models for Young Kingdoms models.


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I think I found my adventuring Elric - https://www.blacksunminiatures.co.uk/product/dasco-the-vampire-2/

They look kinda... bad... though...

This Tom Meier sculpt is pretty ace - https://www.darkswordminiatures.com/shop/index.php/male-elven-warrior-with-long-sword.html

And a bit of conversion on this hombre - https://www.andreaeurope.com/en/1/andrea-miniatures/127/battle-series/1156/wsbs-02-ithandr-blade-of-eternity.html#!prettyPhoto

and Dyvim Tvar or Dyvim Slorm - http://www.fantization.com/Elthan_Silvermane_Dragon_Slayer_FM_Special_Edition.aspx

Yeah, I'd say Warhammer is the least suitable way to game Elric stuff. Blocks of stats and numbers are the opposite of the feel Moorcock evokes.

Neato JG sketches though!

 Mysterio wrote:

judgedoug wrote:Yeah, I'd say Warhammer is the least suitable way to game Elric stuff. Blocks of stats and numbers are the opposite of the feel Moorcock evokes.

I don't know about that - the EC books are filled with heroes, gods, demigods, demons, elementals, monsters, etc. all interacting, fighting, killing and being killed. With magic items and spells aplenty.

With very little modification, almost any version of WFB could probably be used to game EC stuff in.

The feeling I get from reading about the battles is about as opposite as a block-of-stats-as-a-wargame can be.

How can you stat up the Lords of Chaos and the Lords of Law and their effects upon the different planes? Constraining everything into a ruleset that isn't designed for it and then putting number rankings on things seems like a pointless exercise. Great, now you've got Arioch boiled down into some ill-fitting numbers that don't mean anything, that doesn't evoke anything about the writing style or atmosphere or weirdness of the setting. His Weapon Skill is 7! It's why you cannot divorce theme from mechanics in game-design. (It's why I am thinking of SBG as my go-to rules for skirmishing but even then it feels _wrong_. I want to develop something that is numberless. That somehow uses a combination of fate, intervention by law and chaos, luck, some sort of trump system, who knows)

It's like the "CHAOTIC EVIL" Elric that Kid Kyoto posted above. While the D&D system literally was stolen from Moorcock, Elric is not Chaotic Evil. The Melnibonean Empire might be classed as such, but he, Cymoril, the Dyvims (especially Tvar) are not. Chaos and Law within Elric are more based on morality, not the D&D Alignment Axis. Elric has to balance between the moralities of Chaos and Law, using Chaos to destroy Chaos.


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 Ancestral Hamster wrote:
From the Last Sword Blog. Just a 3D model for now, but they are getting ready for another KS. Dragon Helmed Heavy Infantry ... Now these are Dragon Masters of the Dreaming City!
https://lastsword.com/en/dragon-guard/

Mind, the Elthan Silvermane link JudgeDoug posted earlier is a fine Dyvim Tvar, and Tom Meier does good work too.

I think Last Sword is going to be the go-to for Melnibonean infantry. I wonder if they are sculpting as "cool elves" or if they realize that their designs do evoke the few descriptions the Moorcock has written?

To be honest I'd like to stray from WHFB proportions. I kind can't stand melonhead hamfist elves.

However, that made me think about converting SBG models - the plastic Galadhrim may form an excellent basis for Melnibonean infantry, with the correct conversions and paint scheme.

Not worried too much about Corum or other multiverse planes, only specifically sticking to the Elric setting.

But at this point, it's like Last Sword knew about my journey and just released new renders for more of their elf infantry, which are pretty much what my brain was telling me Melnibonean infantry looked like! The fact that you can mix and match all the parts is fantastic as well. (tbh it's the little details on the armor that set them apart from other companies)

https://lastsword.com/en/albus-custodes/

So all those different parts for their infantry, archers, heavy infantry, and guard, are all interchangeable. Looks like I got what I want! ^_^ (well after they launch the new KS)

Now time to start looking at various other companies for Young Kingdoms stuff - though that is always less well described, and a bit more fantastical (than say Hyborian Age Conan peoples).

Thanks for the suggestions Ancestral Hamster.

I am trying to avoid clear imitations of our history, though. I'm just looking for stuff that is fantastic but realistic. Hah.
Fireforge's upcoming generic fantasy warriors might be what I need for some of the Young Kingdoms, however.

I did just find Werewoolf miniatures whose Fallen Gods Sacred Band of Lust models I think would work very well for Chaos-allied Pan Tang

Alrighty everyone, I have started! I ordered Last Sword's elves to begin my Melnibonean infantry. In the meantime I've received a few models.

I got two of Fantization's "Elthan Silvermane" limited edition figure, sculpted by Tom Meier, which comes with a ton of options, to use as Elric and Dyvim Slorm (or Tvar), in full battledress. The figure is beautifully cast and I am unbelievably happy with it.

I also received Dark Sword Miniatures' "Male Ranger with Bow" sculpted by Jeff Grace for use as Rackhir.

However, I'm still looking for someone to use as Moonglum. Traditionally, he has a shock of red hair, and is short and sticky, and wields two blades (one often a curved scimitar), if anyone knows of a good miniature:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/stormbringer/images/6/62/Moonglumelric.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160428115743