Core Rulebook Credits Contents Author(S) Introduction 2 Lawrence Whitaker & Pete Nash the Young Kingdoms 6 Editor Charlotte Law Young Kingdoms Adventurers 41

Core Rulebook Credits Contents Author(s) introduction 2 Lawrence Whitaker & Pete Nash The Young Kingdoms 6 Editor Charlotte Law Young Kingdoms Adventurers 41 Layout and Graphic Design equipment and economy 58 Will Chapman Law, Chaos and The Multiverse 63 Cover Illustration Carlo Bocchio Samplemagic file and Sorcery 70 Interior Illustrations Ben Ellebracht, Nick Egberts, Nuno Nobre, Michael Syrigos, Cults of the young Kingdoms 110 Ricardo German Ponce, Colin Driver and John Moriarty Creatures and Personalities 147 Proofreading Nick Robinson Games Master’s Chapter 199 Playtesters James Carrington, John White, Chris Donnelly, Chris Alternative Eras 207 Furness, Bruce Mason, Ben Quant, Douglas W. Wacker, Ioan Wigmore Index 216 Special Thanks Pete Nash, John White & Michael Moorcock Copyright Information Elric of Melnibone ©2010 Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. All significant characters, names, places, items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing subject to its licence from Issaries, Inc. This game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more about the Open Game License, please go to www.mongoosepublishing.com. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United Kingdom. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organisations, places or events is purely coincidental. RuneQuest is a trademark (TM) of Issaries, Inc. Produced under license from Issaries. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. 1 introduction Elric of Melniboné ; This book concerns one of the most iconic figures in contemporary past, the present and in the near future. Elric is abroad in the fantasy literature: Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné. For world, Theleb K’aarna hatches his schemes against the southern more than 40 years Michael has chronicled the adventures and continent, Myshella and Tanelorn, and the Sea Lords gather to fate of Elric, the last prince and Emperor of the doomed isle of plan the razing of Imrryr. So the default setting for this game is Melniboné. Elric’s adventures have taken him from one edge of during the time of Elric but no precise date or period is given. his world to the other and beyond, into other worlds – all part Games Masters may choose any point in the 10 years of the saga, of the sprawling, infinite, Multiverse that lies at the heart of using the momentous events Elric causes, as either a backdrop to Michael’s written works. Elric, carrier of the soul-drinking sword their campaigns, or to include the Adventurers in them. There Stormbringer, is a prince and a wanderer; a thief, vagabond and is still time for many adventures in the years before Elric wields an emperor; a slayer of men, friends and the women he loves. Stormbringer in the great battle against Chaos. Although the fate In his quest to find peace, he finds only tragedy, slaughter and of the earth is set by the stories not everything is cast in stone. regret. There has never been any fantasy character like Elric Adventurers can still trek across the Weeping Waste, heavy blades and, through him, Michael reshaped the way fantasy literature held in tired hands as they keep alert for signs of bandit ambush; explored heroism, myth and the themes so traditional to good or stalk through the forests of Jharkor, ever-aware that they are fantasy: good versus evil, order versus entropy. Indeed, Moorcock being preyed upon by otherworldly monsters. developed many of these themes into the tropes they have since become, influencing countless other authors and, in the course of his work, influencing the nature of roleplaying games. SampleWho file Is Elric? If you have read any of Michael’s books then the name Elric is This book therefore explores Elric’s world as a place for roleplaying unlikely to be new to you. If, however, this is your first foray into adventure using the latest version of the RuneQuest Core Rules. the Elric saga, a little background is necessary. In these pages you will discover how to create Young Kingdoms (the lands Elric wanders and is most closely associated with) Elric is the last prince and Emperor of the island of Melniboné, Adventurers, be they human, Melnibonéan or one of the other home to an inhuman race that ruled the world for 10,000 years. fascinating races with which Moorcock populates his worlds. You Masters of dragons and dark sorcery, Elric and his kin dominated will learn about the magic of the Young Kingdoms and the way the Young Kingdoms but have fallen into decline. This is now a the forces of Law and Chaos seek to control them, shape them time for humans who, having thrown off the yoke of Melniboné’s empire, are forging for themselves a new, but no less sophisticated, and, ultimately, doom them. destiny. New kingdoms have emerged – the Young Kingdoms to which this book and the saga constantly refer – and these The spotlight in Michael Moorcock’s novels is firmly on Elric: kingdoms are now the masters of their own destiny – or so they that is to be expected from the works based on Elric’s life but there believe. Melniboné is now in a soporific state; decadent, distanced, is still room for Games Masters and individual characters to make dying, slowly, steadily and assuredly. a difference. That is where this book comes in. Elric hastens their demise but not before he has spent time Elric’s saga spans 10 or so years of Young Kingdoms history, from wandering through the new lands that surround the jaded isle the time Elric leaves Imrryr to travel for a year, through his many of Melniboné. In his travels he gains the fabled and dangerous years of wandering the world and other planes, culminating in the runesword, Stormbringer, learns of his own place in the schemes final battle that reshapes the Young Kingdoms into our own world. of Law and Chaos, challenges gods, defeats monsters and sails the This book describes this decade, referring to events in the recent seas that connect the many worlds of the Multiverse together. 2 In time Elric destroys both Melniboné and his betrothed. Filled Elric is his most famous and enduring creation. The albino began with remorse and regret, he wanders continually until, eventually, life as a reaction to both the brawny heroes of Sword and Sorcery the battle between Law and Chaos drags Elric into the final battle fantasy, such as Conan (one of Michael’s first works was a Conan that will bring about the death of the Young Kingdoms and the pastiche, Sojan the Swordsman) and the detailed epics of JRR world’s rebirth into our own. Tolkien. Michael reversed the traditional clichés of fantasy at that time, questioning the role and nature of the ‘hero’, and delved into the psychology of his most famous character in ways unseen What Are the Young in fantasy literature. Despite killing Elric at the end of only the second book concerning the albino’s exploits (‘Stormbringer’), he Kingdoms continued to revisit the saga over the course of the next 40 years, The Young Kingdoms are the nations of Elric’s world; this is the adding to it, enriching it and delving deeper into philosophical shape the world took before it was reshaped and formed our own. ideas concerning love, betrayal and the meaning of existence. Elric The Young Kingdoms therefore occupied a different cycle of time is, as a result, one of the most detailed and best-drawn fantasy to the contemporary world and was it predecessor. characters ever created. As the Elric stories have progressed, Michael has explored the roles of myth and their interpretation, creating an even deeper body of work that continues to provoke In this game your Adventurers will be residents of the and astound in equal measure. Young Kingdoms or, possibly, travellers to it from elsewhere and elsewhen. You will have the opportunity to explore the Michael has never confined himself to one medium. Elric has kingdoms that have arisen since Melniboné’s decline and help been the subject of music, poetry and graphic novels (Elric: The forge their destiny. Perhaps you will change history and ensure Making of a Sorcerer being the most recent, detailed exploration the Young Kingdoms’ survival; or perhaps your Adventurers of the saga): there are continued rumours of a film. will, like Elric, contribute to its demise. This game, Elric of Melniboné, places you at the heart of the Elric saga and allows Michael is highly respected as a writer, critic, editor, musician, your characters to participate in similar adventures to those of thinker, agent provocateur and chronicler of the fantastic. He Elric and friends. has never shirked from tackling controversial themes in his work and remains as active and as influential as ever. The shelves of For the Young Kingdoms are filled with adventure, peril, magic book stores might groan under the weight of epic fantasy trilogies, and turmoil. These are new lands with an ancient legacy. Magic quartets, sextets and more, each penned by a succession of ‘new is rare but potent; and those who have wielded it in the past have masters of the genre’. But Moorcock was there first: but for his left their marks in ways that the people of the Young Kingdoms efforts, those shelves would contain meagre offerings. must now deal with. RuneQuest II The Young Kingdoms are not like our own world. TheSample continents This file is not a standalone game. To make the best of it you will are different, the countries are unique in character and the world need a copy of the RuneQuest II Core Rulebook and Elric itself is far smaller.

Load more