In which the author speaks of Elric’s pact with Arioch, Lord of the Seven Darks.

Let Us Speak of Magic: Part the Eleventh

This will be the penultimate letter concerning Elric and his magical pacts, itself part of our larger conversation "Let Us Speak of Magic." For the preceding letters please see:

• ​Part 1​
• ​Part 2​
• ​Part 3​

Dear Reader,

When last we spoke of Elric we read of his attempt to summon Arioch, one of the Chaos Gods, as part of his desperate effort to find the woman he loves (and the traitor who kidnapped her).

He believed that he failed. In this letter we will look at Elric’s pact with Arioch and see where it takes him...

Of Master and Slave

We pick up shortly after Elric collapses in exhaustion, believing that his summoning has been in vain:

The manifestation of our Chaos God does not begin on a pleasant note. We are told it is annoying, obscene. And he appears to be toying with our hero. So Elric asks, still not certain and barely able to speak, “Arioch?”

In an echo of the summoning, Arioch invokes Elric’s name twice, first reviving him and then filling him with strength. Afterwards he is taller than Elric and can look down upon him.

The conversation with Arioch is of a markedly different tone than the previous conversations we have seen Elric have with those powers that he summons. For one, Arioch is very clear that he is the “master” and Elric is “the slave.”

This is not the friendly talk with Straasha, Lord of the Water Elementals. Nor is he invoking the promised service of a Beast Lord. This is a pledging of allegiance in exchange for aid.

And aid Arioch grants, providing strength to our weakened hero and guidance in how to proceed in his quest to save his missing love and track down the traitor who stole her.

Elric’s Dreadful Battle Song

Thanks to Arioch’s aid, Elric is able to find his enemy. And it is in this instance that we first hear Elric’s battlecry, which is in itself an invocation. We arrive as our nemesis Yyrkoon is trying to understand what has gone wrong while a servant addresses him:

Blood and souls! That is what Arioch wants and requires.

Aside/interjection: If you know a little Warhammer Fantasy or 40K lore, you might recognize something of the most memorable battle cry of Chaos:

Here, the pact not only grants Elric power but it serves his new master. Yes, in this instance by serving Arioch, Elric serves himself. But Elric no longer dispatches enemies only for his own sake, now the death he deals is dedicated to the Chaos Lord.

That sounds ominous and troubling.

Arioch’s Fickle Aid

Sometimes Elric calls on Arioch for more direct aid in perilous situations. But his patron does not always find it necessary to aid the only one “fit to serve Arioch.”

In one instance, he appears as a dark cloud that devours Elric’s enemies. In another he grants supernatural strength at the last minute to overcome a monster that seems about to finish off our hero. There’s a time when Elric actually does Arioch a favor by inviting him to retrieve a wayward Chaos Jester. And in yet another instance, Elric is desperate for aid and Arioch responds:

Oh, my! That doesn’t sound good! Why not?

What a great patron! But that’s not all, Arioch has some parting words before dire danger reaches our hero:

So, just so we’re clear: I’m not going to help you, but, remember to remain loyal to us no matter what. Great. Now, I hope you survive!

In only one instance that I can think of is Elric able to compel Arioch to action.

In The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, Elric summons Arioch to undo an evil – and he has the means to command him. (Technically this scene appeared in a novella titled The Jade Man’s Eyes first, but the textual history of some of Moorcock's books gets…interesting.)

Elric possesses an artifact that gives him authority over his patron but that authority only allows him to issue one command. Arioch is compelled to obey but that doesn’t stop him from reasoning with Elric to persuade him away from his intended course of action.

But Elric is not dismayed: His cause is just and only Arioch can undo the evil.

So Arioch’s aid can be helpful, it can be absent, and it can compelled – at least once. But all of these little gestures are as nothing to the most pivotal “aid” Arioch ever gives Elric. And the pact that our hero enters into as a result.

Dear Reader, we will pause here for there is much to be said of Elric and the Black Sword – too much for this letter to hold. And so we must wait to resume our conversation until next week. I hope that you've enjoyed this letter.

Until we speak again.

​

Best regards,

​

Bryan