Stormbringer

[Vampyro]

I am curious on how Stormbringer will translate to film. Stormbringer is a sentient sword which aurally expresses itself in various situations. In the books it even sings/croons...Stormbringer's 'voice' will be hard to translate , I just hope it is done in the right way. If a human is used to voice Stormbringer then I would like to see it used with the appropriate effects to hide the human traits in the sound.

The Black Radiance it gives off is something i can't really imagine, are there any illustrations depicting this?

and is the armory's version of Stormbringer a lower grade replica of the one we will see in the movie

[Aiolos]

I'd always imagined it being a voice sort of like vibrating metal, or the sound you get rubbing your finger around the rim of a wine glass. Not quite chime-like, but a vibrating tone of continuously varying frequency.

It's not quite black radiance, but similar effects have been done before in different sci-fi, like the stuff left over after Night Crawler teleports in X-Men. The difference here is illuminating or rather "de-luminating" a moving area around a sword.

The Armory's Stormbringer is endorsed by Mike, but who knows. Alot can happen in the years it takes to bring something like this to fruition. Either way, it won't bother me, there are dozens of different artist's interpretations of Stormbringer already.

[Arioch - Duke of Hell]

Please let Arioch look more real than Malbolger from Spawn!

The Supernatural agents will be the trickiest aspects to convey on film. The lords of the Law and Entropy, along with the Elemental and beast lords will need particular attention to detail as well. In the "Stormbringer" RPG they allude to the fact that the agent binding another into an artifact must be necessarily stronger than the demon to be bound (and Stormbringer is able to defeat Arioch) then who created Stormbringer and Mournblade, the hand that holds the balance?

I think it would be cool if Arioch is depicted as a "beautiful youth" when Elric first meets him, albeit with blazing eyes or something, and then some nasty monstrosity like the giant fly depicted in my avatar. I would also like to see the film start with a prologue on the creation/binding of Stormbringer himself since I have always felt that he was at least as much of the main character as Elric himself.

IMHO Stormbringer shouldn't communicate with Elric verbally, but should share "visions" with Elric or something and respond with glowing runes and a dark nimbus when unsheathed. The very sight of it must terrorize foes and reveal that this is definitely the work of sorcery.

[Shadowheart]

Stormbringer is the one aspect of the story that worries me most when it comes to the making of the movies. It's essential for the audience to understand and accept Stormbringer, despite the limitations of the medium. In the book, when Elric takes up the sword in the pulsing cavern, we don't just read what he feels (which the actor should show), but also what he suddenly knows. I hope they'll find a clever (subtle but clear) way of explaining why Elric is suddenly looking excited yet terrified.

As for the sound of Stormbringer's moaning/howling/singing, that's one for the movie's sound geeks (not sure what the technical term is) to figure out, seems like a great artistic challenge to me. It'll take more expertise and experimenting than I have or would know how to do.
Ideally it would be something as distinctive as Star Wars' trademark lightsaber hum, but with a musical quality and more open to variation. When Stormbringer leaps into action it should be powerful and dominant, to stress that the sword is doing the fighting at least as much as Elric.

If the movie ever requires Stormbringer to directly communicate with Elric, there's probably ways to show it without using Stormbringer's "voice". Say Elric comes to a fork in the road and pauses to decide which way to take. Stormbringer moans, stirs or glows as appropriate, and we see Elric frowning and looking in one direction, doubtful. Suggesting a simple psychic communication like that shouldn't be hard.

I'm also curious about how they'll handle the actual soul-stealing, without making it too cheesy. I don't think we need to see ghost-like special effects shooting out of the bodies and down Stormbringer's length or anything like that. Less is probably more, maybe just a distinctive modification of the sword's radiance and sound. The actors should be equally subtle about it, too much eyes rolling back and twitching could easily go wrong.

[Arioch - Duke of Hell]

Although Elric is the eternal champion and title character, the gods, demons and moral dilemmas are arguably what the tale is all about. I also believe that Stormbringer is indeed one of the most important aspects of this series, transforming Elric from the idealistic weakling into a demigod struggling with the appropriate use his power.

Stormbringer is the one aspect of the story that worries me most ... the sound of Stormbringer's moaning/howling/singing,..."

I think a good mix of tormented souls moaning, a choral "ahhh" and demonic "argggh" might do the trick

If the movie ever requires Stormbringer to directly communicate with Elric, there's probably ways to show it without using Stormbringer's "voice".

Do you think they should have the conversation take place in his mind (narrated w/o Elric's lips moving) or be done entirely with acting in order to avoid disappointing us w/ a generic "Exorcist"-style voice?

I'm also curious about how they'll handle the actual soul-stealing, without making it too cheesy...maybe just a distinctive modification of the sword's radiance and sound.

I agree, this could easily go wrong. I like the idea of having Stormbringer's runes glow and pulse as it gulp's the soul down. Instead of a great show of the victim's agony, it may be better to show Elric's reaction (distaste/horror/invigoration/ecstasy) and a change in his countenance and/or maybe a device where we see the moment through the victims eye's, so that we imagine ourselves on the receiving end, instead of a lame depiction of the departing "ghost" as you say. Perhaps the victim's vision could brighten and then dim, while some hellish vision replaces it as they become imprisoned in the sword w/ the others, and begin to hear it's voice/song. I don't know if they should depict the 'essence' of Stormbringer 'greeting' them unless it can be done well. I wonder what Sormbringer's 'essence' would look like, a swirling chaotic mass of evil imagery or an evil humanoid (with requisite glowing eyes?) and such?

[Bakkhios]

As for Stormbringer's "essence", Arioch, I don't know about the "greeting" part, but at least for the final scene, we should see its true shape... which is definitely humanoid, or at least partially.
It is only suggested in the end of the Elric Saga, but more clearly described in the rest of the EC saga (in the end of the Hawkmoon saga, for example).

I am very curious about that final aspect of Stormbringer... should we see him/it clearly? Or from a subjective point of view? That's a good way to let the audience imagine the worst without disappointing it with a too cheesy demonic shape, plus it would feel as if the audience IS Stormbringer :twisted: !

Anyway, it should be plain terrifying!

[Arquinsiel]

I remember a few years back I was involved in a school production of the Wizard of OZ (a big one, as these things go). For some reason the director thought that a good way to open the second act would be to have all the female chorus sing wordless harmonies just before the curtain opened. During the dress rehersal the day before opening we (the stage crew) heard this singing for the very first time. It's a weird tradition that stage-crew in this school spend the intervals standing on the stage bullshitting with each other running offstage just before the curtain opens. When we were supposed to be moving ready to go for act two this weird sound of 30+ 15 year old girls singing this wordless harmony had the wierdest effect on us. Due to the lack of profesionality, the individuality of the voices and the relatively minor vocal changes girls experience in puberty the harmony was rather ragged and even discordant at points. Basically, we were all rooted to the spot with this overwhelming and inexplicable feeling of utter terror. Dunno why, but even today the memory of that sound makes me worry just a little. Presumably the sound of several young girls screaming away all at once would be proportionately more disturbing.

[Groakes]

Hmmm.... Interesting idea. I can imagine a Lisa Gerrard-esque ulullation(as per the live version of Cantana) for Stormbringer in berserk mode. ...

I might try and feed her harmonic envelope through the Additive synth engine on my trusty K5000S and see what comes out - sort of like sampling but not really.... Stay tuned for future developments....

[Bakkhios]

I might try and feed her harmonic envelope through the Additive synth engine on my trusty K5000S and see what comes out - sort of like sampling but not really.... Stay tuned for future developments....

You'll thus create and inaugurate the "Elric Speculative Sound Gallery"???
Neat! :clap:

Cheers,

[Whiskers]

I'd be happy to make such a gallery in the http://www.multiverse.org/modules.php?name=Downloads section of the site here.

[Anonymous]

The Voice of Stormbringer

IMO, a choir of men and women singing highly dissonant notes in unison or simply wailing/moaning/shrieking wordlessly with just the right amount of Harmonizer added may be a good place to start...this is indeed a crucial aspect of the movie! The voice of the Black Sword ought to scare the living crap out of anybody hearing it, fan or otherwise. It always has that effect in the books, why not in the movie?

[Ant]

... Pertaining to what someone else said elsewhere, Clancy Brown would be totally wrong for the voice of Stormbringer--he's too rough and hoarse, his voice too deep. I'd suggest a layered melange of women and men with high voices screaming wordlessly for that, processed through a Harmonizer for that otherwordly quality...Stormbringer has no dialogue until the very end of the last novel, and I imagine it as having a more sweet and sinister tone of voice, not gravelly or harsh at all. Tilda Swinton again, maybe? Unless they were talking about the incarnation of the Black Sword that appears in Book 4 of the Hawkmoon saga? i can see Brown's voice working for that aspect of the Black Sword... [from the Arioch thread]

Ah, you again...

Stormbringer's voice should be an amalgam of all those souls wailing... Or something discordant, like multiple out-of-synch overlays of Gyأ¶rgy Ligeti's "Atmospheres". (But Kubrick already got into trouble for messing with that piece!)

Ciao,
Ant

[Hawksun]

When I was studying technical theatre at college, I was one of the sound engineers for a production of Dracula. We did a recording of some of the cast singing a tune, and then played it through a reverb box. The resulting sound was seriously spooky and I thought a similar effect would sound cool as Stormbringer.