Elric summoning Arioch

Here is what Craig Hamilton the artist wrote about this piece.

Michael Moorcock's Elric is the albino wizard king who wields the vampiric black sword, Stormbringer. In this, my first drawing of Elric, he is confronting Arioch, god of chaos, who appears as an amorphous shadow, a fly, or a beautiful golden youth. Thanks to my friend, Randall who was a superb model and great inspiration for Arioch. I modeled for Elric myself, a character I've always identified with, so it may be strange that I didn't draw him sooner. Considering I spent 1600 hours on this 18x22' piece, I must have been building up to it over the years.

More on Elric

Elric was the last emperor of the stagnating island civilization of Melniboné. Physically weak and frail, the albino Elric must take drugs - later retconned to mean special herbs - in order to maintain his health. In addition to herb lore, his character becomes an accomplished sorcerer and summoner, able to summon powerful, supernatural allies by dint of his royal Melnibonéan bloodline. Unlike most others of his race, Elric possesses something of a conscience; he sees the decadence of his culture, and worries about the rise of the Young Kingdoms, populated by humans (as Melniboneans do not consider themselves such) and the threat they pose to his empire. Because of his introspective self-loathing of Melnibonéan traditions, his subjects find him odd and unfathomable, and his cousin Yrkoon (next in the line of succession, as Elric has no heirs) interprets his behavior as weakness and plots Elric's death.

As emperor of Melniboné, Elric wears the Ring of Kings, also called the Ring of Actorios, Elric is able to call for aid upon the traditional patron of the Melniboné emperors, Arioch, a Lord of Chaos and Duke of Hell. From the first story onwards, Elric is shown using ancient pacts and agreements with not only Arioch but various other beings - some gods, some demons - to assist him in accomplishing his tasks.

Elric's finding of the sword Stormbringer serves as both his greatest asset and greatest disadvantage. Forged in the distant past, the sword confers upon Elric strength, health and fighting prowess but must be fed the souls of those struck with the black blade. In the end, the blade takes everyone close to Elric and eventually Elric's own soul as well. Most of Moorcock's stories about Elric feature this relationship with Stormbringer, and how it - despite Elric's best intentions - brings doom to everything the Melnibonéan holds dear.