About
Warning, contains spoilers for DMC1, DMC3 and DMC1 novel!
Ebony and Ivory are Dante’s twin hand-guns and his default in
all four games of the Devil May Cry series. Their origins are rather confused though the most detailed background for the guns comes from the Devil
May Cry 1 novel released at the same time as the game and written by Shinya Godikeda. The novel has now been made non-canon thanks to the release of
DMC3 which became a prologue to the first game and made events in the DMC1 novel impossible.
In the DMC1 novel Ebony and Ivory are made for Dante by gunsmith Nell Goldstein. She and Dante have a mother/son like relationship with Dante
referring to her as ‘old lady’ whilst Nell uses him to fill the gap of her own dead son though the pair are constantly bickering with each other.
Nell goes by the title of ‘.45 Calibre Artist’ though she is getting on in her years when Dante knows her and for this reason she has not changed
the sign in her shop which reads ‘.45 Calibre Art Warks’. This logo is printed on Dante’s guns in every game though they state they are made for
‘Tony Redgrave’ which is the name Dante goes by in the novel. It is for this reason that the novel seems to be the most accurate description; though
whether Capcom always intended to give Dante this back-story (before DMC3) is unclear because in the early days of DMC1 (when it was still part of the
Resident Evil franchise) Dante’s character was originally named Tony Redgrave so the inscription on the gun could have simply been a nod to Devil May
Cry’s origins.
Nell makes the guns for Dante towards the end of the novel and Dante actually finishes them himself when he goes to investigate a fire in Nell’s
apartment block. He arrives at her shop to find her finishing her final masterpieces amongst the flames. Nell made them for Dante because his own guns
were constantly falling apart in his hands thanks to his over-developed trigger finger.
This part of the novel gives the most accurate description of the guns. The gun he holds in his right hand (Ivory in the games) is designed for rapid
fire whilst Ebony is designed for precise marksmanship.
Ebony and Ivory are both modified .45 Calibre 1911 Colt Pistols. Ivory has the hammer of a 9mm Beretta instead of the original colt hammer. Seeing as
Dante can fire a shot-gun using one hand we can assume that the recoil doesn’t affect him as it would a normal human being. Also the guns never run out
of ammo in game play and as Dante never seems to reload them in the anime or manga it is assumed they ‘magically’ create new bullets though the novel
mentions the ability to reload them.
Aside from the novel’s description it is unclear where the guns came from. They were made to replicate a pair of guns originally belonging to Sparda
named Luce and Ombra (Light and Shadow in Italien) and the two sets of guns are often confused with one another. It is made clear that they are in fact
separate sets of guns in the DMC anime and Devil May Cry 4 where Trish uses the guns. In the anime they have a half sun and moon etched on the barrel
whilst in the game they have the two women also depicted on Dante’s guns. Though where Trish (or Sparda for that matter) got the guns is also uncertain.
To add to the confusion is the 'Jackpot' cutscene in Devil May Cry 3 where Vergil grabs Ivory from Dante after it is knocked out of his hand by
Arkham. Dante's line 'remember what we used to say?' suggests that the brothers fought alongside, and with guns, once before and assumedly the same
pair of guns. If this is true then the most probably story here is that Ebony and Ivory were handed down by Sparda and thus divided equally between his
sons. It is then quite possible that Dante took Ivory after Eva was killed and the brothers were separated though at some point Vergil decided they were
dishonourable weapons, so there is always the chance he simply gave the gun to his brother.
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry is an action-horror series set in the modern day, developed by Capcom and created by Shinji Mikami. As of 2007 there are three games
in the series with a fourth installment currently in production.