Character Sheet
Name: Alexander Jacob Blackwood (The Wolf)
Gender: Male
age: 34
Personality:
Soft spoken, well educated, often charming and occasionally witty. Alex doesn't come across as a typical pirate. In fact, he has a higher moral compass than most and yet years of serving under his captain has made him both amoral and hedonistic, not to mention ruthless. Alex has a strong determination and an iron will. He can be quite fierce when crossed.
Appearance:
A slim man of average height, slightly muscular rather than wiry. He has fairly short cut sandy coloured hair and intense dark blue eyes. Unlike many pirates for which a lot of facial hair is often a badge of honour, Alex has no moustache or beard. He does, however have a fair amount of stubble.
He often wears black soft leather breeches over white silk stockings and large boots made of black died crocodile hide. He has a distinctive purple shirt with a black leather waistcoat. His breeches are tied at the waist by a purple silk sash. His hat is a black velvet wide brimmed hat decorated above the ring by a string of wolves teeth over a purple silk band.
Profession: Pirate
Rank: Captain
Weapons: Katana, pair of throwing knives
Family/Friends: Admiral Jacob Blackwood (Father, Deceased)
Skills: Aikido, Japanese Swordfighting, Knife throwing. Shinto rituals.
Ship's name: The Crimson Sakura
Type of Ship:
Japanese Red-seal ship (朱印船 Shuinsen)
Ship appearance:
Something like this
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_sea ... _ship1.jpg but with dark crimson sails and a red flag with a grinning wolf's head.
# of crew:
150 this consists of about 80 Japanese sailors and 70 African ex slaves. (a skeleton crew since these ships usually had a crew of about 300)
# of weapons:
10 demi culverns (Medium Cannons), 5 port and 5 starboard.
other:
The ship has an enchantment that allows the captain to transform it and anyone aboard into an ornamental ship in a bottle. Its a good way of hiding the ship when on land. Smashing the bottle breaks the enchantment and returns ship and crew to normal.
History:
The Crimson Sakura is a ghost story told to sailors for many years. A Japanese warship once sunk in a great storm, and risen again by the devil himself. It now sails the seas, manned by fierce samurai warriors and African cannibals and led by a fearsome English pirate called the Wolf.
The truth is more complicated and perhaps stranger than fiction. It began in 1640. Captain Katashi Miyomoto of the Crimson Samurai had been ordered to sail her on her last voyage to defend a merchant ship bound for the Netherlands. It was his his last voyage because the Kaikin - the new maritime restrictions placed upon shipping by the shogunate - meant that the ship would be decommissioned upon its return. Katashi bought aboard an unorthodox passenger, A young Japanese sorceress called Kasumi. Katashi loved his ship and had no intention of returning to Japan. He had enlisted Kasumi's help in performing a ritual that harnessed the shapeshifting powers of the Yokai.
The merchant ship and it's escort had been at sail for a few hours when a sudden storm sprang out of nowhere. During the storm that Kasumi herself had called forth the plan was put into action. The ship and its entire crew were suspended in time and shrunk to become an ornamental ship in a bottle. The plan was for another crew member who was placed in a row boat just before the ship transformed to retrieve the ship in a bottle before being rescued by the merchant vessel. Unfortunately during the storm the row boat capsized and the sailor drowned. The merchant ship returned home to report that the Crimson Sakura had sunk with all hands on board.
Eventually both ship and bottle were washed up on the shores of India where they fell into the hands of a poor family who subsequently sold it in a market to a Spanish sea captain. It was later stolen by Spanish pirates and then acquired by an English navy admiral who then retired. Eventually it fell into the hands of another pirate who took it with him on a voyage to the Caribbean. A few decades had passed before a storm at sea shook the cabin so violently that the bottle broke and with it the enchantment.
The Crimson Sakura resumed her original size, destroying the pirate ship in the process. Katashi and Kasumi found themselves in foreign seas far away from home. They took to piracy at first for survival and later for greed. Kasumi was already pregnant with Katashi's child at the time and three months later she gave birth to a daughter Hotaru. The pregnancy killed Kasumi.
Katashi who had earned the name The Warlord terrorised the Caribbean for sixteen years. Eye witness reports, coupled with information gleaned from Dutch vessels trading with Japan identified the ship as the long lost Crimson Sakura and thus the ghost ship legends began.
The end of the Warlords reign began when Two Navy Galleons escorting a merchant ship carrying african slaves encountered the Crimson Sakura. The battle went in favour of the galleons and rather than see his beloved ship sink Katashi surrendered. The merchant ship was badly damaged in the exchange and was sinking so the slaves and surviving pirate prisoners were transferred to the Sakra, allong with the merchant crew.
Alexander was a deck hand at the time. He was placed on the Sakura along with the other sailors and captain James Stone, a mean, officious bully of a man. James began a series of executions starting with Katashi. Alex watched in .horror as a sixteen year old Hotaru was passed around the ships crew. He had had enough. Whilst the crew slept he crept into James' cabin and stole his kees then freed all the pirates and slaves. They slew the merchant crew whilst they slept. Hotaru was proclaimed the new captain of the Sakura and Alex was made her first mate. This displeased the other pirates but Hotaru had inherited her mother's sorceress abilities and no one dared speak out against her.
Hotaru called forth a great mist from the sea that cloaked the Sakura allowing it to escape from its two galleon escorts. Legends now sprang up that the Sakura had a new captain, The Witch and her English consort The Wolf. The stories said that they had rescued a tribe of cannibals who had killed The Warlord and served him to The Witch. They said that the witch was a demon in disguise - both beautiful and terrible. In truth Hotaru was fiery, hot headed and prone to anger but her nature was tempered by Alex who had both an English education and a stronger sense of morality and was able to keep some of Hotaru's darker nature in check.
The Witch commanded the Sakura for seven years and the Wolf became her lover. They wanted children but as the years went by it became obvious that Hotaru could not bare a child. She sought magical help and it worked. Hotaru became pregnant. Unfortunately she shared her mother's weakness and died in childbirth, only this time her daughter also died during birth. The Wolf took command of the Sakura and has been its captain ever since. Legends once more obscure the truth saying that the Wolf ate the witch and her cub after she gave birth to a monstrosity.
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Noone was physically harmed during the creation of this message. Mentally scarred, yes, but not physically harmed.
Twitter: @thedarkincode
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