Lore - First Queen of the Pirates

   

A close-up from the cover art! (Coming soon!)

R.J Lloyd - Empyrean Scribe and Explorer

Excerpt from ‘The birth of the modern pirate’:

In this shattered world, numerous adventurers and self-proclaimed monarchs have left their mark. None yet have matched the impact of Lela, the First Queen of the Pirates. Rumors abound about her origins and how she became an officer in the Empyrean Navy. What she was before the world ended is even more of a mystery, the few that ever got a straight answer from her have wildly conflicting information. 

Lela's story only becomes agreed upon after she's given command of the Dancing Falcon in the Empyrean Navy.  As a captain, she earned a reputation for skilled tactics, and a fierce drive to excel. Most presume this is where she lost her eye, though stories abound about what happened, or if she ever lost her eye at all are only legends now. Her choice to keep the wound the few times she fell and revived makes most believe it to be a very personal mark for her. Pirates and sailors of all sorts often follow suit, keeping their scars to show their experience.

By the time the Empyrean was starting to take piracy seriously, Lela had caught the emperor's attention. Ships had gone missing with growing frequency while independent merchants loaded with cargo were making fortunes in the farthest corners of the colonies. Lela gained a small command, and a new flagship, to match her growing reputation. While admirals and their underlings plotted and pooled resources, Lela acted. Her first victories came fast but were small. Independent pirates were easy prey for her cunning and well-equipped crew. Still, the pirate raids became larger and more organized. The richest merchants pulled their connections to protect their ships, while poor or independent ships took a greater risk with each trip. 

Lela’s tactics changed after a chance encounter while protecting a merchant ship. Though she had moral qualms with the way the Empire conducted its business she honored her word to protect and carry out the Emperor's wishes. A group of pirates caught the convoy by surprise, intercepted where even Lela couldn`t believe an ambush would take place. Lela’s ship was damaged but she forced the pirates to retreat. She took command of a lesser-damaged ship and chased the pirates while the rest of her fleet repaired and escorted the merchant. Hunting down the retreating pirates led her to a small base, hidden well from prying eyes. 

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She assaulted the base, catching the pirates trying to restock their ships in the dock. After reporting the success, her superiors ordered them to return to the original escort mission. Her suspicion arose that no one cared to investigate how they were ambushed. Taking her orders to her first mate, she dropped on the pirate base with a few of her best fighters intent on rooting out the cause. 

After losing most of her assault team she made it to a fortified inner room and managed to break in. Inside she found another Navy commander, both recognized each other she demanded to know what was happening. The commander let her know that he was following the commands of his admiral and knew exactly where they would be and when. Angered at the betrayal of his honor and the betrayal of her superiors she told her remaining crew to destroy the base. She jumped from the last airship as it burnt down. Reviving on her ship she didn’t know whom she could trust and kept the details to only her closest of friends. 

As piracy continued to rage, she took to capturing ships and pirates, interrogating them, and learning all she could. She planned to return to the emperor once she had proof of the growing secret war she was uncovering. The questioning of her superiors did nothing to improve her position, but her success in command, tactics, and combat could not be ignored. Instead, she passed from command to command, each trying to control her through whatever means they could. This was to her benefit, as it gave her inside knowledge of all the admirals and their underhanded dealings. 

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Lela had absolute conviction that the Admirals of the Empyrean Navy had all fallen to corruption. They no longer served the emperor or the people. They instead filled their pockets from the merchants' hands, forming alliances and secret pirate fleets. Lela found herself blocked at every turn. Though she requested audiences with the emperor she would be assigned far away whenever she was granted one. 

Lela channeled her frustration into her combat. Becoming a feared pirate hunter, known for destroying all pirate vessels that challenged her, capturing their crews, and scuttling their ships. She also was growing a reputation for disobedience, often ignoring protecting the merchant ships and sometimes using them as bait for pirate attacks. She knew many of the pirate captains she captured and often took to interrogating them herself.

This all came to a crisis when her commanders' infighting led to her being a pawn in their politics, sacrificing her crew and ships in pointless battles to undercut each other. After refusing an order to leave a fellow captain she was accused and ostracized along with several others and their crews. She returned to the capital to try to rally support for herself, but her allies were captains and commanders who were out, not the merchants and admirals who had control of the emperor's underlings. Her skill with a sword and ship was no good in this arena. 

When news broke of the first official battle between admirals, Lela was still trying to get the attention of anyone who would listen to her. The Empyrean was split in less than a month, as each merchant and Admiral claimed the territory for themselves.

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Loyalties were questioned and though every ship and captain professed honesty, backstabbing, and conspiracy went wild. For Lela’s smeared reputation she was forced to the side, removed from her beloved ships and crews, and pushed into an administrative role. She knew her superiors, even those still by the emperor's side had betrayed her and the Empyrean. She shook with anger and sorrow as the empire she had loyally bled for had crumbled under corruption and infighting.

There are legends about how much she drank, cursed, and fought in the following days and weeks. She was a creature of pure sorrow and rage, nothing quenching the fire that burned down her ideas of nobility, trust, and the order of the Empyrean. Few challenged the cut of her blades or the sting of her words. The taverns reportedly ran dry and the alleys of the capital became chaotic brawls when she was on a bender. Stories of her darkest days are rarely spoken in factual terms, the details exaggerated with each telling.

Less than a year later Lela emerged from her darkness. Some say it was a vision, others say it was some of her closest friends' interventions. Only a few today mention with whispered breath she was likely out of places that allowed her on site and had to sober up because of it. She chartered her own fleet and crews, paying with a small fortune from her once glorious anti-piracy career. Filled with her most trusted crewmates she sailed away from the heart of the Empire and into the uncontrolled and dangerous Scarred Isles in the middle of the raging civil war. 

In the time that followed ships and crews began disappearing. Any that wandered close to the Scarred Isles did so at their own risk. Rumors of a ghost fleet were spoken at the docks and taverns but none could confirm anything. 

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The war continued to carve up the former Empyrean, with the larger sides forming into independent states. Each claimed to be the rightful inheritors of the shattered empire. The largest was the core of the empire, which had recovered and had the industry to build faster than the outer, less developed territories. The Emperor decided to try to end the civil war by sending his largest fleet through the Scarred Isles islands to outflank their strongest opponents. Ships armed with the latest weapons and outpowering any single known opponent entered the wild area. The might of the emperor was on full display, determined to not only destroy an opponent but also secure their sense of power.

There in the uncharted and dangerous Scarred Isles, they were set upon by an unknown fleet. The resulting battle had only a third of the emperor's fleet return, defeated. 

The Emperor's fleet had been decimated by a familiar face. Using pirate tactics, skilled crew Lela picked apart the formations. Her reputation and honor converted many captains to her cause. The Emperor’s Blade, the most powerful ship in the skies at the time, was lost, though how is still disputed. Accounts vary but all agree the ship captained by Lela was directly involved. Those that returned brought word that the Scarred Isles were now a free territory, unaligned with any of the sides that had taken shape. She demanded an audience with the Emperor, what she would have said will never be known. The Emperor had vanished before the fleet returned. 

The resulting chaos made it hard for any one nation to form up and assault this new land of pirates. Though Lela never claimed the title herself, she was dubbed the First Pirate Queen. After several attempts to bribe, assault, and capture her by various nations proved unsuccessful she formed the established pirate islands in the Scarred Isles. There she laid the rules all pirates would conduct themselves by. Some islands even find themselves being populated by those freshly revived. 

For a time she was the unquestioned ruler. Though she shunned the idea of being made a dictator she recognized that infighting would lead to the fall of them all. Through deals, bravado, and force she collected all the pirates, renegades, escaped slaves, and freedom fighters under her banner. Internal trade, shipbuilding, and even agriculture had found roots in the Scarred Isles. 

She kept an eye on the events outside of the area as well. From her command she watched and even encouraged, the developing nations to set boundaries and cease the civil war. Though they wished to claim the Scarred Isles, Lela made it clear pirates would be unleashed en mass against any who tried to break the stability. 

She slowly passed off her responsibilities to others who could command the people through more than force. Some were long-time allies, and others were newcomers with new ideas and new ways of living. She returned to what she loved best, sailing and challenging herself and her crew to achieve new and greater things.

Only a handful of years and much pillaging later her fortune was massive, rivaling the biggest merchant traders she raided. But she grew restless, seeking something bigger than the usual battles and growing politics around her. 

One hazy day she gathered her closest crew on her ship. Said a few goodbyes to a tavern wench, her current lover, and a dockworker, then sailed off. Binding herself to her ship's shard, preventing her from returning.

Still called Queen of the Pirates, The One-Eyed Queen, and Captain of the Master Falcon. Her name is still cursed outside of the Scarred Isles, inside she is the inspiration for all to try to achieve.