A Pirate's Life
A Pirate's Golden Rules
A Pirate is free and does what he/she wants - it's only half-true. Imagine a boat full of unruly dirty guys without any kind of rules. It'd quickly go berserk.
Pirates had rules -nine to be precise- and here they are:
1- What Captain says, goes. Captain knows best and when he doesn't, Quartermaster does. Captain gets 20%, Quartermaster gets 15 %. Navigator, Gunner and Cook get 10%. The rest is shared equally within the crew.
2- Pirate one day, pirate forever. Any man leaving the crew without the Captain's approval shall be shot. Any man keeping secrets from the Captain shall be tortured.
3- Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Any man stealing from the Captain or the crew's common treasure shall be shot or abandoned onto a deserted island.
4- Your crew is your only family. Any pirate threatening another pirate's of his crew life intentionally shall be whipped 40 times lacking one. -See below why one man can only be whipped 39 times.
5- Never stray. Any man neglecting his business shall suffer punishment as the Captain and Quartermaster shall think fit.
6- Compensation. Any man losing a limb(hand, leg, foot, arm) or eye shall get 10%. For loss of the right hand, 15%.
7- Un pour tous, tous pour un. You shall never betray your crew/Captain and mingle with the enemy.
8- The last chance. You shall always respect Parley. Any prisoner asking for Parley shall be unharmed and brought to the Captain in the shortest time possible.
9- Watch out for the intruder. Any man intruding the crew (having not signed with the Captain and took vows ) shall be tortured or shot. Death awaits the intruder.
Note: The original pirate's rules have been modified and re-arranged (or invented) to fit the community's spirit a little bit better.
Original Rules :http://www.thepiratesrealm.com/pirate%20code.html
Mod's note : And of course, don't forget to break all these rules!
The Pirate Crew
You're not without knowing that even amongst a pirate crew, hierarchy is present and very important. Here's how it goes:
Captain: The ultimate master, owner of the ship and the men's lives. The Captain's responsiblity actually runs pretty low and he should only worry about his men's conditions (food, booze, payment). A Captain can't be defied and a pirate ows him loyalty. If it is considered that the Captain is too cruel with his crew and/or hs seemingly lost it, then Quartermaster should replace him until a new vote elects a more fitting Captain (needs mod's approval).
QuarterMaster/ First Mate : A Captain should be the only chosing who will fit what position; either QM, either FM.The First Mate is like the right-hand and shall replace the Captain if this one dies during a battle or can't perform his duties anymore.
The QuarterMaster is more like a co-captain, second-in-commands and helds most of the Captain's powers.
Navigator: Needless to say, he is one of the most needed man on the ship. He's the only one having a natural sense of directions, he knows the seas and how to read the signs it presents along with the weather. He can calculate distance and depth by his eye only and knows how long a trip is going to take. He easily reads maps and occasionally makes his own. If a treasure shall be hidden, the map of it shall be drawn by the Navigator.
Gunner: This position speaks for itself. Gunner is the man to call when a ship of the enemy comes into sight; he's the only deciding when, how and where they should fire. He makes sure all the weapons are in good conditions and can load, aim, fire and swab quicker than anyone else.
Cook: He knows how to prevent the food from rotting and what a sailor needs to eat daily. He can cook any fish the men bring him and spends most of his day into the 'kitchen'. And just, honestly. He's a cook, you know how that works.
Regular Pirate: He knows the sea, know how to fight,sew, fish,load cannons...he's everything you think he is.
The Jolly Roger
Everybody knows what the Jolly Roger is -and if you don't, it's time to throw yourself out of the window because clearly, you have no life whatsoever.
The Jolly Roger is not exactly some fancy item of fashion. It is a way for pirate to warn their opposants that if they didn't surrender right away, they would go through whatever the flag was announcing for with its symbols sewed in it.
A few examples of symbols:
Emmanuel Wynne. "Time to surrender is running out"
The skull over crossed bones has probably been taken loosely from religion to symbolize power over death, and the hourglass isf of course refering to time, but generally time running out.
Also:
-A pierce heart to speak of a merciless death
-A heart with drops of blood to speak of a drawn out and agonizing death
-A dart or spear to speak of a violent death
-A skeleton to speak of a merciless death
-A cutlass in a hand to let people know that any of these forms of death were free of charge and without delay (fancy, uh?)
You have all the elements now to make your own Jolly Roger! Go bad captain and give your ship a flag before looking like a complete loser. Your crew is ashamed.
PS: No, you don't have to have a skull onto your flag. You can use a cobra, a lion, a smile, a penis...whatever you want, as long as it's not a heart with a rainbow.
Widht: 300 px
Height : 150 px [go see the already present flags if you want a visual example http://community.livejournal.com/jollyroger_rp/1640.html#cutid1 ] <= this is also where you should post the final result into a comment ( post a link, not the actual image please), so the mod can add it into the taken section.
Once done, put uo the picture into your profile (may you be a pirate or a captain) so everybody knows with one glance what family you belong to ;]
Little Pirate Things...
How to talk Pirate:
It's not really necessary and it might even be better if you don't; pirates had the tendency to take off the 'G' and 'R' into their words. They would also exaggerate a lot with adjectives so instead of :
"A big ship"
We'd get :
"A great, grand ship!"
It'd be easier for everyone if you didn't make your character talk like that, to be understood and to save yourself from a tedious work. You know you're not going to have fun if you have to be careful about taking off letter and using unnecessary adjectives.
However, if you desire to use good ole pirate insults, you can go there : http://www.thepiratesrealm.com/pirate%20talk.html
Pirate's weapons:
Again, it is not necessary to use the specific names of specific weapons; if you use 'saber', 'pistol', 'bullet' and 'cannon', everybody will get it just right. Just remember not to use a bazooka.
If you want to show off, you can always go here : http://www.thepiratesrealm.com/pirate%20weapons.html
Female Pirates:
Despite the fact that most sailors thought women were bad luck on a ship (it was said their period made the compasses' hands go wild), Calico Jack's crew was entirely made of chicks.
You can always go and have a superstitious pirate; the mod is the only one deciding if your crew will have one (or several) girls in it. Sorry.
The Pirate outfit :
(of course)
Pirates were not always wearing rags! Their clothes were often dirty, yeah, but it was composed of a lot of vests and belts -mostly for captains, but well. Scarves, boots,blouses,coats,hats,bandanas...
You might wonder what icon to have in the community - I bet finding a picture of your boy/girl wearing a stripped shirt shouldn't be too hard...
Pirate's beliefs:
¤Women: Like said before, they were considered bad luck because periods supposedly made compasses go crazy.
¤Rabbits: it was forbidden to pronunce their name on board, because rabbits (supposedly) ate threads!
¤Emerald/ Ruby : One supposedly protected one from storms and the other protected one from drowning. Needless to say, they should be prized into treasure hunting.
¤Seagulls and gulls : They are the souls of sailors that have drowned into the sea. They should not be touched.
¤Soul: A boat is believed to have a soul; therefore, a pirate would use 'he' or 'she' to refer to the ship.
¤Singing: Sailors would sing during work so they wouldn't hear any eventual mermaid's song that would inevitably cause death...
¤Whipped 39 times : It was believed that no man could survive above 40 hits...
And many, many others you can google.
That's all folks!