“No captain sails alone, no crewman fights for himself. The ship is our home, the crew our kin, the sea our witness. Treasure is shared, vengeance is swift, and betrayal is death. We carve our path in blood and tide, leaving only the wake behind.”
The Brotherhood of the Crimson Wake is the largest and most feared pirate creed in the known world. More than just a collection of ships, they are a force of nature—bound not by laws, but by a sacred and unbreakable kinship. Unlike common cutthroats, the Brotherhood holds an unnatural loyalty to one another, willing to sacrifice themselves to ensure no true brother sails alone.
To those outside their ranks, however, the Brotherhood is a nightmare given form. They take no prisoners when denied gold, and entire fleets have been reduced to sunken wrecks for daring to resist them.
Loyalty in Blood, Terror in Name
Brotherhood pirates do not fight for mere survival; they fight for the Crimson Wake itself. To betray a crewmate is unthinkable, and those who have fought against the Brotherhood claim its members seem to know—feel—when one of their own is in danger. Their retaliation is swift and brutal, their forces appearing where they shouldn’t possibly be. Some whisper that their bond is deeper than mere words, that something ancient and magical binds them together.
Merchants who spot the Crimson Wake’s colors rarely resist. Over the years, their sheer dominance has ensured that most trade vessels surrender immediately, knowing that compliance is the only way to survive. Those that refuse do not simply suffer defeat—they are erased, their ships shattered and their crews dragged into the depths.
The Crimson Curse: A Fate Worse Than Death
As tales of their power spread, lesser pirate bands began to hoist the Brotherhood’s flag, hoping to reap the benefits of their terrifying reputation. These impostors, however, always meet a fate worse than death.
If a ship is caught falsely flying the colors of the Crimson Wake, its crew is subjected to the Curse of the Drowned Pact—a cruel ritual performed by the Brotherhood’s Tidecallers, their arcane navigators and sea-priests. The impostors are bound in chains and cast into the sea, but they do not drown. Instead, they sink—alive—into the black abyss, their souls forever bound to the ocean floor.
These cursed wretches do not die, nor do they live. They remain trapped beneath the waves, unable to surface, their screams bubbling into silence. Sailors claim that on moonless nights, ghostly figures can be seen reaching from the depths, their hollow eyes filled with rage and sorrow. It is said that some Brotherhood captains can call upon these forsaken souls, summoning them to drag their enemies beneath the waves.
Tidecallers
The Blooded Circle and the Tidecallers
The Brotherhood has no single ruler, but rather a council of the most feared and successful captains known as the Blooded Circle. Each commands their own fleet, bound by the laws of the Wake. Betrayal among them is met with a fate worse than even the Crimson Curse—those who turn on their brethren are never seen again, their names erased from the world as if they never existed.
Guiding their ships through storm and battle are the Tidecallers, arcane seafarers who wield magic drawn from the ocean itself. Some claim they have struck a bargain with an ancient entity lurking beneath the waves, a being that ensures the Brotherhood’s dominance in return for unspoken sacrifices. Whatever the truth, their power is undeniable—they command the tides, summon spectral winds, and call upon drowned souls to do their bidding.
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Lemstron, The brotherhoods Stronghold
Lemstron
An island pirate hideaway. Many fleets from many nations have to take the island, not even a scout returned.
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