Origins, education, political phylosophy
Where do you stem from, my good Gentleman (o'Fortune)?
We indicated already but let us really insist on the point: Pirates stem from all the regions of the Known World and layers of the corresponding societies. It would also be naive to believe that, for instance, the Pirates of the Shellfish Sea stay among their peers and in their region a whole lifetime! It is surely true in the general case but, in the details, let us simply say that one can meet in any part of the Known World Pirates of any origin, even from Nip'On, though at a lesser degree due to its almost total isolation. The decisive factors of the Culture of the said Pirates are the time, place and circumstances when and where those individuals became Pirates rather than their region or social category of origin. Thus, Pirates Crews are often real melting pots which are also quite mixed in terms of gender.
That being said, is everything said? We understood that, among Pirates, not only ruffians are to be found - no matter how numerous they can possibly be in the total - not only knowledge-thirsty intellectuals either - the latter being much fewer however, as one should admit! So, what's their common feature? The Deck on which each, according to the own way and before all at his or her station, swabs and hauls, etc.? What else?
The Call for Liberty
Well, arrhhh! Certainly a passion, instinctive and sometimes without limit, for Freedom. The bill to pay is certainly a big peace o'salty catfish but it is to a true Pirate never ruinous enough. That Liberty, Pirates understood it step by step through time, can be achieved and maintained only if a minimum of given rules be respected… well, at least among Pirates! That's the way the Pirate Code developped through History. That Codex is written nowhere, though many intellectuals - Pirates or not! – have written about it. It is made of more or less precise rules which govern how relationships are to be conducted between Pirates, including possible conflicts. That way the rules for the Duels of Insults have been progressively put in place, allowing to avoid useless blood baths while still letting Pirates express and live their inextinguishable thirst of bounties and « celebrities ». We have, by the way, gathered those rules in the chapter dealing with Duels and Encounters for you, dear Friend Game Master.
From Liberty derives another feature of the political philosophy of Pirates and that is: a form of Democracy! Indeed, even if, most of the time, the Captain of a Vessel is her owner and only Master on-Board or, at least, he is an Officier nominated here by a third Vessel's owner, it is nonetheless a fact that, first in some cases, the Captain is a Member of the Crew, who is chosen for that function by the Crew itself - for a limited time or not, a time which can further be prolonged or shortened - and that, second in almost all cases, the actual direction of Deck operations is lead by the Quarter Master, who is almost always elected in that position.
Well, at last, that illustrates quite well what the heart of Pirate Culture is, at least for our part, dear Reader. The rest and more depends on you too, if ye're not a chicken-hearted lan'labber!
Career plan: Pirate Governor
However, another heavy trend exists in the world of Piracy, the origin of which dates back to the development of the Caldo-Ann political system about five hundred years before present times, that of the Governor, a system which spread to all main islands of the Aunt-Sea, then to the Curry-Bean. That's when, about two hundred fifty years ago, two Pirates - Heyleen Latour-Lamarck and Jeff Markus Smolett – alomost simultaneously take - however, independantly from each other - the fates of the islands Glabbooby and Mattink in their command and become their respective Governors : the system of the Pirate-Governor (or Governor-Pirate, up to the personal interpretation of the role by the interested…) was born and has known until nowadays a constantly growing success…
But isn't that a contradiction in the very terms? A Pirate landing back again somewhere like a lubber, thereby loosing his or her conquered share of Liberty? Dear Friend Reader, we leave such a judgement to your careful wisdom since, here too, circumstances and actual implementations are extremely variegated, some actually using their island as an economic and military base in order to deploy a powerful Fleet, others taking the « Governor » option to organise a quiet retirement from active life… And you? What will you do!?