Former Pirate Kings [DFNCT]
| Founded By: | Player 298258 | Founded On: | 02DEC15 12:20 |
Arch Nemesis! The cops!
[08 Dec 04:28]<System> ** News flash: Illyriad Police Dep. [lPD]declares war on The Pirate Kings [YARR!] Hostilities may begin immediately...
The alliance for all the Pirates, Privateers, Buccaneers, and militant Captains and their Crews.
Based in the Pirate Isles. If you can't be nearby, you're sailing the wrong waters. BL ONLY. IGM Ranalos to discuss details and membership options.
Not a training alliance, but willing to take that step for those with a keen wit and a willingness to live in the following regions: The Pirate Isles (of course), Newlands, High Hills, Gremont, Vindorel, The Orken Coast, or Almenly. The goal is to congregate in and around the Pirate Isles, so that we may sail the same waters, for mutual defense and support.
LAND CLAIM EFFECTIVE 12/08/2015
The Pirate Kings, like Kings throughout the ages, want to establish a Kingdom. As such, we are taking the obvious step of claiming the larger of the Pirate Isles, a heavily forested and largely rough land, (the one not part of the Hansa claim) for our own. We would like to further announce that through our Confederation with The Hanseatic League, we are offering our support of their land claim, and offer to help enforce any, ahem, negotiations with interlopers.
Additionally, as we are first Pirates and secondly Kings, we want it further stated that our claim extends to the seas on all sides, 100 squares or to the further shores, whichever is closer. While this means nothing for gameplay purposes, it is very much in the spirit of our alliance identity to aim for control of the seas.
Our landclaim means two things – existing residents, and members of Hansa, are welcome to continue their growth in our area without interference, subject only to the common provisions of the 10 square customs. Others who move into the area past the date of this announcement, will be enticed to move, whether by carrot or by stick. This is not a fertile and bountiful land, and living here requires robust settlers, so we expect only those with our support to survive in the area.
Finally, cities without growth in a 4 week period will be subject to housekeeping removal. We will make any governing alliance aware in advance, should they be able and interested in taking the city within a reasonable amount of time, but dead cities will not be allowed to sit and rot in the landscape.
#/Alliance/Faction/100
From the journal of Barnard of Shelton, master trader in the employ of the Illyria Trade Council, recording his journeys to the Broken Lands.
I was welcomed in Belgorrian with trumpets blaring, a rich carpet rolled out on the dock to great me, and rows of men-at-arms lining my procession to the Royal palace. There was a formal presentation to King Ulharadd in his throne room, and then a great feast
in the evening.
This, I thought, is a pirate city? I had expected rough cut-throats, carousing in stinking taverns, making threats upon my life. But instead I was being wined and dined in Royal style, treated to a display of courtly splendour and shown every respect.
The following day I rode out to hunt with Ulharadd and some of his courtiers.
“We are the true Warrior-Kings of these lands,” he assured me. “Our wealth, it is true, often comes from plunder. But raiding is a traditional noble pastime, a source of wealth and honour, and a training for war. People call us pirates, because we prey upon
ships that will not bow before us and offer us due payments. In much the same way land-locked nobles will extract loot from subjects who refuse to bow to them and pay taxes. Are the world’s nobles all bandits? Only then are we pirates.”
Ulharadd’s views of other local rulers was not entirely complementary. He had the highest praise for Ramoar, Surriem and Azoash, the other three so-called Pirate Kings, with whom he is closely allied. But he was dismissive of the Kings of Virten, who he mocked
as “commoners without breeding, training or experience, raised above their abilities to rule, unable to cope, reliant upon the College of Silence to secure their election and then twice as reliant on the College’s advisers and spies in order to rule.” In other
words, the Kings of the west were, in his view, incompetent puppets, manipulated by the College. For the New Light he had even less kind words, dismissing them as power-mad maniacs. And when I asked about the Drek-Hhakrall he only laughed.
“We have no enmity to these people,” he shrugged, “but we do not pretend that they are true kings, such as ourselves.”
Ulharadd explained that his own lands were ruled by men trained for war, taught from birth how to rule, and supported by families with experience in combat, administration and leadership. They were, he said, as any good noble should be, an elite superior in
breeding and training, ruling over those less capable.
What was unusual, he conceded, was that he and his fellow kings laid claim not only to land but also to water – specifically to all the waters around their islands, north as far as the jungle and south to the icy shores. Then he said that he hoped that the
Illyria Trade Council would soon become some of his most honoured water-borne subjects – that we would bow to his throne, accept the protection of his fleet, and pay him royally.
The court was spectacular. The food, the entertainments, the quality of courtesy and conversation, the discipline of the troops and the fortifications of the city were all of the highest standard.
But such trappings do not disguise that rulers who blackmail and prey upon honest trade ships are nothing but pirates, and are the enemies of all honest merchants.