Pirates

Hello hello

Want to start with setting and go from there? That's probably easiest. From where I stand, we have a few choices:

- Realism: pick a time period and an earth place and stick to how it would be
- Low fantasy: it isn't earth, but it's not too much different. We just have different names for things and a few different creatures/elves/magic
- High fantasy: Pirates in middle earth
- Sci-fi: Space pirates~ And/or water pirates, but with super cool tech in the far future.

I think each of them do have their own challenges and tbh I'm down for anything because they all are equally cool and I've written in all those genres before. I think it could be super cool to do pirates in the Mediterranean during the roman empire, I also love making up our own politics system (maybe a world which only has one large ocean connecting four continents?). And now that I'm musing about logistics, having a super high-tech ship with like, EMPs and electric grappling hooks sounds pretty epic.

if you have any ideas on where you have muse, throw it out there and we'll see where it fits~ I'm down to flesh out a few options too and see what sticks if one doesn't immediately stick out

the first thing I think of when I think of pirates is roman empire era haha

And I'm down to do some heavy worldbuild with that vibe in mind~ Have a large trading empire that may or may not condone the pirates or hire them to some capacity, but also recognize they are absolute bastards and a nuisance for their own trade. And perhaps the only "fantasy" element can be like... the sea god is real and upsetting them is Not Good. Maybe a sea monster in there for drama purposes, but the "everyone thinks it's a myth OH NO" kind of drama

They would have to have a HUGE reward for something that taboo and/or dangerous. I'd think the empire wouldn't care about angering the sea god, but I'd bet the pirates would def want to keep them on their side as much as possible.

Could be in a fear/respect sort of way, like any natural disaster, but it could also be that the sea god cares about the pirates after a long time at sea and even helps them escape dangers (esp maybe the empire's fleet that doesn't care about it as much?)

If we want to make this a little more complicated, there could be a pirate that's more a newcomer (or spy/infiltrator) that seeks to steal the sea god's loot by tricking the pirates into getting close for a different target and striking out once they've gained the crew's trust? Could have empire-greed motives, but also maybe the object could cure their wife's disease or something really empathetic (bad thing for good reasons; desperation)

yea they'd have to be tricked, I don't see them angering their own patron lightly.

Speaking of, what do you imagine they would be doing before this job? Like the general morals of the ship. Would you want to do something like they'd attack anyone as long as the loot was worth their time, or do they have some sort of code?

that's an awesome relic! We can totally work with that~
And I'm cool with that; I just thought the morality needed to be sorted first before we get too far into the rest of it. I think they'd mostly just follow along with whatever the cap/senior crew said, but it would be good to keep them on the same page.

Stealing from the rome idea, it would be super cool to have plenty of internal politics with territories too. Esp if the sea we're sailing is surrounded mostly by Empire land and Empire colonies; each one would have their own politics and perhaps some of them we can take contracts for that want to screw over the Empire and gain, if not freedom, then some measure of independence from them. Like contracting pirates to swarm that part of the land so that Empire ships are hesitant to risk going that way more than absolutely necessary kind of deal. That would give us something to do outside of constant raids.

Speaking of, do you want to make a map? Or shall I? I don't know how much experience you have with inkarnate or similar programs; I usually just draw some blobs in paint and see what shapes up

so I thought I'd get to the map today, but I ended up doing dishes and then binging an entire anime season sooo
I'll see what I can do tmm?

Is there anything in particular you want out of the map? I was planning on doing a large sea in the middle with some funky coastline around; what side/climate do you want the empire and larger landmass to be? I might do a vertically-tall sea just to be fun with it, since our Mediterranean is long

A tall sea would be fun!! I would say tropical and/or swampy for the most part. Maybe the biggest empire also has mountains/ access to some kind of necessary mineral that have made them absolutely filthy rich as a country.

Also that's good to know, I might not be on much tomorrow (I have to plan an escape room for the 4th and I have last minute changes I'll be making so a lot of my energy will be going there). However, 6-5 if a rough shift so good luck on that!