Pirates of Sartosa

The most feared of all pirates who menace the waters surrounding the city-port of Sartosa and beyond is the ‘Queen of Tides’, Aranessa Anja Saltspite. Rumour has it that she was not sired by mortal man, but is actually the daughter of the Sea-God Manann, the ‘Seafather’ himself; that she rose fully grown out of the waves in a froth of gore, with seawater flowing through her veins instead of blood. Having been cast out by her Norscan tribe as a baby, she is said to have cut off her own fishtail before heading out to sea to seek her fortune, biding her time until she was strong enough – in every sense – to take her bloody revenge upon the people who left her for dead. Whatever Aranessa’s origins, there can be no doubt that she is greatly favoured by the Sea-God, and that a peculiar connection exists between them, for she has sailed the Great Ocean to the very ends of the world and back, through the most violent of tempests, yet always emerges unscathed. Aranessa knows that it is her duty to protect the Seafather’s realm as he protects her, but the sea is vast, and such a task would take countless lifetimes, so Manann has granted her some of the world’s most powerful seafarers – Vampire Admirals, with whom he has made pacts in exchange for their aid. Aranessa is not entirely comfortable with this alliance, but knows her Necromantic officers are undeniably useful. As Manann washes the corpses of dead sailors against the Swordfysh’s hull and upon the shores of Sartosa, her allies breathe Unlife into them, thus fortifying her crew with shipmates Manann considers more ‘permanent’. Associations with the Undead aside, those who have met Aranessa and lived say she is a strange character indeed. Peg-legged from her long career as a buccaneer, she has no warmth in her soul and absolutely no love for man. Only the open seas and the glitter of gems can melt her scowl, but as Aranessa’s crew maintain, on those rare occasions where she deigns to smile it is like a new dawn. But what manner of dawn? A dawn of merciless, cutthroat violence, theft and murder, which rages without end – that sort of dawn. Beholden to no man, be he living or dead, Captain Aranessa Saltspite – the self-styled ‘Pirate Queen’ – is every bit as merciless as the Great Ocean itself!