A few of us got excited about the idea to do a pirate AU (alternate universe) to answer the question: what about magical pirates?

Absit Omen Pirate AU

We've never had a true AU at AO. We'd create a separate RP area and then port existing characters to a Wizarding World But Pirates setting. Anything that happened there wouldn't affect regular AO stuff.

So the questions are...

• Do you want to?
• What location?
• What's the magic like?
• Time period would go along with location a bit.
• How historically accurate do we feel like being?
• Do we want to come up with a plot premise to get started?
• We all don't actually have to be pirates of course.
  

Paperwork-wise...

• Make mini-bios as a thread in individual member boards for existing characters-made-AU and just post from your main character account
• Or make pirate alt accounts for either existing or original AU characters
• No real need to have Curator-approval on these, just go for it.
• We'd make a board in Other RP areas and post there.
• We can have a wiki category for pirate canon
• Maybe people with history or boat knowledge can share some resources?

Could be fun! If you want to participate, chime in and post your ideas!

Edit: I forgot to say, this is a member-run endeavor. We'll all decide together as an equal group what we want to write. Curator suggestions are our own. Our role is to help organize not decide the plot/setting.

Here goes the rest of my workday as I start to think about ideas, hahaha.

I used to work as a deckhand and living history instructor on a couple of tall ships.  It's been a few years since I've sailed regularly, but I can help a bit with resources if questions come up.

I like the idea of choosing a historical setting.  I don't want to whitewash history, but I also think I'd rather avoid sexism/racism/homophobia as outright themes.  So even if we're set in a historical time period, maybe our crew, for whatever reason, is more modern-thinking.

I think the mid-1600s or early 1700s Caribbean is such an interesting historical period to think about, but there's a lot of issues involving colonialism there (especially if we're writing mostly white characters -- something to think about).  The Golden Age of Piracy is usually thought of as 1650s-1690s in the Caribbean, and then had a later resurgence from like 1715-1730.  We could also set up something more privateer-ish that takes place off the coast of England during a historical war, if we want to avoid the Caribbean altogether.  Cornwall has a history of piracy too.

I personally love the idea of either new characters or ancestors of current characters -- but totally open to whatever if people would rather do direct ports of current characters!

I like the idea of having a storyline.  A ghost or cursed ship that's attacking ports, and our characters get caught in the middle of it?  I think an AU would be more fun to keep up with if we have some kind of driving mini-plot to move forward.

It's fun to think about what a magical tall ship might be like, too.  I can imagine sails that unfurl and set themselves and enchanted lines that are kind of alive, just sort of doing what needs to be done -- weaving themselves through blocks, hitching to belaying pins, hauling away -- to keep the ship sailing through different kinds of weather.  Maybe the crew has a Hopping Pot on board to do the cooking, so they never have to worry about running out of their food stores.

If people are interested and able, it might be fun to do a live chat or video chat again sometime and brainstorm ideas together.  But I also don't want to keep anyone out of the planning who might be interested!

Not so much of an expert on ships and naval history, but somewhat of an internet armchair historian.

While not exactly golden ages, some more modern periods of piracy I know of would be around the the Napoleonic War, maybe not so much piracy in Europe but there would of been some considering whenever there is war in history there tended to be people who took advantage of it, which is where Privateers came from. But its most modern example of piracy in Europe that I can really think of. And then the Seven Year war also which I believe, but could easily be wrong. Had quite a big piracy scene around it in the Americas with Spain, France and Britain hiring privateers and having fleets go after eachother left many places vulnerable and trade routes easy.  Again though as said by Sparky, there is colonialism to be handled.
Going off of Cornwall factor though, Cornwall has been a hotspot of piracy, so more eurocentric basing around Cornwall/Devon is a fairly strong idea.

I think considering that its going to be magical crew also, that them existing in later time periods where Piracy is nearing its end or its in a weaker state seems more interesting, as the magic factor makes them much more survivable against muggle ships and crews trying to hunt them down or getting raided, and when its nearing its time frame I feel makes a stronger story as it starts getting to a point where you're not trying to profit from the raiding, you're having to do these deeds either because you truly enjoy it or are simply trying to survive, just one good score before you can get out of the life but every time it seems like it is there it gets taken away as the world is wise to you now.

I also think potential ancestors of characters is an interesting idea, although seeing characters re-written to fit more into the time period would be rather fun also. Can give a chance to have more adult versions of characters who may still be young, or simply inserting a character to have them ham it up as a pirate.

Story my suggestion would be either classic a famed pirate has died and so everyone is after their ancient artifact/treasure. OR if more towards an end of an era, there is a ghost ship or certain crew that has been raiding towns and villages, convoys and so on. But no one has been able to catch them, so there is a high bounty on them and a royal pardon, so its a mixture of getting tonnes of money and the chance to leave the pirate lifestyle for good, everyone is scrambling, teaming up, fighting and betraying eachother to try to be the ones who might be able to walk away for good or make more money then they know what to do with.

Depending also on how much power the ministries of the time have also. It would be really cool to write Wix and magical creatures being able to unleash their power and potential on people and ships. Just a group of Wix's putting their magic into giant fireballs they launch at ships, or walking onto one and using spells to turn the rigging and wood against the crew. Vampires launching themselves on and slamming people together or overboard as they attack the rest of the crew. After all if no one survives to see it, would the Ministry care when there could be more pressing matters? And even if someone did survive, would anyone believe the half dead sailor laying in the sun for days?
I also sort of really like the dumb/horrible idea of pirate crews raiding a ship on a full moon, having a werewolf crew member in a silver cage before magicking it over to the other ship and releasing them to capture the ship.

I would be certainly be down to do the idea, I just thought to also give some ideas and suggestions, and I admit a good chunk of the reasoning is to see and write powers being unleashed properly or the more lax criminal element where people can constantly politic or backstab eachother without it being as convoluted as it would be in modern day.
Also Knox being a pirate king and going Shiver Me Timbers! constantly is desperately needed

Setting

I've go for the Caribbean in the Golden Age of Piracy (1650s - 1690s) personally. It might be nice to get away from Europe for awhile, and from tv/movies I'm a little more familiar with it.

I'm on the fence about how much oppression to include. On one hand, fantasy! Let's write what's fun! I'm feeling escapist. On the other hand, colonialism played a big part in who the major powers in the region were.  I'd like to be able to bring in women character or a queer character and not sweat it, but I'd also like to engage with the power struggles. I liked that about Pirates of the Caribbean, the East India Trading company and whatnot.

I think localizing things on one or two ships and a port city would help focus our characters and the plot.

Characters

We could certainly have a combination - send back and existing AO character, make a new one, do ancestors. Mix and match I think would be perfectly fine!

Magic

• I like Nuri's suggestion of using the PotC magic with the cursed gold, Davy Jones Locker, end of the world, sea monsters, raising people from the dead, and combine that with HP magic.
• I'm torn between Everyone Knows about Magic vs Magic is a Secret. The former would let us mix in muggle characters more freely! The latter raises the stakes and is a little more HP canon
• Magical ship, yes please! Maybe enchanted to have some kind of intelligence or imbued with a spirit or ghost

Accuracy

I would not be personally Taken Out Of It by historical or industry inaccuracy but I will certainly do my best! I'm feeling like erring on the side of what's fun vs what's accurate but am happy to adjust. It's all really interesting and boats are cool.

Plot

I agree that a clear mini-plot is the best bet if we can keep it flexible for different activity levels. We can always do one idea then when it's finished start a new one.

Plot ideas:

• Two pirate/thieves guilds in a feud, vying for control
• Some natural disaster or magical creature (i dunno a monster whale) threatens the safety of a ship
• Vampires  8)

Ooo - I definitely love the idea!  I really hope I'll get to dip a toe into it, scheduling allowed.  I'll definitely ponder ideas but wanted to mostly pass by and drop this off. 

Henry Martin

I wanted to kick out a couple more ideas, and then I'll be quiet so folks in the other hemisphere have a chance to give input too.  (Thank you all for indulging my nerdiness.)

• If we want to do the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy, the International Statute of Secrecy wasn't put into place until 1692.  So it might make sense for even a magical port to be more "open" to Muggles before that.
  
  
• For some historical context, the Salem Witch Trials were February 1692 to May 1693.  The Port Royal Earthquake was also in June 1692.  Maybe that's a fun year to play with?  Piracy is winding down a bit, a little bit of chaos with the Statute of Secrecy recently going into effect, witches and wizards potentially being hunted down by witch hunters, and magical kin suddenly being required to be more careful. 
  
  
• I really love the idea of a magical port town, with a little bit of Mos Eisley-style atmosphere.  Maybe named after an appropriate saint like St. Brendan (patron saint of sailors) or St. Cyprian (saint who protects against witchcraft and the devil)?  You could have a vampire coven in town (or on its own boat, if Terry wants to reclaim his pirate ways, haha), and that might be a good mechanism if people just want to dabble a bit in the setting.
  
  
• Thinking about plot ideas...a necromancer raising some sort of undead sea creature or monster whale to terrorize a town?  I bet there's fun ways to tie in PotC's cursed gold.  I still really love ghost ships too, just because that's such an eternal piece of maritime folklore.  But totally down for whatever!

Aah so exciting!! My thoughts and ideas:

• I like the idea of this being a Pirate AU set in the Potterverse. We already have a wiki of spells and the regulation of 'illegal' ones, especially amongst pirates, would be quite lax. We could create some AU-only spells. It would also help us to overcome some historical inaccuracies with "well wizards did it differently". 

• Plotwise - I think that's two counts of ghost ships suggested! Rather then the ghost ship as an unplayable entity, how about  we write its cast? Maybe a magical pirate crew has been disguising themselves as a ghost ship in order to scare others and pillage their targets. Maybe they have a magical person/object that enables to pull it off. This would allow for the feuding pirates dynamic? One 'ghost ship' against a collection of other pirates who eventually band together to sink it.

• Setting - The Golden Age of Piracy sits well with me, as does Sparky's idea of a magical port town. It could easily be a pirate town, with its location warded against muggles and kept secret from authorities. I'm happy to write either before or after the statute. I would prefer this to be straight AU instead of an ancestor AU but I can work with either of them.

Also, yes, somehow, vampires! 

---

I like the idea of choosing a historical setting.  I don't want to whitewash history, but I also think I'd rather avoid sexism/racism/homophobia as outright themes.  So even if we're set in a historical time period, maybe our crew, for whatever reason, is more modern-thinking.

I think the mid-1600s or early 1700s Caribbean is such an interesting historical period to think about, but there's a lot of issues involving colonialism there (especially if we're writing mostly white characters -- something to think about).

I'm on the fence about how much Old Timey Oppression to include. On one hand, fantasy! Let's write what's fun! I'm feeling escapist. On the other hand, colonialism played a big part in who the major powers in the region were.  I'd like to be able to bring in women character or a queer character and not sweat it, but I'd also like to engage with the power struggles. I liked that about Pirates of the Caribbean, the East India Trading company and whatnot.

I agree, let's not whitewash or turn this into complete escapism (which wouldn't be escapism for me anyway). The oppressions don't have to be central but we should agree on their tone for the sake of background.

As pirate culture exists outside of the norm (in the way that cowboy culture did in the west?) I like to think that we could write women, characters of colour, and queer characters without subjecting them to a great deal of discrimination. I also like to think there might be pirate crews who specifically target slave traders.

Pirate society in general doesn't have to approve but they don't have to care either. Everyone's breaking the law, who is one lawbreaker to judge another?  It should still be acknowledged that there is a larger society in which these people could not peacefully exist. This probably gives them the strongest incentive to be pirates in the first place.

I want to double back quick and acknowledge a mistake I made grouping up colonialism, racism, homophobia and sexism under the term Old Timey Oppression. It makes light of those issues and fails to acknowledge they're still active today. Nuri pointed it out to me in a private convo and I appreciate it.

To be more clear and thoughtful, I would support that our historical backdrop be sure to have solid context on things like the East India Trading Company and the idea that the Caribbean was colonized. For me, I personally would prefer to be able to write in a setting where women and queer people are equally represented as sailors and leadership because it's not fun for me to write about sexual oppression.

Don't mean to derail! I think we're getting this set up in a way that will work well on these spectrums. Carry on!

Hey guys!  I know people have been busy, and I don't want to move too quickly and exclude anyone from giving input...but I'm also excited to write in this AU, hahaha.

Based on Nuri's summary, it sounds like everyone who's replied so far is interested and on about the same page.   What do you guys say about starting to collaborate on the details?  We can settle on a name for our port town, maybe names and crews for a couple of pirate ships, and start writing. 

Maybe it would work to set up a wiki page and do some world-building there?  I always love developing settings with all of you, and I feel like we can do it constructively without stepping on each other's toes.

Hi all, I'm just going to sum up what we've discussed so far. I've shamelessly copy/pasted everyone's ideas below along with my own summary. Sparky, I definitely think we can start world-building on the wiki! I've created a shell for Pirate AU plotting off of the main wiki page. Please feel free to start there, and then as we need to, we can add pages with the preface Pirate AU: Ghost Ship, for example, just to keep it separate from our usual AO compendium entries.

We also have a new Discord sub-channel titled "pirate_au_plotting", and everyone is welcome to pop in there as well. I will post a how-to guide for account/character creation soon, and put up a board for RP.  In the meantime, we can collaborate on the wiki and voice chat through Discord during one of these weekends again. That would be fun, pirate plotting or no!

Here's the summary below. Let me know if I've understood so far. Feel free to reply here and/or put ideas on the Wiki page as we discuss.


Setting

The end of the golden age of piracy: 1690s. By this time, pirates were active since the 1650s. The Salem Witch trials started February 1692 to May 1693, the Port Royal Earthquake was in June 1692, and the (HP canon) Statue of Secrecy went into effect in 1692.

Where: The Caribbean and a magical port town. The town would be warded against most muggles and kept secret from authorities. It would be fun to have a few muggles running around, like family members or close friends of our pirates, but their presence could be controversial.

When: 1692

Who: Pirates, of course! We can certainly mix in muggles who would still know about magic while the statute is going into effect. I heard mention of a vampire coven in our port town - yes please. Ghosts and werewolves on our ships. Witch hunters and stuffy Ministry sorts could try to track us to our secret town.

To be determined: Any preference on if we are playing before or after the Statute of Secrecy has passed? It seems like people are open to both.

A specific location for our magical port town.

A name for our magical port town, such as St. Brendan (patron saint of sailors) or St. Cyprian (saint who protects against witchcraft and the devil).


Ships

We could have two ships and two feuding crews, to start.

Ship ideas:

• Full of actual ghosts
• Vampire ship!
• Imbued with a ghostly spirit/intelligence
• One ship is not really a ghost ship, but disguised as one to pillage and scare others, and controlled by a magical person or object
• One ship is not really a ghost ship, but disguised as one (same as above). The other ship is blessed by some kind of friendly gigantic sea ghost (the Casper of the sea! Caspian! )

Ship Attributes:
Sails that unfurl and set themselves and enchanted lines that are kind of alive, just sort of doing what needs to be done -- weaving themselves through blocks, hitching to belaying pins, hauling away -- to keep the ship sailing through different kinds of weather.  Maybe the crew has a Hopping Pot on board to do the cooking, so they never have to worry about running out of their food stores.


Plot

Pirates of the Caribbean magic combined with Harry Potter. Piracy is winding down, and two ships are vying for control as the Statute of Secrecy is going into effect, wixes are being hunted, and magical kin has to hide from obliviators. On the sea, no one can hear you scream (or break laws and outrun the Ministry). In the sea, a huge magical sea creature threatens life as we know it.

To be determined: Is the threat an undead spooky sea creature? A monster whale?

Who is manning the ghost ship and attacking ports? Vampires? A necromancer raising the dead? A Grimshaw's type of necromancer who uses song magic to ritually kill sailors every 28 years (had to throw that out there)?

If the ghost ship is a carefully crafted illusion, maybe the crew stumbles upon a treasure that grants them actual necromancy powers.


Culture

As pirate culture exists outside of the norm (in the way that cowboy culture did in the west?) I like to think that we could write women, characters of colour, and queer characters without subjecting them to a great deal of discrimination. There might be pirate crews who specifically target slave traders.

Pirate society in general doesn't have to approve but they don't have to care either. Everyone's breaking the law, who is one lawbreaker to judge another?  It should still be acknowledged that there is a larger society in which these people could not peacefully exist. This probably gives them the strongest incentive to be pirates in the first place.

To be determined: Solid context on things like the East India Trading Company and the idea that the Caribbean was colonized

This all looks great!

This might be a good time to get an idea where people want to play? That could help us hone in on a story. It helps me narrow things down if I know that we can always choose one thing now and other great ideas later. I think two opposing ships or ship vs port would be a good focus. Maybe save a leviathon for season 2?

• I had an idea of porting Zelda Sellaphix over as an potioneer with a specialty in gunpowder and other magical bombs/canon balls. She could be aboard one of the ships or be part of a scrappy port defensive team.
  
• I have an OC from another fandom that I'd love to try - a one-legged, traumatic brain injury, forgetful first or second mate played by Forest Whitaker who'd be a good man in a storm
  
• Trying to resist the urge to have Cuffe to be some shrieking devil of an Ahab-esque captain just so I can trap you all on a ship with him and berate your characters.  :sob: Hold me back.
  
• Nemo stowaway cabin boy :sob:
  

I agree, Sarah! I think it's a good time to discuss ideas further and narrow it down for our first plot. In case anyone misses my question on Discord, would those interested be open to a voice chat this weekend? I'm free on the 16th.

(I love all those character ideas, especially angry Cuffe)

To be determined: Any preference on if we are playing before or after the Statute of Secrecy has passed? It seems like people are open to both.

Just after its been passed could be really fun. People are starting to turn on if they should operate openly, magical kind are being hunted by muggles now, then the Pirates and outlaws, already on the run from Muggles as they're pirates and criminals, on the run from other magical kind due to being criminals also. Then they get told they're not allowed to do magic openly either, so hunted from all directions just for wanting to live free. And could be an opportunity for characters to join the crew of the ship, suddenly being told you have to hide what you are, like you're meant to be ashamed of it, for those who don't have the abilities. But there are those out there who offer safety in openly using your powers and don't care about the laws.

Vampire ship!

One ship is not really a ghost ship, but disguised as one to pillage and scare others, and controlled by a magical person or object

Combine the two somewhat? Like what if the ship was filled with those considered undesirables by the magical community? Dark Wix, Vampires, Werewolves, Hags and so on, all angry and bitter at rejection from both societies and so raid and pillage with abandon, to the point where its giving other pirates a worse reputation and hard time. To instill more fear and to hide themselves, mark themselves more in legend they disguise their ship as a ghost ship before they rush forth and leave barely a soul in their wake.
Also provides perfect chance to use this as their shanty

As added bonus, since they can't really use any treasure they do get as rejected from all groups completely and despised, they have a private cove where they go to rest which has all their loot in it and additional members there. So if not revenge, to remove competition, to prove you're the best pirate, in the hopes it gets you something from the government, survival, to remove a blight etc isn't enough incentive. There is a grand prize at the end of it all.


One sort of big world building I think would be useful also, is are we going with HP canon or do we have our own for Livermorny and Castelobruxo? As they would be the two closest schools for people, admittedly there isn't anything against people who learned in Hogwarts and moved over to the Caribbean, but with Livermorny being founded 65 years before in 1627, and inbetween 17th and 18th century it went from a small hut to a full castle with houses and likely by this point hundreds of students. Along with the founder and headmistress Isolt Sayre crafting wands for students I believe? While Castelobruxo other then being in Brazil and as old as Hogwarts I can't find much on. Just wondered if this was a discussion at all as it could affect some characters and cause some drama between the upstart Livermorny vs Prestigious Hogwarts or people finding out about Castelobruxo

Also I sort of started forming/in one case writing some people for this x.x

An older Lucinda who was shunned out and abandoned due to her status so she spent years in the wilds by herself (Though maybe not complete isolation, small settlements, hunters so on.) making her bitter and angrier but also some sort of calmness in her fury. Can be good for muscle and fighting especially when too close to eachother to use magic, and being a good hunter/tracker due to having to fend for herself for so long.

Some sort of thief and charmer who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty and likes to get to know people, former student at Livermorny?

Potentially started thinking of a Sam the snake oil salesman and con artist magician. More confident and forward, or atleast puts on he is, due to his parents not talking him down or making him feel worthless as he was abandoned due to being magical. Or just brand new character who is snake oil magician.

Admittedly, I forgot all about when the non-European schools formed! That's a really good point, Gris. I like the idea of adding in the option to come from Ilvermorny in Massachusetts (or other U.S. schools) or Castelobruxo in Brazil, which are both much closer to the Caribbean than Hogwarts is.

I also agree that it would be fun to see the effects of the Statue of Secrecy right after it's passed. Pirate ships are the perfect place for outcasts, but maybe one ship is more accepting than the other, and they tend to go to extremes to get what they want. It might be interesting if one ship accepts muggleborns and squibs AND vampires and werewolves and hags, etc, while the other pirate ship is more narrow-minded yet less willing to act like complete criminals haha. It could contrast with the modern criminal groups of Harry Potter (death eaters) and the more accepting Ministry of Magic we have now. Anyway! Just speculating .

This might be a good time to get an idea where people want to play? That could help us hone in on a story. It helps me narrow things down if I know that we can always choose one thing now and other great ideas later. I think two opposing ships or ship vs port would be a good focus. Maybe save a leviathon for season 2?

I ran a historical fantasy pirate game waaaaaay back in the day, and one of the lessons learned from it is that it can be helpful to have "background noise" and neutral spaces to force characters from different ships and spaces to interact.  It might work to have something like the undead leviathan attacks happening offscreen, as something else for characters to talk and gossip about.  Then, if we get far enough into things that we have a season 2, we could have one happen directly.

I like the idea of early 1692!  Post Statute of Secrecy, pre-Jamaica earthquake (which happened in June).  Gris and Elle's descriptions of the chaotic Statute of Secrecy implementation sound really fun.

One other random setting point...could we riff on the Bermuda Triangle and say that for whatever reason, it's really difficult to apparate over far distances in the Caribbean?  That could force magical characters to use boats to get around. 

The character ideas that I'm kicking around:

• Pollux Thursby (my only actual Caribbean character) running a tavern in the port town (St. Cyprian?). Barbados has a pretty horrible history with the slave trade in the 1600s, so I can imagine he might have escaped from there.
• Kurby Bagnold as a rigger or carpenter on one of the pirate ships.  I think he'll be from Providence Plantations, where his parents moved to while looking for a safe, inclusive place to live after his father was turned into a werewolf. 
• Also kicking around the idea of Kaia Arahanga as a traditional navigator on one of the ships, if I can figure out how to make the world history work.
• I also might toss Leo Gamp in as a representative of the magical powers-that-be.  I love the themes with the East India Company as a representative of oppressive capitalistic forces in POTC (and the real world, you know), and it would be interesting to think about how that might translate to a magical equivalent, especially since in the modern magical world, the Ministry of Magic is so all-powerful.  I might use Leo as the captain or a ranking officer on a magical government naval vessel, there to ensure that the Statute of Secrecy is obeyed, so that he can be an antagonist for the pirate characters.