Sail Design for the Highland Confederacy

In the big picture, I’ve settled into just messing around with guild development and artwork related to the Highland Confederacy at the moment. A few of us think it might be best to have some simple lettering as a sail insignia and so I’ve tossed together a few examples.

These are pretty simple but I do think they would look nice. They are obviously designed to be single icons and not tiled.

We will see what people think and go from there.

Design Notes:

These were pretty simple to create. These are “Book Antiqua” font scaled up really big with a default Simple Inner style applied and then a single texture to add a bit more wear and inconsistencies. I think they could use a bit of hand touching here and there, but not sure that I will be successful. For the H into C, I did have to break out an eraser and manually remove sections of the H but it was a real quick job.

Which One :: A few varieties

Here a few more tweaks of my Scot flag for the Highland Confederacy:

Original:

New:

Fresh:

It is looking like “new” is winning so I added a bit more textures to get to here:

It certainly looks the oldest and I do think that fits nicely with Dermid.

Highland Confederacy Banner Update

Apparently the French flag was not period appropriate in the prior banner. So it was removed and replaced with something from the era of the High Seas!

Updated Highland Confederacy Banner

Highland Confederacy Flag Work Resumes

CREDIT: James G. Elmslie

2nd flag background and remix of original artwork by Demetrious

Intent is for James to use these rough examples for final creation and submit them to Flying Lab Software for inclusion into Pirates of the Burning Sea. Do not reproduce, use, or submit without approval from the original creator. These are works in progress and posted to help expedite getting them into a final form.

Meeting of Two Unlike Minds :: Dermid Gavin

The following is an account of several excepts and encounters between members of the Highland Confederacy and Captian L. Horatio Hawke of the St. George Squadron of the White.

______________________________
Captian L. Horatio Hawke K.C.M.G.
Master of the HMS Relentless
St George Squadron of the White
His Britannic Majesty’s Royal Navy

In May of 1719, there is the threat of a Jacobite invasion of Scotland with the assistance of Spanish forces. The Royal Navy sent five ships under the command of Captain Boyle of HMS Worcester to the area near Eilean Donan castle for reconnaissance. I was fortunate enough to have commanded the HMS Nemesis which was part of the squadron that helped put down that feeble attempt at rebellion. Dare if you will to bring your Jacobite cause to the Burning Sea and follow in the failed footsteps of the ‘Old Pretender’… The White Squadron will send you packing back to your Catholic Masters in Rome at best and at worst strech your neck from His Majesty’s Royal yardarm… However, I think it would be a waste of good rope.

For King & Country!

______________________________
Hamish McBane, Proprietor – General
The Highland Confederacy

Sir, I care not a whit for the pope and his ilk, but for the freedom English dogs would deny us by taking power from our country and seating it in their own. You may have bribed and cajouled the weak minded men of my country, but you sir will not dominate us. The Treaty of Union has stolen our soverienty and threatens to steal our national identity for which we will not stand. Scotland has ever stood against English villainy, since Edward the first and before. You have bought us and paid for us it would seem, but some of Scotland’s sons and daughters will not be bought and paid for! I care not a whit either for failed and weak Kings, for they fail to show the strength of our people. Though some may follow them, we seek the higher calling to freedom. We will find the freedom we seek and be like stinging nettles in your skin. The Jacobite cause is one of freedom and in the end it will succeed, for good and God will triumph over evil.

______________________________
Dermid Gavin, Proprietor – Merchant
The Highland Confederacy


Aye. Not a day’s sun will set without a vision of seeing a British ship fall. It is not a treat of union but rather one of oppression. The few that do argue something else are nothing that I call kin. The British left us to rot in New Caledonia when I was not more than a child and now I take to seas to set right against their wrongs.

Bring your fleets and your guns and your ill will and I will see them layed along side the buried depths of Port Royal!

Hail the Highland Confederacy!

______________________________
Captian L. Horatio Hawke K.C.M.G.

Pfft… the Highland Confederacy… Rebel rousing scum. Worse than any scallywag pirate. Indeed the noose would be too good for the lot of you. Your words are as hollow as your pathetic goals. The only vision you traitors will see are His Majety’s loyal servants pounding you to the black depths under the weight of full broadsides.

Strength in Unity!

______________________________
Dermid Gavin, Proprietor – Merchant

*Dermid raises his nose from his large tin stein*

Aye! Often the difference between right and wrong depends only on the side of the table you sit at. It might be harsh but I’ve seen it many times myself.

We come from many lands and many places. Our bond’s not a singular event but a willingness to escape the harshness of our homes for the right to make our own good fortune. Without friends to watch your back, these lands are unliveable. We represent merchants and privateers willing to trade goods at fair price and seek that chance here in this new world.

We fly under 5 flags today, and I’d bet this tin that that number grows. If that strikes you as unjust, then *politely tips hat* good day.

*Dermid returns his attention to his stein and proceeds onward towards the bottom of yet another leaky tin while visions of his banner float through his head.*

______________________________
Captian L. Horatio Hawke K.C.M.G.

…Any Captain who joins ranks with these rebels will find themselves branded traitors to the Crown and executed under the traditional methods of those charged with sedition.

______________________________
Dermid Gavin, Proprietor – Merchant

*laughs under his breath and thinks to himself about the comments reportedly made by Horatio Hawke*

It is not as if I shall walk around with target upon my back for you to simply strike upon. If the English believe this to be a fight fought upon level ground and open seas, then they are even more foolish and arrogant than what I know as truth.

______________________________
Captian L. Horatio Hawke K.C.M.G.

The sad truth is we put nothing past anyone who would abandon their own lands only to warm the feet and lick the boots of enemies of the Crown.

“What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge. Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained from experience, nor by any deductive calculation.”

______________________________
Dermid Gavin, Proprietor – Merchant

Oh how brave and mighty those filled to the brim with ignorance can sound.

“Abandon their own lands?!?” Abandon…. ha! I was thrown upon “The Endeavor” at no more than the age of 4 as my mother and father fought for our countries hope and survival. If helping to sail to the new world for Darien is what you deem to be abandonment then you are, perhaps, even worse than I would have imagined.

So yes, my father and my family left Scotland in hopes for a better life. From all accounts, life at home was nearly unlivable and there was little support from your “crown” so there was little else but to fight for own survival. My father did what any honorable man would do. Fight for his country, not so unlike yourself Captain Hawke.

But that is not my anger for the crown, no it goes deeper and I have seen it first hand. I will never forget the look upon my mother’s face when father returned home after pleading repeatedly with your governors as we Scots were left to die here in this new land. Did the crown offer support then? Simple supplies or medicine for the sick and dying? Of course they did not! It was only after we died and failed for your benefit; when our parliament was moved to your land; when our land taken that you offered your “generosity”.

If I am undecent for choosing to stand rather than to fall in line with those who I have watched let innocents die, then all that is good will soon fail.

*With that, rather than ending with an angry outburst of energy, Dermid seems saddened and depressed by having to recount the early days of his life. Head hanging low, he simply turns and walks into the crowded streets and disappears.*

OOC:

I’m excited for the unique angle that Pirates of the Burning Sea is bringing to this community. I think there is great opportunity for very real and reasonable alliances and enemies between various guilds making the community that much stronger and closer. Certainly, if you are interested in playing a British captain, please check out the St. George Squadron of the White. We have a great relationship building between the two guilds and I look forward to continuing this type of fun RP relationship for a good long time!

On the Treaty of Union :: Dermid Gavin

Dermid Responds to Questions regarding the Treaty of Union that was passed in his homeland some 11 years or so after he left for the Caribbean aboard The Endeavor.

*Tone moves into a clearly agitated state*

It is treaty of oppression from where I sit!

I can’t believe kin would sign such a thing. They claim our failure in New Caledonia was part of the reason, but that just shows ignorance. Hell, I was there and if not for the actions of the British scum, we would have prevailed. Sit back and do nothin and then agree to give it away. Bah!

*takes a large drink of ale, leans back and drifts into his past*

I think it was probably the 9th year before I heard rumblings of agreement. I was still young at age and had just found a home in the The Albatross where Willem McDough had taken me, at least a bit, under his wing. Twas there in that tavern I heard sailors speak of the agreement. Can’t say that a single one thought it was good for Scotland. Merging of two shouldn’t mean losing your voice, you know.

Sad thing is, I think they’re right. Word is they are no better now than before and worse off if you count the lack of say. So for the time being, I don’t see me returning. I’ve got a better chance here to make it on my own and if I can take down the Brits just one step in raising meself up, then that I’ll do!

*Browses his pockets, takes a quick look, then raises his hand and orders yet another round for the table and shouts “Let’s bring one without a hole in bottom this time round!”*

Curse the Wind! :: Tale of Dermid Gavin

The Tale of Dermid Gavin who has returned from a trip to the Antilles. He left the Albatross two weeks prior just a storm began to bring rain and wind out of the East.

*Nearly two weeks to the day, Dermid staggers back onto the shore just a few miles southwest of the Albatross. Slowly, he half-stumbles his way back to the comforts that he now wishes that he had never left.

He enters the Albatross and falls into a small cot tucked behind the old bar. At first glance there is little doubt that something has gone terribly amiss upon his journey. He has lost some 20 pounds and is but a shadow of his former self. The once relatively nice attair and polished appearance has been stripped from him and now something just before death’s doorstep lies nearly motionless behind the bar.

As he has often done over his years within the Albatross, Willem McDough is quick to offer what support and care he can for the man he often calls son. Within a short few hours, the initial exhaustion of relief at reaching familiar and stable ground begins to fade, and while still appearing to be a changed person, Dermid begins to recount his tale.*

“Curse the wind!! Curse the waves!! Curse that damned storm!! I probably wasn’t more than a few good hours from here to the south before the wind and rain turned more angry than I can ever remember. At once it seemed that the anger within the deeps rose up and purposefully lashed out at my sole with all of its might. There was little that could be done, I swear.

We attempted to turn and run from the rising beast but it was useless. Downwind the waves simply poured over the stern of boat and within minutes we would have been at the depths of the sea. We tacked into the wind and on the starboard side we held our own. I swear the men fought valiantly for seemingly hours within the darkness of that brutal evening. Certainly there was some damage to the sails and to the framework but it seemed like the worst was behind us and that we would reach safety beyond.

Then came a large bolt of lightening from the sky. Suddenly the darkness faded and a large reef was shown not more than a good throw off the bow. We were heading right towards it leaving us no option but to tack again to larboard. During the tack, the sails were ripped to small shreds wrestling aimlessly within the storm. We were left to the mercy of the sea and storm. Within just a few minutes, darkness overtook the boat as the schooner “Riverside” sunk into the darkness of the angry night sea.

Not a soul…. Not a single soul… the ship… the crew… supplies and timbers…. all taken by the sea for days.

I drifted upon little more than a few boards torn from the hull. Luckily a merchant ship came upon me on the twelfth sunset and offered to carry me back to safety. I don’t think I was more than a just over the horizon but it wasn’t a trip that I could have made without help.

It all now lies in the darkness of the great sea. It is all lost.”

*With that Dermid lays back into the cot and after a few gentle pats by the old barkeep, Dermid drifts off for a nice long nap and some long overdue rest.*

Highland Confederacy Grows into an RP Power!!

Ok… ok… “power” is in the eye of the beholder, but I think the Highland Confederacy is becoming known within the Pirates of the Burning Sea pre-release community as an important RP oriented guild. The guild continues to grow and interest across the board on both the primary forum site and this little blog seems to be gathering steam. I think we developed some nice roleplay enemies under the British flag and I’m hopeful that our small but active group will form a solid foundation for a long-term guild experience.

So far I continue to look forward to this game a bit more than anything else currently. I think the guild will help keep and maintain my interest a bit more than the solo path I have taken in LOTRO.

So… If you are looking for a roleplay oriented guild for PotBS, please check out our site and feel free to post and/or ask questions. I think we have a unique blend of allowing a variety of character styles and backgrounds into a loosely meshed historically based confederacy that might have existed within that time frame.

PotBS :: “if you don’t like how the game is designed… it’ll be our fault, not SOE’s”

In the last couple of days, there has been quite a bit of information come out regarding PotBS. Flying Lab Software have signed with Sony Online Entertainment as the “platform publisher” for Pirates of the Burning Sea to mixed reviews by the community.

Thankfully, I’m pretty ignorant to MMORPGs and their history and so I don’t have strong personal opinions on any of the publishers for the various MMO games. In LOTRO for example, I think, from my limited reading, that Turbine had a pretty poor reputation with initial releases and with Dungeon and Dragon in particular hanging quite heavily on their reputation. That said, I have nothing but positives based on my experience. Coming from NWN where sooo much was known, it is nice to be in the more ignorant camp and simply enjoying the game. Ok…. ok… that rambled, but the point is simply that when I saw “SOE” I had to Google the letters to figure out what / who it was. Quickly browsing the forum I saw several negatively toned posts and I tried simply not to read them. After all, what is done is done and in reality it won’t matter – either I’ll like the game or I won’t.

That said, I was very pleased to see this blog – Link to Editor Blog – talking about the state of the game by Rusty who is the head of Flying Lab Software. All in all, I think it says all the right things – so much so, I made it the title of this post.

They updated the release date to be sometime in the Fall. I’m very interested in this game from a development perspective as well as from a player perspective. I think it has a very unique opportunity to be something different that fits more into a sub-culture all-time classic rather than a mass target release project. But…. I’m sure they will feel pressures and opportunity if they can expand the focus a bit and cover a few more bases. You can see this already with the boarding combat, the hand-to-hand combat, and most recently the publisher. The good news is that I think each of those moves helps to not only broaden the player base but make the game more enjoyable for me.

So all sails up and head for the Caribbean!! Fall should be great time!!

Introducing Deoiridh D’Alembert :: Final

October 23 1719, on board the Ariane

I write simply to take my mind off the unpleasantness of my body; though it is late, everything is tossing and turning. The mal de mer is everything they warned me about, and more; even the sailors admit that this crossing is unusually rough. I think things would go better with me if I could be on deck, but the Captain has firmly insisted that the women—poor, gentle, helpless creatures that we are—stay below, “to be safe.” I think he might revise his definition of what counts as safe after spending an hour in a small cabin with three desperately ill women. The sounds of their suffering surround me even now as they struggle to feign sleep in the hope that it will fool their malady into passing them by. The attempt fails, regularly, accompanied by the sounds the likes of which I can’t bring myself to describe lest I lose my own fragile sense of control; the air in the cabin is hot, close, and sulphurous.

Duncan fulfilled his promise and wrote me a letter of introduction to his good friend Hamish McBane in the West Indies. It was while we were at his residence near Beauly, a modest house, to be sure, but betraying not so much a healthy reticence and lack of show, as an utter lack of imagination. I sat quietly in the drawing room, pretending to be occupied with my needlework, while he wrote. As I had hoped, one of the many interruptions that punctuate his work day occurred and he was called to the parlor to consult with a client. I seized the opportunity and quickly read the almost completed letter. It was both everything I had expected and more than I had hoped. An exceedingly generous letter to be sure and I breathed a sigh of relief that he does not seem to possess (or at least chose not to disclose) those suspicions that I am sure his employer possesses. There may yet be a chance that the public face of my shadows will not follow me to the New World. Can it really be possible to start anew?

At the same time, the letter confirmed what I already had begun myself to suspect: Duncan has formed a strong attachment to me, probably stronger than he is allowing himself to recognize. It is flattering, in the way that all such attentions are flattering, especially to a woman of my age. Yet there is a part of me that feels the injustice of his attentions keenly. I cultivate, unwittingly, the attention of men like Duncan: modest men, sound men, solid men, men of good sense adept at transacting the business of the world. Men without imagination, cold men, shallow men, and men who are carelessly, casually, thoroughly cruel in the way that kindly men always are. The kind of man who seeks to make a woman obliged to him by foreswearing all claim to place her under any obligation. I am sorry for Duncan, obviously, the more so because his inevitable disappointment will barely rise to the level of an awareness that he has been disappointed; it will weave itself into the fabric of his life, becoming another thread in the tapestry of meager expectations with which he surrounds himself.

It is no doubt churlish of me to write this way of a man who has done me much kindness, more kindness than I have received at the hands of many. Yet there is something about Duncan that seems to me to embody the spirit of my country, or at least the part of it I would fain leave behind: a seething superficiality that masquerades as passion, a desire for stability that presents itself as a rage for change. That things need to change in my homeland I have no doubt. That my countrymen, at least the ones left at home, can be the agents of that change, I no longer believe.

And it may well be that Duncan’s awakening will be quite abrupt. He heads to London, where Simon the Fox has taken up residence. Duncan was terribly upset at the fate of the last rising, but I don’t think he yet knows, or admits, the role his employer played in supporting (in the best possible construction) both sides, or, worse still, the cause of Tyranny. Duncan thinks of himself as a faithful employee, bound to execute the will of his employer as efficiently as possible. He doesn’t think he has a choice about whose money he takes. I only hope he is able to secure for the Fox the only thing he really cares about, his lands, and then extricate himself from the man’s clutches as soon as possible. Of course, his time with the heir presumptive to the Lovat title may be a shock in other ways. That the Fox knows the real reasons driving me to flee these shores, and the long chain of misadventures and flawed decisions that led me to this point, I have no doubt. He made it all too plain in our last meeting. That he provided the money for my departure simply indicates that he feels I can be useful elsewhere and more useful to the degree that my sense of obligation grows greater. My desperation, the driving force of my life, undoes every attempt to break free. I hope for Duncan’s sake that the Fox chooses not to share his information.

It is later than I realized when I began this. I do not know what awaits me in France. I will try to wrap up my husband’s affairs as expeditiously as possible. I think I will be able to call in the few favors owing me to ensure that my stay will be brief and as anonymous as possible. The West Indies is also a terra incognita, fascinating and threatening at the same time. Duncan has told me a little of Mr. McBane and his confederates, their ambitions, their plans, but only time will tell whether it is all more than the large talk in which my countrymen are so proficient.

I look around my reeking cabin and I think: all this for freedom, and the slavery that goes with it.