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carewyncromwell · 3 years

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The POTC AU is continuing, and with it, the reveal of the Brethren Court at Shipwreck Cove! Above we have six out of our seven Pirate Lords -- you’ll be meeting all of them in this section one by one, but to list them off, we have Merula Snyde; Arjun Singh (pictured with Aishwarya Mehra) @hogwarts9; Ellie Hopper @that-ravenpuff-witch; Jacob “Black Jack” Cromwell Roberts; Orion Amari; and Jae Kim.

Merula’s outfit is modeled slightly off of Angelica Teech’s from the fourth Pirates film, though with an oversized 18th century-style men’s undershirt rather than the “Renaissance Fair”-style shirt we get in the movie, while Jae’s most closely resembles Elizabeth Swann’s Pirate King ensemble from the third movie. Ellie’s is most closely modeled on Carina Smyth’s from the fifth Pirates film, though I did make some more period-worthy adjustments like the sleeve length and the light-weight scarf underneath the neckline, which were often worn by women of the time to obscure any deep cleavage and/or for warmth. Arjun and Jae, like the rest of the male pirates, I also gave facial hair because it was considered bad luck to shave while on board a ship, and so most pirates would invariably have beards of some variety, since they would be at sea much more than on land. In the 18th century in particular, beards were kind of “out of fashion” for men on dry land -- were you to have one, you were generally presumed to be eccentric, wild, uncouth, or just flat-out insane. (Which honestly kind of fits the traditional image of a pirate. XD)

The song “Hoist the Colours,” in the original Pirates films, actually refers to Davy Jones and the Brethren Court “binding Calypso in her bones” -- but since in this version of events, Finn McGarry/Davy Jones @theguythatdraws had no part in the Court binding Calypso (because seriously, OG!Jones?? Dick move), the “King” in the song is the original Pirate King, not Jones. It’s actually a rare case where one can take a lyric more literally than metaphorically. XD

A kumiho is a nine-tailed fox spirit from Korean mythology, rather like the Japanese kitsune. One of my personal headcanons for Jae Kim is that his Patronus is a fox. *grins at @kyril-hphm* 83

Previous part is here; whole tag is here; and also featured in this section are Jules Farrier-Weasley @cursebreakerfarrier (happy belated birthday, mon couer!) and Samantha O’Connell @samshogwarts!

x~x~x~x

Shipwreck Cove was a settlement made out of hundreds of wrecked ships, all stacked on top of each other inside of a dead volcano. It was an imposing fortress, lit by thousands of lanterns in the night. Even its location at the end of the treacherous Devil’s Throat gave it a sense of impregnability -- it needed no tall walls to keep its enemies out.

As soon as Charlie arrived on the island, his new First Mate Barnaby Lee cheerfully showed him and the rest of the Phoenix’s crew around before he guided them to the Hall of the Codex, the room where members of the Brethren Court gathered, whenever they convened. Barnaby advised Charlie to make sure he stuck his sword in the globe before approaching the table -- it not only signaled his status as Pirate Lord to the other gathered Lords, but it also was a sign of respect to the others, indicating that he would not incite violence at the meeting.

“You can bring other weapons to the table, though, so you could still start a fight if you really wanted to,” Barnaby added rather brightly.

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” laughed Charlie.

“CHARLIE!”

The new captain of the Phoenix looked up, and his face lit up at the sight of a familiar freckled face racing towards him.

“Bill!”

The two Weasley brothers latched onto each other, squeezing each other in a giant hug.

“Thank God, Charlie!” Bill mumbled as he clutched at the back of his brother’s coat.

Jules ran over too so she could also bring an arm around Charlie, resting a hand on the back of his head as she and Bill both hugged him tight.

“We were so worried about you,” said Jules, her voice a bit more level than Bill’s but no less relieved.

She glanced curiously at the new hat and coat his new crew had lent him.

“...Is there a story behind the new clothes?”

Charlie grinned a bit sheepishly. “Uh...aye! Actually...”

“Can we send Weasley and her crew out so we can call this meeting to order already?” came a rather impatient female voice from the table.

“Captain Farrier-Weasley and the crew of the Revolution are my guests,” said the level, patient voice of Orion.

“This meeting is for Pirate Lords, Amari,” said the impatient voice irritably. “You can’t just invite non-Lords to it -- ”

"Jules’s father is the Governor of Port Royal,” said the logical voice of McNully. “Since Port Royal’s the current base of operations for Cutler Beckett and the Navy, there’s a 65% chance she’ll have some good insight about how to approach this whole thing.”

“And considering we’ll likely be missing a member of our Court, I thought it might be helpful to have another captain present who could fill in for our seventh Lord,” Orion added calmly.

"You can’t decide that all on your own, Amari!”

“He’s not trying to!” snapped Skye’s voice. “At least Orion’s trying to bring something to the table besides tantrums -- !”

“Skye, please,” Orion soothed quietly. “Samantha, is it against the Code for Pirate Lords to invite other captains to meetings?”

Charlie’s ears perked up. Samantha O’Connell was there too?

Jules beckoned Bill and Charlie with a jerk of her head to follow her into the Hall of the Codex properly.

There was a large, stained, circular table set up in the middle of the room, around which two women and two men -- presumably four out of the seven Pirate Lords -- were already seated with Orion. One of the Lords -- a young man with tanned skin, bright blue eyes, and a black ponytail -- had a dark-haired woman who closely resembled him standing behind his chair with her arms resting on top of the back. Charlie guessed they must be related.

“...The Code does state meetings of the Brethren Court are to be attended by the Pirate Lords and their crews,” said Samantha. She was sitting with her legs slouched over the right arm of a high-backed chair in the corner of the room, a gigantic, dusty, leather-bound book open in her lap. “But it doesn’t say that it can only be attended by those people...so any dispute to the rule could be settled by popular vote. If any other Lord wished to co-sponsor your guests, Orion, they could stay.”

Samantha then flashed a beady look at the brown-haired female pirate -- likely the one who’d been arguing with Orion -- across the table.

“What is stated, though, is that all active Pirate Lords must be present before a meeting starts.”

The blond female captain sitting closest to the door nodded in agreement. “And we’re still missing one Pirate Lord.”

“Technically we’re missing two Lords,” the tanned young man pointed out in a rather charming, amused voice.

“I doubt the Lord of the Pacific Ocean will show up, Arjun,” said the woman leaning against the back of his chair. “I mean, there hasn’t been one since the first Brethren Court...”

“You’ll have one for this meeting.”

Everyone turned around in surprise as Charlie strode forward toward the globe, stabbing his dragon-hilted blade into it just as Barnaby instructed.

“Charlie?” said Bill, perfectly stunned.

Charlie walked up to the table, the crew of the Phoenix following along behind, and stopped in front of the empty chair beside Orion’s. He shot Samantha a smile and a little wave, before he glanced around at the other Lords more more seriously.

“I’ll second Captain Amari’s sponsorship of Captain Farrier-Weasley and her crew,” he said firmly. He tapped his hat to indicate the S-and-anchor-trimmed “Piece of Eight” button he’d sewn onto it, before removing it and setting it down on the table as he took a seat. “The crew of the Revolution is welcome to attend this meeting.”

He shot a cheeky grin over his shoulder at his brother and sister-in-law. Bill’s mouth had dropped open in shock and disbelief. Jules looked rather stunned too, but she recovered more quickly and soon smiled broadly herself, coming up to stand between Charlie and Orion the way the woman with Arjun stood behind him.

Orion gave Charlie a muted, but still very pleased smile.

“Captain Charlie Weasley...allow me to introduce Captain Merula Snyde of the Blackbird, Pirate Lord of the Adriatic Sea -- ”

He indicated the impatient pink-eyed brunette, who was now slouching in her seat and crossing her arms irritably.

“ -- Captain Ellie Hopper of the Treasure, Pirate Lord of the Mediterranean Sea -- ”

The blonde pirate wearing the thigh-length teal dress and brown tricorn hat nodded politely to Charlie and smiled. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“ -- Captain Arjun Singh of the Naga, Pirate Lord of the Indian Ocean, and his cousin and co-captain, Aishwarya Mehra -- ”

The man called Arjun and the woman behind him both smiled and inclined their heads respectfully to Charlie.

“ -- Captain Jae Kim of the Kumiho, Pirate Lord of the South China Sea -- ”

A pirate with a long black braid dressed in a beautifully patterned gold silk tunic, who was slouching casually in his seat, raised his hand in an off-hand wave. “Hey.”

“ -- and last but certainly not least, Samantha O’Connell, Keeper of the Code.”

“We’ve met,” said Charlie with a cheeky grin.

Samantha’s lips were tugged up into a broad smile too as she closed the large book in her lap and got to her feet.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “And of course you already know Orion -- Pirate Lord of the Caribbean Sea.”

“So the last Lord is for the Atlantic Ocean?” said Jules after a moment, once she’d mentally listed off all the seas she’d heard.

“Aye -- that I am.”

Everyone looked up as a man with a long mane of dark curls and hollowed-out, almond-shaped blue eyes strode up to the round table.

“Black Jack!” said Barnaby in relief.

The rest of the Phoenix chattered happily at the sight of the Tower Raven’s captain. Charlie was relieved too, seeing that Carewyn’s brother was all right after all. Unlike the rest of the captains present, Jacob only had Ashe accompanying him instead of a full crew, and both men were also missing their hats and dressed in sopping wet clothes.

“Apologies for my tardiness,” muttered Jacob as he sidled into the seat next to Merula’s. “Ashe and I had to swim most of the way here, as that twat Rakepick decided to blow up my ship -- ”

“Swim?” repeated Merula, sounding both perfectly scandalized and disbelieving. “How could you have swam all the way here from...wherever the Hell you were?”

“Very strong lungs and muscles,” Ashe said in such a cool voice that it put an end to the train of conversation. He stood over Jacob much the way Aishwarya stood over Arjun, draping his arms around the back of the chair so as to hug Jacob from behind, and shot beady looks at the remaining Pirate Lords. “Seems they’re all in attendance, Jack.”

“Aye,” said Jacob. “Shall we begin, then?”

“Aye,” agreed Samantha. “Now, as per the Code, we can call this meeting of the Fourth Brethren Court to order.”

“Finally,” growled Merula.

She immediately shot to her feet and addressed the others.

“All right -- for those of you who aren’t aware...the Flying Dutchman, cursed ship of the damned, has been impressed into service by the British Navy. Then, under that arse Cutler Beckett’s orders, it attacked Tortuga.”

Jacob looked stricken. “Tortuga?”

Merula nodded. “Two hundred people have now been hanged in Port Royal, all for supposedly aiding and abetting pirates -- men, women, and children.”

Ellie looked back at her crewmates, visibly disturbed by the news. Arjun and Aishwarya exchanged a grim look.

“Both of the Captains Weasley and I were on Tortuga at the time of the attack,” said Orion, indicating Charlie, Jules, and himself. “I’m afraid the Flying Dutchman has burned the settlement to the ground. It’s no longer safe to return to.”

“It’s worse than that,” Charlie said lowly. He glanced from Jacob to Orion. “...Commodore Carey Weasley...warned me that Beckett is on his way here, to Shipwreck Cove.”

Orion’s dark eyes widened. Jacob stiffened sharply.

“You saw Carey?” said Bill, his voice strained with desperation.

Charlie glanced at his brother uneasily. “Yeah. ...He’s aboard the Flying Dutchman.”

The pronouncement made Jacob lunge to his feet so violently he knocked his chair over with a clatter.

“What?!”

His face was as white as a sheet as the rest of the Pirate Lords and their crews muttered amongst themselves. Ashe squeezed his lover’s shoulders that bit more tightly, his own brown eyes narrowing in concern. Bill had also blanched, his freckles sticking out sharply on his face. Orion’s gaze dropped onto his hands as he clasped them together on the table in front of him.

“Sh -- he can’t be on that ship!” Jacob shouted. “I explicitly told him to stay in Port Royal, away from the sea -- !”

“Carey had to have been ordered to go,” Jules cut Jacob off as gently as she could, even if she looked just as anxious as Bill and Charlie were. “If he got the order, he wouldn’t have been able to disobey it...not if he wanted to keep his position as Commodore -- to protect all of us.”

She glanced at Bill and reached out and took his hand, squeezing it empathetically.

Arjun exchanged a confused look with Aishwarya.

“I’m sorry -- but I think we’re missing something here,” said the Pirate Lord of the Indian Ocean with a bit of a sheepish smile. “Is the Commodore of the British Navy our ally now?”

“Of course not!” scoffed Merula. “Beckett’s been puffing his chest out for weeks, crowing about how he’s roped ‘the great Carey Weasley’ into his anti-piracy campaign. Rumor has it that the Commodore himself was the one who suggested sacking Tortuga in the first place!”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” said Jae.

Everyone turned to look at him, startled.

“Amari here captured Carey Weasley to send a message to the British Navy and the East India Trading Company, didn’t he?” said the Lord of the South China Sea. “Yet Weasley escaped him. Then, only a short while later, Amari got arrested in Weasley’s hometown of Port Royal, only to be ‘liberated’ by Weasley’s own brothers and the Governor’s daughter, who has now become his sister-in-law.” He nodded curtly at Jules, Bill, and Charlie. “...It seems clear to me that all of it must’ve been planned. There’s no reason I can see for Charlie, Bill, and Jules Weasley to break Amari out of prison unless he and the Commodore were allies.”

The Pirate Lords’ crews excluding Orion’s starting muttering again. Charlie glanced at Orion, but the Captain of the Artemis’s gaze was still solidly on his clasped hands on the tale.

“...That’s true,” the second eldest Weasley said at last. “Captain Amari and my twin staged the escape. That was the reason Jules, Bill, and I helped Captain Amari escape prison, so he could help us rescue Carey from Charles Cromwell. Carey may be with Beckett...but he’s only agreed to it so that he’ll be in a position to protect us, now that we’ve been branded pirates.”

“Your twin’s smart,” said Jae with a nod. His black eyes then flitted over to Jacob. “What I want to know, though, is how you know the Commodore, Black Jack?”

Jacob’s skull-like blue eyes narrowed very coldly upon Jae’s face. “My history with the Commodore is none of your business. Nor is it relevant.”

He turned his focus back to the rest of the Brethren Court, his eyes blazing. “If that bilge rat Beckett does know where Shipwreck Cove is, then we’ll need to make preparations.”

“What preparations?” said Jae. He looked oddly unconcerned as he slouched back in his chair. “Shipwreck Cove is a fortress. It would take ages for anyone to penetrate our defenses.”

“The British Navy has broken out their Man O’ Wars from the War against the Spanish,” said Jacob grimly. “No pirate I know of has a ship that large and heavily armed.”

“Even so,” said Arjun bracingly, “it would take at least a month for them to reach us here, even if they found Shipwreck Cove. Would Beckett really want to waste that much time?”

“And money too,” Ellie pointed out. “That’s always what men like him worry about most.”

“Not to mention all the lives of the men he’d lose,” said Aishwarya.

“I’m afraid those things mean little.”

Everyone looked at Orion. He slowly raised his gaze from his clasped hands at last to look at them all.

“Cutler Beckett may be a man of business,” the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean murmured, “but he’s also a vengeful, close-minded, and ambitious person. He seeks status and wealth, and he has no compassion for those who might stand in his way of achieving them. And right now, in his eyes, what stands in his way -- in the way of the East India Trading Company’s profits and his own personal ambitions -- is every person who sails under a pirate flag or who shows any sympathy for our plight. Beckett may be crafty enough to manipulate others rather than just using his own physical strength...but he only acts like a gentleman when he doesn’t have absolute power over another person’s life. When he does have that level of control over someone...he can be as ruthless as the Kraken itself.”

Despite the calm, serious expression on his face, there was an odd flash of cold emotion that crackled through his dark eyes. No one doubted Orion’s testimony.

“If the fleet Beckett’s assembled does contain Man O’ Wars,” said McNully, as he rolled his wheeled chair up beside Orion, “then there’s a 73.2% chance this could turn into a siege.”

Jules’s dark eyes became a little smaller and she set her jaw tightly.

“...Then we’ll just have to assemble our own Navy and fight back,” she said firmly after a moment.

The other Pirate Lords’ crews started to laugh.

“‘Navy?’” repeated Arjun. He wasn’t laughing, but he did look a little incredulous. “Captain Weasley...we pirates may have a Court and Lords, but we’re not a country. Even those of us who have fleets -- or had fleets,” he gave a nod toward Jacob, “don’t answer to anyone else.”

“Even Shipwreck Cove isn’t a military fort or town,” said Aishwarya. “People stay here, and it’s very well-protected...but it’s no one’s home.”

“No pirate has a home,” said Samantha solemnly from the sidelines. Her emerald green eyes had drifted off toward the wall absently. “Just a ship, if we’re lucky.”

Charlie’s eyes lingered on Samantha’s face, clearly struck by how grim and oddly sad she seemed, saying this.

Jules, however, didn’t falter in her conviction even slightly. If anything, her dark eyes grew sharper as she put a hand down on the table and leaned over it.

“Cutler Beckett is an ally of my father’s, so Beckett hates pirates just as much as he does -- likely more, if we take Orion’s word -- and we’re all pirates. There’s no way any of us could defeat Beckett on our own, and if he reaches Shipwreck Cove, it’s likely he’ll treat it the same way he did Tortuga. If that happens, where else will anyone branded as pirates be able to go? Where else will we be able to go, if we decide to run instead of standing our ground? Even if you don’t have a home, we all need a safe place to rest and resupply...”

Bill nodded in agreement. “We all need a sanctuary to escape to, now and again.”

Jacob rested his head in his hands on the table, interlacing the fingers over his lips thoughtfully. Ellie Hopper placed both of her hands on the table so as to hoist herself up and out of her chair to her feet.

“You bring up a good point, Captain Weasley,” she said to Jules, “but it’s as Captain Roberts said -- none of our ships are comparable to a Man O’ War. And although there are pirates who were once soldiers...” she inclined her head respectfully to Bill and Charlie, “...there are quite a few of us who never were. Most pirates who were once in the Navy were privateers -- sailors who only ever attacked merchant vessels, not war ships -- and others, including both you and me, have no military experience at all. We don’t have the strength needed to defeat an entire fleet of Man O’ Wars.”

“We don’t,” said Orion very softly. “But there is someone who does.”

He glanced at Charlie. “Charlie Weasley...is Chia Dalma still with you?”

Charlie blinked. “Aye...she didn’t seem to like the thought of meeting the rest of the Court, so she stayed behind on the Phoenix.”

Orion nodded, but seemed unconcerned -- likely he’d presumed as much.

“You all recall, I hope,” he said, “that the Brethren Court was first formed when the original Pirate Lords decided to steal control from the goddess Calypso?”

Most of the people in the room nodded and murmured in assent. Charlie, Bill, and Jules did not.

“I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that story,” said Jules.

“I’ve heard of Calypso,” said Bill slowly. “She’s supposed to be a goddess of the sea, isn’t she?”

“She was, once,” said Orion.

“There’s a song that tells the tale,” Skye added.

They both glanced at Merula, who straightened up in her seat and sang in a rather lovely voice,

“The King and his men stole the Queen from her bed

And bound her in her bones --

The seas be ours, and by the powers, where we will, we’ll roam.”

The tune immediately sounded familiar to Charlie, Bill, and Jules -- it was the same one Carewyn had sung for Pearl, just before she died.

“You see, the original Pirate King, Henry Morgan, and his allies were buccaneers who were scared of how dangerous the sea was,” said McNully. “Because their livelihoods depended on their ability to sail, they all decided to tame the sea enough that it’d be safe to travel on, without them needing to appeal to the whims of a ‘heathen goddess.’”

Jules’s eyebrows came together tightly.

“And how did they ‘tame’ her, exactly?” she asked, her low voice betraying some cold disapproval.

“They ‘bound her in her bones,’” said Jae, “or, more simply, trapped her in human form. The transformation restricted the use of her powers significantly, making the seas less turbulent to sail on and therefore making it safer for the Lords and other pirates to evade the Navy and ‘ply their trade.’”

Jules looked furious. “So they cursed a goddess, just to help themselves?”

“To protect themselves,” Merula shot back a bit defensively.

Skye nodded in passionate agreement. “Calypso was terrifying at full power. She could create maelstroms out of fat air, send wild sea creatures to attack ships. She was the one who created the Kraken and the Flying Dutchman in the first place. Davy Jones was her lover, so they say...”

“The decision is more complicated than you think, Captain Weasley,” said Jacob, and his skull-like blue eyes drifted absently off toward the ceiling as his voice grew more thoughtful. “The Pirate Lords, much like us, could only support themselves and their families through their buccaneering. They did not come from wealth as you have. There was no other good way for them to make a living or a better life for themselves and their loved ones, as they weren’t land-owners and didn’t have any financial collateral. Not to mention many of them were God-fearing Christians who were intimidated by what they thought must be a servant of Satan, since there can be no other God before Him. What they did was cruel, of course -- no question...but it was made out of self-preservation and fear, not just greed.”

Jules crossed her arms, clearly unmoved. “It seems to me that people who so clearly value freedom shouldn’t try to justify why someone else should be denied theirs.”

“I agree,” said Orion, and although his voice was much softer and more level than Jules’ was, his eyes twinkled with something like approval in response to her words. “And that is why I propose that we reverse the First Brethren Court’s decision, from all those years ago...and release Calypso from her bonds.”

There was a silence. Then, very abruptly, all of the other pirates started shouting and arguing.

“Are you insane?!”

“That’d just make everything worse!”

“Cut out his tongue!”

“Calypso has no reason to help us -- she’d no doubt hate pirates, for what we did to her -- ”

“Give him a good shot to the head!”

“We’d be fighting both a sea goddess and the entire British Navy, if we did that -- !”

Even Skye and McNully looked at Orion with notable trepidation.

“Orion, I’d say you might want to pull back on that idea a bit,” McNully muttered to him.

Even if the volume and anger in the room did take him aback slightly, Orion kept his cool. He rose to his feet, holding up a hand for calm, but many ignored him and instead shouted louder. Seeing this, Charlie got to his feet too and, pulling his pistol of his belt, pointed it at the air and shot at the ceiling. The loud BANG scared everyone enough that they fell silent and the Lords who were standing all returned to their seats.

Orion nodded to Charlie in mute gratitude and addressed the rest of the pirates again, his hands clasped in front of him.

“We currently don’t have the force needed to overcome Cutler Beckett and his Company. We do not have the force needed to defend Shipwreck Cove, or even to ensure that we all escape this storm alive. We could hole up here for a month or so and hope that the Navy tires themselves out -- but as McNully stated, that could easily become a siege, at which point this place would become our tomb. We could all evacuate the island before the Navy arrives -- but as Captain Farrier-Weasley said, we’d lose the last sanctuary we have remaining in the world, as well as the last place from which we could plan a counterattack. We would all be out for ourselves at that point...leaving us to be picked off one by one by Beckett’s greater forces.”

His dark eyes grew a little smaller and more solemn.

“Therefore...the only path remaining to us is to stand our ground. And if we don’t wish to die on that path, we’ll need to gather whatever strength is available to us. Uranus and Saturn are set to collide in the Heavens...hinting to a climatic battle between order and chaos. We cannot know what the outcome will be unless we decide not to fight at all...but if we did that, then we’d only know the outcome because it would indisputably be failure.”

The other Pirate Lords exchanged wary looks among themselves. Jacob then gave a loud sigh and gave a reluctant nod.

“Amari’s right,” he said lowly. “Regardless of what your positions on releasing Calypso are...we don’t have a choice in whether to fight or fly. We will have to fight...and it’d be stupid and pointless to try doing it on our own.”

He glanced at Ellie, who nodded in agreement, and Merula, whose pink eyes narrowed disapprovingly.

“We can’t declare war,” the Pirate Lord of the Adriatic Sea pointed out in a rather arrogant sort of voice. “Only the Pirate King can do that.”

Orion actually blinked in surprise. “Really?”

He turned to Samantha. “Is that true, Samantha?”

The Pirate Dragon’s emerald eyes narrowed slightly as she reopened the large leather-bound Codex in her lap, flipping through the pages and scanning each line to find the proper section.

“...As per the Code,” she said lowly, “‘the Pirate Lords shall select a captain by popular vote to serve as Pirate King, who shall represent the entire Court when all cannot be present. The Pirate King alone can declare a state of emergency; declare war; take custody of the eight Pieces of Eight; take governorship of Shipwreck Cove; and give commands to ships that he himself does not sail.’ Looks like Merula’s right.”

Charlie frowned and turned to glance back at Barnaby, who’d been standing on the opposite side of him as Jules.

“The Pirate King is the leader of the Brethren Court, right?” he muttered to him.

“Aye,” Barnaby whispered in his ear. “Only, there hasn’t been one since the first Brethren Court.”

“Why?”

“Everyone from the other Courts just voted for themselves...so there was always a six-way tie and no one could decide on a winner.”

“I call for a vote,” said Orion serenely.

A lot of the other pirates in the room sighed in frustration or covered their faces and shook their heads. Jae himself plopped his chin down on his hand and rolled his eyes.

“Amari, are you serious?” he said tiredly.

Orion looked perfectly nonplussed. “Captain Roberts, would you start us off, please?”

Jacob raised an eyebrow at Orion and exchanged a suspicious look with Ashe, before he shrugged and nodded.

“I vote for Black Jack Roberts,” he said coolly.

He glanced at Merula sitting next to him.

“Captain Merula Snyde of the Blackbird -- most powerful ship on the seven seas,” she said, her lips curled up in a dry smirk.

“Ellie Hopper,” said Ellie uncomfortably, exchanging looks with some of her crew members.

“Captain Jae Kim,” sighed Jae.

“...Arjun Singh, of the Naga,” Arjun said after he’d exchanged a bemused shrug with Aishwarya.

When it was Orion’s turn, the Pirate Lord gave a quick sweep around the table with his eyes, before they shifted to his left, twinkling with something almost like mischief.

“Captain Juliette Farrier-Weasley.”

“What?” said Jules.

“What?” said Charlie and Bill, just as taken aback.

Orion’s lips actually spread into a full, broad grin seeing how much his choice had blindsided everyone.

“The Pirate Code said that the Pirate Lords must select ‘a captain’ to be the Pirate King,” he said airily. “It never said that captain had to be a Pirate Lord. So I vote for Captain Juliette Farrier-Weasley of the Revolution to be our Pirate King.”

He then nodded to Charlie. “Captain Weasley -- your vote?”

Charlie grinned broadly from ear to ear and he shot a glance over his shoulder at his sister-in-law, who had flushed a dark shade of red and looked very stunned.

“Captain Juliette Farrier-Weasley,” said the Lord of the Pacific Ocean.

The other Pirate Lords and their crews all started chattering at once.

“What?”

“If I’d known you could pick any captain, I would’ve voted for Aishwarya -- ”

“Choosing your own sister-in-law -- ”

“I call for a recount -- ”

“How long has she even been a pirate?”

“Pure nepotism, that’s what it is -- ”

Orion raised his eyebrows very coolly. “Am I to take this to mean you all will not be keeping to the Code?”

Everyone almost as a unit turned to look at Samantha, who was glaring very pointedly at them as she rotated a pair of grenades in one hand.

Ellie, the Pirate Lord who had reacted with the least hostility to the decision, turned to Jules with a solemn look.

“The votes have it,” she said. “So Pirate King Weasley -- what say you? What shall we do?”

Jules, her face still very red, glanced hesitantly at her husband. Bill looked at her with pride, his eyes sparkling fondly as he squeezed her hand. Her lips spreading into a comforted smile, Jules raised her head and faced the Court with new confidence.

“Gather together and arm every vessel that floats,” she said firmly. “At dawn, we’ll prepare for war.”

With the meeting having come to a close, the Pirate Lords departed one by one to begin their preparations for the battle to come. Jules (knowing that, even though she was now Pirate King, she lacked military experience) immediately asked Bill, McNully, and Charlie to help her with figuring out what strategy would work best to defend the Cove. Orion himself seemed very pleased with the final outcome -- Charlie had asked him why he didn’t vote for himself, but Orion merely smiled and didn’t reply. Bill, however, thought he could guess.

“I don’t reckon Orion’s the sort to want to rule over anyone,” he said with a knowing smile. “Guide them, yes -- lead them, maybe -- but not rule.”

Orion looked at Bill, his eyes as calm and unreadable as ever.

“Interesting conclusion. What made you draw it, Bill Weasley?”

Bill’s smile faded, but his brown eyes lost none of their warmth. “Because Carey’s the exact same way.”

There was a strange spark in the back of Orion’s eyes -- something almost like surprise, which then morphed into something warmer and softer...fonder.

“...True,” he murmured. “Although she may have the heart of a queen, and all of the grace...Carewyn Cromwell would never choose a crown for herself.”

Bill’s gaze softened. Before he could say anything, however, there was a very loud WHAM.

Jacob, who was still in his seat and had been talking to Ashe, had abruptly slammed the large table across the floor with all of his strength, nearly knocking it over as he barreled over.

“YOU!”

Out of nowhere, the Pirate Lord of the Atlantic seized Orion by the collar with both hands.

“Jacob?” said Bill, completely taken aback.

“Jack!” said Ashe, his eyes narrowing in concern.

But Jacob didn’t seem to hear either of them. His blue pupils were dark, irrational slits of rage.

“IT WAS YOUR VOICE! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO CALLED MY WYN BY HER NAME! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO SPOKE OF HER IN THAT SOFT VOICE, YOU MAGGOT-INFESTED BASTARD -- !”

“Jacob, let him go!” said Jules.

Orion amazingly didn’t look the least bit scared -- instead his expression was rather tense as well as a bit confused.

“Captain Roberts,” he spoke quietly in an attempt to soothe the other man’s anger, “I understand what Carewyn means to you -- what you mean to her. I would never harm your sister. I could never hurt Carewyn, nor could I ever wish to -- ”

Bill was reminded of when Orion was trying hard not to fight him, back in Port Royal. Jacob, however, was just as unmoved as Bill had been.

“STOP CALLING HER BY HER NAME!” he roared.

Jacob yanked Orion around by the collar, slamming him roughly into the wall.

“IT’S BECAUSE OF YOU THAT JONES IS AFTER WYN! SHE WOULD BE SAFE NOW IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU -- I’LL KILL YOU, YOU SCABBY, BILGE-SUCKING SON OF A -- !”

“Jacob, stop!” Charlie bellowed.

“Get off Orion NOW!” yelled Skye.

Samantha, Barnaby, Skye, Jules, and Charlie had all grabbed onto the back of Jacob’s coat and onto his arms, trying in vain to pull him off of Orion. Jacob, however, was ridiculously strong, and his grip tightened around Orion’s collar and throat, making the taller man wince.

Bill, his expression darkening more than anyone had ever seen before, very sharply skipped grabbing onto Jacob and instead stepped right between Orion and Jacob, taking his pistol out of his belt and pointing it right at Jacob’s temple. The move prompted Ashe to make an angry move toward Bill, but the eldest Weasley put out his other hand to hold him at arm’s length.

“Jacob, Carey’s not here, so I’ll say this for her,” Bill said very icily. “‘I’ll never forgive you if you hurt him.’”

Jacob gave a sharp flinch. His mad, hollow, slitted pupils never left Orion’s face, but they seemed to lose some of their focus -- almost as if he was looking right through Orion.

Ashe, furious at Bill having held him back, grabbed the red-haired man’s wrist and twisted it painfully out of the way so he could run over to Jacob himself. He brought both of his arms tightly around his lover’s neck, his face resting in the dark curls over Jacob’s brow as he hummed something under his breath. The sound seemed to calm Jacob little by little, making his shoulders loosen and his grip slacken. Light gradually returned to his eyes as he slowly removed his trembling hands from Orion’s throat, breathing shakily.

Jules immediately moved to Bill, bringing up a hand to his wrist to make sure it wasn’t too badly hurt. Once she’d confirmed he was okay, she turned to Jacob with a fierce look.

“Jacob, what do you mean Jones is after Carey?” she demanded. “Why is she in danger?”

Jacob’s gaze had fallen to the ground, throwing his eyes into shadow as he continued to take heavy, labored breaths. Ashe, still holding Jacob tightly, turned around, a very hard, grim look on his face as his eyes flickered from Orion to Jules.

“Jones aims to force someone into servitude on his ship,” he said lowly, “and he’s decided that person is Jack’s sister.”

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gaysparkler · 3 years

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June 1844 and Other Homecomings - Chapter 2

I just posted the second chapter of my Bridglar fic!

Read on AO3

Mood song

John stood in the doorway to the bedroom. Five years—five years since they had shared that bed, just big enough to house the two of them. Henry was already tucked in, at John’s insistence, not having slept in a real bed in so long. He did not want to pressure Henry in any physical contact he may not want. There was still some adaptation necessary, some great wall to scale before they could return to the kind of intimacy they had before.

“I’ll let you sleep, then,” John said, a blanket in his arms. Henry raised his head from the pillow.

“What? Where will you go?”

John pointed behind him. “I thought the couch would be appropriate.”

“Oh.”

He knew that disappointment all too well, the way Henry’s face fell, the way that single sound left his lips – learned from years unable to address or express the feelings between them while they were still on HMS Beagle. John took the first step, walking closer to the bed. Henry sat up in response.

“Do you—” He could not believe how hesitant he felt. “Would you like me to stay?”

Henry let out a sigh. “God, yes.”

John smiled as Henry lifted the covers for him to slip under. His heart’s nervous fluttering settled as he lied down and felt Henry reach for him, almost immediately. He turned to his side, slid an arm under Henry’s neck, then—

“Christ!” he yelped when two very cold feet pressed against his calf. The shock wore off quick, melting away with Henry’s clipped laugh. John only wrapped his arms around him – making sure Henry was comfortable with the touch beforehand – and pulled him close. “I’m only letting you do this because we’ve been apart for so long.”

Henry gripped John’s shoulders and hid his face in his neck. His feet were still plastered against John’s. He did not say anything, but John felt the wet warmth of tears sliding down on his skin. John held on, rubbed soothing circles on Henry’s back, passed gentle fingers through his hair, only parting to turn off the oil lamp on the bedside table. He let himself fall asleep only after Henry did.

~~~

The nightmares had been plaguing him from the day Wanderer began sailing back to England. Henry should not have been surprised to get one—more than one—once he had returned. He took a sharp breath as he opened his eyes, as though his heart was squeezed into his throat, the sound of gunshots and cannons in his ears and the smell of smoke and blood in his nose.

He blinked. Over and over again, the darkness unyielding, until he realized the bed he was on was not rocking under waves.

John. John. His hand flew to his side, landing on John’s back. Henry let out a shaky exhale. The smoke from his dream stuck in his lungs—not real, not real. John was real. He did not even need to wake him up. John was already stirring.

“Henry?” His voice was low from sleep. Henry only gripped his shirt, did not say anything. John shifted, sat up as well, and wrapped an arm around Henry’s back and sought his free hand to hold. Henry had not noticed he was shaking until then. “Can you talk to me?”

“It’s—it’s the nightmares. They have not left me for…” Henry scoffed. “I don’t even know how long.”

John hummed, the sound reverberating through to Henry. “Would you like to talk about them?”

“I—” he let his head fall to John’s shoulder. “After we spent time on the coast of Africa, my Captain received an order, to abandon what we were doing and sail to China, as reinforcements.”

“Yes, I saw the listings. How…how long were you there?”

“Until ’42, when the Treaty of Nanking was signed. Because I—because I’m still relatively young, and quick, I got the order. Me, and most of the other young men on the ship. I never held a gun in my life, John. They just—shoved one in my hands and told me to shoot.”

“Henry—”

“No, no I want you to know.” He tried to get closer to John, to melt against him. It was the only place he felt safe, now. “It was just a few months before the treaty, I wasn’t there as long as some of the others, but…I wish I could forget all of it. You should have seen some of the men, when they got their medals. They were…they were pleased. I didn’t—don’t want mine.”

John held him tighter.

“I hated it. And it is haunting me. It was—it was just supposed to be a short assignment—” his voice broke. Closing his eyes, he could see the fires, the dead bodies. Some he had shot. He turned his face to press it against John’s shoulder, like he had done before, his hands moving up to grab at his nightshirt. John softly kissed the top of his head, though he could feel tears mixing with his affections. John held on.

“You didn’t know,” he said. “You couldn’t have known.”

Minutes trickled by, the silence only interrupted by the frequent hitches in both their breaths. Henry did not think John could ever run out of words, but there were few things he could say that would help. It wasn’t your fault. You were just following orders. Those were excuses to take away his responsibility—though refusing would have meant a court martial. He could tell John knew all of that, already.

Henry inhaled in, careful, controlled. He was safe, here. “I didn’t even tell you about the pirates yet.”

John froze. “Pirates? Good Lord, Henry.”

“Around Sumatra, February ’44, on our way back. Maybe I’ll keep that story for my next nightmare.” He placed a hand on John’s chest.

John immediately picked up on the change in mood. “That might be wise. Do you think you can try to sleep again?”

Henry nodded. John simply moved back to lie down, taking Henry with him, bodies still linked. Henry draped himself over John’s chest. He had not thought sleep possible, yet a wave of exhaustion washed over him as soon as he was settled.

“You are unbelievably brave, my love,” John whispered in his hair, before he drifted off to dream of the South American sea.

#henry peglar #john bridgens #bridglar #the terror #my writing #some quiet moments at night....henry continues to Go Through It #it could stand alone as a fic but i wrote three scenes that kinda work well in succession so i decided to post it as three chapters

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marilynsweet · 3 years

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✭

Because I’m in a caribbeantale mood:

Mistress Li Meiling remains one of the most feared and revered pirates in the seven seas. She commands an army of ships rivaled only by other pirate lords, and her reign lies heavily in the East and South China Sea.

It is rumored that royal blood lies in her veins.

#li meiling #meiling #Caribbean meiling

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kalyan-gullapalli · 4 years

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Post # 135

The original Prime Meridian...

In October 1884, 41 delegates from 25 countries met in Washington DC, at the request of the then president of USA, Chester A Arthur, for a conference called the International Meridian Conference, and selected the meridian passing through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich village, in London, as the official Prime Meridian of the world.

Prime meridian, of course, is an imaginary reference line on the earth, from North pole to South pole, denoted as zero degrees longitude.

So, for the past 136 years, the entire world has been broken down into time zones, with reference to Greenwich Mean Time. The Indian Standard Time (IST) is 5:30 hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+5:30), as represented by 82.5 degrees longitude, passing through Mirzapur in Prayagraj district of U.P.

But why was such a conference necessary?

When medieval Europe woke up from the dark ages - they called this Renaissance - it wanted to explore the world. So it put ships on seas and set out to navigate the world. And navigation needed maps. Maps, in turn, needed grids and coordinates. And coordinates needed markers - North, South, East and West.

Marking north-south was easy. The North pole and South Pole were fixed. The midpoint between them was the equator - the zero degree latitide.

But where should zero degrees longitude be? East- West are arbitrary concepts. So, every culture that ever drew maps chose its own “prime meridian” to represent a zero-baseline for longitude. For the Spanish it was Madrid. The Norwegians used Oslo, the Japanese used Kyoto. In total, cartographers have found maps using more than 30 different longitude systems, with prime meridians at cities ranging from Philadelphia to Rio de Janeiro to Warsaw to Giza, Egypt. International maritime travel became messy and confusing.

Also, with the advent of industrial revolution, railways had developed into a prominent mode of land transport. And railways had problems unifying local times for preparing their time tables. For example, in the United States, because of its large land mass, timetables showed 100 different local times, with a span of 3 hours.

So, the International Meridian Conference was called and Greenwich was officially selected as the prime meridian of the world. But why Greenwich? For two reasons.

First, in the 19th century, Great Britain, and hence London, was the power center of the world. They wielded significant influence.

Second, on the other side of the earth, 180 degrees from the prime meridian, falls the International Date Line - a line which represents midnight, when Greenwich is midday - and hence it represents a line where the date changes. So, if it was Monday on one side of the line, on the other side, it will be Tuesday.

If such a date change were to occur in the middle of a country, then it would have led to utter confusion with people not knowing as to which day of their lives they were living. Bang 180 degrees opposite to Greenwich is a vast patch of Pacific Ocean, having just a smattering of islands, with very little population. Hence Greenwich was ideal and suitable.

But the resolution to select Greenwich as the prime meridian was not unanimous. The vote was 22-1 in favor of Greenwich. Dominican Republic voted against. Two countries abstained - Brazil and France. France did not adopt the Greenwich meridian until 1911. Even then it refused to use the name Greenwich, instead using the term Paris Mean Time, retarded by 9 minutes and 21 seconds. France finally replaced this phrase with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in 1978.

But why did France do all this drama? Therein lies a mini-tale.

During the 17th-19th centuries, the Anglo-French rivalry was like USA-USSR rivalry during the Cold war or the USA-China rivalry today.

In 1666, Louis XIV, the king of France authorized the building of the Paris Observatory, which is today the oldest observatory in the world.

In 1667, members of the French Academy of Sciences traced the under-construction building's outline and bisected it from north to south. This became the Paris Meridian. French cartographers would use it as their prime meridian for more than 200 years.

So, the Paris Meridian was the prime meridian of the world from 1667 to 1884, around 217 years. Interestingly, Paris has a set of 135 odd bronze medallions, embedded on its pavements, dotting the Paris meridian. These medallions were inscribed with the word ARAGO and North and South labels, in honour of the French astronomer Francois Arago, who defined its exact trajectory in the 19 th century.

Though the Paris meridian ceased to be the prime meridian of the world later, it continued to be in the cultural ethos of the country. The international hospitality and hotel chain Le Meridien was born in Paris. There is a plot point in 2011’s Secret of the Unicorn, a movie based on Herge's Tintin, where Tintin and his friends are looking in vain for pirate treasure at a certain longitude, unaware that the sea-captain who hid it was using Paris-based coordinates, not London-based ones. The Paris meridian was also fictitiously represented as Rose Line by Dan Brown in his novel and movie - Da Vinci Code. There are scores of articles on the internet on Paris meridian, which almost became a prime meridian.

But do you know, which was the prime meridian of the world before that? Ujjain, in India! Therein lies a mega-tale, much beyond the scope of a blog. But here are a few snippets.

According to Indologists D K Hari and Mrs. D K Hemahari, from 1600 CE to a couple of millenia backwards, Ujjain was the prime meridian of the ancient world.

Back then, India was the centre of the world, pretty much how England was a hundred years ago and how US is today. The world was India centric then, on aspects of knowledge, wealth, textiles, metallurgy, spices, indigo, culture, medicine, navigation, trade and many other fields. Due to this dominance, the world’s prime meridian was considered to be passing through Avantika, also called Ujjain.

This has been repeatedly mentioned by many ancient geographers/mathematicians of India and the world. Notable among them are Aryabhata, Varahamihira, Bhaskaracharya among the Indians and Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer, who lived between 87 and 150 CE.

Ptolemy shows the ancient Indian city of Ujjain, in the Greek language as Ozene, in his map and mentions that it is the cardinal city of the then known world.

In the 12th century CE, Bhaskaracharya mentions in his treatise - Laghubhaskareeyam:

Ujjain is a significant location for time keeping as it is situated on the Tropic of Cancer. The Indian name for this Tropic of Cancer is Kataka Rekha. Kataka means Crab, the symbol for the zodiac Cancer, and Rekha meaning line.

Ujjain is also home to the Jyotirlinga - Mahakaaleshwara Temple. Maha = Great. Kaala = Time. Eshwara = Lord of. It is significant that such a temple was constructed there millenia back.

I picked this narrative up from D K Hari and Smt. D K Hemahari's Bharat Gyan book - The Autobiography of India: Brand Bharat: Roots in India. This narrative is lost to us Indians because of the massive brain washing we received from the Britishers and the education system established by them. But I think it is time we know ourselves better.

This post is dedicated to Ujjain - the original Prime Meridian of the world.

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Mulan And The Chinese Women Warriors of History and Legend

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While American audiences know the story of Mulan through the 1998 animated Disney film and the upcoming live-action reboot, they may not know that the films are based on a Chinese legend. Hua Mulan is a legendary figure whose story was first told in “Ballad of Mulan,” a folksong first transcribed in the 6th century. In the legend, Mulan is a girl who disguises herself as a man and goes to war in place of her father. Mulan fights for many years as part of the army and, after earning much honor and gifts from the emperor, returns home to her family. Only then does she reveal her gender identity.

While Mulan may be the most familiar of woman Chinese warriors (at least to American audiences), she’s only one in a rich history of historical and legendary female heroes in Chinese history. With the live-action adaptation of Mulan releasing on Disney+ this Friday, here are some of the highlights you might encounter when brushing up on your Chinese legends and history—figures who perhaps warrant their own feature film adaptation…

Xun Guan

At thirteen, Xun Guan was already an accomplished martial artist and tactician. Her father, Xun Song, was the governor of Xianyang in the late 200s A.D. One night, when the castle was under siege, Xun Song was ready to lead a force against the opposing soldiers. Convinced that her father leaving the castle would be bad for morale, she proposed that instead she lead a group of elite soldiers out to defeat the enemy. Even though she was only thirteen, Xun Gun had her father’s trust, and he sent her out. Once outside the walls, Xun Guan immediately spotted a weak spot in the enemy’s position, and she and her troops were triumphant against them, successfully allowing the castle to hold out until more reinforcements could arrive.

Pingyang

During much of Pingyang’s lifetime in the early 600s, the emperor, Yangdi, was incompetent, greedy, and vain—he’s become a villain of Chinese history. Pingyang was the daughter of military commander Li Yuan, and became the wife of Chai Shao, the leader of Yangdi’s palace guard. Yangdi decided that Li Yuan was just too good at his job, so he trumped up false charges and had Li Yuan arrested, only to realize that Li Yuan was the only person who could protect Yangdi from people who actually were plotting against him. Yangdi released Li Yuan, but the damage was done: now Li Yuan wanted Yangdi dead, as well. As Li Yuan rebelled, Chai Shao and Pingyang had to decide how both of them could safely support her father; Chai Shao left first to openly join Li Yuan’s rebellion, and Pingyang later escaped on her own, braving the danger because she was confident she could hide in plain sight.

She journeyed back to her family’s lands and threw open the larders, endearing the people to her and recruiting the first members of what would become known as the Army of the Lady, or the Woman’s Army. As the war continued, Pingyang made alliances and built an army 70,000 strong, keeping them all under a strict code of conduct the prohibited looting, raping, and pillaging. Where the army went, they brought food with them to feed the locals, so they were greeted as liberators. Yangdi dismissed Pingyang as a threat (she was just a woman, after all!), until it was far too late; her forces were unhindered by Yangdi’s troops, and they joined up with Li Yuan and Chai Shao for the final attack on the capital—and, in their victory, the establishment of the Tang Dynasty.

Wu Zetian

In the late 600s, China had a woman emperor. Depending on which historical records you read (the sources tend to be very biased against or very biased toward the empress), she lied, cheated, and murdered her way to the throne—and did more of the same to stay there. She started her imperial career as the favorite concubine of Emperor Taizong. When he died, she married his son, the new emperor, Gaozong. Some sources imply that a romance was going on long before the old emperor’s death; others suggest she was so good at courtly intrigue that Gaozong kept her by his side and ruled equally with her, relying on her political savvy. After Gaozong’s death, their children were in line for the throne; Wu poisoned the eldest, exiled the second, and had plans to manipulate the third and continue to rule. When that son showed too much backbone (and made too many other courtiers angry), she had him deposed, replaced him with his younger brother, and then eventually deposed that child, too, taking on the mantle of rule for herself. Though her rule as emperor was short, she made a number of state improvements in religion, literature, and education—and some historians credit those changes with still having an influence on modern Chinese scholarship.

Liang Hongyu

Although she started her career as a musician, Liang Hongyu ended up using her instrumental skills for a more military purpose. She is said to have met her husband, military officer Han Shizhong, when she was performing as a singer and drummer for his troop. They married in 1121, and she later fought by his side as the army pushed back an invasion by the Huns. The drumming comes in because, during that era, commands were sent to different units in the military through flags and drum signaling. Her drummed orders (and the strategy she came up with) are credited with leading a group of only 8,000 soldiers to victory against a force of 100,000 Hun warriors.

Qin Liangyu

Fighting against the Manchus was a family experience for Qin Liangyu, who went to war alongside her brothers in the early 1600s. When the Manchus—from beyond the Great Wall—threatened Beijing, Qin Liangyu led troops from Sichuan to defend the capital. But there were also rebel forces within the Ming Dynasty, and Qin Liangyu fought against them as well, alongside her son, Ma Xianglin. There’s not just one story of Qin Liangyu’s successes; she fought so many successful campaigns that the Chongzhen Emperor appointed her Crown Prince’s Guardian and a title equivalent to marquis. When the Ming Dynasty fell during Qin Liangyu’s later years, she remained in control of an area of Sichuan, where she helped settle 100,000.

Wu Mei

Women in martial arts are common enough in modern schools (and modern film), but they’ve been around much longer! In fact, the founder of the famous kung fu style Wing Chun was one of the legendary five elders of Shaolin Martial Arts, was a woman. Buddhist nun Wu Mei (also known as Ng Mui) survived the destruction of the Shaolin Temple of Dengfeng during the Qing Dynasty. The shaolin practitioners had been accused of anti-Qing activities, and the army went to destroy them for it. In the bloody battle that followed, only the five known as the five elders survived. They’re credited with spreading martial arts across China, and Wu was said to have invented some of the most important styles. Her Wing Chun is possibly the best known of these, named after Wu’s first student—also a woman—Yim Wing Chun.

Ching Shih

In the early 1800s, when the Golden Age of piracy had already faded in the Caribbean, a pirate queen was sailing her fleet, commanding as many as 80,000 outlaws (sources differ), in the South China Sea. History has forgotten her birth name—Ching Shih translates to “widow of Ching”—but not her amazing deeds, which have put her down in the history books as one of the most successful pirates in history. Ching Shih worked as a prostitute until she married the notorious pirate Cheng I (who was reportedly impressed with her shrewd business sense), who had united different factions of pirates into his Red Flag Fleet.

Legends say that she required half the fleet to belong to her as a condition of the marriage, and when Cheng I died six years later, she took control of the entire fleet. She kept order by enforcing a strict pirate code, and though the Qing dynasty officials, Portuguese Navy, and the East India Company all tried to defeat the fleet, she ruled the waves, only ending her piratical activities when she was offered amnesty from the Chinese government. She lived until she was 69, and she’s the inspiration behind Mistress Ching, one of the Pirate Lords in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

Yu Shu Lien and Jen Yu

These two are completely fictional, but as far as pop culture goes, these women warriors cannot be left out. In the film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Jen Yu (played by Zhang Ziyi) is a teenager and an amazing martial artist who has been secretly trained by the villainous Jade Fox, under the nose of Jen’s father, the governor. Yu Shu Lien (played by Michelle Yoeh) owns and runs a private security company; she’s close friends with Li Mu Bai, and she agrees to go with him to take his sword, the Green Destiny, as a gift to a benefactor. When the Green Destiny is stolen, they track it to Governor Yu’s mansion. Eventually, Jen Yu is discovered as the thief, but her youth and talent make both Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien sympathetic to her, even after they realize she’s been taught by Li Mu Bai’s enemy, Jade Fox. Later in the film, Yu Shu Lien tries to teach Jen Yu a lesson, and the two have one of the best choreographed multi-weapon epic martial arts movie fights in the history of martial arts movies.

Aero

Another fictional Chinese hero is Aero, Marvel’s manhua series star. When she’s not being a superhero, Lei Ling is an architect in Beijing. When the monsters start coming, however, she takes to the sky as Aero, the protector of her city. Using powers of manipulating winds and air currents, she struggles with the destruction caused by supervillains, because her passion is for building and creating, not for seeing things torn down. The character was first introduced in the Agents of Atlas comic, but she started starring in her own ongoing comic series in 2019. It’s too much to hope that we’ll get a hint of her in the MCU’s upcoming Shang Chi, but the ongoing series, written by Zhou Liefen with stories by Alyssa Wong and Greg Pak, and art by Keng and Pop Mhan, is definitely worth picking up.

Honorable Mention: Cassandra Cain

I didn’t know this when I watched Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), but Cassandra Cain—the thief kid who swallows the film’s macguffin—has a long and awesome history in DC comics. She’s a first generation Chinese American; her mother, Lady Shiva, is a dangerous assassin who fled from her village, and her father, David Cain, is one of Ra’s al Ghul’s henchmen. It’s not a love match—he blackmails her into having his child, and then he raises Cassandra to be the perfect assassin and bodyguard. But when she was just eight years old, her empathy made her reject a path of killing, and she ends up in Gotham, where she saves Commissioner Gordon’s life and becomes Batgirl. In fact, Cassandra Cain was the first Batgirl to have her own standalone series run (in 2000). Eventually, after a series of twists and turns, she takes a gig working as one of the global team of Batmen as the Black Bat, where she fights crime in Hong Kong. It’s hard to imagine the Birds of Prey version matching up, but I’d love to see that character in more DC movies!

Mulan premieres on Disney+ on September 4th. Find out how and when you can access it here.

The post Mulan And The Chinese Women Warriors of History and Legend appeared first on Den of Geek.

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