Taika Waititi / Artist: Miki Földi (digital painting) #SaveOFMD @renewasacrew

Canonically trans pirate: Alister St. Marina

So, when we first started the Sea of Thieves comics, the game was still in alpha testing. I got the incredibly cool privilege of rolling up on the Golden Shores before other people even had access, because we were basically launching simultaneously. One of the really cool things about the set up was that we got to create our own crew from scratch and tell a story on the sea when it only had a few legends in it, so we were given free reign. I knew we had a handful of issues to tell the story and I hoped we'd get to come back to them, but nothing was certain.

Some of the characters, namely DeMarco and Lesedi Singh became regular characters in the game, which was something I had never even realized was a possibility. Then, of course, DeMarco's death as a big story in the game. It was the first big mystery. And Lesedi was part of it. We even got to hear Lesedi's voice (I was quietly VERY excited they actually cast a South Asian woman in the part).

That led to a new opportunity! Years after their initial adventures, we got to make a new mini-series called "Sea Dog's Search" which centers Lesedi on her quest to find her brother's lost soul. We wanted to change things up and show that it had been years of adventuring on the Sea of Thieves, so even though we hadn't written years of comics, we wanted to show that their lives had kept on going. Since Lesedi was our focus in the series, updating her look was important to me. In the first comic, she started out looking like this:

Then, in the game, she and her brother founded The Sea Dogs and got sharp matching outfits:

Obviously, she stay's looking fly, but it's worth noting that this was a matching outfit with her brother and much more his style than hers (DeMarco loves clothes and dressing sexy, Lesedi has always been a little more no nonsense). So now that she's out from under the shadow of both her brother and legendary father, we've done some updating to her look. First, she had to get rid of the old one and do a bit of fighting of her own:

Over the years, the variety of what you can wear in SoT has improved so we wanted to give Lesedi something that felt like it had a little bit of who she is and a little bit of her home.

But there was somebody else who hadn't really been in the game whose evolution was perhaps more important to me.

When we had done the first miniseries, I talked with the crew about the possibility of having a trans character in the books. They were excited, but one thing they really wanted in the comics was to make sure that things that characters did in the book were more or less achievable in the game and, at the time, there was no way in the build to change your character's look or gender once you started.

But now, there is! There is a potion that allows you to change the look of your character including their gender. Rare and co was very supporting of us then following through with an idea we had during the first fun that was now possible. I had originally written the character of Alessia St. Marina as a person who was not comfortable in her own skin and had used costumes and espionage as a way to cope with that. She was especially fond of going undercover pretending to be male.

At the end of the mini-series, Alessia ended up getting together with her partner in crime, but she was never able to come out as trans. But it has been a few years both in our world and in the game one, so allow be to introduce you to Alister St. Marina.

He's a smooth talkin swashbuckler who just happens to be married to one of the most dangerous cutthroat women in the world, whom our crew has to rescue from her most recent scrape.

So, thank you very much to Rare, Titan, and everybody else involved for letting us tell this wonderful story and bring the first canonical trans masc pirate character into the Sea of Thieves.

See you out there, you salty sea dogs!

Missing OFMD? Want to get your hands on thee funniest book I have read this year, perfect for wherever you do your summer lounging?

Preorder Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland! Check out a sneak peek here and then preorder here or at your local bookstore!

Life is wild sometimes. I made a small decision almost a year ago, based on a recommendation of one of the most positive individuals to ever grace my life so far, and I firmly believe that it has changed the course of my life. The decision was to sign up for a class about fantasy writing and publishing that my university was offering, which is the exact genre I so desperately want to have a career in (I want to be a writer you see). That fall I took the 8 week class and it happened to be taught by none other than the absolutely wonderful, utterly amazing fantasy author Alex Rowland (aka @ariaste). If you asked myself or any of my peers, we will happily tell you that this class was one of the comfiest, kindest, most encouraging academic experiences we have ever had and that it has changed our lives. Anyone who has taken at least one creative writing class in their life will tell you of the horrors that ruthlessly plague them and all sorts of traumatic incidents endured. This class was a soothing balm to a disheartened soul with trampled ambitions. You might be wondering where I'm going with this? Well, when you take a class with an author, they tend to gush rather happily about their work. It did not take long for me to know in my heart of hearts that I NEEDED to get my hands on Alex's latest book, A Taste of Gold and Iron (aka ATOGAI). And when I finally got the perfect chance to read it a little over a month ago, when I tell you, it was chapter five when I became undeniably aware that this book had snatched my heart and I would gladly let it have it for the rest of my life. If I hadn't already bought all of Alex's books on a strong hunch that I would absolutely, completely and utterly fall in love with ATOGAI, I would have definitely right after I finished that chapter. This is inarguably one of the best books I have ever read, checking all my boxes (including ones I didn't even know I had). I don't think it's possible to praise it enough because it deserves it all. The wait I endured before I could read it was so worth it and I will be forever grateful for the sheer chance that it and it's author entered into my life. It shattered my high expectations and I will never be the same and couldn't be happier about it. Now, I still have to read the other books that Alex has written (and I will savor them like a piece of the finest of desserts and I haven't the slightest doubt, despite that I tend to be more on the quiet side, I will be absolutely mouthing off about them to anyone who will listen), but I want to specifically highlight their upcoming book, Running Close to the Wind (aka RCW). Because I was in their class and a part of their Discord, I have been treated to several chapters of the book and I can very firmly tell you that you need this in your life. It's terribly funny, utterly vibrant, very queer, full of gremlin chaos and pirate shenanigans, all good and wonderful things, right? I knew I needed it in my life half way through Alex reading chapter two to us. It comes out in June of this year and I so highly recommend you give it a look see. You can read an excerpt in the link below!

And if you too decide that you need this book in your life, go preorder it and then come join a Discord full of awesome queer pocket people that are also terribly excited for this book to be in our hands! I will also be posting fanart of ATOGAI and RCW if you also want to keep an eye on this little habitat of mine. :) Either way, best wishes and happy reading!

Hey if you’re feral for the potential of enemies to lovers Gwen x Alice in the Magnus Protocol you should go listen to Trice Forgotten where there are confirmed friends to lovers to enemies to ??? Alestes x Anh also Shahan who plays Sam in TMAGP is also one of the leads in Trice Forgotten so another reason to give it a listen 👀

i have a new favourite type of characters and it's horny gay pirates with a sense of humour that is either terrible or terrific

I love them so much. babygirl is so strange and off-putting

might have a gender reveal party for myself but instead of pink or blue confetti the thing shoots a real cannonball. people will die. i will come out as a pirate.

is it even possible to make media about straight pirates, is my question

Happy 10 years Black Sails!

You’re a story that means so so much to me.

I’m so excited to have just started doing a podcast about this show.

Genders, Queers, & Buccaneers which you can listen to here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/genders-queers-and-buccaneers/id1720783970

Yeah my favourite fandoms are: queer pirates, queer pirates, and queer space pirates

Kristian Nairn / Artist: Miki Földi (digital painting) #SaveOFMD @renewasacrew

These past few weeks have been the most fun I've had in ages, years, maybe ever. So, I reckon what makes Ed happy is... you.

Happy Belated Valentine's day, tumblr! Have some chaotic valentines, inspired by the wonderfully chaotic queer pirates in Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland, which comes out this June! Check out a sneak peek here.

HUGE shoutout to @starful02 for the wondeful fanart of Avra, Tev, and Julian, as well as for a few of the puns. And shoutout to Danielle, Hobbit, and Sawfish for their help with puns and ideas for the cards, and everyone else who was hyping me up in the Chants and the Wide World Discord. (You can join us here if you're curious about the book!)

You know how they say not to judge a book by its cover? Well, this book is as pretty on the inside as it is on the outside! I absolutely adore it to pieces! It has taken its rightful place on my bookshelf alongside my first copy and other related books! And for fellow crow brained individuals who love pretty shiny things like myself, you should definitely keep an eye on June for the upcoming hilarious pirate novel "Running Close to the Wind" by the same fabulous author Alexandra Rowland! As they say, pirates always have a few pretty shiny things. 😉 Read an excerpt of it below!

idk if anyone would be interested but i really want to create a dnd campaign based on ofmd/pirates!! idk about being the DM but id love to help create it :) if anyone is interested pls let me know!!