Carolina Trace

Carolina is the captain of an infamous pirate ship called Omen. She found Omen in the sky shortly after being cursed by Ophelia, and left her former crew under Nadine along with her best friend, Berkeley, to captain the ship. After realizing the restrictions placed on her by the curse, she made it her main goal to break it.

## History

### Early Life

Carolina was born on a lower island to Maria Cortez and Joaquin Trace, who worked as indentured for the same employer. When Carolina was four, her father's contract was sold to an employer who wouldn't also buy her mother's. He was forced to leave or face prison time - a dangerous sentence for indentured people - and so Carolina and her mother were left behind. It was the last Carolina ever saw or heard from him.

When she was six, her mother's current contract ended, and they were forced to leave the housing quarters provided by Maria's employer. However, all the money that Maria made while working went into paying off her contract, and they had no money for new lodgings. They survived on the streets for several days before succumbing to the reality of their poverty, and Maria entered into a new contract for food and shelter. While they were only on the streets for a few days, Carolina became ill. Without any money saved up to pay for medicine, Maria resorted to sleeping with a doctor in exchange for it. Nine months after this encounter, Carolina's half-sister, Rue, was born.

### 1732

At the age of sixteen, the contract that Maria had entered into when Carolina was six was coming to an end. Since Carolina was now working age, she would be forced to enter into a contract as well in order to stay in the employer's lodgings. Having seen her mother work fruitlessly for over a decade, she decided to run away from home instead of entering into an indentured contract of her own, leaving her mother and Rue behind.

She stowed away on a merchant ship to a neutral island, where she met Nadine, a pirate captain of a ship called Sky Shadow. Nadine took Carolina on as crew and acted as her mentor for the next few years, both educating and training her in preparation of having her own crew one day. Carolina's goal during this time was to save all the money she made while pirating in order to buy out her mother's contract and bring her family to a different island, where she'd purchase a tavern for her mother to run.

### 1736

While in transit between islands, Sky Shadow was attacked by a Sovereign hunting crew. During this fight, Nadine was severely injured. In order to save Nadine's life, Carolina instructed Sky Shadow's helmsman to take them to the nearest island - a Sovereign island called Harcam. On Harcam, Carolina and Berkeley disembarked with Nadine, staying on Harcam with her while she healed and while Sky Shadow left port to wait at a pirate island. It was in the clinic on Harcam that Carolina first met Ophelia Parker. They began a romantic relationship shortly after, and it lasted for the year that Carolina and Berkeley were on Harcam, during which Nadine recovered and finished rehabilitation for her injury.

### 1737

After a year on Harcam, Sky Shadow returned to retrieve Carolina, Berkeley, and Nadine. However, having fallen in love with Ophelia during that year, Carolina had proposed and decided to stay behind on Harcam to marry her and find work. The night before Sky Shadow was set to leave, and the night before she was set to marry Ophelia, Carolina had second thoughts about staying behind. She knew that employers didn't hire without indentured contracts - the very reason she ran away from home - and also that once Ophelia was done with her training she'd likely be sent out on Sovereign jobs without Carolina. Having previously talked to Ophelia about deserting Sovereign and receiving a disinclined response, Carolina decided that the only way to keep her freedom was to return to Sky Shadow. Since Sky Shadow was leaving the very morning Carolina and Ophelia were to be married, Carolina didn't have time to go and tell Ophelia about her decision, and she left Ophelia behind on Harcam without explanation.

Four months after this decision, Carolina received the curse - a manacle on her right wrist that keeps her restricted to the ship for all but a couple hours at a time. The moment she leaves the ship, her wrist begins to hurt, and the pain increases until it's debilitating. A few days after the manacle appeared on her wrist, Sky Shadow came across Omen. Loyal to her own ship, Nadine encouraged Carolina to take Omen, and she and Berkeley parted ways with Sky Shadow and its crew. Carolina spent the next few years trying to break the curse by meeting its terms: a sacrifice at immense personal cost. When nothing she tried worked, she began searching for other means.

### 1745

Chasing after her most recent lead on a way to break the curse, Ascension, Carolina goes to Clerwood to do research in the Sovereign archives. While on the way back to Omen to leave Clerwood, she sees Ophelia for the first time in eight years - being arrested by Sovereign bounty hunters. Needing a witch to Ascend in order to break the curse, Carolina sends Berkeley to follow the bounty hunters to find out what ship they're on, and they trail the hunters' ship away from Clerwood. Omen crew rescues Ophelia from the bounty hunters, and Carolina proceeds to tell Ophelia that she wants her to Ascend to break the curse. Ophelia doesn't want to Ascend, but agrees to going along with Carolina's plan as long as she can also try to find her own way of breaking the curse.