The Razing of the Black Flag

The Razing of the Black Flag, typically called just Razing, is a phantom character played during the side smp Curses. She is a pirate legend who is hellbent on the destruction of all other pirates, eventually including xirself.

## The Razing of the Black Flag

The Minecraft skin for Razing's final life

## Character Information

### Name

The Razing of the Black Flag, aka "Razing" (Formerly "The Raising of the Black Flag")

## Player Information

### Appearance

The Razing of the Black Flag has a humanoid body, with none of their skin showing due to the outfit she wears. That outfit includes a pair of green gloves which changed to red in the final battle, a black coat with golden trim that ends near the knees, heeled dark grey boots, gray pants, a light grey button up shirt, simple belt, and bandages wrapped around the neck to obscure the skin.

Xe also wears a sash around their waist that is pure black and always on his person, as well as a carved pumpkin mask that has two angry-looking vertical eyes and a cruel grin that has five teeth on the top and four teeth on the bottom, all of equal size. Beneath the pumpkin, the shadow of a face can be seen, but the details have never been shown in or out of character.

### Personality

*"Now remember when I told you that's the last you'll see of me? Remember when I broke you down to tears? I know I took the path that you would never want from me, I gave you hell through all the years." [Lyrics from the song "I Bet My Life," by Imagine Dragons]*

The Razing of the Black Flag has an extremely confident, somewhat abrasive personality. She is remorseless and vicious, happily antagonizing others around zir and criticizing them for anything considered a weakness or failure.

She does not fear or respect anyone who cannot prove themselves to be powerful enough to compare to her, no matter what, and will taunt and berate people mid battle while laughing at their shortcomings. Ev will do anything pump wants to, no matter who nor is dealing with.

Despite this, Razing is not exclusively cruel and has a strong sense of honor. She will often willingly give boons to those who otherwise wouldn't be able to access them, stating that doing as much is not out of any alliance, but pure whim. He will follow her word in spirit and in letter whenever possible, although only when it is explicitly said to be an agreement- Razing has no qualms with lying to people, as that is something she sees as simply part of being a good pirate.

In combat, Razing has shown that beneath this loud and confident personality is a cold, methodical, unflappable nature. Unable to be goaded by insults or taunts, willing to swim across oceans day and night in order to find those she has decided to destroy, an unstoppable flow of focused power that is the most terrifying part of her being.

She also isn't heartless, although veir moral compass is confusing at times and based on strange expectations. The expectation is for anyone else to act as xe does, doing whatever they want simply because they want to, and she easily recognizes that this behavior will upset others, but doesn't care, believing aer own will to be superior due to the greater strength she possesses.

Interestingly, it is revealed that the behavior she shows is, in many cases, exclusively shown towards other pirates, or "those who fly the black flag" as she calls them. Towards non-pirates, she is still dismissive and disrespectful, but pump has no desire to enact any form of violence towards them, instead wishing to leave them be, and dissuade them from becoming a pirate. Ev has willingly stated more than once that she is not a hypocrite for being a pirate that wants to eradicate all pirates, clearly responding that he has every intention of killing herself once no pirates remain who fly the black flag.

### History

The cries of a battle of thousands, standing by comrades she trusted not only with her life, but with her death as well. sword to shield, axe to sword, arrows dodged by the slimmest of margins and voices calling louder than they ever had.

Not even they could fight a hoard of that many. And when the first one died, the situation became hopeless exponentially, more and more falling in the battle.

She was felled and killed where she had fallen.

And abruptly, with the feeling of death crushing her soul, hell's flames licking at the back of her neck, she felt a pull. A chance. An opportunity- And what kind of pirate would she be if she didn't take every opportunity she got?

The last sparks of a totem of undying were drifting away in the wind, and she leapt backwards clutching the sword already in hand. The sound of boots on wood greeted her, and her feet did not sink into the lush ground of the jungle.

Strange, that there was a distinct lack of any tree at all actually. The splash of the ocean even. She could always recognize the sea.

There was also no time for confusion. This was battle- and her allies may still be alive, at least some of them. Even just one of them- all of these from her own flag just had to be killed first.

The battle ended in silence. Silence and confusion. Everyone on deck was dead- this was a ship. They had called for a Captain, when she had attacked them. It was though they had called her captain, but that couldn't have been right. The waves rocking the boat, but now that she could take a moment to look around her... It was an expanse of black nothing, leading to a horizon of darkness and a sky of emptiness. She was standing in a boat that was nowhere as far as she could tell.

When surprisingly, a voice echoed in her head. "What have you done- who are you-!?"

Odd, she hadn't had a conscience before. She had been under the impression it tended to know who you were anyways.

And now, no longer battling, the way that her body was wrong was painfully obvious. Clothes that she would never wear, a stance wider than her own.

It took a while to realize what had happened.

It had been decades. Maybe even Hundreds of years, since the war. Her carved pumpkin mask had been chosen by chance, by a captain that sought to be a legend, and a totem of undying had revitalized the soul that still clung to the mask.

Well. That wish had been fulfilled- A pirate legend now stood in their shoes.

And she would not die again.

Knowing that this much time had passed- that history had already forgotten the war she had waged, the battlefield where she had given everything, and yet pirates still gave their allegiance to the black flag? Still flew the colour she had once taken as her own?

She had one mission. One goal- to destroy it. Once, she had been known as the Raising of the Black Flag, lifting it high above those who she fought and representing the might it held, more powerful than any other pirate could hope to be.

Now she would be the Razing, the destruction of all who dared to associate with the colour.

And so she did.

For hundreds more years she sailed. Learning the extent of her new existence, of her sight. The body she controlled would corrupt, leaving it bereft of its former capabilities- but as her soul grew stronger, she became more able to bend it to her own will, slipping out of the physical world as she wished to. She could no longer see natural things, which did cause her to dash more than one ship upon rocks and unexpected islands- but her eyes saw clearly that which was creating by another's hands, whether it be boats, buildings, or treasures. Perfect for a pirate, painfully ironic as it was.

She could also take the body of any person who wore the pumpkin mask she was bound to. Good reason for her to be a pirate legend most recognized by the mask- many fools felt they could take advantage of her renown through impersonation, and swiftly found that they could imitate her a bit too competently for their liking once control over their bodies had been taken.

Her work had been underway for a long time before she had found herself stuck in unfamiliar seas. Trapped, apparently, by some form of curse if one had to guess, but not without something to entertain herself. Other pirates had ended up trapped here as well- and they as much as any other were on her list to be destroyed.

She acted as she usually did. Gathering treasures, preparing new equipment after her own had been lost- though, to her surprise, being called upon by a small group of wayward souls who asked of her something that took her interest.

Asking that she be their captain.

Well, this wasn't the first time she had lied to people on the seas, nor the first time people had desired her leadership. A crew was a fantastic way to get much easier access to resources, to do less work in the end- useful. So she agreed, with a few conditions; One being that their crew would show no mercy to any other crew. The other being that if any person were to betray her, she would kill them until they had fallen to their last life.

This, they agreed to- and so for a time that was how it was. A ship was built they named "The Hell's Bells," food and materials gathered- and pirates killed! A great deal happened that while fantastical to the tiny crew she led, was simply standard in her eyes. A great deal of conflict, theft, finding treasures and amassing gold, and other such frivolities...

She found herself rather bored. Comfortable even. Never dying even a single time, despite the multitudes who had attempted to kill her. Rolling her eyes at the quarreling of her crew, and suspecting that one of them was betraying them regardless. Speaking in tones of confident righteous rage, acting like the revenge of a crewmate's death and the stealing of resources had drawn her ire...

It had drawn nothing but inconvenience. Annoyance.

Perhaps from outside, it didn't seem like mere annoyance to tear a boat apart plank by plank until there was nothing left of it but blood in the water from the crew that had foolishly tried to protect it. But this was simply her way- the path she had ascribed herself to. So what that she was dramatic for the fun of it- a death by boredom was even more pathetic than the act.

And eventually she grew tired of being trapped in the confines of the accursed barrier. She would end things herself if they would continue like this.

She sent her message all throughout the land, ensuring every person knew. If they did not come to her in combat, she would hunt down each and every one of them one by one, stripping them of every life they held until there was nothing left that could call itself alive in these waters.

It inspired fear. Forced their action. She knew, that none of them would accept being hunted like rats. They all joined together as one group, a temporary alliance, an agreement to kill her once and for all and remind her of her own hubris- to be a force of karma and justice. After all, one person couldn't fight all of them, such a large collection of people against one was sure to win if they all committed..!

So very funny to her. Hilariously naive. So painfully unaware of just how foolish they were.

Did they think they were the first to attempt this? That her fighting specialty was anything less than handling massive groups singlehandedly?

A bitter joke was what these people were in her eyes. A weak imitation of the war she had fought through and died in.

The battle raged on for days and nights, constant. Many found death swiftly, the blade of an axe slashing through every life they had left until they stopped getting up. She was methodical, careful, weaving through the blows of the enemies and hunting them down one by one to watch their numbers dwindle. A dance of death where one side would withdraw and the other would follow, a dance that she controlled the pace of.

But for their credit, they impressed her. Of all the things she didn't have quite enough of, it was resources, the phantasmal quality of her body burning through food and water faster than those she fought, and unable to pick up the food of others in such active combat. They kept her vigilant and careful, constantly ensuring she was never too heavily damaged to continue.

Eventually she had whittled the numbers down to one. Mind fuzzy, lacking in the necessary materials to continue but unable to run. Unable to remember how many lives she had taken by then in such an intense battle. It was her- and one of the other captains. The only one that had worried her- small, vastly so, meaning that they were difficult to hit. Even moreso in her exhausted state.

They fought. And while she did her best- it was the end of her, one of the first times she had been bested in combat when she hadn't intended to lose in years. This captain had been brought to his last life, crew and more killed around him, by Razing's hands almost exclusively. Surely, this was where her final tie to the world would be severed, the mask destroyed.

It wasn't. She found herself grasping ahold of a new body. A weak one, the body of a priest of some kind- and standing before her, Franklin, the captain who had killed her just before.

To say she was surprised would be an understatement. But the captain revealed that they had a certain amount of respect for Razing- and more than that, that they did not want to be forced to sail the seas alone, having had everything taken from them like this.

So, Razing travelled alongside Franklin, taking a break from the revenge they had been endlessly chasing. Letting themselves live on land for a while, having to learn how to navigate natural terrain rather than seeking out things built by others- and even then, perhaps not being very good at it.

It was different. New- she hadn't abandoned her goal, by any means, but now... She would be sure to try and live a bit more. To allow herself an existence she had first been denied by others, and then had denied for herself.

That felt like a familiar sentiment as well. An ideal that she had once given up on everything for... being allowed to live as just a person, rather than a concept.

Hopefully Heart would be willing to forgive her for forgetting that promise. Would be willing to let her make it up to him, whether he remained dead or not.

After all, who knows... perhaps the six she held dear had come alive like she had. If they were out there- she's sure she would recognize them, no matter how they appeared now.

### Relationships

Mary Sue - Fellowship

Mary Sue was another pirate legend who matched Razing's infamy, and the two were friendly and understanding of each other by the first meeting. Razing may have been the only one to stay in the area, but for the brief time Mary visited, they were on very good terms

Lovebird - Friend

The only member of the temporary crew Razing had agreed to lead that amounted to anything worthwhile, Razing may not have respected them as a pirate, but did respect them as a person. Conversing regularly, allowing them to remain by her side as long as they wanted, and someone Razing never made plans to kill directly.

Trysor - Example

A member of a temporary crew Razing agreed to lead. Razing never trusted Trysor fully, often sensing a special kind of dishonesty from the pirate, and being proven right when a moment of spying on a separate crew revealed that Trysor had been a traitor. Luckily, Razing had made it crystal clear what she would do to traitors on veir crew, and happily used the information to stage a public execution of Trysor in front of most of the other crews, exposing their treachery and taking them to their last life for it. Despite all this, Razing never had a particularly strong opinion on Trysor themselves- one pirate out of hundreds she had met, just as untrustworthy as any other pirate.

Franklin - Enemy, Friend

Starting as simply parts of separate crews and eventually, becoming the last two standing at the end of the line. Franklin was the one to successfully kill Razing's stolen body, but didn't destroy her possessive soul- and when Razing was given a second chance, in possession of a new body, the two agreed to leave together and spend time off the seas for a while.

Razing respects Franklin, and of the many other captains from various crews had always found Franklin to be one of the best- but being offered mercy was more than she could have ever bargained for, and even now she holds Franklin in high regard- even if the other is long dead by now, while xe persists.

*Heart - Friend, Close confidant, most trusted*

*Razing remembers bits and pieces of the history her spirit came from. Most of it had to be re-learned in the spectral life after revival, but one thing she remembers often is the person who lead them all in that historic time. Appearing soft, but with a heart of gold and the resolve to match bedrock, combat prowess to match aer own. Sometimes there is a pang of longing that feels more like a lost love than a lost friend, a grief that transcends the present.*

*Her mission now is one she intends to continue until the life that's been given will be taken again. But... if he ever saw this person again... She would leave it all in a heartbeat. Xe would do it all again for him, as many times as it took for them to be granted the peace they deserved- the ability to simply be with each other in a place that did not echo with others screams and demand their death and damnation.*