Pirates are not Piracy

There is a difference between pirates as a profession and Pirate as an ability. Let's take a look at some history of this ability first...

Pirates as people have existed for as long as there were ocean faring folk. Pirates as ability users are probably just as old, if not older.

In the ancient days when folks started boats for travel. Someone made a connection to the sea. This person was one of the first to awaken the ability. They could swim better than usual, and could fashion boats better than others and could somehow find a mysterious energy substance which would later be called "Sea energy". These ancient people were of many kinds of seafaring folk, but many would be called pirates. Some were no more than adventurers, however the ability always gives someone an edge in the sea. The most dangerous of people out in the sea, the pirates, were the most feared, but also some of the most known. Dead men tell no tales, and the ones that often survived were the ones that were better at sea. The ability got its name "Pirate". Despite this dark origin, many non pirates also awakened to this ability, but the name stuck.

Pirates sailed in and out of stories for all the eras of ability users, but during the most secretive era pirates suddenly became rarer. It is thought that the ability was there though, as in the modern era people with the pirate ability are surfacing from obscurity, more and more over time. Even then, they are not that common among ability users. The "main four" are.

Pirate as an ability could refer to a lot of different types of people, but the ability does have three main types that it seems to gravitate to.

* Classic Pirate: A person who has various skill relating to the pirates or long ago.
* Ancient Pirate: Piracy spoken of in age old legends and stories. The type with magical abilities.
* Swashbuckling Pirate: A more adventure-y sort with dramatic flair.

These three types represent something. Three different things that can make a person a pirate, and yet one does not need all of them to be so. Classic pirates had a lot of fighting techniques that they could use at sea. The mystical type is less grounded in what one would call normal. They have mystical powers relating to the sea and boons and curses. The adventure-y swashbucklers may only be pirate in name only. As flashy adventurers they use new age techniques and can be extra creative. A true pirate ability user probably has at least a little of all these qualities, though they may specialize in one.

Boats, Boons, Curses, and maybe a little bit of whittling driftwood. Pirates can be a crafty sort with the right materials.

Another thing that one may not expect is a similarity to Ninja ability users. Pirates and Ninjas are evenly matched in some ways, though it may not look it. Though they don't have much in common there are some with rivalries.

Traditional pirates focus on a more aggressive style of fighting while traditional ninja have a defensive fighting style. Mystical pirates create boons while ninja have scrolls and ninjustsu. Swashbucklers are often loud and boisterous while theater ninja are often quiet.

They are opposites in many ways. Some theorize that all abilities have some polar opposite. Mechanics and Mages. Alchemists and Summoners. Even mythical abilities that may or may not be real could follow this pattern. Duplicators and Awakeners.