El Despiadado

“	El Despiadado — the Savage One — was the chief of the pirate band and the skipper of the captured wolfship. He had a reputation for cruelty and ruthlessness.	”
–The sadistic nature of the Savage One

El Despiadado (known also as The Savage One) was an Iberian corsair captain of some infamy, known for his cruelty and ruthlessness. Resenting the Skandians' policing of the Stormwhite, Despiadado and a vast band of his countrymen used the aftermath of celebration for Lydia Demarek and Ingvar's engagement to slip into Hallasholm and steal Wolfwind. The pirates subsequently used the wolfship in a series of raids on the Stormwhite coastline, instilling fear and resentment and discrediting the Sea Wolves' reputation, hoping to destroy the credibility of Skandia and no doubt end their sea patrols, opening the way for piracy to return to it's previous prosperity.

The plot, however, was foiled by The Heron Brotherband and Erak Starfollower, who succeeded in dismantling the operation, capturing the 'Savage One' and his surviving associates and turned them over to the Sonderlandic court, where Despiadado was tried and presumably hanged for his crimes against Sonderland and the Stormwhite as a whole.

Biography[]

Rise in Piracy[]

Next to nothing in known of Despiadado's early life, nor how and why he entered the life of a pirate. However, as a man that hailed from Iberian, it is possible that he was one an impoverished individual who abandoned his lifestyle on the soil of Iberia and fled to a buccaneer life on the Stormwhite Sea, a fairly common move for unfortunate Iberian peasants, especially under El Déspota's tyrannical reign.

No doubt rising through the corsair ranks, Despiadado donned the name, 'The Savage One', a name that was a fairly accurate description of Despiadado's cruel and sadistic nature and became a man of great influence among those of his countrymen who were of the same profession as him. Indulging in a career of preying on and sinking lone ships at sea, storming aboard with overwhelming and merciless numbers and seizing any cargo before leaving the vessel, its crew most often slaughtered, to disappear beneath the waves, leaving no evidence of the ruthless activity, Despiadado eventually came to captain his own vessel that he led on plunders launched on the many states that bordered the Stormwhite, which he claimed as his territory.

El Despiadado eventually gained a deep-set feeling of resentment towards the Skandians after the Sea Wolves became the unofficial police of the Stormwhite, an action that severely damaged the fortunes of many the nation that indulged in piracy as source of income, Iberia especially, the people of Skandia taking countless Iberian pirate vessels over the years, which would have surely included friends, personal acquaintances and business partner buccaneers of El Despiadado himself. Despiadado, however, apparently evaded incarceration and continued his lifestyle and business, though not undeterred.

The Stern Chase[]

In an act of retribution for the damage the Skandians policing had done to piracy, El Despiadado set his sights on the idea of stealing the wolfship Wolfwind, which he intended to use in his criminal activities so as to shred the long but still fragile peace Skandia shared with many coastal countries it had once itself plagued, thus leaving the land ripe for piracy to return to it's former glory. Having assembled together a vast collection of his fellow Iberian corsairs under his banner and with the suspected unofficial support of El Déspota behind him, El Despiadado's plans were known apparently to a great deal of Iberian pirates, such as Miguel and his crew, who at the very least knew the general gist of what their countryman had in mind. Despiadado and his followers established a base of operations on the wilderness that was the coast of Sonderland, in a cove that lay south of Malmet, which, in addition to providing the Iberians with a safe harbour to unload the treasures gained in the raids he intended, should their plan succeed and being an ideally-placed hotspot of seafaring activity from the vessels venturing in and out of the Stormwhite, also served the role of a permanent home to the gathering of reinforcement crewmen, expert craftsmen and womenfolk that were amassed there under the flag of the Savage One, at a number that reached a hundred at the least, along the the moored vessel that was quite possibly the pirate that Despiadado sailed.

*Wolfwind*, the vessel Despiadado conspired to steal

Having apparently discovered through unknown sources of the engagement festivity held in celebration of the engagement of Ingvar and Lydia Demarek, which would leave the Skandian fleet practically unguarded and Wolfwind their's for the taking, El Despiadado and his subordinates stole into the capital of Skandia under darkness of night, promptly murdering the two guards on watch — Tegar and Rogger — with wordless savagery, then silently rendering every ship in their sight unfit for immediate travel as Despiadado either oversaw or even participated in the sabotage with his own hands until he finally sailed Wolfwind away and into the open sea, his plans ready to unfold and the Hallasholm community left slumbering in ignorance, the only life form to have sensed the criminals of Iberia being Kloof.

With the wolfship of Oberjarl Erak Starfollower in his hands, El Despiadado moved on to the next phase of his plan: use Wolfwind to send the peace between Skandia and the many countries with whom the Sea Wolves had formed alliance with since the Treaty of Hallasholm crashing down into a thousand fragile shards. Crewed by El Despiadado's pirates, the Savage One proceeded to prowl the Stormwhite for victims, attacking at least one vessel, a Gallican trade vessel bound for the east coastline of Teutlandt, which the Iberians struck with the savagery of their leader's alias, swarming aboard under the presumed directive of Despiadado or one of the corsairs that were prominent among the crew's hierarchy. Having massacred all but the captain and a crewman so badly injured his wounds drained him eventually of life, El Despiadado left the ship barely afloat with the message to spread: the raids carried out over the centuries by the people of Skandia were again commencing.

Despiadado proceeded to guide Wolfwind down from the Teutlandt coastline and across the invisible border line into the boundaries of Gallica, blazing a trail of death and suffering along the shoreline whilst ensuring that his campaign to discredit the reputation of the pale-haired northerners was a growing success, launching merciless raids on several communities, his attacks including those launched on the town of Bolshafen and port of Leduc, during both of which the marauders were eventually driven back or retreated, leaving the furious citizens, ready to enact revenge on any Skandian ship that came into sight. Despiadado also scanned the seas surrounding the Isle of Plessa, examining in Wolfwind both the bay that was it's natural harbour and the waters afar of the fishing grounds commonly used by the islanders, though he dismissed Plessa as a unnecessary target, its isolation lacking the location from which word of the raids could spread swiftly and without hindrance, then returned southwest to continue his people's raids on the Gallic lands.

Though the plunders had the effect Despiadado desired, riling its victims against the Skandians and destabilising the alliances between Skandia and countries that once leaved saw the wolfship as a trigger for terror, rather than a source of protection, word of Wolfwind eventually spread on past the sailing speed of the rogue ship, leaving the towns lying more to the south forewarned and out for blood when they came into Despiadado's sight. Satisfied that the damage to his enemies' credibility was done, as well as knowing that the advantage of surprise was what had allowed him to launch such a victorious crusade of ransacking, El Despiadado steered Wolfwind back north and into the waters of the Stormwhite, searching for ships that were as of yet unaware of the danger that Wolfwind posed past Cape Shelter and among the watercrafts that fell as casualties of the Iberian criminals' evil was a fleet of four merchant crafts bound from Hibernia and only fresh out of the Sonderland-Gallican Straits, which Despiadado launched an attack on the innocent traders. Focusing first on the convoys' largest, the Maid of Alourn, who Wolfwind drew aside, the criminals swarming upon their dock, again under the command of an unknown member of their commanding office, though the presence of the Savage One is unknown, and massacred the crew of eight swiftly and with overwhelming numbers, then proceeding on to claim the Fenian Lass, disposing of the corpses of their victims, who's bodies they tossed into the churning waves below. Either purposefully or due to being so preoccupied with their ransacking that their attention was diverted, El Despiadado and his followers only seized two of the four, The Faun and it's compatriot having been able to make their escape, leaving the so-called 'Skandians' to strip the Maid and Lass, then sentencing them to destruction by the torch. The gruesome deed done, Despiadado then navigated Wolfwind further north, the eventual plan being to trace down the seaboard of Sonderland, a country that Wolfwind was accused of committing crimes against whilst piloted by Despiadado.

The wind fuelling her speed as it blew into the starboard beam of Wolfwind, El Despiadado would guide the wolfship through at least one squall among the many that filled the once clear sky he sailed under, the ship cruising at a northern-west angle at a pace that Despiadado saw continued into the darkness of night, albeit at the light of a lantern lit upon the aft deck of the warship and into the dense fog of dawn, where Wolfwind found itself groping through the murky whiteness, the only wind in her sails being short gusts, forcing Despiadado to resort to the manpower of a dozen or so oarsmen ploughing smoothly through the water. The smooth, unbroken sailing was cut short, however, when Despiadado became aware that he and his purloined wolfship were not alone in the fog banks; another vessel was trailing him like a wolf after a deer, silent and soundless, and the buccaneer Iberian steered Wolfwind so that when the stalking Heron emerged into the light of a break in the low-lying clouds that was several kilometres in width, it was to be soon answered by an ambush from Wolfwind as Despiadado piloted it out of the banks of fog where he had been lying in wake, charging the wolfship's smaller kin at maximum speed.

Barrelling through the sea towards it's enemy, intending perhaps to simply smash the Heron to smithereens via brute force alone, when the vessel before him swung starboard, El Despiadado drove the ship he had used to discredit and kill to settle his vendetta to port, putting his sailors to work as both wolfships raced to crash at a invisible point. Though his ship cut through the water quickly, Despiadado found Wolfwind hindered by the exhaustion of his rowers, their strength sapped by their prolonged time at the oars, though it is unconfirmed if Despiadado continued to steer the warcraft or left the wheel in other hands to join the many men who rallied to the bow, howling vengeful cries of war and brandishing items of combat as at least a quartet of bowman among the throng seeking to strike down their opponent's helmsman. As Wolfwind drew closer, breathing fire down on the neck of Heron as it grappled her with a fastened ballast and attempted to hall the ship in, the tables to be turned suddenly when the bloodthirsty crew of Despiadado, rather than gain a new source of victims, instead suffered casualties among their own rank when the grapnel was hurled by Thorn right into the track of the charging rouge ship, sending one of the Savage One's men tumbling. No doubt tossed into disorder by this casualty, before Despiadado could rally his men back to order, Heron had caught a gust of wind that sent her speeding away, leaving Despiadado, his followers and Wolfwind floating belatedly in their wake, unable to give chase in conditions such as what she was in.

Following this encounter, El Despiadado, satisfied that his campaign of discrimination and restoration of piracy would succeed where any others had failed, proceeded to pilot Wolfwind past the coastline of Sonderland till it finally reached the safe harbour of his camp, where the Iberians proceeded to unload the booty gained from his raids on Teutlandt, Gallica, the Stormwhite Sea and Sonderland and relax with the triumph of his victory assured. Though he did not again strike out for the open sea, perhaps intending to lie low while wolfships sweeped the Stormwhite for him, Despiadado, it seems, could not resist the chance when, on the night of a full moon, the light lit the sea exposed the tubby form of a unfortunate trader that's presence the Savage One's lookouts alerted him to. Scrambling from his resting place to board the beached form of Wolfwind, surely shouted orders to his crewmen, El Despiadado then used Wolfwind to hunt down and attack the poor trader, despite its futile attempts to flee. That same night, a small party of the pirate skipper's followers came into an encounter with a small band of shadowy figures that their pursuit of led the Iberians into the claws of death in the form of a mother bear that proceeded to murder several, although whatever reaction Despiadado had to news of the mysterious interlopers or the deaths of Juan and several others are unknown.

Several days following their attack on the trader that dark night, the pirates of Wolfwind were again drawn from their lair by the sight of a small, clumsy ship that was passing the cove, which the Savage One and his men saw as a perfect target and boarded in hurried single file. Slinking out of her den, Wolfwind, guided no doubt by Despiadado's hand, set out in pursuit beneath a raised sail, the coast fading behind the hunter and prey. All suddenly changed however when the ship in Despiadado's sight suddenly sprang forwards in a burst of speed that was answered by frantic shouts from the Iberian captain at his sail handlers, attempting furiously to build the speed of his ship to the velocity of that of the enemy that he now saw wielded a massive weapon. An expert in seamanship, Despiadado instantly recognised the danger he faced and, rather than allowing himself to be consumed by the lure of vengeance and the bait it presented, swung Wolfwind instead to port, guiding the wolfship as she and Heron circled in opposite directions, then again wheeling to turn, only to find his foes far away, sailing a course parallel to them. With the experience of countless pursuits behind him, El Despiadado set Wolfwind into the wind, setting her in pursuit under the strength of manpower alone in a smooth, organised fashion, despite the danger that Stig at the Mangler and Lydia with her atladt were firing down on him. Unfortunately, however, even with the danger, El Despiadado was still a master sailor that allowed him to avoid Hal's attempts to bring the hull of his ship crashing down on Wolfwind's oars, pulled the warship-turned-raider to starboard and again sped her away to the north, now intending to disappear before his own vessel sustained permanent damage, but with Heron in hot pursuit. Despite his oars remaining intact, however, the momentum was not everlasting when it was under the power of mere human might, and Heron was eventually seen sweeping towards them, to which Despiadado answered immediately by baring straight towards the vulnerable foreparts of his opponent, intending to finalise the conflict with a ramming attack. The speed of Heron, however, proved again to be invaluable when Mikkelson was able to steer his ship so that it swung across Wolfwind's path, then approach her to the port side, an act El Despiadado attempted to mirror, ordering for the starboard oars to be run out whilst at the same time the oars to port were pulled in, throwing the crew into confusion while the Heron smashed across the oak oars that lined it's port, showering the Iberian buccaneers with shards of white wood that spelled death for a few whilst Heron sailed clear.

With his oars disabled, Despiadado swiftly gave the order of raising the mainsail to what was left of his crewmen, the thieves attempting frantically to fulfil the task as they saw the small ship they had hunted through the fog banks, then pursued from their bay to meet grief rather than triumph, surging towards them and as his handlers tightened the sail, Despiadado set to the ship as she gained steerage way and gathered speed, sending a bolt from the Mangler that cleaved into the crowd that had massed by Wolfwind's mast, sending bodies flying as, before Despiadado's eyes, the already-strained chain plates finally gave way, taking with it the sail and yardarm and leaving him and his followers drifting, far from safety and with only their weapons to defend them as the crew of Heron, having approached unnoticed in the confusion, were led at a charge by Erak and Thorn onto the pirated vessel of their nation's supreme war chief.

In the face of the incoming Sea Wolves, El Despiadado, known also as the Savage One, showed his true colours as a snivelling coward when, rather than lead his men in battle, he abandoned them to flee to the stern, where he hid beneath the tarpaulin that, in the aftermath of the battle, he would be found trembling and weaponless by Stig, who he surrendered to instantly, Hal later noting that El Despiadado's nickname of 'Savage One' did not fit his current show of spineless weakness. Despiadado was subsequently chained to the oars with the twenty men that were all the remained of his crew, who showed their pure revulsion at the disloyalty of the man that had once been their leader, raining threats and slanders at him as they were made to row to Livosk, where he and his comrades were unloaded from the ship that had changed from being their weapon to their prison and taken into the custody of the Sonderlanders, imprisoned until they could face trial and the subsequent but inevitable execution that would follow, given the indisputable evidence behind the charges.

Affiliates[]

Juan — One of Despiadado's followers among the camp established in his cove headquarters. He was killed, however, before the destruction of their plans of defiling the name of the Skandians, whilst pursuing the Herons.
Santos — A heavily-built corsair that patrolled their coastal headquarters with Juan, only to be injured by Lydia Demarek.
Iberian Captain — The skipper of a pirate ship that included Miguel among it's crewmen. Operating along the eastern coastline of Sonderland, the Captain was struck down in the midst of a raid of a merchant that the Heron Brotherband came to the defence of.
Miguel — An associate made aware of Despiadado's plans, only to be captured before the plot could take action.