With others working diligently on historical aspects present in PoTC Build mod I thought I might start setting forth exploring the PoTC setting. After all, if there's an "all ships" ahistorical fantasy option, including zombies and skeleton pirates, one could do worse than looking at PoTC for inspiration.
A game based on the films should probably be set after the maelstrom of the third film. The seas are wild again, Calypso's roaming free, and the East India Trading Company's suffered a great setback. Each of the pirate factions is still intact and striving once more constrained only by the "more guidelines, really" set forth by the Pirate Code. But don't let Cap'n Teague hear you call them that, aye?
What should the map be? Rutters are key to the world of the tall ship sailor, once out of sight of land it's what you have to go by to find where you're going. It names places, indicates tides and favorable winds, coastlines and landmarks. Only two maps make an appearance in PoTC but both tell us a great deal about the setting.
One is the map of the East India Company which appears to be a very historical rendition of the known world circa the early 1700's. Of note is the context. The E.I.C. seems to be the single biggest power in the world of the Pirates and it goes about, quite businesslike, in taking over and running anything it can get its hands on. While there was a historical counterpart, this one seems more modelled on a modern multinational that certainly doesn't restrict its business to the East Indies but goes wherever the government of the British Empire goes and also seems in the position of ordering her troops around without an intervening national officer corps of any standing. Governers and admirals bend knee to the economic might of The Company.
What of the other colonial powers and great trading combines? In the films we only hear of Spain mentioned as an independant entity as Jack Sparrow is accused of impersonating a Spanish naval officer (as well as a British one and a man of the cloth among other things...). France is mentioned only in the very first line of the Letter of Marque that Beckett offers to Will Turner. It begins as follows (best as I can make out - the image in the books are small and in ornate caligraphy): "George By the Grace of the God of England, Scotland, France and Ireland. King, Defender of The Faith..." and after this it's hard to make out. Now this would seem to indicate that France has been conquered and is now part of The Empire (and the holdings of the EIC by implication). Or England's still pressing her claims to her ancient medieval holdings on The Continent - which sounds odd but someone better versed with actual historical Letters of Marque could say whether that's traditional for this time period. Of Portugal, Holland and others there's silence. The only Europeans among the Pirate Lords are English, Spanish and French as well. It could be in this alternate universe the other colonial powers were subsumed, marginalized and conquered. Russia is, perhaps, represented by Barbossa himself. He's the Pirate Lord of The Caspian Sea. While he doesn't sound particularly Slavic he's a very clever fellow, far too clever just to happened to have become Jack Sparrow's First Mate by accident. It could be his stereotypical Pirate brogue is an affectation and it's also clear he's very comfortable with globe trotting, both in the temporal world and the mystical one. He leads the way to Singapore after all and doesn't so much as blink when going over The Edge of The World. Is it a coincidence that Barbossa sounds so much like Barbarossa?
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hitler threw 183 divisions into [Operation Barbarossa], while the Nazis faced 170 divisions, which represented 54 percent of the Red Army's total strength. Subsequently, the German armies were to occupy a line reaching from Archangel on the White Sea to Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The other map is far more curious: the map of Sao Feng. This is a round, mystical, map made up of many moving rings. It shows the way, in the last film, to The Farthest Gate that leads to the Lands Beyond Death. It, like most maps, probably shows the way to many other places. To nearer gates? And the landmasses in the first ring do seem to represent the coasts of China's known world of an earlier era - from Australia to India to the Horn of Africa mostly lower latitudes but a bit distorted to include more of China's coastline. I count four outer rings. Could these represent the paths other spirit worlds when spun into different combinations? The Chinese know of many hells. Unlike our technocratic, European, E.I.C. map Sao Feng's does show creatures both fantastic and real in its margins. It even includes a lunar cycle calendar.
Next: The Subtext of The Cosmology (in brief).
A game based on the films should probably be set after the maelstrom of the third film. The seas are wild again, Calypso's roaming free, and the East India Trading Company's suffered a great setback. Each of the pirate factions is still intact and striving once more constrained only by the "more guidelines, really" set forth by the Pirate Code. But don't let Cap'n Teague hear you call them that, aye?
What should the map be? Rutters are key to the world of the tall ship sailor, once out of sight of land it's what you have to go by to find where you're going. It names places, indicates tides and favorable winds, coastlines and landmarks. Only two maps make an appearance in PoTC but both tell us a great deal about the setting.
One is the map of the East India Company which appears to be a very historical rendition of the known world circa the early 1700's. Of note is the context. The E.I.C. seems to be the single biggest power in the world of the Pirates and it goes about, quite businesslike, in taking over and running anything it can get its hands on. While there was a historical counterpart, this one seems more modelled on a modern multinational that certainly doesn't restrict its business to the East Indies but goes wherever the government of the British Empire goes and also seems in the position of ordering her troops around without an intervening national officer corps of any standing. Governers and admirals bend knee to the economic might of The Company.
What of the other colonial powers and great trading combines? In the films we only hear of Spain mentioned as an independant entity as Jack Sparrow is accused of impersonating a Spanish naval officer (as well as a British one and a man of the cloth among other things...). France is mentioned only in the very first line of the Letter of Marque that Beckett offers to Will Turner. It begins as follows (best as I can make out - the image in the books are small and in ornate caligraphy): "George By the Grace of the God of England, Scotland, France and Ireland. King, Defender of The Faith..." and after this it's hard to make out. Now this would seem to indicate that France has been conquered and is now part of The Empire (and the holdings of the EIC by implication). Or England's still pressing her claims to her ancient medieval holdings on The Continent - which sounds odd but someone better versed with actual historical Letters of Marque could say whether that's traditional for this time period. Of Portugal, Holland and others there's silence. The only Europeans among the Pirate Lords are English, Spanish and French as well. It could be in this alternate universe the other colonial powers were subsumed, marginalized and conquered. Russia is, perhaps, represented by Barbossa himself. He's the Pirate Lord of The Caspian Sea. While he doesn't sound particularly Slavic he's a very clever fellow, far too clever just to happened to have become Jack Sparrow's First Mate by accident. It could be his stereotypical Pirate brogue is an affectation and it's also clear he's very comfortable with globe trotting, both in the temporal world and the mystical one. He leads the way to Singapore after all and doesn't so much as blink when going over The Edge of The World. Is it a coincidence that Barbossa sounds so much like Barbarossa?
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hitler threw 183 divisions into [Operation Barbarossa], while the Nazis faced 170 divisions, which represented 54 percent of the Red Army's total strength. Subsequently, the German armies were to occupy a line reaching from Archangel on the White Sea to Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The other map is far more curious: the map of Sao Feng. This is a round, mystical, map made up of many moving rings. It shows the way, in the last film, to The Farthest Gate that leads to the Lands Beyond Death. It, like most maps, probably shows the way to many other places. To nearer gates? And the landmasses in the first ring do seem to represent the coasts of China's known world of an earlier era - from Australia to India to the Horn of Africa mostly lower latitudes but a bit distorted to include more of China's coastline. I count four outer rings. Could these represent the paths other spirit worlds when spun into different combinations? The Chinese know of many hells. Unlike our technocratic, European, E.I.C. map Sao Feng's does show creatures both fantastic and real in its margins. It even includes a lunar cycle calendar.
Next: The Subtext of The Cosmology (in brief).