#pirate101 headcanons

[jjuniewizzy]

✨️The Spiral Repository is OPEN! ✨️

After some VERY hard work from some of us over here in the Creative-End of the Wizard101 Community, we are proud to present the opening of The Spiral Repository Discord Server! The Spiral Repository serves as place to join and share lore, headcanons, characters, and more regarding your favorite aspects of Wizard101 and Pirate101!

Consider joining us today for fun aspects like- ✨️A wholly SFW space for everyone of all walks of life! ✨️Friendly staff who’ll be able to answer and help you with any questions or needs you may have! ✨️Engaging community discussions through character polls, art, and much more! ✨️Organized Threads for you to post all your OCs’ info in! Doesn’t matter how many you make, keep ‘em coming! ✨️Multiple roleplay channels that everyone and their OCs can play around in! ✨️Character/story competitions to shine a spotlight on everyone’s creative works! ✨️Monthly events where everyone can team up, quest, farm, and much more in-game!

[explosivequill]

One of my favorite analogies about Pirate101 is its relationship to chess. With the Armada, you've got Kane (king), Queen (queen), Bishop and Rooke (bishop and rook respectively), and then Deacon and Phule, who I personally believe to be Knights due to the way they show up in unexpected places.

For the longest time, I used to think that the Pirate was akin to the king piece, but after putting some thought into it, I realized the Pirate fits the queen a lot better. The Pirate is constantly moving left, right and center across the chess board, or in this case, the Spiral. The other thing that gives me the idea that the Pirate is akin to the queen piece is that even if the pirate dies in combat, the battle will still continue as long as other companions are alive.

I believe the real king piece is Captain ✨️Horace✨️ Avery, in part because the El Dorado operation was his idea, and he wants a pirate-run state. And also, let's be real: without Avery, the Pirate wouldn't really know where to go for the other pieces of the map. He's the brains behind the whole operation. Kane is also the brains of the whole operation behind Armada lines. I feel like they're parallels for that reason, and because of it, I think would also make sense that Avery is akin to the king piece on the Pirate's side of the chess board.

[allibug101]

Meet Nikolas Sydiridis

Nik is a Greek 18 year old from Aquila. He moved to Valencia at the age of 11 and he became friends with Roberto Ferrari. Two years later, Rob went on a trip with his parents but it went on for about four years.

When Roberto came back and sadly without his parents due to their deaths, Nik and Rob started to become more than friends. They were happy until one year later. An Armada fleet discovered that Roberto was apart of the Resistance. A troupe of clockworks attacked the ship they were on. Nik was severely injured and Rob was arrested. The clockworks took Nike’s injured body with them to Bishop, the Armada’s tinkerer. He transformed Nik into a cyborg, the Armada’s latest creation. Bishop brainwashed Nik into believing that the Armada were the heroes and ordered him to eliminate the Sailor’s of the Spiral.

During the Marleybone storyline, Nik poisoned Roberto, leaving him hospitalized. After realizing who he was, he snuck into the room he was staying at and cured him. But after Roberto recovered, he found out that he moved on and started dating a girl named Gerel Han, believing Nik was dead.

Thank you @nadohunter for making this for me ❤️

[piecesofchess]

It's probably not canon, but I like the idea of Queen's role in the court being Kane's assassin. It fits the "disguise" motif she seems to have

Being an assassin is also a wonderful idea for her!

I've blabbed a lot about the Armada's masks + symbolism, but Queen's two-mask combination between the moretta (the small black circular one she wears as her 'true' face, which is a seductive mask worn by women held between the teeth, which made them silent and hid their identity. This is genius for an assassin design!), and her colombina (the outside mask with feathers she holds over the moretta, which could symbolize her 'wearing' a different face to those around her, something beautiful to present on the outside, but deadly on the inside), would've been soooo smart to distinguish her as an assassin.

....Buuuuuut what with the recent 'reveal' for Queen, I highly doubt this holds any truth, even if Sam DOES retract on his statements. I always knew that Queen was to uphold distraction for the nobility, because of her mask. It's funny how a design choice spoke of her personality to me - but I'd been hopelessly believing that the moretta showed something more than just a seductive design, rather a hidden deadly face from one of the heads of the Armada.

Alas!

[deckofflora]

Wizard101 Combat/Game Mechanic Head-Canons * Note, all quotes are fan-written in-universe flavor-text, and any mentioned events that differ from canon are due to the fact that these exist within my AU's storyline

Health

“Enveloping every entity within the spiral, exists an aura unseen by the naked eye. This aura, often referred to as an individual’s ‘Health’, protects the body, spirit, and mind against attacks.” “Originating from the ‘antibodies’ of Raven, Bartleby, and Spider’s inflictions in the Primordial Nebula, ‘Health’ provides a means of preventing the full force of magical or physical damage.” “‘Health’ withstands the attacks of spells and weapons, the body remaining unscathed.” Despite its wonders, ‘Health’ is not a means of invulnerability. It can be worn down, pierced through— stolen. It is merely nothing more than the byproduct of their environment, this Spiral they inhabit. The will of a wizard or the power of a pirate is enough to break down this barrier, have they not the strength of their own to persist and triumph. Once the barrier has fallen, the individual is vulnerable to the full force of an attack, leading to possible unconsciousness, illness and/or injury, or fatality. The natural ‘Health’ of an individual is dependent on their physical health, mental health, and most importantly: their willpower. Those with injuries, illnesses, or mental health concerns are often deemed to be unsuited for combat, due to their lower ‘Health’. Fortunately, health can be replenished via rest, healing spells, and ‘Health’ wisps found throughout the spiral. The practice of increasing one's ‘Health’ is often done via self-care, meditation, and physical training; it is common to see a variety of practices throughout the worlds of The Spiral.

Mana

"A permeating energy that separates our Spiral from what lies beyond the veil. This force- This 'Mana'- indiscriminately seeks to fill the space it occupies, even imbuing itself within spellcasters." "Those whom open their mind, body, and spirit to Mana's flow- spellcasters- have the unique ability to pull upon this energy within, casting their own intentions forward." "Mana is the fuel for the very spells we cast." 'Mana' exists virtually everywhere within The Spiral; it can be compared to the air our words flow through. It acts as both the canvas and the paint for spells. Despite the wonders that can be achieved, those with reliance on this energy often find themselves needing to manage an appropriate intake and outtake of this force. Too much mana within The Self leads to symptoms of magical outbursts and overflowing instability, while too little mana often shows symptoms of fatigue and inability to spell-cast. Fortunately, these ailments can be both prevented and amended. Cases of mana-drought can be cured via rest, stored-mana consumption, and 'Mana' wisps found around the spiral. Those experiencing mana-overcharge can expel this energy via spellcasting, mana-pulling, and other grounding techniques. The practice of increasing one's 'Mana' limit is achieved through meditation and magical training; it is common to see a variety of practices throughout spellcaster-inhabited worlds of The Spiral.

Duel Circles

"Historians say the circles originated from The Titan War as a manifestation of conflict itself, though in my opinion… only them prissy spellcasters from them fancy schools use 'em." "The tampering of them things, now that's what's scary, there be these so-called 'rules', and man… you don't wanna be around when one of them circles go off." "We don't play with them rules 'round these parts, why 'r askin' 'bout such things?" An unintended consequence of The Titan War, Duel Circles are manifestations of pure Conflict. This energy, often theorized by scholars to be a direct counterbalance to Harmony itself, acts as a catalyst for 'resolving quarrel' within The Spiral. Despite it's namesake, origins, and typical-use, these catalysts can manifest themselves for many types of interaction, acting more as a compromise between two opposing ends. Duel Circles define their own laws of magic when called upon, the 'rules of combat' being appointed beforehand- whether verbally or as a subconscious middle-ground between participants. Once the participants enter the ring, there is a short grace period before the battle commences, this 'planning phase' is known to occur between each round of action, each member getting their own turn. The variation of appearance and mechanics makes this ancient construct a great tool, able to provide a stable environment for spells, confine the impact of magic to a closed space, limit the effects of combat on non-participating individuals, and enforce a fair fight. In spite of it's accomplishments, Duel Circles have a concerning impact upon Mana and Health. It pulls upon the bounds of an individuals Health, stretching it to fill a larger confine, any adverse or beneficial side effects of this are unseen. These perimeters also take a heavier toll upon a spellcaster's mana, seemingly feeding upon excess mana from spells that otherwise would have recycled itself into the caster's system. The existence of rules subsequently creates the desire to test their elasticity: a practice known as The Arcane. Followers of this discipline hail back to the Titans themselves, known to force their own ideals upon the field. They manipulate and act between the laws of the Duel Circle, cheating the battle to their favor. Like all rules, they have consequences when broken. Due to the nature of Duel Circle's impact upon Health and Mana, destabilizing these battlegrounds can lead to fatal consequences; including, but not limited to, complete depletion of health and mana, physical and spiritual deconstruction of one's self, combustion of organic and inorganic matter, and unconfined spell-impact; affecting participants and surrounding onlookers. The diversity of cultures within The Spiral lead to many variations in how Conflict manifests between worlds, even mana-lacking societies opting to not utilize them at all. These disparities often open the doors for magical institutes to be founded for their respective teachings of combat and methodologies of spellcasting.

[paracosmworldbuilding]

The shared universe of Wizard101 and Pirate101 is confirmed to have the Grim Reaper as an existing character. However this is revealed in Pirate101, not Wizard101. This has struck me as odd since there're active necromancers in Wizard101 and if anyone would know about the existence of the Grim Reaper, it should be them, Right? But apparently not. Even almost 10 years since Pirate101 came out (I think) where Wizard was still being actively updated and nope. No mention of him anywhere. Very odd. Anyway I decided do what I always do with these sorts of things and make up my own lore since the games sure as fuck aren't gonna give them to me!

The reason that there aren't any necromancers who've met the Grim Reaper or even knows he exists is because he tends to stay away from necromancers because they make his job, to take people who are scared of death or don't want to die to the other side, a lot harder and it's been shown in our interactions with him in Pirate that he doesn't like that.

Then I started thinking about the implications of that more. Wizard City has an awful lot of undead walking around. A lot more than most worlds in this universe. There's 3 whole caves dedicated entirely to hold them. Several bosses being undead just hanging out in random towers thought Wizard City with quite a few of them implied that they were there before the caves were broken open with no real clue given as to why.

The more I thought about it, the more it started to add up. People who die in Wizard City who don't want to die for one reason or another aren't being taken so they stick around. Most lose their sense of identity and become part of the mindless hordes of undead in the caves. But some manage to keep hold of who they are. They take their residence in the unused towers around Wizard City rather than go to the caves.

[make-dragonspyre-great-again]

every wizard101 and pirate101 player should be allowed to adopt a really obscure npc to care for like a baby and basically make their own original character with headcanons

[cloutchase]

Could we perhaps have a list of the characters' (so far) genders and sexualities? I'm updating my headcanon doc every so often and I'd prefer if I didn't have anything that contradicts the source material!

We don’t canonize sexualities, but there’s been one exception in TikTok. Back at the start, there was some internal debate about whether or not TikTok was an adult, so her being aro/ace was meant to be a compromise.

Since then, we’ve been treating her like an adult with this sexuality. Even though the idea of TikTok being a teen hasn’t been a concern for a while, it felt wrong to erase a part of her identity, so we kept it. I will say that it’s possible for labels to change, so it’s fine to interpret otherwise.

Ultimately we don’t wanna be strict about it because everyone’s a little bi and poly and trans.

Some characters are explicitly trans and/or use certain labels gender-wise, so we can list those here. This isn’t to say characters who aren’t on this list or who aren’t specifically labeled as trans can’t be trans, or that it’s not valid to interpret them differently. Even us on the team have our own headcanons and preferences.

(Spoiler for volume 4)

tumblr - trans man

twitter - transfem as of volume 4 (doesn’t present fem on account of being restricted by her bosses, currently uses she/they)

amino - intersex agender

kik - intersex agender (tho he doesn’t like using labels)

discord - transmasc genderfluid (when presenting fem, he does not change his hair)

twitch - transfem genderfluid

tiktok - transfem

wikipedia - dubiously a man, too busy to think about it, so just tells people he/they is fine kinda deal

reddit - questioning potentially transfem

4chan - trans woman

threads - nb transfem

steam - agender

skype - nb

wikidot - nb

github - intersex nb

etsy - unlabeled

rabb.it - trans woman

artfight - transmasc

frostwire - nb transmasc

limewire (modern) - nb

napster - nb

webkinz - bigender nb

club penguin- nb

wizard101 - nb

pirate101 - trans man

toontown - genderfluid

corporate clash - bigender

webtoon - bigender

quotev - nb

messenger - nb transmasc

carrd - trigender

revolt - transfem

inkblot - genderfluid

bluesky - nb

characterhub - nb

toyhou.se - nb

soundcloud - nb

bandlab - nb

snapchat - nb

bandcamp - unlabeled butch

pirate bay - glam butch

cohost - soft butch bigender

We can’t tag everyone due to the tag limit, but I will add certain characters.

[sleepyvlad]

dead mike from pirate101, but it's my headcanon. he's an interesting guy.

[stormbreaker101]

Ooh, so Deacon was forced out of his initial allegiances. How does he feel about that? Does he feel anything at all? How much sentience or autonomy does he have?

Sorry if this is a lot, I am unable to be normal about the psychology of robotic characters 👍

I AM ASKING ABOUT THE AU. Tell me abt Khonsu. Tell me about Deacon's fursona. Please. I am so intrigued.

ok so the au is like an extension of pirate101’s main story :3

there’s three new worlds (Rajah, Krokotopia, and a fanmade world with sea slugs/snails based on Korean culture + cyberpunk) plus Andalusian Skyway in Valencia!!!

The main plot is about Queen rebuilding the Armada after Kane’s “death”. After failing to get Deacon to re-join her, she repurposes an old clockwork from Krokotopia (Khonsu) into a Deacon replacement. Khonsu is the main antagonist of Krokotopia, which is focused on the Armada’s expeditions and colonial holdings in Krokotopia (based on Deacon’s Rouge’s Gallery, which says that the Armada gained parts of Krokotopia).

Also Deacon get’s a “good” design during this time, and helps the Pirate in their adventure in Krokotopia!

Khonsu is a Privateer boss who is fought at the end of Krokotopia, and is based off of the Night and the Knight chess piece. The name, which belongs to Khonsu, a Moon God in Egyptian mythology, was picked to fit the Night theming.

Due to Khonsu being Deacon’s replacement in the Armada, he frequently insults and mocks Deacon. He believes that Deacon is inferior to him (Khonsu’s very self-centered and flamboyant). Which is why I made this post in reference to this meme :3

thank you for asking!! im willing to answer any extra questions about the au if wanted :33

[frozenfirecats]

Pirate101 ask Meme!!!

Questions 1, 2, 4, 5, 6,7, 9, 10, 12, 18,27, 28, 34, 38, and 41!!!

oh man that's a lot of questions, ok lets go

1 - Favorite crew member/companion?

bonnie anne my beloved. she’s so cool I wish foxes were real.

2 - Favorite world?

marleybone. the aesthetics and music go hard and the story peaks here

4 - What is your favorite class to play as and why?

musketeer for soloing cause it's the easiest imo and also the most fun, privateer for group play cause I like playing support

5 - What are the backstories for your Pirate? (Parents' death, where were they trained, Etc.)

Esmee: armada/skull island. Grew up among the rats in the sewers, having to steal what she could to get by, leading to her being quite adept at sneaking and using daggers. Strongly despises the Armada since she lost her parents to them, so she tends to be a lot more reckless whenever in a battle against clockworks.

Remmy: storm/marleybone. Was aboard a ship with his parents and sister, Maeve, when a storm struck. His parents died in the storm while he and Maeve where separated. After which, he was found by a Marleybonian ship and the dogs took him in. He grew up in Marleybone training to be a privateer but eventually found ranged weapons to be more to his liking. Was aboard a cargo ship tranporting weapons to Port Regal when he got captured in ambush by the Armada, and met Esmee that way.

Brynn: lost/marleybone. AU character of my ice wiz Brynn, just thought it would be fun to have her as a pirate so yeah no backstory.

Flint: mutiny/mooshu. haven't really worked out a backstory for him, this is just what it says in game. Will likely be change once I develope him more.

Maeve: squid/krokotopia. As mentioned earlier, she is Remmy's sister who was seperated in a storm (that a squid may or may have not been present in idk yet). Ended up in Krok where she learned magic.

6 - Who is your LEAST favorite crew member/companion and why?

wing chun, his voice and personality is a bit grating. idk I don’t really hate any of the mainline companions, and most of the non-story ones aren’t memorable and are lackluster combat-wise so they all meld together, so again I don’t have strong negative feelings towards any one in particular.

7 - How many Pirates do you have?

six, have five maxed out, the sixth was actually my first pirate I made, a musketeer named Ingrid, but I didn't make it that far into the tutorial before stopping. Later I made Esmee and it was then I got super into the game. I don't plan on questing with Ingrid anytime but I don't really feel like deleting her so she's just kinda there

9 - Any headcanons for your crew?

uuuuhhhheeeeuguh i got nothing sorry

10 - What does your flag look like? What are your crew colors?

Esmee

Remmy

Brynn

Flint

Maeve (hopefully I stay settled on this one instead of changing it a fifty more times)

12 - Do you headcanon anyone as LGBTQIA+? If so, who?

yeah I got a few. Bonnie: Lesbian, Ratbeard: gay, Toro: bi, Gracie: aro/ace, Sarah: lesbian. I would include Catbeard but that's canon now so.

as for my pirates, Esmee: ace, Remmy: bi, Brynn: pan, Maeve: trans mtf.

Flint is the token straight who's on thin ice

18 - Opinions on Cool Ranch?

love Cool Ranch. Visually it's gorgeous and the music absolutely slaps, however some parts of it drag and I don't like having to choose between wearing something culturally offensive or having shitty stats for my witchdoctor.

27 - Is there anything you wish was in the game? (Crafting? Fishing?)

tbh I find crafting really annoying in wiz so I hope it never comes to pirate. But I would love to see events akin to wiz's lost pages/five boxes. Especially five boxes I would love to see pirate get its own version of that.

28 - How long have you been playing Pirate101?

at least 3 years, can't remember exactly when I started

34 - What are the hardest and easiest parts of the game to play for you?

easiest is pretty much everything up until Cool Ranch, which is where the difficulty starts to ramp up. hardest is definitely the new updates, Tartarus and Wheeler especially.

38 - Is there anything you hope for in a future update(s)? What would you like to see?

would really love to go to Albion sometime. as for features, pretty much stuff we already have in wiz like character name/appearance changing, option to hide quests, and setting a minimum player requirement for team up, and please for the love of all that is holy give us the option to trash doubloons

41 - How did you first discover Pirate101? (Commercial, a friend, fanart, etc.) What inspired you to play?

kind of always knew about it through wiz, wasn't until around 2020/2021ish that I got interested in playing

[jjuniewizzy]

Looking For Wizblr Mutuals!

Somethings About Me!

- 22 Years Old - Aspiring Teacher - Balance Wizard Main - Certified Lore Gworlie - Owner of The Spiral Repository Discord Server

Looking for Mutuals that...

- Love Wizard/Pirate101 - Dyvim Whitehart Enjoyers - Frequently post their OCs - Headcanon Writers - Send Asks and Answer Asks

[shining-scion]

Ok, here’s my thoughts/review on Pirate101 as a newcomer/someone who just beat arc 1.

I wanna start off by saying I did, overall, have a lot of fun with this game. I did. That being said—

The first thing I think is really worth addressing as a problem is just how… culturally insensitive this game gets. I’m not an expert on any of this stuff, and with Wizards I’m not sure how much is noticeable until at least Krok, but I noticed some stuff almost immediately here that I— while not an expert— am concerned about. Perhaps that’s because I’m older. I did start my Wizard playthrough very young.

First of all, the whole class of witchdoctor, the aesthetic… probably needs to go. I can tell it’s being sourced from “piratey” media, (wasn't the plot of one of the POTC movies that Jack Sparrow got tied up with a voodoo doll in some manner?) but it’s outdated and while I can’t speak for the cultures it affects, I’ve seen people speak out against using similar tropes. I’ve personally just replaced the class altogether in my own headcanons, but I don’t think Pirate has the budget or means to overhaul a whole class, and headcanons don’t fix canon, so I’m not sure what can be done here. I’m not an expert.

I can tell that, in general, much like Wizard, Pirate is a melting pot of different sailing/odyssey/pirate pieces of media. “The Road to El Dorado” is literally a movie.

In general, I don’t mind the media inspirations being blatant. It’s fun to see what I recognize and how passing bits and pieces of different stories make their way into the Spiral, and when it’s done well I think it gives the universe this really fun bizarro world vibe. The issue lies in the fact that popular culture is full of stereotypes, and it’s clear that those stereotypes were taken as face value and just seen as “tropes”— which, yeah, a stereotype is often used as a part of a trope, but that doesn’t make it ok. At all. Both games would need a serious rehaul to make some of this stuff passable, I’m sure.

In addition to the witchdoctor class, the whole entirety of Cool Ranch was really just awful to Native people, and so was the literal opening questline in Skull Island. Wizards has this problem at times too.

In general, Spiral worlds have a problem where they don’t take enough creative liberty from their source IRL locations. I wonder if they might have at least a little bit of an easier time with this stuff if they took the time to worldbuild each… well, world, until it’s a distinct thing from its source. They did so fairly well with Dragonspyre, and multiple pieces of fiction do the same, so I don’t see why they couldn’t except for maybe their “one world a year” cycle kind of stopping them from writing things like that as much as they want.

TDLR: KI, YOU NEED A SENSITIVITY READER. “IT’S FICTION” IS NOT AN EXCUSE. THOSE ARE REAL STEREOTYPES AND REAL HARM. YOU SHOULD BE DOING AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TO PREVENT PERPETUATING HARMFUL STEREOTYPES IN THE FUTURE.

I just wanted to hold space for that topic, because it’s important, and it’s probably my biggest worry above all else. I don’t know everything but it seemed worth mentioning.

Transitioning onto the brief background context I do have with this game, since that will affect my view…

I played Pirate101 once as a kid— in 2012, when it launched. My stepsister and I crowded around the home computer and waited with baited breath as we saw another side of the spiral for the first time…

I never got past like, level 3, and that first character currently says she’s “adrift in the spiral” on the loading screen so I can only assume she got shot by the Armada or something horrible. Anyway—

The idea of playing again was something I’d turned over in my mind as I got back into Wizards. Now that I was older, I figured I’d be able to grasp it better than I could as a kid, and I’d be able to pay for my own sub, as well. After a bit of thinking, I went for it. I’d heard a lot of things about the game’s current state, but I decided to try and push that out of my mind as much as possible and meet it on its own terms. I wanted to give it a fair shake and I wanted to experience it with all the unbridled joy I know it would have given me as a kid, without worrying about how the later content would or wouldn’t compare.

I’ll give the game this— I LOVE THE OPENING. Maybe I was just excited to cross the long awaited item off my list, or maybe my inner child was just giddy to start a new adventure in my favorite fictional world, but I could not stop smiling and laughing from the moment the curtains opened to the minute I landed in Skull Island. Escaping the ship was exciting, seeing the Armada was SO COOL— I can see why they’re a fan favorite 101 villain— and the way I got to pick my backstory was unique. When I realized a Swashbuckler was much the same as a Storm wizard, I was really happy to see that picking the choices that seemed to speak to me (in wizards, questions about my personality, here, what I thought would make for a cool backstory) landed me with a playstyle I favored. It’s a small, coincidental thing, but it worked and I settled into things fairly quickly.

…I did also notice that the game was a lot rougher around the edges. Small things, really— the bloom is a little too bright, some models aren’t entirely animated in the face, things like that. I didn’t mind, and honestly? It just reminded me a little bit of classic Wizard, and it grew on me within the hour.

There were a few glitches that have and continue to persist. The dialogue box when Boochbeard is psychically communicating with you, or your companions are talking while you’re doing something, is covered by the crowns shop symbol unless the menu is opened. This was a… mild problem for me, as I have an auditory processing disorder and need that text to understand what’s being said to me. As well, every time I was shown an image, it would be cut off and shown halfway above the screen. I never got to see the face of my mother. That sounds horrible out of context. Anyway—

I really enjoyed the moment you walk up to the dock in Jonah Town and see your parent’s ship. I think my little part of the game was how the chase to El Dorado often felt like you were moving in step with your parents, running beside them and only separated by time.

There’s a weird feeling of legacy and it all feels really grand in a way Wizard doesn’t. They’re both, objectively, stories about growing up and taking your place in the world, but the Young Wizard is not attached to the Spiral in the same way the Pirate is. If I were to name the difference, I’d say Wizard is about Destiny and Fate, while Pirate is much more about Legacy and Heritage. The Wizard is guided by the stars, the Pirate is guided by the echoes of the past. They’re both very different ways of addressing and justifying the great journey, but I think they work in step with each other.

Another thing that I think was done SUPER WELL is the sense of SCALE. Especially, docking at Mooshu made me realize that if anything, I hadn’t explored CRAP of the worlds I was going to. I was basically saying I explored a whole country when I was really just going to the capital. The travel times were boring and a little egregious at times, but I think they were overall needed to give a sense of just how big the Spiral really was. When you look at the illustration of the cosmos, it can almost seem sort of small, but that’s not the case at all and Pirate really wants to remind you of that.

Gear wise, I knew it was gonna be more open ended, but OH GOD. I wasn’t expecting what I got. I was waiting for a waterworks, or the Kane dungeon to be like Darkmoor, but it wasn’t like that at all. The openness was daunting, but eventually I really just pressed into the agility and attack stats, and I came through fine. Managing my companions was a little bit more of a daunting task, and I eventually realized that even on a normal playthrough, you needed to know how EVERY class played so that you could spec your companions accordingly. There’s a lot to keep up with and I don’t think the fact that I was treating it like Wizard102 helped. It took me until about Aquila to really have an idea of what I was doing.

As for Ship Things— coolest part of the game. I am REALLY impressed with how well it plays especially for the engine and when it was coded. The skyboxes are gorgeous, the fact you can run around on your boat and even get a little cabin was a pleasant surprise, and I liked the nods to Wizard’s spells with the ship combat attacks. I did play through the whole game with a partner and often rode with her, so this might not be an issue for others, but my nautical level was severely underleveled almost the entire game. I’m only on Sinbad part 1 now, but to my knowledge, I’m past the part where sailing is useful.

Now, as for purely story stuff…

This was Blind Mew’s game. I’ve heard a lot about him as a writer during my time on Wizblur, and I know he has pretty strong influence in Wizard now, but I wanted to see his writing “in his element”, so to speak.

…I really enjoyed it. I could tell that a lot of story beats were planned out in advance, with an idea of how and when exactly things would tie together. There was a thematic idea through the entire game and it stuck to that— the idea being of freedom, and choosing to seek redemption.

It was really interesting to hear this sort of idea of “redemption is an action an individual chooses to take— and it doesn’t always mean forgiveness or being allowed “back in”— it just means the person tries to do better.”

A lot of redemption arcs in the current day are very… uh… Catholic about it? You must Grovel and Suffer and Atone and only once you have Suffered and Killed All The Old Parts Of You can you be considered worthy. Pirate doesn’t do that. It kind of just says that at any point, someone can decide to turn around and do something different, and you should always give people the chance to TRY.

I know Valencia part two was rushed, but I think even then it was really good. Kane did something I really appreciated with was take the theme and add an addendum:

People can decide to turn around and do better at any point, and they deserve to be offered that chance, but some people will refuse to do better.

Kane SHOOTING HIS OWN HEART really tied a bow on the message for me. You could probably argue “well, could he really be blamed for that if he didn’t have the conscious to tell him it was the right thing to do to accept it?” But I really don’t think the whole nature of AI and how they think thing matters here.

The ending was great. I adored how all the companions sort of came to your side in the end and even explicitly said that they were your family. I’m not sure Wizard ever has a moment where an NPC says something that… close and caring to your PC.

Overall I enjoyed the chase for the map pieces, and chipping at the Armada’s elites was really well done. I wasn’t expecting them to treat the Marleybone war with so much gravity, but they did it about as well and as seriously as a kid’s game could. The finale with Rooke at the end was amazing, the atmosphere was really well done and Rooke died to my partner’s crab, which was just… peak 101 game comedic timing.

I also really loved the “GO GO GO AND GET OUT” way they structured Valencia part 1 and 2. I was genuinely tense and nervous in part 2, wondering if being Spiral Spain’s Attaché was even going work. Being so close to Kane and watching him get SCOLDED for daring to touch me was incredibly satisfying. I wish there was more time for Royal court shenanigans so that I could get to see Kane glaring at from across the room more, but I suppose that’s what fanfiction is for.

In terms of story execution and story execution purely, I’d give arc 1 an 8/10. Every beat was there when it needed to be and early actions affected the long term narrative, which was nice to see. With some Wizard worlds I do feel like they suffer from “this could have been an email” disease, but my time was less wasted in Pirate.

…Now, as for Sinbad…

I have unfortunately noticed the increase in insane difficulty, and an increase in glitches. Last night my partner and I tried to do the tower in Mooshu to find Sinbad, and we were in there for two hours, only to get teamwiped and find no dungeon recall. I understand Pirate was made to be harder than Wizards, but that is just straight up unfair for mainline content, I’m sorry. As well, a promotion quest my partner did had enemies that were almost level eighty. If the level cap is seventy, how in the WORLD is that fair?

It didn’t bother me so much initially, but now in the endgame it really does— how much is locked behind a timer. Oh, you want to level your pet? You have to constantly be starting timers for their training, and logging in regularly to stop their training and start a new one even if you aren’t playing. If your companions get injured they’re unusable until they’ve recovered, which is mostly fine in the early levels, until they need ten hours to recover at level seventy. If you’ve been trying to fight something for ages, and you keep dying, all your companions will be bedridden and you just— can’t play anymore. It reminds me of those really formulaic mobile games where everything is on a timer and progress is so, so slow that you maybe get five minutes to do things a day. Sinbad feels impossible right now because I’ve pretty much run out of ways to improve or maximize a stat to make it easier. There’s no team up either— so am I just supposed to hope I can figure out how to cheese a rigged combat system?

I am still, overall, interested in Pirate101. I want to support the game and allow it to come back to life like the developers have been trying to do. I am interested in what’s next for the story and how they’re going to expand or do something differently from the Armada. I can understand reused assets from Wizard, I can understand a few glitches or bugs, but if I can’t keep up with the gameplay, none of that matters.

It’s possible I just suck at the game. I came for the story and for the most part, I did get to experience that. It was really impressive to see how well it stood up against Wizard— it didn't feel like an aside or lesser, it had its own identity and part of the Spiral.

I’m not sure how to end this review other than… like, I can’t tell KI how to make their games, but please have a little bit of mercy. Wizard is fairly forgiving and I understand wanting to make a harder game, but there’s hard and there’s challenging. Pirate101 is not challenging me, it’s hitting me with a brick inside of a sock. I think it really needs some balancing help.

Adoring the amount of badass coats to pick from, though.

[allibug101]

Strong Wolf’s origin story

Wolfgang Von Cratz was born in Karamelle. His father, Noah Von Cratz, was a member of the Schism. His mother was the infamous Pirate Jenny, rumored to be apart of the same crew that traveled to El Dorado. This news drew the attention of many people, including Kane, the leader of the Armada. The Armada is an army of clockworks that bend of taking over the Spiral. And that includes El Dorado.

Kane and his elite clockworks traveled to Karamelle in search of Jenny with the help of Nana. After hearing that the Armada was after them, Jenny attempted to flee with her husband and son. But Kane and his clockworks caught up with them on their ship.

Noah tried to fend off the elites while Jenny and Wolf made a run for it. Unfortunately, since the elites were too strong, Noah was beaten to death.

While Jenny and Wolf were running towards the life boats, Kane jumped out of nowhere and started fighting Jenny. Although Wolf made it to the lifeboat, but Jenny wasn’t so lucky. Kane took her own life right in front of Wolf. Kane looked completely soulless despite what he’s done.

After that day, Wolf grew an everlasting hatred towards the Armada. He made an oath to destroy every last one of them for killing his parents.

After a few days in the skies, Wolf was found by a bear named Baldur Goldpaws who took him to Grizzleheim. While there, Wolf trained to be a strong warrior. Thus giving him the title of Strong Wolf.

Now at the age of 16, Wolf left Grizzleheim to Skull Island and start hunting down Armada troops. That’s where he encountered an old woman getting harassed by clockwork soldiers. Without a second thought, Wolf charged in and started ripping apart one of the clockworks. But he was quickly restrained and arrested.

They took him prisoner on an armada ship which will sail to Valencia. While in the brig, he met other pirates who would heal him achieve his goal.

Artwork by @nadohunter



[piecesofchess]

Phule and Able get along very well in my AU, considering they are both emotional clockworks who feel alienated from the rest of their kind.

[deckofflora]

*TAPS ON CRYSTAL BALL*

HEY CAN YALL HEAR ME?? HELLO?? HEY YEAH ITS SLEEPWALKER…

Bunferatu/Nosferabbit Headcanons

• Everyone calls him Bunferatu/Nosferabbit (Same Person), but he’s formally known as Count Caerbannog.

• While many of the legends are true, the ‘Nosferabbit’ you see during the fall season in wizard city is the result of excess moon magic leaking, causing a ‘Shift Vampire Rabbit(Bunferatu)’ to manifest upon a normal rabbit living within the Count’s old Mysterious Cave manor.

• Count Caerbannog has beef with this doppelgänger every year, and wishes the students in ravenwood would just call animal control.

• Necromancer, with an interest in Moon and Gardening Magic.

• Ethnically From Avalon and Darkmoor

• Vegetarian, survives off iron-rich veggies, primarily in juiced form, tries his best to keep actual blood out of his diet.

• Actually is really sweet to his undead-veggie minions, always making sure they get enough moonlight to thrive, he had to modify some gardening spells to achieve this.

• Cisgender and on the bisexual spectrum but doesn’t understand nor care for labels.

• Very socially and romantically inept, has a collection of those really crappy social skill books that he takes maybe a little too literally. He is a weirdo.

• His form of love language is gift giving and physical affection, he will give you ancient cursed jewels and you have to deal with it!!!!

• Wears a very weak beguile on himself, magic cologne type beat.

• Has only trained dueling within dueling circles, this is due to the ‘formality’ and professionalism associated with circle-bound-combat. Incredibly useless in un-bound combat.