Pirates of the Damned (Midnight crew)

Pirates of the Damned (PotD) was founded by Thanos on the Midnight Ocean on October 27th, 2003. Their history, however, goes back to the Azure Ocean.

Azure Ocean
Not many are left today who remember Thanos' exact motivation for forming the Pirates of the Damned (and the flag, Crimson Tide), but it was clear that he was driven to form a crew that would be something special. It didn't take long for this goal to be realized.

The tale has been told that the keys to early success for PotD was that it was something different from the average crew on Azure; younger and less piratey (more puzzle and less pirate as they said). Yet those differences weren't the only reasons for success.

PotD's mantra has always been that the crew should be an online family to its members. A family in which every member, from greenie to captain, had a purpose and a place. If you took on the mantle of an officer, you took on the responsibility to make sure those who couldn't take boats out (pirates and cabin people) reasonable pillaging needs were satisfied. With other like-minded crews, the Crimson Tide was clearly a force to be reckoned with.

Thanos
So it was on Azure and so it remained on Midnight. Thanos and his trusted senior officers - Armistice, Ditdogs, Dotte and Checkmate, along with many other loyal crew mates - worked unceasingly to quickly establish the crew on Midnight.

The quick start proved to be a major advantage. The Pirates of the Damned, along with the other crews in Crimson Tide had grown very rich very quickly. When it came time for shoppe auctions, they procured valuable shoppes which would fuel both their growth in pirates and fleet.

However some crews in Crimson Tide did not fare as well on Midnight. Misery's crew, The Gladiators, was supposed to be a combination of three crews from Crimson Tide. However it didn't quite work out that way. Tedv and his loyalists soon departed. The Gladiators were left with only a few active pirates and were growing slowly. Misery was left with a hard choice: she could keep sweating it out with Gladiators or give up her captaincy and merge with PotD. Ultimately she chose to merge into PotD as it would afford her and her followers a chance to focus on their true love, pillaging, while someone else (Thanos) did the work of maintaining a crew.

The Gladiators were the first crew to merge into PotD, but they certainly weren't the last. \ The Pirates of the Damned are in fact several crews whose captains made that same hard choice. Each crew merged into PotD brought a new dynamic to the family. Crews like Velvet Claws and Gladiators brought small-crew philosophy into the large crew which allowed them to remain close-knit despite the size.

With Misery and Dotte pillaging fourteen hours a day and Dartwith recruiting, the pace of the growth increased to the point that PotD became larger than most flags. It was quite an exciting time and everyone was mostly happy, for a while.

As time went on, for various reasons, people like Dartwith and Checkmate grew dissatisfied; they soon left, with their loyalists, to form their own crew. This was perhaps the first time that people said that Pirates of the Damned days were numbered.

Yet it wasn't to be. The remaining senior officers worked harder than ever, and other officers were starting to become skilled at pillaging and the void of those who left was filled. The hardship of the departed senior officers and the drama from the Four Hour War brought the crew closer together than ever-and it still continued to grow. Blockades were on the horizon and PotD couldn't wait.

PotD gained skilled players like Aiziril at this time, who wanted to be apart of the forming blockade machine. Blockading was a passion for PotD and they were a major factor in the early dominance of the Crimperio Alliance. Eventually the alliance would face a worthy foe in (which included the Rudder Lubbers, PotD's hated rival); it took them awhile to close the gap, but they did so at Papaya I.  Many PotD officers came of age in this blockade and Thanos promoted new senior officers for the first time in ages. Much pride was taken from this battle, which carried over into Crimson Tide's successful blockade of Turtle on May 15th, 2004.

Crimson Tide's occupation of Turtle remains a controversial subject, yet it was a fun time to be in CT and PotD. Things would soon start to change though. Thanos soon was unable to devote all his time to both PotD and CT. So he passed the captain's hat to Misery, who became the second captain of Pirates of the Damned. This change was very hard on the crew, yet Misery managed to lead them through it.

On July 23rd, Tyr's Own decided it was time to attack Jorvik again. The Crimperio Alliance found that the foes of the Crimperio Alliance grew stronger and closed the gap-they were dealt a decisive defeat. This blockade had a major impact on PotD. Thanos decided to retire. The crew was emotionally drained at this point, but thanks to the leadership of Shanoyu, they managed to help Tyr's Own successfully defend Byrne, which had been counterattacked.

Misery
With Thanos retired, Misery ascended to the throne. Misery and Thanos, although possessing quite a few similar personality traits, ultimately are very different people. Pirates of the Damned changed drastically under Misery's direct leadership. Whereas Thanos united PotD under his singular rule, Misery united PotD by giving each person a share of the responsibility. Also, some doors formerly closed were now opened. Skilled pirates who Thanos might have considered enemies were allowed to not only join, but to have prominent positions.

The new PotD came together at just the right time. Less than a month after assuming leadership,on August 14th, the island of Xi was opened. Other than a small Vilya-funded resistance, the island was taken without much opposition. This is somewhat ironic, as Thanos had built a fleet strong enough to take on half the ocean and Misery had continued to proliferate.

All the same, Crimson Tide was very proud of its victory at Xi. The shoppes were up quickly and soon PotD was the proud owner of the apothecary Justice Ink. Prosperity was at an all time high.

As the summer ended, PotD enjoyed a pillage-filled autumn. Island ownership did not kill the crew's activity as it has done to so many crews. Morale was high. However a rift was starting to form.

PotD has always been a bit cliquish, but generally the cliques formed around interests. When two groups began to form based upon skill, it turned out to be very bad for the crew. People were being excluded from pillages based upon their sea battle caused morale to plummet. Around this time things started to get really chaotic in Crimson Tide and this also weighed heavily on PotD. Yet pillaging numbers remained high: the two factions were basically two crews and started to operate independently of each other. Yet few were really happy and a split was inevitable.

Casanova and Calais left to form their own crew and flag and took a few members of PotD. Most left in PotD felt conflicted. Many in the crew were considered friends, yet they also felt betrayed. The inevitable rivalry between the Harbingers and PotD was too hard on the crew. People began to whisper that PotD was dead.

It was also too hard on Misery. The turmoil in the flag and the crew was causing her to break. Something had to give. Just before Christmas, the captain's hat was passed to Rome.

Rome
Rome was faced with a daunting task. Morale was low. Activity was starting to dwindle. Just as things were starting to get better, two other oceans were opened. Nearly all of the winter recruiting class gone, things seemed bleak.

Yet those left loved the crew too much to just let it die. All the active people worked together to get the crew back on its feet. New recruits came, old faces returned. PotD wasn't the only crew to suffer due to the new oceans. Being significantly larger than most crews, though, it was better equipped to weather the storm. Once again, PotD became a home to refugees from dead crews.

With the advent of fame, the Pirates of the Damned achieved something that few 2003 crews can boast-illustrious fame. So it appears that the reports of their death were indeed exaggerated, to paraphrase the quote often in the crew's public statement.

In January 2008 Pirates of the Damned yet again took the top spot in fame and they did so with an imperial sea battle rating, a very rare accomplishment on the Midnight Ocean.