"They say he painted his crimson sails with red wine and laced the edges with gold dust. They say his crew ate meals fit for a lord every single night. They say his frigate fired cannonballs etched with gemstones. They say a lot about the legend, but little about the man. Never have my ears heard of how he held vivid nightmares of that day in his mind that took his sleep. Never have the plaques under his portrait or statues mentioned how the guilt of it stole the fire from his eyes and the peace from his heart.

Here, all we know is the legend of the Sanguine Privateer, the legendary Red Wine Capitan Ken Raith and his glorious ship the Red Swan, who single-handedly turned the tides of a war by sinking a royal fleet of seven ships on their own, using gunpowder barrels, a single pyromancer, and cunning that would humble the gods. We quote those words he said to our great Ivory King that night as gospel: 'Enough Blood, Enough Gold.' I wonder how many or how few know that those aren't all the words he spoke. I do. I remember very well, just as I remember that look in his eyes on that late autumn night.

'Your kin will never spill enough blood, never have enough gold. I chose to kill a hundred sailors to save a hundred thousand men of your army. I should have kept sailing.'

Gods above, how he hated us..."
- Military Governor Iralel Traede, 1443

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Not all my lore is happy-go-lucky, and not all my stories are porn. I got this picture to remind myself of that.

Art by  Relevancy
Ken Raith the Satyr belongs to me.