Blood ritual

"Begun by blood. By blood undone."

- Hector Barbossa

The Blood ritual was an ancient ceremony used for those who ran afoul of the curse that lied upon the Treasure of Cortés.

History
"There is one way we can end our curse. All the scattered pieces of the Aztec gold must be restored and the blood repaid."

- Hector Barbossa

The Aztec Empire delivered a stone chest with 882 pieces of Aztec gold to Hernán Cortés in an attempt to stop the slaughter of their people, but in his greed, Cortés refused to halt his conquest. In response, the heathen gods placed a curse upon the gold, so that any mortal who removed a single coin from it would be punished for eternity. The only way to lift the curse was to return all the Aztec gold pieces to the chest and pay the heathen gods back in blood.

Sometime after taking all the Aztec gold pieces, Captain Hector Barbossa's pirate crew ran afoul of the Aztec curse. It wasn't until Barbossa ridded himself of Bootstrap Bill Turner did the crew realized the ritual's requirements. By the time the crew collected all but one of the gold pieces, Barbossa and his men already gave their blood to the gold. However, they needed the blood of their last crewmen, who was lost to them, from their only child. Barbossa's first attempt on lifting the curse failed when they used the blood of a young woman, who they assumed to be Turner's child. The second attempt was delayed until after battle outside of Isla de Muerta, in which Bootstrap Bill's real child, Will Turner, lifted the curse.

Appearances

 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
 * Kingdom Hearts II

Source

 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl