Jolly Roger (pirate)

"I'm no legend. I am Jolly Roger! And your worst nightmare!"

- Jolly Roger

Jolly Roger was the infamous pirate captain who operated in the Caribbean during the first half of the 18th century. His thirst for power led him to a poker match with Jack Sparrow, where he attempted to steal his Piece of eight, the sign of Pirate Lordship. But Jolly lost the match, and his soul, and turned into the undead, soul-devouring creature.

Early career
"Jolly Roger was once an infamous pirate captain with a bad temper and a thirst for power."

- Unknown

It is unknown when Jolly Roger became a pirate, but he lost his left leg in a battle and replaced it with a wooden pegleg. He also lost his right hand. However, these losses didn't prevent him from becoming a pirate captain, commanding the mighty frigate, the Harkaway.

Some time after the start of Roger's captaincy, Jolly Roger and captain Jack Sparrow were both after a spot on the Brethren Court. After Sparrow obtained the Piece of eight from the Lord of the Caribbean, he became the Pirate Lord himself. Roger became furiously jealous when Sparrow became a Pirate Lord, because he believed himself more deserving of the Piece of eight.

Soon, Jolly Roger conspired with Amo Dorsi, a voodoo witch doctor, to lure Sparrow into a Poker match, giving Roger the opportunity to steal Jack's Piece of Eight and become a Pirate Lord of the Caribbean Sea himself. However, the game turned in Sparrow's favor, and Roger, believing Dorsi betrayed him, shot his co-conspirator.

The Curse
"Transformed into the undead after an ill-fated poker game with a Voodoo witch doctor, Jolly Roger has discovered new powers that allow him to raise the dead. He plans to take over the Caribbean and proclaim himself a Pirate Lord, and he will do anything to accomplish his goal."

- Unknown

In his final living moments, Amo Dorsi placed upon Jolly Roger a powerful curse, possibly learned from Tia Dalma, rendering him half-man, half-beast. After Dorsi's body dissipated into dust, Jolly Roger inherited all powerful voodoo forces of his victim. Jolly Roger was now forced to live as one of the undead, feeding on the souls of the living beings for all eternity. He became a scourge of the Caribbean, attacking countless ships and ports. The British Royal Navy wasn't able to capture him, and Governor Swann was forced to put a reward of 1,000 doubloons on his head, and heads of all his undead officers and crewmembers. But that didn't help much.

Jolly Roger was known to accost pirates he encountered, threatening their lives unless they spread word of his power, and delivered a message to Jack Sparrow himself: that Jolly Roger was out for revenge. A number of pirates ultimately banded together to face Roger and his undead followers, with the help of Tia Dalma and her voodoo practices.

The search for Jack Sparrow
"SPAAARROW!!!!"

- Jolly Roger

Now, Roger's greatest desire was not just to become a Pirate Lord, but to rule the Caribbean and kill Jack Sparrow. He started a search that lasted for years, but without success. Then, he began to use his dark powers to raise sunken pirate and privateer ships (mostly frigates and sloops) from the sea floor to create a huge undead fleet, which he was intending to use to spread his power over all Caribbean.

Also, he has created a whole army of undead skeletons, raised from their watery graves with only one purpose, to serve Jolly Roger and deliver Jack Sparrow's head on a plate to him.

War of Jolly Roger
"Jolly Roger won't stop his fight for the Caribbean until he's done... FOR GOOD!"

- Citizens to pirates, regarding Jolly Roger's invasions.

After the Battle of the Isla de Muerta and Sparrow's second escape from Port Royal, Jolly Roger discovered a force that threatened to destroy his plans: the East India Trading Company, under the strong leadership of Lord Cutler Beckett, which began to expand in the Caribbean.

Now, Roger realized the threat that loomed on all pirates, including him. As a preventative measure, he launched several attacks on EITC outposts in the Caribbean. Not wanting to leave Jack Sparrow to flee, Roger had hired captain Bo Beck to capture Sparrow, and to deliver him to Roger himself.

When Beck had managed to catch up with Sparrow, the latter made a deal with Beck, giving him double the amount of gold that Roger gave Bo Beck. Sparrow achieved escape once again; Beck, however, was captured shortly after by Roger off the island of Rambleshack. Enraged by Sparrow's trickery, Roger killed Beck and turned him into one of his undead minions. Beck's only passenger, an unnamed pirate, was forced to walk the plank and Beck's sloop was sent by the Harkaway to the depths.

At some point during the War of Garcia and Pierre, Jolly Roger attempted to cast a spell over the Caribbean that use the power of the moon to convert any pirate caught in its rays to instantly become one of the undead. That spell, called Curse of the Muertos Moon, was unleashed on the islands, and any pirate touched by moonlight was cursed. It is not truly known how the curse was lifted, but the rumors had it that Jack Sparrow had something to do with foiling Jolly Roger's plot. Whether the curse is truly gone remains unknown.

Later, Roger hired a group of pirates to trick other buccaneers into working for Roger. They destroyed the magical protection of the main Caribbean islands, and he began the invasions on Port Royal, Tortuga and Padres Del Fuego. Also, he went to search for the mythical El Patron's lost weapons, which were left in the Caribbean centuries earlier by Spanish Conquistadores. This iniciative clashed once again with Lord Beckett's plans, and both powers began to fight each other in their search, closely followed by the pirates.

The search ended in the Battle of Raven's Cove, with both sides looting their share of the weapons and slaughtering the inhabitants of Raven's Cove. However, Roger's war was far from over.

The Rum Blockade
A few months after the battle of Raven's Cove, Jolly Roger set a rum blockade on Tortuga, hoping to lure Jack Sparrow out by diminishing his rum supply.

As a response, Sparrow sent an unnamed pirate (probably the same he'd freed from Rambleshack some time prior) to the newly-rediscovered island of Raven's Cove to retrieve the famed blade of El Patron's, to vanquish Jolly once and for all.

The blade was eventually retrieved and ended up in Sparrow's power. Later, Jolly found a Voodoo Doll of LaSchafe, the undead Jumbee First Mate in command of the Queen Anne's Revenge, the ship of the infamous pirate Blackbeard. Using the doll, Jolly took control of the Revenge, and sent her to attack pirate ships in the Caribbean.

Appearance
"Dead men tell no tales!"

- Jolly Roger

Since his cursing, Jolly Roger appeared to be an undead skeleton, with a skull for a face, fixed in a permenant grin. He had empty sockets for eyes, and had at least one gold tooth, on his left incisor. He had long, black hair made into long dreadlocks which were known to be filled with poisonous snakes, and was often seen with a large, feathered bicorne, out of which protruded two playing cards, which were said to have been the cards he lost the fateful poker game with. He wore a long, faded navy coat, probably from his times as a living pirate. He adorned his outfit with shrunken heads and voodoo masks.

Jolly Roger had no right hand. It is unknown whether he had lost his hand prior to being cursed or not. Instead, he sported a deadly Multi-Purpose Appendage. It resembled a thick gun which shot a type of deadly substance. Attached to it were blades he used for melee combat; these were apparently moveable in some way, as they were attached to strings.

Since he had no right hand to hold an actual sword, he wore a sword on his right side rather than his left, so he could draw it out across his body with his left hand. It is shown that Jolly Roger drew his sword and slashed with his left hand. The spiral like design on his forehead could possibly be a voodoo mark or a curse placed on him by Amo Dorsi, the witchdoctor he killed.

Roger was also missing his left leg. It had possibly been replaced by a peg leg before his cursing, but was from then on replaced by a skeleton leg and a goat's hoof for foot.

Abilities
Jolly Roger is able to raise the dead as well as make the living undead to increase his army. Though he isn't able to make animals undead, he is able to taint them with his curse and force them to work for him. He can summon soldiers to him at a moment's notice. He can teleport from ship to ship in a burst of green, unearthly fog, besides teleporting he could generate deadly, green voodoo aura from his hand that can burn a human beings, which kills them, and turns them into undead skeletons, a fate far worse then death.

Behind the scenes

 * Jolly Roger was voiced by American voice actor Steven Jay Blum in Pirates of the Caribbean Online.
 * Jolly Roger is also the name of a traditional pirate flag.
 * In his mouth, Jolly Roger had at least one gold tooth. This is possibly a reference to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise's skull logo.
 * In Pirates Online, Jolly Roger had three variants of this hat.
 * An undead pirate captain Roger LaForge, also called Jolly Roger, is the main villain in 2005 horror film Jolly Roger: Massacre at Cutter's Cove.

Appearances

 * Pirates of the Caribbean Online