Jolly Roger (pirate)

"Dead men tell no tales!"

- Jolly Roger

Jolly Roger was an undead pirate who operated in the Caribbean during the era of Jack Sparrow.

Biography
"Make sure Jack Sparrow knows I'm comin' for him!"

- Jolly Roger

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

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

Jolly Roger conspired with Ammo 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
"Jolly Roger was once an infamous pirate captain with a bad temper and a thirst for power. 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, Ammo 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 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
But, after the Battle of the Isla de Muerta and Sparrow's second escape from Port Royal, Jolly Roger has discovered a force that threatened to destroy his plans, the East India Trading Company, under the strong leadership of Lord Cutler Beckett, which has start to expand in the Caribbean.

Now, Roger realised that he has a powerful enemy. So he started several attacks on EITC possesions in the Caribbean. Not wanting to leave Jack Sparrow to flee, Roger had hired captain Bo Beck to capture Sparrow, and deliver him to Roger himself.

Beck had managed to capture Sparrow, but Sparrow made a deal with Beck, giving him double the amount of gold that Roger gave Bo Beck. So, Sparrow escaped once again, but Beck was captured shortly after by Roger off the island of Bilgewater. Enraged by Beck's disloyalty, Roger killed Beck and turned him into one of his undead minions. Beck's only passenger was forced to walk the plank and Beck's sloop was sent by the Phantom 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 have it that Jack Sparrow had something to do with foiling Jolly Roger's plot. Whether the curse is truly gone remains unknown.

Later, Roger had hired a group of pirates to carry out his dirty work. They destroyed the magical protection of the Caribbean islands, and he began the invasions on Port Royal, Tortuga and Padres Del Fuego. Also, he went to search the mythical El Patron's lost weapons, which was left in the Caribbean centuries earlier by Spanish Conquistadores.

Appearance
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 the left side of his mouth. He wore his black hair in long dreadlocks which were known to be filled with poisonous snakes, and was often seen with a large hat, out of which protruded two playing cards. He wore a long navy or army coat with a medal on the left side of his chest, and adorned his outfit with shrunken heads and voodoo masks. He had no right hand. Instead, he replaced his missing body part with a deadly multi-purpose weapon. It had a thick pistol which probably shot out poison or another type of deadly substances. On the side of his pistol were blades he used for melee combat. Roger had no right hand to hold a actual sword. Instead, 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.

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.

As Dictated by Pirates of the Caribbean Online
"...'Twas a position Jolly Roger long believed he deserved far more than Captain Jack. But when the captain of the Black Pearl gained the seat - though some whisper it was craftily attained -- Jolly Roger's jealous fury raged towards Jack and he vowed vengeance. Jolly Roger then conspired with a Voodoo witch doctor to settle the score. Together, they schemed to rig a card game to trick Jack out of his piece of eight -- the coin and beads entwined in Sparrow's hair -- a symbol of membership to the esteemed Pirate Brethren."

"...Jack coincidentally drew the winning hand through a combination of luck and guile. The victory further enraged Jolly Roger and triggered the ill-tempered loser to brutally slay the witch doctor right on the spot. In his final living moments, the witch doctor invoked a vindictive spell on his slayer. Legend has it that the evil curse doomed Jolly Roger to walk the Earth as the undead."

"...As the shaman's body dissipated into dust, Jolly Roger inherited the all-powerful Voodoo forces of his victim and was then transformed into a skeletal beast with empty gaping sockets for eyes and a gnarled fleshless hoof as his leg. Armed with a sinister flintlock and cutlass contraption in place of a limb, he became the heinous abomination now known as Jolly Roger, the villainous leader of an undead horde. The new power granted him the ability to devour his victims' souls and then raise them from the dead with his own supernatural breath. He began to build an army of undead monsters - each creature becoming an extension of Jolly's own dark soul."

"...Cursed to terrorize the high seas for eternity, Jolly Roger now unleashes his dark powers to raise the rotting remains of dead Pirates to do his evil bidding -- a fate far worse than death. Be forewarned, his abilities are far from being limited to raising the dead. He has inflicted his dark influence upon many natural creatures including: undead alligators, bats, wasps, crabs, scorpions, and deadly stalking tree stumps. They all possess malicious intents akin to Jolly Roger himself."

"...Those who treasure their lives, souls, and loved ones best steer clear of this evildoer's deadly path ... or pay the price, for he will not rest until he becomes absolute ruler of the Caribbean."

Appearances

 * Pirates of the Caribbean Online