Trident of Poseidon

"Let me get this straight: the Blue-tails actually used the 'thrice-accursed' Trident of Power to control their own people?" "They told us they got it away from Poseidon so no one could control them anymore. So they could be free."

- Jack Sparrow and Arabella Smith

The Trident of Poseidon, also referred to as Poseidon's Trident, was the mythical weapon of the sea god Poseidon. The weapon of a god, the Trident was used to control the creatures of the sea, including the merfolk, as well as create thunderstorms and strong tidal waves. Near the end of Jack Sparrow's teenage adventures, the Trident fell into the posession of the feared Captain Torrents. After Torrents' death, the Trident was given to a merman named Tonra.

Early use
"It's the sea god Poseidon. It's his trident. It's in a chamber somewhere below us. The trident is very powerful&mdash;it's the weapon of a god."

- Billy Turner

Poseidon's Trident contained within it an intense magical energy capable of causing earthquakes, wrecking ships, and even summoning the Kraken. Whomever wielded it also possessed the ability to take control over the race of merfolk. Poseidon had gotten the clever god Hephaestus to create hundreds of giant enchanted gems, all different colors of the rainbow, with each color representing one of the different types of merfolk. Gathering them deep within Isla Sirena, Poseidon created a magical link between the Trident and the gems, giving him the ultimate power over every mermaid, merman, and merchild on the Seven Seas. However, over a thousand years prior to Jack Sparrow's teenage years, the ancestors of Morveren, Aquila, and Aquala managed to get the blue stones locked away in a special chamber designed by the goddess Calypso, making all blue-tailed mermaids immune to the Trident's charms.

Control of the Merpeople
Eventually, Morveren, Aquala, and Aquila managed to steal the trident away from an unsuspecting Poseidon, but instead of freeing the rest of their people, used it to take complete control over their own race for themselves. The sisters hid the Trident under Poseidon's Peak, the place they kept the spoils of all their greatest wars, but once they learned of a resistance building against them amongst their people, decided they needed to place it in the care of a human to ensure it would stay out of the hands of other merfolk. The Blue-tails struck a deal with Captain Torrents, in which he would guard the Trident and share sovereignty over the merpeople with them, and they would be able to keep their status. However, once the sisters handed control of the Trident to Torrents, he swiftly made off with it&mdash;bent on retaining control of the Seven Seas all for himself.

In Torrents' hands
With the power of Poseidon's Trident, Torrents commanded the merpeople to leave their home under Isla Sirena and pillage and plunder all the oceans of the world, giving him all the loot they found. The Blue-tails commissioned Jack Sparrow with the task of reacquiring the Trident from Torrents, and after an intense duel aboard the Fleur de la Mort, Jack managed to take possession of the weapon and blast Torrents into the sea, where thousands of infuriated merpeople were waiting to devour him. Rather than allowing the Blue-tails to resume their tyranny, however, Jack, taking advantage of his new position as king of the merfolk, chose to free them, putting the Trident in the keep of the merman Tonra and earning the merpeople's immense gratitude and reverence.

Behind the scenes

 * The Trident had been referred to by several names, mostly referred to as "Poseidon's Trident" or simply the "Trident" by those who knew of the weapon. It was also named the "Trident of Poseidon".
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales will feature the Trident of Poseidon as the sought-after artifact in the film. The rumors about the Trident appearing in the film started in 2013, with the Trident's appearance being officially confirmed in February 2015.

Appearances

 * Jack Sparrow: Poseidon's Peak
 * Jack Sparrow: Bold New Horizons
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales