Jolly Roger (pirate)

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

- Jolly Roger

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

Early career
"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, 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. Roger believed himself more deserving of the spot and became furiously jealous when Sparrow became a Pirate Lord.

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
"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, 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 preventive 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 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 Bilgewater. Enraged by Sparrow's trickery, 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 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 had 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 the mythical El Patron's lost weapons, which was 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.

Appearance
"Dead men tell no tales!"

- Jolly Roger

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 (though he actually had three variants of this hat), out of which protruded two playing cards (it is said that the cards in his hat are the cards he lost the poker game with.) 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. It is unknown whether he had lost his hand prior to being cursed or not.

Instead, he sported a deadly Multi-Purpose Appendage. It had a thick pistol which probably shot out poison or another type of deadly substance. On the side of his pistol were blades he used for melee combat.

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 killed by Roger.



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

 * In Pirates of the Caribbean Online, Jolly Roger is voiced by American voice actor Steven Jay Blum.
 * Jolly Roger is also the name of a traditional pirate flag.
 * 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