Captain Lorros Zyldan came into his legacy as a pirate the hard way, shanghaied by a press gang and nearly keelhauled twice in his first week aboard ship. He learned the bitter lessons of the lash but always kept his eyes up and aware. If he was trapped into this life of piracy, he would outwork, outfight, and most importantly out-think every scurvy knave aboard from the lowest swab to the captain himself. He systematically began undermining his rivals, taking down personal nemeses by setting them up for failure and framing them for misdeeds until they were cast out of the captain or shanked by another member of the crew. Meanwhile, Lorros just kept competently rising up the ranks, displacing in turn
a corrupt cook, a brutal bosun, and a nefarious navigator on his way to the captain’s side, feigning loyal service for a time to allay suspicion before finally slaughtering his captor and taking the ship for his own.
The officers and crew had mocked Lorros when he had been dragged aboard, calling him a “bastard pirate,” someone who would never truly earn a name of repute, but he took that name as a badge of honor and a form of quiet resistance. He was never pirate born, but they would see his true bastard colors in time as he survived when other press-ganged swabs fell away. When he took the captain’s ship Fortune, he renamed The Bastard’s Fortune, proud to claim the name they thought would break him.
A human male with well-tanned skin, dark brown hair, and a light beard, Captain Lorros has now adopted many pirate fashions and affectations, including wearing his brocade
jacket, a collection of tricornes
(mostly taken from rival pirates
whose ships he has taken), and a
blue and gold macaw he named
Milo, after the one friend among
his press-ganged companions who
was keelhauled for bringing Lorros
food and water when he was in the
hot box for disobedience. He also
collects jewelry and trinkets with
nautical themes, from grotesque Lovecraftian idols from sunken cities to whimsical mermaid necklaces and octopus rings, but these quirks are merely his way of poking fun at the trappings of the pirate life. As a captain, he is coolly deadly with cutlass and flintlocks leading his crew into battle, and few have bested him at sea once he has the weather gage.
