UBISOFT® REVEALS NEW FIGURINE FOR ASSASSIN’S CREED IV BLACK FLAG
Based on the infamous legendary pirate, this high quality figurine features Blackbeard in Mayan Ruins, swords at the ready. Additional digital content for Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag is also included in this premium collectible now available for pre-order via Uplay here:
For more information on Assassin’s Creed, please visit: assassinscreed.com and facebook.com/assassinscreed.
Historical Research on Piracy Q&A
Answered by Darby McDevitt, Scriptwriter of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag
How much research went into bringing to life
the Golden Age of Piracy?
I cracked open my first book about pirates in
the summer of 2011, just after finishing my work on AC Revelations, and for the
following 6 months I read dozens of primary and secondary sources. I researched
as broadly as I could, to get a good sense of the entire period, which meant
reading books and articles on the sugar trade, slavery, politics, and sailing,
in addition to the best books on Piracy. I also brushed up on some popular
pirate fiction – books like Treasure Island and the Pirate King, and
various films – to get a general sense of what made up the standard
“pirate yarn.” I found these sources less interesting in general, though,
as they were typically too narrowly focused for the needs of an assassin’s
creed game.
Lastly, we contacted Colin Woodard, author of The
Republic of Pirates, and asked him to help steer our ship in the right
direction. Colin’s book had provided us with the answer to one crucial question
we had worried we might not be able to resolve: How do we get all of the
most famous pirates in history together in the same story? It turns out
that the Republic of Pirates – AKA Nassau in the Bahamas – was the answer.
All told, it took almost a year of aggressive
research and writing to feel like we had arrived at a confident understanding
of the time period and its people, and I am confident that it will show.
Naturally there are always concessions that must be made when creating a
playable video game, but the over-all “feel” of this world is astounding, and
far richer than any pirate themed experience ever made.
Why settle for this particular timeframe in the
wide era of “Piracy”?
Choosing this era for AC4 came about through a
nice series of coincidences… because AC3 was developing a fantastic Naval
system for the American Revolution, ideas for expanding this feature were never
far from our minds. At the same time, we had been tossing around ideas about
doing a game about Haytham’s father, with the idea that we would be telling the
full story of the “Kenway family saga” … charting the tale of how a
Grandfather, and father, and a son each relate to the Creed in their own unique
way.
When we eventually got around to combining the
idea of Edward and boats, it turned out that the tail-end of the Golden age of
Piracy was perfectly aligned with our tentative timelines. After that,
everything fell into place… the only question we argued about for some time was
when to start Edward’s story… I think the earliest we were willing to go was
1698, with the rise and fall of William Kidd and the secret success of Henry
Avery. But we eventually decided that this would stretch our story too thin, so
we confined most of the action to the last decade of this golden age.
Why is the Golden Age of Piracy an important
historical era in the history of mankind?
While this era didn’t leave a lasting legacy in
the same way that the American Revolution did, the Golden Age is significant
for many of the same reasons. It was a time where men were getting comfortable
with casting off the influence and protection of their “divinely mandated”
Kings, and forging new lives for
themselves. It was also a time were men succeeded by merit alone, and not birth
right, something that the American revolution would sanctify. So here at last,
we had a world where men and women could rise to the top of society through
sheer ability and force of will – a notion that almost everyone in the modern
world now takes for granted.
Can you tell us about myths that you came
across as false during your research?
There are truths, falsehoods, and a few facts
that have been stretched to a breaking point…
Eye patches and peg-legs were real, but not
ubiquitous; most men who lost a limb simply lived with its absence or left the
ship entirely. Parrots were also common, but mainly sold as pets to colonists
in the northern colonies, not carried about as chattering companions…
There were no instances of anyone walking the
plank in the Golden age of Piracy, as the first recorded instance happens
around 1750, and most pirates would have preferred marooning anyone they had a
quarrel with… that is to say, they’d leave them alone on a deserted island,
with a loaded pistol and a small quantity of Rum. This was a keen method
pirates had of absolving themselves of blame for any death or mischief that occurred
later.
The familiar way of “Talking Like a Pirate” is
overblown, through there is certainly a real precedent for it. But the truth
is, pirates came from a wide variety of backgrounds, so their ways of talking
would have been just as diverse. Sailing aboard a pirate Schooner in 1716,
you’d have heard a collage of voices from Bristol, York, Cardiff, Glasgow,
Cork, London, Portsmouth… just to name the British sailors. Still others were
French, Dutch, and Afro-Caribbean.
How will AC4’s portrayal of pirates
differentiate itself from typical pirate fare in movies and pop culture?
The biggest difference will be in the scope of
our portrayal. When we wanted to make a game set in this era, we didn’t say “We
want to make a Pirate game”… we challenged ourselves further with “We want to
make a game about the early 18th century, of which pirates were a
large part.” And I think we have succeeded. We wouldn’t have been content to
simply paint everything in this world with a pirate theme – this would have been
dull and easy. Instead, we focused on bringing the entire era to life… and this
means paying attention to as many details as possible. What songs were the
people singing, what crops were they growing, what sort of people were roaming
these oceans, what was life as a sailor like, etc. Assassin’s Creed has always
put a huge emphasis on historical immersion and AC4BF is no exception.
What sparked the Golden Age of Piracy?
Technically there was no beginning or end to
this age of piracy… it has always existed and continued to do so, even after
the so called “golden age” was over. Additionally, there is no clear agreement
on the limiting dates of this golden age… some put it as early as 1650 with the
rise of captain Morgan and the buccaneers, and others push it later to the
1680s when Port Royal and Tortuga were at their height as pirate Havens. Most
agree however that the golden age ended sometime around the mid-1720s.
But of course there were definite events that
sparked this particular surge, and in the case of AC4BF, it is the Treaty of
Utrecht that pushes our characters into a life of maritime crime. This treaty,
which effectively ended all hostile engagements between the major European
empires, led to a massive purge of active British soldiers from the royal navy.
The British just didn’t have enough land in the West Indies to warrant a
massive standing army. So it’s not difficult to understand why so many sailors
now idle and out of work, would turn to plundering Spanish ships for a quick
score of rum, food, tobacco, sugar and gold. And once they got used to the idea
of plundering Spaniards, why stop there?
Who was the typical pirate, back then? His
background, skills, temperament, etc.
About 75 percent of all pirates in the latter
half of the Golden Age would have been of British extraction – English, Welsh,
Scottish, Irish or from the American Colonies. This, as we’ve seen, was due to
a historical precedent. There would have been quite a few former slaves aboard
these ships too, though they likely wouldn’t have been considered truly equal,
as most European sailors would have retained their prejudices. But on the
whole, life aboard a ship would have been far superior to life on a plantation.
And of course there would have been a smattering of Spanish, French, and Dutch
pirates too.
As for age, the bulk of your average pirates
would have been former sailors, typically unmarried, and most in their 20s.
Most of the infamous captains however fell somewhere in their mid-30s. Very few
pirates made it beyond 40… and very few had careers spanning more than a few
years. Once the jump was made from sailing with the Navy to sailing among
pirates, the clock began ticking… marking the few short years they’d see until
they reached the gallows.
Can you tell us a bit more about a pirate’s
daily life back then?
It was likely quite a bit less exciting than
one sees in films, at least on an hourly or daily basis. Sailing is a very
dangerous business, and these men would have had to focus much of their
attention on navigating, simply to see themselves safely from one destination
to the other. But, without a sadistic Navy Captain to keep them in line and
constantly busy, they would also have had much more leisure time… time spent
drinking or gambling or scanning the horizon for quick prizes.
On land, a pirate would have taken his modest
gains and spent it as any rebellious young man might – on drink, on gambling,
on women… in a word, leisure. Very few pirates were smart with their money and
almost none made off with what could be called a fortune. The large majority
would have blown their small savings in a matter of weeks or months, thus
inspiring them back to sea for more plunder, beginning a vicious cycle that
often ended in death or exhaustion. Only the legendary Henry Avery was reported
to have made off with a fortune of any significance, though even his eventual
fate is unknown. Still, the legend was enough to make most other pirates
believe they were made of the same, stern stuff.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
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