The Sisters of the Sea

Captain Etta Maxime is the head of the organisation. People on the outside refer to her as The Pirate Queen but that term is not used within the Sisters. Only five unique ships have been seen flying the flag of The Sisters and Captain Maxime herself has only been spotted in the last couple of years when seeking a particularly lucrative target. This means she has at least five other women promoted to the rank of Captain since there have been sightings of all five ships but without Maxime at any helm.

Originally, the mandate was to prove to men that having female crew on their ships was not a curse. Now, those same men fear women in a completely different way. The Sisters were successful in their original objective as now women are welcomed upon any crew, in part due to the superstition that if the Sisters catch you and you have women on your crew, they are more likely to let you live.

• 5 ships

• 120-200 women based on eyewitness accounts, accounting for naturally inflated numbers from people trying to save face with their employers.

• The value of their plundering successes is estimated to be northwards of 50,000 gold's worth of money and gemstones at this point. How much of this still in gold or gem form is unknown. They have also acquired several high value pieces of art, statues and other treasured artefacts. The market value of these items would roughly double the total worth of the organisation if sold. It is also highly likely that there are many unrecorded items that the Sisters have liberated from their owners, to which a monetary estimate can not be applied.

Origins

It is said that five years ago, Etta Maxime (neé Justor) gathered a small group of women in secret, all of whom had been rejected work on the ships sailing from Brinewatch . The next day, the women and Etta's father's ship were gone. Her father, the head of The Justor Trading Company, was disgraced as a result. The next sighting of Captain Maxime came a few weeks later when she successfully raided a cargo ship belonging to her father's former company. The Justor Trading Company took a minor hit in customers until it became clear that this was not a singular vendetta, but instead against the whole male-orientated sailing community.  

Stories of the Sisters

Ships from all the merchants were raiding over the following months. The survivors would tell tales of the sea itself fighting for Captain Maxime, how the Sisters' ships would manage to close the gap between themselves and their prey unnaturally quickly and of the horrible, jagged, rusted sword that she wielded. They would speak of the white siren silhouetted on their black flag and how fifty women swarmed their decks, some seven feet tall and built like a Goliath. Of course, these stories were taken a pinch of salt, at first, but as The Sisters of the Sea became more and more successful, the trading companies began to start hiring female deckhands. They hoped that if the Sisters saw that they had women working on the their ships, that they no long believed in the superstition, they would be spared. It did not work. The Sisters just raided the ships and recruited the women to their side instead. Though, the new superstition persists and over time women became just as welcome as men on board.  

The Sisters' Success

However, five years on, sightings of the Sisters are much rarer. Their success has afforded them the luxury of being able to be choosy in their quarries. There are even rumours that Captain Maxime is after the location of Salvadore's Bounty, but only a fool would believe that this roving band of fearsome pirates would ever become so singular in their mission. Less expensive cargo typically sail to and from Brinewatch without any issue now, only ships carrying worthy prizes have to be worried. Often now, if the cargo is deemed a potential risk, the trading companies will hire mercenaries, particularly groups that have magic users in an attempt to ward of the Sisters' gaze. In the five years the Sisters have operated, no one knows where their base of operations lies.