Reaper’s Bones – Lore versus Gameplay
Throughout the history of Sea of Thieves, there’s been an obvious bad guy behind it all. Captain Flameheart is a ruthless pirate, infused with various dark magics, who wants to violently take over the Sea of Thieves and become its king. Flameheart is a vile and vicious monster who will happily kill anyone in his path in order to complete his plan. For a long time though, Flameheart was kinda dead, and acted via proxies and loyal servants, particularly the Ashen Lords. In the current timeline in the game though, thanks to an adventure where we had to collect mystic voodoo dolls, Flameheart is now back from the dead and currently planning… something.
Really, Flameheart’s been in the background for a while, and it’s not really clear what his plan is. Either way, he has built a massive base underneath the Reaper’s Hideout, and you can visit it if you are rank 75 with the Reaper’s Bones faction and rank 100 with the Servants of the Flame. It’s a pretty cool place, and probably way cooler than the Pirate Lord’s secret hideout. A bit treacherous, but what secret underground lava base isn’t a bit scary? Anyway, my point is, Flameheart is evil and he’s got a secret cult of skeletons and undead pirates to help him fulfill his goals of taking over the Sea of Thieves, becoming its king. He currently is fighting a bit of a war against the Pirate Lord via the Hourglass, using the Servants of the Flame to seek out and kill the Pirate Lord’s Guardians of Fortune.
The most accessible part of Flameheart’s influence though is the Reaper’s Bones, a faction and emissary that is basically being used as cover for Flameheart’s actions. It wasn’t completely obvious at first, but now the base has been built underneath the Reaper’s Hideout, it is really damn obvious. Also the Servant of the Flame turned out to be Flameheart’s adopted son.
However, the thing that bothers me with the Reaper’s Bones is its tenets. The Reaper’s Bones main idea is true piracy for all eternity. They reject the safe little playground that the Pirate Lord has created, and instead want pirates to do whatever they please, to prove their worth on their own. The Reaper’s Bones represent total anarchy. And for this reason, they don’t have voyages or quests, they want you to go forth and be a pirate in your own way, to go on your own adventure.
This is completely at odds with what Captain Flameheart wants. He wants to rule the seas as its king, with an army of servants behind him. The Servants of the Flame are taking orders from him (or someone close to him) and are attacking Guardians of Fortune who are in their way and serve the Pirate Lord. Really, it’s more of a fight between two people who want to be the boss, one of them just happens to be a bit friendlier than the other. But the Reaper’s Bones and their tenets don’t align with Flameheart’s. Or, rather, it seems that the Reaper’s Bones have lost their way and no longer follow the idea of true piracy. They’re just a puppet of Flameheart now.
That makes me a bit sad. I particularly like how the Reaper’s Bones used to fight for pure anarchy. And, honestly, I’d like to see the faction split in two, with people rejecting Flameheart as their leader in order to be truly free. We already have the Dark Brethren, which, although they’ve been pretty toothless so far, could step in and create a ‘true piracy’ faction, especially since they are already against Flameheart. But I doubt Rare will do that though. Ironically, the only way we can protect piracy as we know it is to side with the Pirate Lord, who at least doesn’t seem to mind too much when pirates fight each other on the open waters.
Still, the idea of true piracy and complete anarchy are interesting, even if it turned out to be a ruse to serve Flameheart’s needs. I look forward to where the lore takes us. Eventually.