Privateers
Privately operated vessels licensed by a city-state to attack enemy shipping: the legal middle ground between navy and piracy, attractive because it provides anti-piracy work without the cost of a warship. Forgegate uses privateers extensively.
The Oathbond makes suitable privateers hard to find. A privateer hunting former Coves associates who trusted him commits a profound betrayal of his own Oathbond, using intimate knowledge of tactics, routes, and hideouts against people who considered him community. The Coves treat this as the worst possible betrayal and hunt such a man aggressively. Former pirates offer the most valuable intelligence and are the most targeted; Forgegate offers them formal protection, a new identity, and legitimate status in exchange.
The types who avoid the problem
- Frontier independent operators
- Have fought pirates defensively their whole lives and carry no betrayal dimension at all — the most common and sustainable privateers.
- Ambitious legitimate captains
- Wanting more autonomy and profit than official service offers. Less effective at first, and they develop real capability over time.
- Revenge-motivated former victims
- Extremely motivated, and potentially extremely reckless.