Characters / Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Other Characters

Main Character Index

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A list of non-affiliated characters appearing in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

Be aware that this page WILL contain some unhidden spoilers!

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Edward's Family

Caroline Scott-Kenway

Caroline Scott-Kenway

Main Game Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Other Appearances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (novelization)

Voiced By: Luisa Guerreiro (English)^note Other Languages:Daria Bobyleva (Russian)

Edward's first wife, who he left home in England in search of wealth and glory in the Caribbean.

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• Arranged Marriage: She was engaged to Matthew Hague, the son of an East India Company executive before meeting Edward.
• Happily Married: They were at first. But Edward's recklessness and pressure from her parents leads her to leave him.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Her parents don't think too highly of Edward. Much to her disappointment, Edward doesn't do much to prove them wrong, frequently chasing one zany, get-rich-quick scheme after the other.
• Determined Homesteader: She is contented to live beside Edward on a farm. But Edward has bigger plans which she wants no part of.
• Foreshadowing: In one of the flashback scenes as Edward walks away, she can be seen holding her belly.
  • When Governor Torres meets a captured Edward at Havana, he notes that he's heard that his wife is very beautiful but is not keeping well which understandably angers Edward.
• Killed Offscreen: Dies while Edward is out at sea. Tragically, Edward finds out just as he was about to return to England and fix their marriage.
• My Girl Back Home: Edward believes his adventure and career in the Navy will repair their marriage and he writes frequent letters back home. Subverted, as his lack of a fixed address means Caroline had no means to call him to tell him that she was pregnant and had given birth to their daughter and that she was sick.
• Someone to Remember Him By: A non-fatal example. After Edward leaves her, she gives birth to their daughter, who she has no means of announcing to Edward. Of course, on her death, Jennifer becomes someone to remember Caroline by for Edward.
• Unable to Support a Wife: She marries Edward despite this, something which he is painfully aware of and ultimately leads him to seek out a fortune in the Caribbean, at the cost of their marriage.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott

Main Game Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Other Apperances: Assassin's Creed : Forsaken | Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (novelization), Assassin's Creed Unity (novelization).

Voiced By: Angela Galuppo (English)^note Other Languages:Anastasia Lapina (Russian)

Edward Kenway's daughter by his first wife Caroline Scott. She was born shortly after Edward sailed for the Caribbean. Since he never gave a fixed return address to his wife, he doesn't learn of her existence until after her death, meeting his daughter for the first time at the end of the game. Much of her backstory and later life are revealed in the tie-in novel Assassin's Creed: Forsaken by Oliver Bowden.

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• Action Girl: What she wanted to be. She briefly becomes one towards the end of Forsaken.
• Arranged Marriage: Edward plans to marry her to Reginald Birch, much to Jennifer's objection.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: In Assassin's Creed: Unity she confesses to Elise that she saw Haytham as this and even jokes darkly that as a young girl she would have wanted to kill him as well.
• The Cameo: Makes one in the Unity novel where she gifts Elise with her iconic Templar pendant.
• The Cutie: Young Jenny at the end of Black Flag.
  • Break the Cutie: Jennifer does not have a pleasant adult life to say the least.
• Daddy's Girl: Despite his failings, she is ultimately this to Edward at their most pleasant times. Growing up with a dead mom and a step-mother probably made this inevitable.
• Disappeared Dad: For much of her childhood, her father was absent, not even aware of her existence. They meet only at the end of Black Flag.
• Freudian Excuse: As a young girl, she wanted a life of adventure and fun and later hoped that Edward would train her as an Assassin. Instead Edward wanted her to marry a nobleman and live a comfortable life while Haytham would follow in his father's footsteps. This understandably made her cooler and resentful toward her brother.
• Hates Being Touched: Her years as a sex-slave have left her in terrible trauma and she reacts this way in her old age.
• Loners Are Freaks: After everything that happens to her, she chooses to spend the rest of her life alone.
• Made a Slave: On the night of her father's death, Reginald Birch kidnapped her and sold her to Turkish slavers. She lived in the Topkapi Palace and Damascus as a concubine well into her middle years.
• Nom de Mom: Goes by "Scott", her mother's surname, instead of "Kenway" because she never even met Edward until after her mother had already died, but even after connecting with her father chose to keep her mother's name because she had been the only one to actually raise her.
• Madwoman in the Attic: Her public reputation in London in her years as a spinster, as seen in Assassin's Creed: Unity.
• Rape and Revenge: Her anger at the fate dealt to her by Birch leads her to participate in the attack at his chateau and land the killing blow.
• The Resenter: When she is older, Jenny is resentful of her father for not training her and for making a poor decision in engaging her with Reginald Birch, as well as Haytham becoming a Templar and betraying his father's hopes for him. In Unity, she is overall just angry at how unfair and horrible her life was and what the Templars did to her, how her family collapsed into self-destructive tragedy thanks to Assassin-Templar conflict. The fact that she is all alone and miserable after her brother gets killed by her nephew.
  • However, she seems to have forgiven Haytham somewhat - they would, occasionally, write to one another, so they had a somewhat tolerable relationship.
• Smarter Than You Look: Elise initially sees her as an eccentric and suspicious old woman in the Unity novel, but then Jennifer reveals she really is as much of a badass as her family by carefully exposing her deception and cover story, capturing her and her assistant, telling Elise that she can have Haytham's Letters only if she and the other Templars, leave her alone.
• Took a Level in Ice Queen: Due to Freudian Excuse, she is far more colder and harsh as an adult as seen in the post-credits scene, rudely brushing away a young man making an understandable error in calling her by her father's last name. Her father notes that while he will forgive him, Jenny may not. Haytham also notes in Forsaken that his sister was very teasing and cool to him growing up.
  • In Unity, she is initially quite abrasive towards Elise but eventually comes around and becomes a Cool Old Lady, even becoming her "pen pal."
• You Killed My Father: Jenny hates Birch for orchestrating Edward's death and ends up pushing Reginald into a wall with a sword sticking out, killing him.

Pirates

Bartholomew Roberts

Bartholomew Roberts

Voiced By: Oliver Milburn (English)^note Other Languages:Denis Bespaly (Russian)

"In all your Years out here, you could never achieve what I have done in one-fifth of the Time. Because you are a good Man, Edward. Goodness is your Disease..."

Known in later eras as "Black Bart" and considered by many historians to have been the most successful pirate of all time. He becomes an associate of Kenway later in his pirate career.

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• Affably Evil: Rather polite for a guy who, among other things, would preemptively kill his own men before they'd Go Mad from the Revelation of First Civilization technology.
• Ambiguous Situation: His appearance in Edward's Mushroom Samba. Hallucination or did he really come to brag to a drunken, grief stricken Kenway.
• Always Someone Better: To Edward as a pirate. He boasts of having achieved more in a short time than the years that Edward spent on sea searching for his elusive fortune.^note  This comes from Edward's Mushroom Samba Drowning My Sorrows, so this is actually Edward imagining Bart telling him this, which signifies at the very least that Edward believes this to be true.
• Badass Creed: He Lampshades the creation of one to Edward even wondering if a Creed is something that can be used to control people. He forms one pretty soon:
  Roberts: A short life and a merry one. That is all. The world owes us nothing more than this.
  • What makes this unusual is that Bart lives and dies by it, rare for a villain.
• Becoming the Mask: Aita, speaking via Bart notes that he didn't plan on being a pirate but found himself liking the power and image so much that he's going the distance, dressing as one and putting out a Pirate Code, much like the real Black Bart.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Famed Real Life pirate Bartholomew Roberts was the reincarnation of an ancient god-like being caught up in a millennia-spanning effort to bring back another god-like being.
• Big Bad: Given the truth about his "Sage" nature, it comes as little surprise.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Competing against Governor Torres for the title, though Roberts has the lead, especially given his ties to the "modern times" narrative.
• Blood Knight: And how.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Laments this in the end, but not for the usual reasons. He's the reincarnation of Aita, a member of the First Civilization, so he was literally born too early to fulfill his mission of releasing Juno from her can.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He never once makes any pretense of having scruples, and gleefully embraces all the most brutal elements of being a pirate when he realizes how much fun it is. As the quote above shows, he puts down Edward for not being bad enough to get what he wants.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Somewhat justified. As he notes, on account of his condition, several factions have wanted a piece of him and to use him for their own ends, treating him as an object, which after a time led him to decide Then Let Me Be Evil and fully let Aita take over. He murders an Assassin who tried to free him, and frequently betrays Edward Kenway, who in a case of Genre Blindness decides to enter into a partnership with him anyway.
• Dark Messiah: He becomes this to his crew, giving a memorable Rousing Speech to boot which even impressed Edward. It's also Truth in Television since the real Bartholomew Roberts as reported in Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates quotes this speech too with nearly the same words.
  Roberts: For I have dipped my hands in the muddied waters, and withdrawing them find, 'tis better to be a commander than a common man.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Much like Edward who steals Duncan Walpole's outfit, Bart Roberts hijacks the costume of his Captain Howell Davis and starts Becoming the Mask.
• Devil in Plain Sight: His heterochromia, his Dissonant Serenity and then the crimson red outfit he sports and his near Miltonic speech when he becomes a pirate, topped by the revelation that he's a reincarnation of a Godlike being who's essentially Hades and whose wife wants to Take Over the World. Edward lampshades this:
  Edward Kenway: Roberts is a devil... with a peculiar aversion to kindness.
• Dissonant Serenity: One thing that shows he isn't entirely human is the eerie sense of calm he approaches any situation, up to and including his death. It gives him an aura of fear and control that makes him more scary than the other pirates' Large Ham hijinks.
• Evil Counterpart: Serves as this to Edward Kenway. Both come from Wales. Both become fearsome pirates by chance and accident. And near the end, they are the last two pirates of the Golden Age, outlasting their contemporaries. Also their mutual Wild Card status with regards to the Assassin-Templar conflict. Also when they first meet, they are dressed very similar to each other, including the orange, sleeveless vest that Edward wears as a member of the crew.
• Eviler than Thou: In Edward's Mushroom Samba the latter tells Edward that he was never bad enough to be a real pirate:
  Roberts: Calm... little puppy. And slink back to your kennel. You haven't the mettle for my brand of madness.
• Exact Words: Much like the real Black Bart, he keeps a pirate code with 11 articles that mandates severe discipline that he insists his crew ought to uphold on pain of death. This is pure Schmuck Bait since it essentially puts all the power in his hands. As he notes to Edward:
  Roberts: There's nothing in my code about loyalty, boy!
• Face Death with Dignity: When dying, he hands over the Crystal Skull to Edward and simply asks that his body be disposed of so the Templars don't get a hold of it.
• Foreshadowing: The fact that his intro mission has him kill the Assassin who freed him with said Assassin's own hidden blade is an indicator that something is seriously wrong with this guy.
  • The real foreshadowing is when he and Edward discuss the point of a Badass Creed and Roberts proves himself to be a Misanthrope Supreme:
    Roberts: Ah... all men desire to live by a code, or a creed, yes? Yet when pressed, most defer to their instincts rather than the laws that bind them. But what is the appeal of a creed if it does not yoke all men to like behavior?
    Edward: Might make a man feel like... he belongs to something. What's your answer?
    Roberts: Ah... that all men are sheep. And that an old wolf like me deserves every ounce of blood he draws.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Goes from a seemingly harmless prisoner of the Templars to a pirate so fearsome that he becomes Kenway's equivalent in reputation over the course of one year. He himself affirms this view by noting that that it's "better to be a commander than a common man."
• Graceful Loser: As he lays dying he gives up the Crystal Skull without a fuss and simply asks Edward to dispose of his body so that the Templars can't get it.
• Grand Theft Me: Like every Sage, the Aita memories and personality try to imprint on the human consciousness, but where Thom Kavanaugh, the other Sage whose messages in a bottle can be collected, seems to have retained his humanity, Roberts seems to have been totally taken over by Aita.
• Historical Domain Superperson: Bartholomew Roberts is later revealed mid-game to be a Sage, a human reincarnation of an Isu, in this case Juno's lover Aita. He also had a hand in inventing quite a few Precursor technology.
• Humans Are Morons: Harbors this belief. Which is light foreshadowing that he is in fact a...
• Humanoid Abomination: As a reincarnated figure of a First Civilization being, Roberts qualifies. Inverted, as unlike other abominations, he has no special powers and his body lives and dies like any human.
• Humanity Is Infectious: Although an incarnation of a millennia-old being, Aita as Roberts gets into the pirate role with relish, and even discusses with Edward how he created a Pirate Code for his crew, talking with giddy excitement how awesome being a Pirate is.
• I Have Many Names: He is referred to as The Sage for most of the storyline, then goes by Roberts, shows up in the present day with the exact same moustache and one more name, and refers to himself by his original handle once: Aita.
• Knight of Cerebus: The game isn't exactly a garden of roses until he arrives but it's generally pretty upbeat and light, but as soon as the Sage becomes the Dread Pirate Bartholomew Roberts, the game gets really serious and dark.
• Mark of the Supernatural: His mismatched blue and yellow-brown eyes and mustache give away his identity as a Sage.
• Not Afraid to Die: Several times he tells Edward that his goal is "a merry life, and a short one", but he doesn't actively go out seeking to die. Considering that he reincarnates, for him it's more a statement of Death Is Cheap than anything.
• Really 700 Years Old: Is a sort of "sleeper agent" for the Ancients, specifically Juno. His memories are somehow scattered amongst humanity's collective DNA, and are reborn into a new host body every era or so. His dialogue explicitly identifies himself with Aita, Juno's lover.
• Shadow Archetype: Roberts is what Edward could become if he lacked any moral scruples further highlighting the selfish qualities of Edward.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: On his deathbed, he seems to have some awareness of this, noting that the timing of his reincarnations is never quite right to free Juno and that Edward could probably be of greater use to his beloved than him.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: Is notably absent from the game's promotional material, which focused heavily on the more famous Blackbeard instead. Despite turning out to be a major character and ultimately the Big Bad.
• Truth in Television: While it's unlikely that the real Black Bart was the reincarnation of a godlike being, the game features a fairly accurate chart of his life story, with him repeating the speeches he gave almost verbatim from Charles Johnson's A General History of Pyrates (where he has more information than any other sailor) and his costume, of a red damask outfit is what he was reported to have worn at his last sighting. They even got his pirate flag right (a skeleton holding a timepiece in one hand and stabbing a heart with the other, while standing over two skulls representing islands on which Bart was a wanted man).
• The Unfettered: The revelation that he was working for slaver Laurens Prins paints him as a man with few scruples. Though from his perspective as Aita, all of mankind was made to be slaves.
• Ungrateful Bastard: In Edward's words he has a "peculiar aversion to kindness" and does things such as:
  • Kill an Assassin right after they manage to free him.
  • Backstabs Edward after he helped him get his flagship and throws him in prison for the bounty.
• Villainous Valour: He may be an Ax-Crazy, Eviler than Thou pirate but he's no coward, and willingly enters combat with Edward once he's cornered.
• Wild Card: The most prominent character in the series who is aligned with neither the Assassins or the Templars, and ultimately becomes a threat to both groups.
• Worthy Opponent: How he feels about Edward, the only human he accepts as being an equal despite Roberts backstabbing him twice. During their final confrontation he more or less says, "may the best man win," and even laments that Juno might have far more use for Edward than his present reincarnation.
  • Assassin's Creed III proves him right, as Edward's grandson Connor and his descendant Desmond Miles are lured into playing a major role in ensuring Juno's return.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Says the exact quote to Edward when he murders, off-screen, the Portuguese Captain he had taken captive, something which unnerves Edward. Later he pulls this on his own crew, who he murders right before entering the Observatory and then he knocks Edward off the side of the cliff and then sends him to prison to claim a bounty.
  Roberts: You played your role, but our partnership is done!

Edward Thatch/Blackbeard

Edward Thatch, a.k.a. Blackbeard

Main Game Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Other Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (novelization) | Assassin's Creed: Pirates

Voiced By: Mark Bonnar (English)^note Other Languages:Alexey Aptovtsev (Russian)

"Give your Quarry something to fear, some hellish Thing from a fever'd Dream, and Men will drop to their Knees, pleading for their Lord before aught else!"

An infamous pirate, Blackbeard preyed on ships throughout the West Indies and the American Colonies aboard his vessel, the Queen Anne's Revenge.

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• Artistic License – History: For his ship, rather than the man himself. The real Queen Anne’s Revenge was scuttled in June of 1718, with Blackbeard taking the sloop Adventure to replace her, rather than being bombarded with mortars by the British navy the day of Blackbeard’s death five months later.
• Badass Boast: When his retirement party is attacked by the British Navy, he has this to say:
  Blackbeard: Note the day, lads! Today we send the king's finest to their graves!
• Breakout Character: His rather positive portrayal in the game, plus his popularity in Real Life ensured Thatch became a highly popular character upon the game's release.
• Captain Colorbeard: One of the Trope Codifiers in Real Life.
• Chronic Villainy: How he sees his life as a pirate. He was a plain sailor at first but lack of money and no future drove him to a career that has no real big score and only the comfort of friendship and small freedom at Nassau. When Nassau is dying of disease, he goes full throttle on the pirate image as the only means to get medicines. He clearly wishes that this be his One Last Job, not wanting to continue further, mostly because he's exhausted.
  Blackbeard: I'm late into my fourth decade on this Earth. And if I don't find some means to make the fifth a quiet and cozy voyage, I'd rather sink to the devil's doorstep than call myself captain another year.
• Establishing Character Moment: His introduction scene involves him yelling at a British soldier to arrest him, then laughing as the poor man runs away in fear.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Is a little freaked out how brutal Edward can be. Justified in that the real Blackbeard, while merciless, was not particularly bloodthirsty and preferred peaceful surrender.
  • In the game proper, he kills a British soldier simply to find medicines for the pirates at Nassau and is quite sad about having to kill just to survive. He tells that officer that he doesn't like killing and rarely does it. He's also quite wary of Charles Vane's ax-crazy behaviour, and is more than a little worried about his presence in Nassau.
  • When Edward corners the British governor who refused to negotiate with Blackbeard, he gives him an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  Edward Kenway: Blackbeard made you as good an offer as ever a man got from any pirate. You might curse his methods, but medicine was all he wanted.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Even by the standards of the series, Blackbeard's death is incredibly violent; he gets cut up and oozes blood all over his body before getting decapitated.
• Foregone Conclusion: As the most notorious pirate in history, it would be stranger NOT to know that he died during his career as a pirate, and the specifics of his death. See Made of Iron for more.
• Gory Discretion Shot: The game shows his hat fluttering and body falling, signaling his decapitation.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Blackbeard gets a fair shake in this game in a portrayal that aligns closer to the historical record than any other depiction. He's a criminal and honest about it, but he's not a blood-thirsty murderer and actively seeks to minimize violence when possible, and even those tactics are geared towards mundane goals like getting medicines for the people of Nassau.
• The Lancer: To Benjamin Hornigold.
• Large Ham: Purposefully so, he acts off the rails to instill fear in his quarry (see the quote). When he's not playing it up, he's actually a down-to-earth old sailor who likes doing right by his mates.
• Lighter and Softer: Most depictions of Blackbeard paint him as a famous villain. While no saint, Edward Thatch is considerably more genial and likable, a Big Brother Mentor to Edward and the other Pirates. His passing is even lamented by Charles Vane who he was otherwise at odds with.
• Made of Iron: Played straight, as he was extraordinarily resilient in real life. He was shot five times at close range, struck by swords more than twenty times, had his neck pretty much cut open, and it still took several soldiers grouping up on him to kill him. If the legends that he was decapitated before his death are true, then chances are the tough bastard would have kept swinging until he ran out of blood.
• The Mentor: He appears to be one of sorts for Edward. In the game proper, he and Edward seem to be the best of friends among the Pirate community, genuinely enjoying each other's company. Edward is horrified at Blackbeard's death and being unable to prevent it. Years later he calls his family dog Thatch after his old friend. He also serves as Stede Bonnet's mentor, eventually sufficiently pleased with his abilities that he grants the latter command of his own ship, much to his cute delight.
• Mr. Exposition: Tells all about Edward Kenway in the reveal trailer.
• Obi-Wan Moment: Gets one last one-liner in to Edward before he dies.
  Blackbeard: In a world without gold, we could have been heroes!
• Off with His Head!: Although historically it's unknown whether or not it was post-mortem, his head was hung from the sail of the soldiers' ship that killed him, and he only went down after taking a sword swipe to the neck and losing a lot of blood from it.
• Pirate: Obviously.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Of all the pirates we meet, Blackbeard seems to be the one who considers their profession the most akin to a 9-5 job. Subverted in the end where it's left him visibly drained and emotionally devastated.
• Retirony: Dies in combat during his retirement-from-piracy party.
• ShoutOut: While their personalities are polar-opposites, Blackbeard’s design seems to be evoking his incarnation in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides^note  Most paintings of the pirate depict him wearing a red wool coat, rather than a black leather one.
• Sword and Gun: In his concept art he's seen wielding both.
• Talk Like a Pirate: Native Bristolian Edward Thatch AKA Blackbeard is voiced with an applicable Somerset accent, which is the source of the requisite "Arr, me hearties!" pirate accent.
• Terror Hero: Likes to intimidate his enemies rather than engage them.
  Blackbeard: Caution's nothing without charisma! For if a man plays the fool, then it's only fools he'll persuade. But appear to be the devil, and all men will submit.

Benjamin Hornigold

Benjamin Hornigold

Main Game Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Other Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (novelization) | Assassin's Creed: Pirates | Assassin's Creed: Memories

Voiced By: Ed Stoppard (English)^note Other Languages:Alexander Novikov (Russian)

"We had here a rare opportunity; a chance to take something base and shape it into a government, made and maintained by men of vision. But in two years we pissed it away."

An English pirate who along with Blackbeard, James Kidd, Edward Kenway founded the Pirate Republic of Nassau, he serves as the de-facto leader and The Mentor of many sailors including Blackbeard and Edward Kenway.

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• Ace Custom: His ship, the Benjamin, appears to be your run-of-the-mill schooner that you've probably taken down countless times before, with a bit of added flourish in its sails. But it's shown to have as much health and firepower as a low-level frigate while being just as fast as any other schooner, making it an extremely difficult opponent if you did not upgrade the Jackdaw enough.
• Alas, Poor Villain: His death scene is incredibly sad, especially since he and Edward were close friends and even at the end, Hornigold is visibly sad at how it turned out, trying to convince Edward to join the Templars and at the least warning him what's ahead of him, which turns out to be true.
  Benjamin: No! These Templars are different. I wish you could see that. But if you continue on your present course, you'll find you're the only one walking it!
• Badass Longcoat: A nice blue one that makes him look comparatively regal to the rest of his peers.
• Beard of Evil: Inverted. Hornigold noticeably lacks a beard among the varying hairy pirates and is noted to be one of the more honorable members of them. Abstergo even considers him an alternate protagonist in the event Edward doesn't work out. His more traditionally heroic personality and good looks make it all the more surprising when he's the one who ultimately sides with the Templars.
• Evil Counterpart: Ends up becoming this to Edward Kenway: both were key members of founding Nassau and eventually became disgusted by how it turned out and searched for an alternative. Edward ended up joining the Assassins, while Hornigold became a Templar.
  • Although technically as per the laws of the time, Hornigold is the Good Counterpart.
• Failed a Spot Check: Subverted. While in Kingston with Rogers and Torres, Hornigold spots the Jackdaw anchored in the harbour and realises Edward is tailing them.
• Les Collaborateurs: How Charles Vane and Edward Kenway see him. The latter is considerably furious at his treachery. He personally sees it as finding a cause to fight for.
• Gentleman Thief: Described as a "gentleman pirate." It also defines his character with many people noting that he's very arrogant and puts on airs, in seeming denial that he's a low-life pirate like everyone else.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: Accepts Woodes' pardon, turning on his fellows and becoming a pirate hunter. Also goes from being an associate of Kenway's to a member of the Templars.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: There is no record of the real Ben Hornigold expressing bigoted views towards Africans in history, but there is explicit record of his crew having people of multiple races, so it's likely he was at least somewhat tolerant, unlike his game self.
• The Leader: Seems to be the de-facto man in charge of the Nassau company, with Blackbeard serving as The Lancer.
• The Mentor: Before his Face–Heel Turn, to the Pirates at least, Hornigold served as this for several sailors, Edward Thatch was his First Mate and Edward Kenway initially came to the Caribbean to sail under him as a privateer. He was also one of the founders of the Pirate Republic which makes Edward's fury at him, resonate with hurt more than anger.
• Meaningful Echo: Upon becoming a Templar, Hornigold talks about order, purpose and structure. Which foreshadows Haytham's similar definition of the Order's purpose to his son in Assassin's Creed III.
• Noble Demon:
  • He'd never attack a British flag and followed a strict code of honor.
  • Along with Haytham Kenway, he's one of the more sympathetic Templars in the series, and towards the end he makes a good point about how much Edward's actions have screwed up the world.
• Politically Incorrect Villain/Noble Bigot: One of the first signs of where he lies is that he's visibly distrustful of Adéwalé due to being African, and he openly criticizes Edward for letting Adéwalé carry weapons^note though he keeps quiet about this when he's onboard the Jackdaw during some early-game prize-hunting; it contrasts sharply with Blackbeard's commending of Adewale for his desire to plunder without killing people. Hornigold later on has no problems with operating a slave galleon despite joining the Templars, a nominally anti-slavery organization... though in his defense that galley was offered by Woodes Rogers over Governor Torres' express objections.
• Pirate: As Blackbeard puts it, a pirate none too proud to call himself one.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: His reason for abandoning the Nassau Republic and taking Woodes Rogers's pardon is that the Nassau experiment was a failure and the pirates couldn't truly be free.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: How he first viewed the "pirate republic" at Nassau, until he becomes disgusted by how it turned out. He then turns to the Templars as a means to bring order to the world.
• We Used to Be Friends: How Hornigold and Edward feel about each other after the former's betrayal. Edward displays rare fury during Hornigold's death scene, while the latter warns him that the pirate life will leave him all alone.
  • However, at the end of the game, Edward posthumously makes peace with Hornigold, placing him in the table with the other pirates who had died for their lives.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Hornigold sincerely believed in the Nassau experiment of democracy. In the early section, when Edward and Adewale visit there, he chides Edward for his aspirations to be rich as a king, when Nassau is a refuge from Kings and clergy and is an attempt at running their own lives. The failure of Nassau was a Cynicism Catalyst for him.

Anne Bonny

Anne Bonny

Main Game Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Other Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (novelization) | Assassin's Creed: Memories | Assassin's Creed: Memories''

Voiced By: Sarah Greene (English)^note Other Languages:Elena Ivasishina (Russian)

"Oh rot!"''

A famous Irish female pirate, it is recorded she had red hair and was considered a "good catch", but may have had a fiery temper.

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• Action Girl: After being recruited into Calico Jack's crew she becomes a fearsome fighter.
• Battle Couple: With Calico Jack, below. Also with Edward Kenway at some point.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Rare female only version with Mary Read; in fact it was so epic that Edward told Anne that all the guards were squeeing over it.
• Betty and Veronica: Serves as the Betty to Mary Read's Veronica. Though both of them are Ship Tease only, with Edward going home and marrying another woman and aside from an implied one-night stand with Anne, remains faithful to his estranged wife.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Memories has an older Anne wielding a Hidden Blade, suggesting that she may have joined the Assassins later in life.
• Dude Magnet: The number of men who are attracted to her are huge, which earns the jealousy of both her husbands.
• Fiery Redhead: She's immediately identifiable by her long red hair and she's very fiery in personality.
• Fighting Irish: Between being an Action Girl and Fiery Redhead, the Irish accent seals the deal.
• I Choose to Stay: At the end of the game, Edward offers Anne to follow him back to England but she refuses, claiming that she doesn't belong there.
• The Lancer: To Edward Kenway after Adéwalé leaves to join the Assassins.
• Last of Her Kind: Eventually. While obviously not the last pirate ever by the end of the game with Edward retired from piracy, Vane rotting in prison, his mind gone, and everyone else dead Anne is effectively the last of the pirates of Nassau.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: After she's saved by Ah Tabai, Anne stays with the Assassins for a while and even helps Edward assassinate his remaining Templar targets. Despite this, she decides not to join the Brotherhood, believing she doesn't have what it takes to follow their conviction, even if she agrees with their cause.
• The Not-Love Interest: Despite originally being planned to be Edward's Love Interest, Anne's and his relationship remains platonic. She ultimately ends up becoming his closest confidant by the end of the game.
• Pirate: Served as a barmaid until James Kidd helped her expand her horizons.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Anne was pregnant with Rackham's child during her imprisonment and gives birth after she's rescued. Unfortunately, her son dies a few days after she gave birh.
• Pirate Girl: Ur-Example of a female pirate alongside Mary Read.
• Pregnant Badass: Was pregnant while trying to fend off the British attacking Jack's drunken crew.
• Secret-Keeper: By virtue of getting rescued by Assassins, Anne is one of the few "third parties" in the series fully aware of the Brotherhood and their centuries-old war with the Templars. She even learns of the nature of the Observatory despite never actually joining the Order.
• Ship Tease: Along with Trailers Always Lie. Promotional materials and developer interviews suggested that she and Edward would have a romance at some point. In the game proper, Mary Read has a bigger impact on Edward's life. Anne becomes Edward's first mate towards the end of the game, at which point they become very close companions and confidants. Though no romance is ever initiated, Edward does ask Anne to come to England with him but she refuses and stays in the Caribbean.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Historically, Anne Bonny is a literal case of What Happened to the Mouse?, with no historical records providing what exactly happened to her after she got imprisoned in Jamaica. Here, she manages to escape after getting rescued by the Assassins.
• Sweet on Polly Oliver: Fell in love with Mary Read thinking she was a man, prompting an Unsettling Gender-Reveal.
• Younger Than They Look: The Animus' database is filled with inaccuracies and assuming it is true, Anne is not even twenty years old when she became one of the most famous female pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy. Despite her age, she can easily pass as someone in her twenties in her first appearance in 1718 (when she was 16 years old).

Jack Rackham

Jack Rackham aka Calico Jack

Main Game Apperances:: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Other Apperances: Assassin's Creed Iv: Black Flag (novelization) | Assassin's Creed: Pirates | Assassin's Creed: Memories

Voiced By: O-T Fagbenle (English)^note Other Languages:Ivan Zharkov (Russian)

An English pirate, Rackham is most remembered for two things: the design of his Jolly Roger flag - a skull with crossed swords - which contributed to the popularization of the design, and for having two female crew members (Mary Read and his lover Anne Bonny).

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Edward notes that despite Jack being traitorous and worthless as a sailor, he didn't want to see him hanged with his bones in a cage. Moreover, in Edward's final daydream of his erstwhile fellow pirate captains, even a smiling Jack of all people is among them.
• The Alcoholic: He is hardly ever seen sober, and was basically passed out drunk with the rest of his crew when he was captured.
• Battle Couple: With Anne, nominally. Subverted though, as in life, during their iconic final stand, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Read's lover fought the soldiers while Rackham and his crew were below deck drunk out of their minds.
• Butt-Monkey: Is by far the dumbest and most ineffectual member of Edward Kenway's pirate associates. It's strongly suggested that Mary Read was using him as a puppet captain. Indeed, on seeing his skeleton in a gibbet, Edward waxes nostalgic about how endearing he could be as a butt-monkey.
  Edward Kenway: You weren't much of a friend, Jack Rackham. Nor an able sailor neither. But you were strange and lively, and you made me laugh more than once. And that's enough to make me sorry for seeing you like this. I hope you found a lasting peace, down there, among the dead.
• Captain Ersatz: His constant drunkenness, fondness for ladies, and general physical and vocal mannerisms call to mind Jack Sparrow, just flanderized into a cowardly idiot. Fitting, given many have suggested Jack Sparrow to have drawn heavily on the tales of Jack Rackham.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Jack Sparrow archetype. Whereas Sparrow is a loveable rogue with the Hidden Depths of being much more reliable than he lets on, Rackham is an untrustworthy, hedonistic drunk whose incompetence led to him and his entire crew getting captured by the military.
• The Dog Bites Back: His mutiny of Charles Vane after constant(and justified) abuse at his hands, has shades of this.
• Dirty Coward: His defining characteristic. When he was finally captured, he was hiding below deck with the rest of the crew while Mary Read and Anne Bonny were fighting the navy as Back-to-Back Badasses.
• Easily Forgiven: After his mutiny against Edward and Charles Vane, the rest of the pirates beat him up a bit, but then let him back into their ranks with little fanfare.
• Epic Fail: While Jack manages to successfully mutiny against Charles Vane and commandeer the Jackdaw, his attempt to launch his own successful captain campaign crash and burns in the manner of 2 months off-screen. Adewale manages to escape, Jack's tenure as captain is such a failure that he ends up returning to Nassau to beg for the King's pardon, only to get detained by Adewale and Mary Reed.
• Expy: Jack is a rather transparent one to Jack Sparrow, both his physical appearance, personality, and even body language mimic the film character.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: While he was more or less just as much of a scoundrel and ruthless as his real life self, historically he never actually mutinied against Charles Vane in the proper sense. Vane was outvoted, and Jack was peacefully elected in his place. Rather than usurping Vane and marooning him as in the game, Calico Jack actually gave him a sloop and a hefty amount of supplies and they parted ways on more-or-less friendly terms.
• The Load: For the Pirates. Jack's status as the Butt-Monkey makes him useless as both a captain and a sailor and ultimately gets himself, Read and Bonny captured because he was too busy drinking to aid in the battle.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Manages to somehow seduce Anne Bonny.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Thinking Anne Bonny was two-timing him with Mary Read, he threatened to kill the latter before being let in on her secret.
• The Mutiny: He deposed Charles Vane (and Edward Kenway as well) for captaincy of The Ranger. However, the crew backed Rackham only because Vane was Stupid Evil and eventually turned to the more competent (Mary Read) for guidance with Jack as a puppet.
• Pirate: A famous real-life pirate.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He's Lighter and Softer than Vane but is no less of an asshole. In his mutiny, he captures Edward, Adewale, and Charles Vane. He leaves Edward and Vane stranded but he promises to re-sell Adewale back into slavery, just for the money. A real Kick the Dog moment. It's remarkable Ade didn't kill him then.
• Out of Focus: Rackham doesn't really get that much screentime overall, and most of it is shared with Charles Vane. This is somewhat justified by Edward being in prison during the time when Jack, Anne Bonny and Mary Read are all having their own adventures and eventually taken down. In the end, he simply doesn't factor into Edward's story that much.
• Red Baron: His nickname was derived from his calico fabric costumes.
• Too Dumb to Live: He gets smacked around by Charles Vane for smoking a pipe while sitting on top of a barrel of gunpowder. His profile noted that he was drunk and reckless to the point of going days without eating food.
• Ur-Example: He designed the famous Jolly Roger flag.

Charles Vane

Charles Vane

Main Game Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Other Apperances:' Assassin's Creed: Pirates

Voiced By: Ralph Ineson (English)^note Other Languages:Igor Tomilov (Russian)

"Maybe you just don't have the stones to live with no regrets!"

An infamous English pirate, he preyed upon English and French shipping alike. Vane was infamous for his cruelty toward the crews of captured vessels.

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• Ax-Crazy: The most trigger happy of the Pirate community and the one most at ease with violence.
• At Least I Admit It: His justification for his ax-crazy, wild uninhibited actions; that the other pirates don't have what it took to live the pirate's life.
• Bomb Throwing Anarchist: Sees the pirate life as a way of blowing up those stuck up navy types and causing as much mayhem as possible. He's disappointed that Blackbeard wants to retire into obscurity.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: His specialty is torturing people.
• Cry for the Devil: Seeing him struggling in prison, with his will broken even makes Edward sympathetic to his plight. In the final daydream vision of his pirate comrades, Edward includes Charles smiling and at peace, signifying that he has forgiven him. invoked
  Edward Kenway: I wish we'd parted as friends.
• The Dreaded: The cruelest pirate of them all, fear of Vane drew all commerce to a halt in the area in which he operated.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Granted, he called him an idiot, but the somber way he talks about his late father suggests he misses him something terrible.
• Eviler than Thou: To the rest of the pirates, a fact which he is very proud of. Even Blackbeard thinks Charles Vane is a bit much and is wary when he and his crew arrive at Nassau.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He's voiced by Ralph Ineson, who's known for his very deep voice, and he's the evilest of Edward's pirate associates.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: In-universe, he goes from a feared and terrible pirate captain to a comical buffoon marooned on an island. The last we see him is in prison, a pathetic shell of a man blubbering in his Sanity Slippage.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His constant mistreatment of Calico Jack and his crew leads him to be mutinied in a humiliating manner. The crew are tired of his senseless violence and bad treatment.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: When both of them are stranded on an island, Vane loses his mind and steals food from Edward. He finally finds a cache of weapons which Edward says they can use to hunt. Vane agrees, only he decides he'll hunt Edward instead and starts shooting him and lobbing grenades through the jungle.
• Kick the Dog: He shoots a helpless surrendering sailor and fires and sinks a merchant's ship, For the Lulz. When chasing a slave ship, Adewale is appalled at his reckless firing which could endanger the innocent lives below deck.
• Know When to Fold Them: An early moment in the game sees Charles Vane's ship attacking a Man O'War only for him to run off. Sadly, this wisdom doesn't repeat itself. When chasing a Slave Ship frigate he recklessly fires only for the ship to get attacked in turn and Edward and Co having to rescue him.
• Large Ham: Devolves into an over-the-top one, when he and Edward are stranded on an island. He behaves like a man-child, letting Edward hunt food which he steals from his plate.
• Madness Mantra: He starts singing the song 'Down Among the Dead Men' during his bouts of insanity.
• Neck Snap: Executed at Port Royal via hanging.
• Never My Fault: Charles Vane blames Jack Rackham's mutiny on Edward Kenway rather than his own Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal.
• Pet the Dog: Vane deciding to join Edward in his quest to find the Observatory is rather kind of him. He mentions that he'd spent some time musing on the concept and, even though he doesn't believe in it himself, he trusts Kenway enough to not think he's a nutjob and must be onto something.
• Pirate: One of the most infamous pirates of all time.
• Reign of Terror: His crew is deeply afraid of him since he's deeply unstable and willing to murder over basically nothing.
• Sanity Slippage: While he was already Ax-Crazy, he really slips over the edge following Rackham's mutiny, almost to comical levels until he finds some guns and starts shooting at Edward in paranoia instead of using them to hunt.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: He shows scant respect for the pirate code, cheating his own crews out of their fair share of plunder and killing surrendered sailors after promising them mercy. But as it turns out, being a stereotypical Stupid Evil pirate will eventually lead your crew to mutiny you, leaving you ranting and raving on a marooned island.
• Stop Being Stereotypical:
  • Pirates see themselves as poor sailors fending for themselves and taking charge of their lives. The rest of the world sees them as dangerous and evil criminals. Charles Vane gives the rest of the world what they want to see, much to the distaste of Edward Kenway, Blackbeard, and Benjamin Hornigold.
  • Edward even remarks to Vane that Hornigold (after becoming a Templar and pirate hunter) was right about people like him, that his violent actions made it worse for everyone. Vane simply gives a At Least I Admit It comeback noting that Edward and the others don't have what it takes to live a pirate's life.
• The Unfettered: Charles Vane takes the Pirate lifestyle to its logical conclusion, even to a villainous Honor Before Reason level, where he refuses to take Woodes Rogers' pardon. He chooses to be a pirate simply to live free, where Hornigold would rather conform and Blackbeard would rather retire.
• Villainous Breakdown: After being betrayed by Rackham and marooned on a desert island, he goes insane and takes out his anger on Edward.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Vane tries to give this to Edward on the desert island following Rackham's mutiny.

Stede Bonnet

Stede Bonnet

Main Game Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Other Apperances: ''Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (novelization)'

Voiced By: James Bachman (English)^note Other Languages:Alexander Novikov (Russian)

A wealthy landowner from Barbados who turned to a life of piracy.

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• British Stuffiness: Enough that Blackbeard told him to "wash the hayseed from his hair."
• Eyepatch of Power: The only pirate who sports this most iconic of all accessories. The fact that it doesn't make him a badass is part of the joke.
• Inelegant Blubbering: During his execution, he begged and pleaded not to be hung, but this was a rather compressed explanation of what actually happened. True, Stede wasn't very graceful a loser in this situation, but his decline mentally was elongated and subtle—he appealed to authorities of the time at least three times, if not more, for at least a lighter sentence. It wasn't until it became clear that he was destined to die that he started to really come apart at the seams, to the point that he promised to cut off his own limbs to avoid the gallows, and many present at his execution actually felt quite bad for him; some even (allegedly) protested killing a man who clearly was driven insane with the desire to not die.
• Jumped at the Call: Despite being rich, with wife and children, Stede Bonnet has been waiting for fun and adventure his entire life. When Edward offers him to come to Nassau, Stede is excited and immediately sets there, sailing with Blackbeard's fleet.
• Kill the Cutie: The most light-hearted and jovial pirate of the Nassau crew, he is hanged at the gallows and died begging for his life, which made the audience lament, from their view, Alas, Poor Villain.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Narrowly averted. Bonnet nearly blows Edward's cover as Duncan Walpole when he addresses Edward by name while in the middle of a conversation with Woodes Rogers. Edward is fortunately able to allay Rogers' suspicion by claiming he gave Bonnet a false name, but gives Stede a baleful look once Rogers is out of sight.
• Odd Friendship: The jovial and bumbling Bonnet contrasts heavily with Edward's cunning and ruthlessness, yet they maintain a genuine friendship throughout the story. While it appears a bit one-sided on Bonnet's part, he's included among Edward's fallen friends when he remembers them near the end.
• Stock British Phrases: "Dash my buttons!"
• The Lost Lenore: According to The Other Wiki, Bonnet’s wife died before the events of the game likely without him knowing. This may have contributed to his decision to turn to piracy.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Despite being introduced as a fairly prominent character, Bonnet gets phased out of the story around halfway through the game. It's only during an optional conversation the player encounters during Edward's jailbreak that you learn that Bonnet was previously captured and hung.

Edward "Ned" Low

Edward "Ned" Low

Appears in: Assassin's Creed: Reflections

An infamous English pirate active during the Golden Age of Piracy, known for his habit of torturing his victims before murdering them.

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• Decomposite Character: Edward Kenway is himself based on the historical Ned Low. So this version of the character is merely another aspect of the same guy, in the vein of Haytham and the Templar Charles Lee, Latouche, and the Templar Robespierre and so on.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a large scar covering the right eye of his face, the wound also blinding him in that eye.
• Eye Scream: At some point he was blinded in his right eye.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Kenway does bring the gold up for him, but also brings up barrels of gunpowder, which Edward then blows up, injuring Ned's crew with gold shrapenel.
• I Have Your Wife: Forces Edward to gather gold from the sunken Polvora for him, or else he'll murder the Jackdaw's entire crew.

Other Characters

Laurens Prins

Laurens Prins

Main Game Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Other Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (novelization) | Assassin's Creed: Pirates | Assassin's Creed: Memories

Voiced By: Tom Kane (English)^note Other Languages:Nikita Prozorovsky (Russian)

A Dutch slaver intending to ransom Roberts to the Templars. He was originally a pirate with Henry Morgan but turned to slavery as a safer and more profitable venture. He holds many period appropriate racist views, only even more so due to his profession which disgusts the (comparatively) progressive Templars.

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• At Least I Admit It: Has this attitude regarding slavery. Almost everyone looks down on slavery but the powers that be profit from it tremendously. This attitude is actually period appropriate as slave-trading (as opposed to slavery itself) was considered a disgusting (but profitable) profession even in the 17th century. As a result, Prins has had to deal with people turning up their nose at him his entire life while all the while benefiting from his (evil) trade.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: A mild example. Prins turns on the Templars when he senses they're being followed. He also was going to sell out the Sage who had taken refuge with him.
• Death by Materialism: Laurens wouldn't have been targeted by Edward if not for his attempted sale of The Sage. Even if he'd survived, James Kidd would have killed him for his slave-trading.
• Die Laughing: His last moments are amusement at Edward's Only in It for the Money reason for killing him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: A rare example of this being a negative trait. Prins hesitates to sell out Roberts to the Templars...because he's white. He doesn't force his slaves to convert...to justify enslaving them. Both examples only serve to show how horrible he is.
• Evil Old Folks: He's a very old man who's prolific enough a slaver to be on the Assassins' hit list despite not being a Templar.
• Historical Domain Character: A real historical figure, although better known by his Anglicized name Lawrence Prince; he served under legendarily cruel pirate Henry Morgan and was indeed a slaver, but no historical records have been discovered to confirm what eventually became of him.
• Jerkass: To the point where even the Templars^note one of whom actually came across the Templars because he'd actually quit the slave-trading profession hate having to deal with him. He's a thorough racist who ascribes Governor Torres' opposition to slavery on account of Spain's Moorish influence.
• Loophole Abuse: When Torres asks if he bothers converting his slaves to Christianity:
  Laurens: Is it not a Sin to enslave a fellow Christian? Therefore, to transmute the Slave's Soul from Animal to Man would be tantamount to inviting one's Cattle to the Dinner Table.
• Pirate: In the 1650's he sailed as privateer fighting the Spanish on behalf of the British, although most of the time he didn't have a letter of marque.
• Only in It for the Money: Prins's stated motivation.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: If his status as a slaver isn't enough of a giveaway, read some of his quotes.
• Retired Outlaw: A very dark subversion. He used to be a pirate who ran with the Henry Morgan and participated in the raid of Panama, but he tells Torres that he earned way more money from his legal profession as a slave trader than he ever did as a pirate. As per the laws of the time, he's a honest businessman, by today's standards his rise from piracy to a ''legal'' slave trader is crossing an immoral line.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: One slave calls him out on it.
  Laurens: Stand your ground, slave! And face corporal punishment like a man.
  Slave: Why act like a man now when you have denied me that right for thirty YEARS!
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Governor Torres tries to call him out on his slaving ways, Prins just rolls his eyes. Prins is arguably justified since Torres is there to buy the Sage... not to mention Torres is at least publicly a former representative of a slaving empire.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Combined with Evil Overlord. Prins is very easy to kill since in that mission unlike in a preceding cutscene he's not any more perceptive than other NPC characters and he'll go just down as quickly, but he's got a massive amount of guards.

Commodore Peter Chamberlaine

Commodore Peter Chamberlaine

Main Game Apperances: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Other Apperances: Assassin's Creed: Memories

Voiced By: Sean Pertwee (English)^note Other Languages:Kirill Turansky (Russian)

A British naval officer in charge of the blockade that accompanied Governor Woodes Rogers' expedition to Nassau.

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• Aristocrats Are Evil: He comes from a noble family, and when Edward calls King George a parasite, Chamberlaine calls him a peasant and angrily snaps at Edward to know his place.
• Blue Blood: He's nobility.
• Evil Brit: Definitely so when you plan on destroying the docked pirate ships against the governor's orders, and seemingly irrespective of whether or not the pirates had accepted the pardon! The fact that he looks at pirates as working class trash and talks down to them from the comfort of his privilege is another sign, not even giving them the least amount of consideration when many of them indeed started as ex-Sailors for the Crown who likely became pirates to escape people like him.
• Gunboat Diplomacy: Begrudgingly provided as per Rogers' wishes. Eventually decides to disregard said Rogers' wishes and orders his sailors to fire on all non-Royal Navy vessels in Nassau.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • As unlikeable as he is, Nassau really is a den of thievery from top to bottom, and one built on high seas robbery at that.
  • Likewise, the offer of a pardon appeals to some pirates but both Charles Vane and Edward were planning to wreck it.
• Knight Templar: Believes that all pirates deserve only death and is disgusted with the idea of giving them pardons, to the point of even attempting to sink all the pirate vessels in Nassau harbor against the orders of Woodes Rogers, seemingly irrespective of they've accepted the pardon. He even hates Rogers for his actual Templar connections, believing him to be anti-Christian and a "heathen"^note British troops unaware of Rogers being a Templar, speculate that it's because Rogers is believed to be a secret Jacobite or otherwise Roman Catholic, and calling him a "coward Governor" behind his back. In other words he's more Knight Templar than the Templars themselves.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: When Edward Kenway attempts to chew him out for planning to break the unofficial truce, the Commodore just sneers at him. While the Commodore doesn't know it, Edward really is being hypocritical here as he's planning to break out past the blockade himself.
• Smug Snake: One of the smuggest in the game.

Thom Kavanagh

Thom Kavanagh

"Thus, to any and all who have read this and understood little; be not upset. For there is more Mysterie than Sense in the World, and our only Purpose is to endure it!"

The author of the mysterious letters in a bottle you can collect in the game. He is revealed to the previously known Sage and his letters give much backstory on the true nature of their existence. He doesn't appear in the game, but you do find his grave and the very last message in Long Bay, Jamaica, the location of the Observatory.

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• Antiquated Linguistics: He writes in the epistolary conventions of the late 16th and early 17th century and uses old-fashioned spellings.
• And I Must Scream: How his initial reaction to the scary "reverie" and his nature of "the Sage" seems to be. The fact that the Aita personality called his parents by their first names as a baby adds to the creepy factor.
• Genre Shift: His letters, the fact that he comes from Boston and New England and the old-fashioned English make his letters feel like something out of H. P. Lovecraft, dealing as it does with the same themes of ancestral memory, gods who are indifferent to humanity and a lifelong sense of mounting paranoia.
• Grand Theft Me: What the Aita personality seems to be doing, averted in that Thom retains his own will and real personality for the most part, thanks in great deal to the help of the Assassins.
• Hive Mind: The Sages are revealed to be this, in that two or more of them can and do exist at the same time, with Thom and Bartholomew Roberts shown to be rough contemporaries who never meet.
• Humanoid Abomination: Like all Sages, he is this, though one who is more successful at retaining his original personality.
• Message in a Bottle: How we find out who he is, they are scattered across the map, with the last one located in Long Bay, Jamaica the location of the Observatory and right on his grave which you can find on the road through the jungle.
• Mr. Exposition: His letters clearly explain Aita and Juno's long-term Xanatos Gambit and the means and methods by which the Sages recur and reincarnate through human history.
• Nice Guy: His real personality is that of an otherwise fairly normal guy who's confused and horrified by his true nature. A sharp contrast to Black Bart and John Standish who seem to have let Aita completely take over.
• Posthumous Character: We find out everything about him from his notes and letters.

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