Black Water

MORE THAN JUST A NAME

Filed and documented by Crimson Fleet Lieutenant Theodric Gilmore

The storied history of the Bloodtides pirates tells us that they have always been led by the infamous, brutal, and fearsome captain known as Black Water. However, history contradicts itself again and again on how to describe this historic, ostensibly immortal figure. From the hue of their eyes, to the color of their hair, to even details such as their gender and species - it seems Black Water has taken many forms.This is not because 'Black Water' is a shapeshifting, otherworldly entity, as some theories might entertain, but rather instead that 'Black Water' is more than just a name, it is a title. One that has been passed down from captain to captain, presenting the one who claims it with an entirely new cask and destiny. It erases whoever they were before from the very fabric of reality, making them an unknowable ghost whose creed can only be known if they so wish it to be. How Black Water is spoken of by former crew members, and even their few surviving victims, mirrors religious speech. The Bloodtides' rally behind the name like a beacon or an icon. A god figure. Just the same as their victims fear it.Whoever the individual was before they took the name Black Water is no more and, either until the day they die or the day they pass the title on to another, they will be known as 'Black Water' - continuing the lineage of all the Black Water's that came before with their signature phrase; "Until the waters are black as tar, a grave we will never know." A phrase that was reportedly uttered with the last breath of the very first known Black Water.Within the Bloodtides' own culture, 'Black Water' is not seen as a series of unique individuals, but a single, ever burning flame who is carried on in whichever vessel, or individual, bares the title. To be 'Black Water' is not simply to be the captain of the Bloodtides, but to give up everything you were before, everything you could ever be in the future, and every part of what makes you an individual, all in pursuit of the Bloodtides' best interest. How seriously this oath is taken varies between title bearers.Research into this ritualistic handing-down-of-title reveals that not every Black Water that has terrorized the western seas has reigned quite the same. This is to be expected as, realistically, each person is still their own independent selves no matter what they might believe. Even if they try to surrender their individuality to acting as closely to the Black Water that came before them, they simply are not the same person. They may be more cruel than the last, or even perhaps more compassionate.How one is chosen to become the reigning Black Water is unknown, but I have gathered from deserters that it is a deeply perilous endeavor and considered a great honor amongst the Bloodtides' crew. What is known is that the next-in-line for the title is chosen early on in that individuals life, usually selected before they reach their teenage years, and that it is known by the reigning Black Water alone who is worthy and who is not. It does not appear that a person's species, gender, abilities or disabilities play any factor in the decision making. But, it is hard to believe that there is simply nothing that dictates who might be the next person to surrender themselves to this legacy.

WHAT WE KNOW OF THE CURRENT 'BLACK WATER'

Birth Name: I'chi TiaNicknames/Aliases: Black Water, White Tiger of KuganeRace: Half Miqo'te, Half Highlander Hyur.Age: 57Nameday: May 16thSexual Orientation: I believe he is capable of being attracted to just about anything that moves, but he has only pursued relations with other men.Height: 6'10"Weight: 213 lbs; muscular build, broad shoulders, calloused hands.Hair: BlackEyes: Yellow - left eye has a clouded, milky texture. Don't let his eyepatch deceive you, he is blind in both eyes. While his left eye is completely blind, his right is capable of distinguishing colors, light, and shapes. This limited vision is circumvented by his keen sense of smell and hearing, but not in absolution.Noticeable Marks: One of the first things anyone might notice about I’chi are the tattoos that decorate his face. They resemble the stripes of a tiger, turning his already intimidating features all the more alluring and fearsome. But those aren’t his only tattoos. On his back, I’chi sports the image of a white tiger emerging from the depths of a black sea, surrounded by marbled koi and vibrant orange lilies. The colors are vivid and distinct with strong black lines, perhaps so that I’chi himself might be able to see them in a mirror’s reflection. These tattoos are prime identifiers when determining if the correct person has been apprehended.

THE HISTORY OF I'CHI TIA, THE REIGNING BLACK WATER

(Endwalker MSQ Spoilers below!)

I'chi first joined the Bloodtides crew as a young boy after his mother sold him to slavery. He recalls that his mother died shortly after the exchange was made, as she had received less payment than promised and confronted the then reigning Black Water about it, who loaded the missing gil into the barrels of his gun before firing them into her chest.I'chi was taken into the care of the Bloodtides crew and recalls his early years aboard their many ships, and on the islands they claimed, with some amount of fondness. He describes those years as challenging, but preferable to the life he had before within a tribe that considered him a liability because of his disability. The Bloodtides treated I'chi fairly, but there was no shortage of strife and conflict. Conflict that he never failed to overcome with either his wits or his open mind. He claims to have handled most conflicts with compassion and resolve, and sought not to bring steel into the mix unless there was no other option. I'chi has talked only briefly about how he was selected to become the next Black Water, and describes the process as being 'an unspoken, but undeniable' event. I have concluded that there is never any formal announcement made about who is to become the next Black Water, and it is simply inferred to be whoever the reigning Black Water takes on as their second in command - which I'chi became almost immediately after entering his teenage years.This spotlight put a target on I'chi's back, and, while few took actual measures to challenge this honor directly, it led to a deep amount of scrutiny being placed on all of I'chi's actions from that point forward. I'chi did not specify why this might be the case when asked, but I still find myself wondering all the same what people's reasons might have been to reject I'chi's unofficial appointment as the next Black Water to-be. Perhaps it was his disability, but it serves nothing to speculate.I'chi recalls the day he was given the title of Black Water as the day he first began to question the belief system that was widely held by the Bloodtides crew. From what I have gathered independently, the Bloodtides pirate crew is a longstanding crew made up nowadays mostly of men, women and children who were all either born on the very ships they sail or taken from villages and towns elsewhere like I'chi himself. They are the broken sons and daughters of a world that has failed them, banned together with the goal to 'see the waters turned to tar'; in other words, to see the waters turned thick with the blood of those that failed them in the first place.Looking further back, I've gathered that the Bloodtides crew was, at first, a whaling group made up of only two ships with a dozen men each. The group was called Broad Sea Whalers at the time, and sailed on The Mother Pearl and Fervent Destiny to hunt and kill whales. They became known as the Bloodtides originally as a nickname, given to them by how frequently they would pull into harbors with whale's blood trailing behind their ships. Nowadays they recreate this effect by pouring the blood of just about any sea creature down the sides of their ships before engaging their targets. The Broad Sea Whalers' first turned to piracy when they began to see a shift in the local economy, and their work started to become less and less profitable as more modern technology was being utilized to do the things that whale blubber and oil was otherwise integral to. Little is known of the first Black Water, but there are documents that write the first Black Water was a Roegadyn man who made his appearance known around this time. He set a new course for the Broad Sea Whalers, as those who stayed with him for this turn in occupation began to use force to procure food and supply for themselves and the families of their crewmen. Perhaps their desperation made them easier to sway.I'chi describes that, as the reigning Black Water in the modern day over a century later, he questioned why the Bloodtides' were still enacting violent horrors on the public for actions of the long distant past, and how he attempted to suppress these doubts. He followed the example set by the Black Water who reigned before him had acted; with precise brutality.The seas ran a dark red for a decade under I'chi's stay as Black Water, but, with each passing day, I'chi has stated that his questions and doubts began to plague him more and more. He took to drinking far more heavily to dull his mind, something I thought not unusual for any pirate, and leaning further into the brutality of his mission; terrorizing the western seas with his fleet of broken souls desperately looking to justify their long held grudge against an even longer dead few.During this time, I'chi had appointed his own secondhand. He refused to speak about why exactly he chose this individual when pressed, but I gather that there was something particular that he recognized in this person that led him to his decision to take them under his sail. This new second hand was a Viera, affectionately named 'Shelly' for how often she would collect and tell fortunes using seashells. Shelly is described as an eccentric woman, but I'chi felt it necessary to remind me quite insistently that she was never one to be messed with. He explained that her eccentricities masked a more brutal killer than anyone else who sailed the western seas. He admits that she might not be the most efficient or dutiful person, but he swears by her undeniable skill as a combatant and a navigator. It is clear that I'chi respects Shelly deeply, but there is a pain in his voice when he speaks of her, a pain born of the betrayal her faced at her hand not long after appointing her as secondhand.For context before we continue, not every Black Water is simply 'selected'. There is history that suggests that the Black Water who raised I'chi had taken the title by force, usurping the former captain and taking the name as his own; earning the respect of his new crew by way of his brazen and unrelenting fury. He inspired his crew into the bloodiest period of the Bloodtides' history to date from day one, and his rise to the throne had inspired others who thought to claim the title in just the same way. During I'chi's reign, he had fought off more than a few attempts on his life, with only two of those attempts truly putting him at risk. It was the last attempt, however, that proved successful and saw I'chi meeting his first of many 'deaths' to come.I'chi had confided in Shelly many things, and his doubts about the Bloodtides' goal was one of them. As this is a sensitive subject for him, I could not get I'chi to talk at length about Shelly's eventual betrayal, but he did talk about how Shelly took advantage of his moment of weakness and used it to manipulate the Bloodtides crew into a revolt against him, branding him a 'false' Black Water for having doubts about their cause. One question remained however, and that was "Why?"Why would Shelly, who was already in line to become Black Water after I'chi's reign, take such measures? Did she truly believe that I'chi was unfit for the mission, or was there something more? When I asked I'chi these questions, he was, understandably, reluctant to speak more in depth. For fear of breaking my cover and for ruining my chance at learning more in the future, I relented in my questioning and I still do not have the answer. Not conclusive answers, in any case. I have my theories, but I will not speculate.Shelly's goal of usurping I'chi's claim to the name Black Water was successful. I'chi, now stripped of his purpose, was cast off the side of his ship and into the dark sea where he would presumably meet his end. Fortunately for him, that wasn't to be the case. I'chi washed ashore after spending 3 days adrift at sea, soaked to the bone and with water filling his lungs. He recalls feeling as though the wind itself worked to resuscitate him, blessing him with a second chance. A chance for redemption. After taking some time to recover, he speaks of stowing away on a trade ship bound for the eastern continent, specifically Kugane. He says he chose this particular ship as it presented an opportunity to get far, far away from the repercussions of his former life, and he needed the time and the distance to catch his breath and recuperate.This is where the tale of I'chi's time as 'Black Water' would divert for about a decade. As these files are meant to pertain only to details relevant to 'Black Water', I will refrain from exploring these otherwise irrelevant years of I'chi's life in as exhaustive detail. What you will need to know going forward, in order to better understand future events, is that I'chi made yet another name for himself during his time in Kugane. He worked within organized crime for a brief period and eventually abandoned that to instead became something of a folk hero in Kugane, utilizing new skills, such as the Far Eastern Ninja's mudras, and cultivating new connections in Kugane and beyond. But, I'chi's past always haunted him, and he could not escape it for long.In what I'chi would describe as 'just a typical night in Kugane', I'chi tells the tale about how Shelly, now the at-the-time reigning Black Water, had seen I'chi in one of her seashell divinations. She claimed to have seen his soul and knew that he still walked this star, and that his spirit was changing as he settled in the relative safety of the East. She tracked him down after arriving with a small handful of her crew, all of whom appeared to have undergone some eerie physical change, as if suffering from latent illness. She began following rumors of a 'White Tiger' that walked in the darkest corners of the port city's streets. Eventually, Shelly had come to find him on that night, cornering him between herself, her crew, and the organized crime ring that I'chi had just pissed off enough to start a gang war with mere hours before she narrowed down his location. 'Stuck between a bitch and a hard place', as he so aptly put it.I'chi handwave's the details of the encounter that followed, save for the detail that Shelly had actually helped him against the gang that wanted his head. To his recollection, Shelly claimed that she was there to see him and not to kill him, which is why she helped rid him of his gang problem. They spoke, in a tense truce, and Shelly explained with an unconvincing lie that she never intended for things to turn out the way they did between the two of them. She extended a branch to I'chi, offering to welcome him back into the Bloodtides again, where he rightfully belonged, with the understanding that he could never be Black Water again. To I'chi, this was a sugar-coated insult, and a poorly disguised one at that, but he knew that refusing the offer would likely result in more conflict. Conflict that, at the time, having taken more than a few hits during the prior encounter, he wasn't ready for. So, he reluctantly agreed, both to buy himself time as well as to investigate what had become of his old crew, his old family. But with the condition that he was able to bring along with him a few of his allies. Shelly agreed, and so I'chi and a few trusted friends were now set to return to the Eorzean west coast to rejoin the rest of the Bloodtides.The cast of friends that I'chi employed to come along with him were true confidants he had acquired during his lost years, people he felt he could trust with absolute certainty. He had taken a moment to speak with them prior to insisting that they come with him to the heart of the Bloodtides' fleet, and without hesitation they agreed to join him for what was likely to be a bloody endeavor.And a bloody endeavor it was. Not long after arriving on an island located just far enough west from Limsa Lominsa proper to be overlooked, it was made clear to I'chi and his company that the goal of the Bloodtides had since become far more radical under Shelly's reign as Black Water. With a more organized front, Shelly had started making far more tactical and strategic assaults on Eorzean civilizations, amassing elemental crystals with the intent to summon a primal the way that beast tribes in the region had before them.According to I'chi, Shelly's divinations from the sea's shells had told her that the only true way to cleanse the land of the filth that saw their people wronged was to drown it all to the bottom of the sea. I'chi entertains that this is when he realized that Shelly was no simple diviner, but an enthralled servant to a primal, and that she had seized his crew and enthralled them as well.Shelly had brought I'chi to the site of their crystal hoard with the hopes of enthralling him and his friends, condemning them to be strong, able servants to the primal Leviathan. Through 'strong spirit and will' they somehow managed to avoid enthrallment (I'chi isn't telling me something here), but were unable to stop Shelly and those already enthralled from summoning the primal into their plane. Here again is where I have failed to gather all the information that I'chi has regarding these events. I'chi did not speak of the events leading up to and until this point without first being heavily intoxicated, and, even then, he was reluctant. How he and his friends managed to not only survive encountering a primal, but also to defeat said primal and their horde of enthralled, 'drowned' servants is unclear. Yet, they managed just that. What little is known about the event was gathered later by Maelstrom personnel who came onto the scene only after the source of the cataclysmic storm had been quelled.What is known is that I'chi now claims the name Black Water, as Shelly did not survive long past the summoning of Leviathan. Reports from the site, meanwhile, say nothing of a Viera body matching her description being found on the island. I'chi, after these events, then goes on to say that he took claim of the captain's ship in order to escape the island along with his allies. He eventually made his way to Limsa Lominsa, months later, where he intended to turn himself in to Maelstrom custody. However, just when officials had met with I'chi on the docks, Fell Beasts began to wreak havoc across the globe. Without hesitation, I'chi got to work assisting the Maelstroms in combating the Blasphemies as they threatened our borders, and later explained the events that I have detailed in these documents once things had settled. I'chi claims now that his goal with the Bloodtides crew - what little remains of it after the events described, and the fewer still that have been cured of their tempering - is to find a better, more honest way of living for them all. He believes that every pirate on the crew is a victim of centuries long abuse upheld by a self righteous dogma born of generational pain, and not inherently evil or incapable of ever contributing positively to society. And I, for one, believe him.Had I never gotten the opportunity to speak with I'chi myself, I don't think I would hold the same belief that I do now. Since getting to know I'chi, I can say quite firmly that he is not the monster he may seem on the surface - not today, in any case. I cannot ignore the many crimes he has committed in the past, but I know that it would be a waste to sentence this man to a life in prison when he is here and willing to make a positive difference for the lives of many. His most recent efforts were instrumental in ensuring the safety of many civilians, a stark contrast to the activities of his and his crew's past.Ultimately it is not up to me to decide the fate of the reigning Black Water, nor the fate of the Bloodtides. That is for them to decide. I conclude my documentation of the history of I'chi Tia here, with a note that he has pledged himself to the betterment of himself and the people he leads. The Bloodtides crew has entered a contract with the Crimson Fleet and is, for now, recognized as a splinter of the Lominsan Armada. There, we can keep a better eye on their activities in exchange for their continued cooperation in dealing with threats that require an aggressive hand to quell.Considering the state of things these days, with one catastrophe after another, we would be foolish to turn away a helping hand. As always, remain diligent, and keep an eye on I'chi. He is an honest

_{Theoric Gilmore
Crimson Fleet Lieutenant}

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Black Water

GALLERY

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Black Water

MUSIC

Below are songs that I have written and composed myself for I'chi. Each song is also available on Spotify, iTunes, and other streaming services.Interested in commissioning your own character theme? Check out my commissions page here to see my other works, prices, and availability.

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