Griph Windshear

Griph Windshear or Griph the Pirate King of Old, was a human pirate captain that later commanded various vessels forming an armada of sorts. He lived around 100 years before the Scarring circa 1300 SR. His reputation preceded him as his vessels were a scourge around Explorer's Sea and the South Coronan Sea (now dubbed Sea Queen's Rest). However his fame skyrocketed after a certain achievement of his. Griph was obsesed with crossing the Sea's Teeth and succed where everyone else had failed. He had tried many times and each time he and his personal ship, the now fabled Salty Dragon, almost faced destruction; a thing many of his other vessels commanded by his lieutenants couldn't avoid. He was a very skilled sailor and captain but he never could master the waters in the Teeth.

His obsession became even more severe after his many tries to the point that he would achieve his goal by any means. So, he cheated and contacted otherworldly entities using a magical book he had among his many treasures. These entities were the Wind Dukes of Aaqa, powerful beings that commanded elemental air that some say reside in the Elemental Plane of Air. Griph made a deal with Dukes, and after he fulfilled his end of the bargain which was exterminating a small island nation in Explorer's Sea dedicated to the worship of the Queen of Chaos, the Dukes granted him the ability to make his ships fly. Griph, extatic that he would finally overcome the Sea's Teeth immediatelly began preparations.

Of course, some of his underlings did not like the idea of flying above the Teeth as it would turn this endeavor into a farce without meaning. Griph did not suffer this insubordination. Such was his obsession that he started saying that a true captain masters both the sea and sky, that the crazy weather affects the sky above the Teeth as well, and that sailing through the sky is for legends only; lesser people like those of his crew wouldn't understand. Many started to abandon their posts and threatened to tell the world of Griph's treachery. Griph and his loyals started executing these naysayers and traitor before a single one left. So, in the span a day, this resulted in mutinies and by the time this was over most of his armada was gone; only the Salty Dragon and two other ships remained. Griph won in the end, and afterwards, he and his remaining ships used the Wind Dukes' power and flew over the Teeth imediately at the command of Griph.

They did find bad weather and they were also not experienced in flying but they made it as it was far easier than sailing through the Teeth. After they passed over, they landed immediately and then went to the Silver Isles. There, Griph announced his success that he had sailed over the Teeth, telling the false story of how the sea took almost all of his armada instead of how they were destroyed in the mutinies. The story was a success and people believed him, as the damaged remaining ships and missing-never-to-be-seen-again ships and sailors attested. Thus he became known as the Pirate King and the following years the seas around his lair that he constructed in the Sea's Teeth never knew peace.

Indeed, he returned t othe Teeth and built a fortress in a huge reef in the middle of the expanse. There, he would be well hidden and untouchable. From his hidden pirate fortress he began raiding the Silver Isles, the entire South Coast and the city of Evermoon, as well as numerous islands around the two seas.The treasures in his fortress were many; troves that rivaled these of some dragons. He became so greedy and drunken with power that he and his pirates started killing sea creatures native to the Teeth and even managed to slay some sea serpents and a dragon turtle. He even sold the rare meat of said sea creatures and actively hunted them from both the air and sea, destroing some their homes in the process.

This disregard of the sea and it's creatures caught the eye of a merfolk cleric of Calaseid possesing an artifact of the goddess, a medallion with control over the sea and some of its creatures. She saw what Griph was doing and tried to stop him by first trying to reason with him. When that failed she used the medallion to bring the Pirate King an dhis underling to their knees. However, Griph and his pirates managed to overpower her with their numbers and various magical items they had ammased. Having slain the cleric an dclaimed the medallion, Griph now had absolute control over the sea, or so he thought. The next night, as his vessels were moored outside his massive hidden fortress and he and his pirates were revelling in their wealth, a Leviathan spawned from the depths of the sea conjured by the Calaseid herself. The Leviathan acted as the will of the goddess and destroyed the ships and most of the fortress. Griph in his hubris tried to use the medallion to control the Leviathan, but the creature answered to Calaseid only. The goddess, seeing that he and his crew did not repent even in this final hour, she cursed the medallion to always be with Griph, and for as long as it was with him, he and his crew were cursed with undeath; to always roam the Teeth and a mile away from them but to never be able to leave entirely. So, after the Leviathan killed them all and disappeared, all of them felt the call of Sheol getting quieter until they could no longer feel the pull of death. They were transformed into undead, and their shios were ghosts bound o their once alive masters. Griph was still their captain even in undeath. He tried getting rid of the medallion but the medallion always found its way back to him instantly. He still could fly the ships but until a mile away. He and his crew were essintialy trapped both in space and in unlife; cursed to a horrid existense.

So, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, the raids of Griph's ships stopped abruptly and no one saw or heard from them again. Legend now says that he found his end with his pirates in the Teeth from some sea monstrosity. However, even in the current day and age, Griph and his shambling crew still exist and haunt their ruined fortress that stll has many of their treasures, as well as haunt the Sea's Teeth and the mile around. The stories of ghost ships inside the Teeth and around are all because of him; and every sailor an dship that is destroyed by the undead pirates becomes part of his crew in death.