The First Junk Dog

The First Junk Dog is a myth among sky pirates detailing the origins of Joe and his crew, the Junk Dog Pirates.

Summary

When Joe was a boy, his island sunk to the Wilderness when a sky pirate crew took all the island's world tree fruit. The sole survivor of the crashed island, Joe learned to survive from a pack of wolves, where he learned to hunt with nothing but his bare hands and teeth.
Joe would eventually be picked up by a sky pirate crew scavaging the remains of his home island, originally planning to sell him as a pet or slave. However, during a skirmish with another crew, Joe went berserk and killed half of the other crew by himself.
Impressed, the captain took Joe under his wing. Joe evolved from a feral, aggressive beast became a usually calm, quiet man, only ever unleashing his full strength and rage in combat.
When the captain died, he declared Joe his successor with his dying breath, but half the crew refused to acknowledge a "savage" as their captain. Joe could barely restrain himself after such an insult, but in the end, spared their lives and let them establish their own crew. The sky pirates that stuck with Joe were the original members of the Junk Dog Pirates.

Historical Basis

Joe was not a child when his island sunk, but he was still a teenager. He had also been learning martial arts from his father. He was relaxing by a lake when the island started to fall, and he barely survived the crash into the Wilderness by falling into the water.
Joe's unconscious body was found by a tribe of rougarou that nursed him back to health, but upon learning he was a skinwalker, they tried to kill him, forcing him to flee.
Joe lived in the ruins of his former home for a few years, occasionally coming into conflict with the rougarou tribe again since he was on the edge of their claimed territory. He was eventually found by a crew of sky pirates that were scavenging the remains of his home island. The captain took pity on him and let Joe join his crew.
Joe wasn't a particularly violent person, but his martial training allowed him to subdue far more adversaries than his crewmates.
A few years later, the captain died in battle before he could chose his successor. After a few arguments over who should be captain, the crew simply chose to split in two—one group following Joe and eventually becoming the Junk Dog Pirates.

Spread

During Joe's early sky pirate career, Joe would generally subdue but not kill his opponents, but his strange techniques appeared far more fearsome and deadly than they ultimately were. Thus, many survived to tell cautionary tales based off their encounters, exagerating his deadly prowess out of fearful misunderstanding.
When Joe's original crew split, his former crewmates revealed how Joe had been rescued from the Wilderness and recounted their times together. However, most had a low opinion of Joe, so their stories often paint him as animalistic and cruel to sully his reputation.
Joe is fairly secretive and doesn't care about other people's opinions of him, going so far as to order the Junk Dog Pirates to never acknowledge the wild stories about his past. Thus, his current crewmates are neither informed of the whole truth or allowed to counter any falsehoods in current retellings of the myth.

Variations & Mutation

Retellings put different amounts of emphasis on Joe's supposed "savagery," often downplaying or exaggerating his feats in combat. Some more extreme retellings claim he was born in the Wilderness or is a monstrous beast that magically gained a humanoid form.
The Islandwrecker Fleet is often listed as the crew that sunk Joe's island, but the exact crew has never been confirmed.

Related People

• Joe

Related Organizations

• Junk Dog Pirates