"Have you ever heard of the sirens and their queen, kid?"
The old sailor took a sip from his brandy.
"Eh, who believes in those old wives' tales?"
The young man laughed and waved dismissively, but his shaking fingers betrayed him.
"Eh, you young whippersnappers, always trying to act brave. Mark my words, buddy, when you're out there, it's better to believe in the old wives' tales. That way, if they don't exist, nothing happens, but if they do, you're prepared."
The old man leaned in, staring the young guy down.
"How do you think I lived to this age?!"— Overheard in a tavern in Linal
Maressia was a legendary pirate captain, believed by many to actually be a siren. Her nickame quickly became the "Siren Queen" after her ability to seduce whoever she wanted. Her fortified pirate's lair has become
Maressia City, and the surrounding
Maressian Sea, still infested by her spiritual heirs, is also named after her.
"I'm telling you, son! She had flaming red hair, like intense scarlet flames dancing in the sun! Dariuz the Reviled said it burned even brighter when they were in a dark room making love. That's not natural! She must have been a siren!"— An old sailor in Celsa in a heated discussion
Some whisper that making love actually was her draining her victims life force, calling her a witch sucking her sexual partners dry. Opinions on whether that's proof that she's a siren vary. Some say that this is what siren's are, others claim that siren's never even laid hands on humans and were only interested in getting them killed to feast on them. They rightfully question why Maressia is the only instance of a siren actually seducing and interacting with humans like she did. When it comes to naming whatever else she may have been, there's as many theories as there are people discussing the topic, and then some.
Something all agree on, however, was that Maressia was extraordinarily beautiful. Her eyes were remarkable: the right one a bright, shimmering blue, and the left one a sparkling emerald green. Her success as a pirate captain came in no small part from her managing to keep her crew exceptionally loyal. Some say it was due to them continuously hoping to get rewarded with another night with her. It may as well have been her success in capturing booty. She was a skilled tactician and commander, and she was known to go easy on people who didn't resist much, but the harder an opponent fought, the more ruthless she became when it came to looting and killing afterwards. Many crews facing her would mutiny if ordered to resist, because it usually meant keeping their life, ship and some rations.
There was one thing, though, that all sources agreed on: There were no mages in her crew. Quite a few poems and ballads tell the story of mages striving to become powerful and impress her, only to meet their early end. It is unclear what led to her disdain for magic users, though once again, there's no lack of theories. Many draw a connection between her being supposedly not human and her disdain for mages, claiming that having a mage around would have blown her cover. Others, however, claim that she was a
Waif and simply preferred the pure energy of raw violence and fed on it.
The woman behind the legend
Today, most of this knowledge is lost, but Maressia was born in
Novali, the only daughter to a couple living on the fringes of Novali society. Her mother Lunessia was a hunter and tanner, the only female in the region to take on the challenges of these professions. Novali society was very strict on which professions were acceptable to men or women, and for people like Lunessia, who weren't willing to follow that, life was hard. Her mother strove to become a huntress and tanner to prove the males wrong who exptected women to adhere to the traditional gender roles of women staying at home, raising children and sticking to feminine professions.
Novali men shunned women like Lunessia, calling her not-woman, someone who had lost the privilege of being a woman and could not dream to accepted in a male role. Her father Marcello was foreign seaman who fell in love with the strong Lunessia, and they settled on the Novali coast, with Marcello working as a fisherman. From an early age Maressia helped her parents with skinning and tanning, becoming quite adept with daggers. All of this made her family outsiders among the xenophobe society of Novali and made it even easier for her to leave her native country behind.
In her youth she was a prodigy with the traditional bow of her people, but barely touched one ever since she went out to sea. Instead, she became an impeccable shot with the pistol. Besides the pistol and bow, her favorite weapon was the dagger. She knew how to play the transverse flute, and legends claim that when stalking her prey, she used her flute to invoke the fog. to this day, sailors get nervous when the fog rolls in and indadvertently start to listen for faint melodies dancing on the whispy threads of fog.
Finn, her companion, was the youngest of the clutch and the weakest, considered useless for the hunt due to a slight wing deformation. Maressia insisted on raising him and miraculously, he grew out of his deformed wing and turned into an incredibly strong companion. Again, there is no shortage of theories regarding Finn's real nature.
She never spoke about it, but she became a pirate to destroy everything and everyone that ruined her lover. She promised herself to avenge his wrongful death, banishing her emotions with pure power of will and turning herself into a cold, calculating strategist solely driven by her ratio. When she finally succeeded, Maressia City had become her home and she had come to enjoy the wild, free life on the seas with everything being ready for the taking. The thrill of the hunt kept her out at sea for the rest of her life.
Nothing is known about her death, and of course many take it as a sign that she never died and instead is lying in wait to strike again. When and why that will be is another question no one has been able to answer satisfyingly.
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