BEWARE CURSES!
Curses. At their simplest, they're just bad words that make people feel bad (or have no effect at all, if you're as thick-skinned as my dear Bel). But on the Sea of Thieves, a curse is something else; a touch of darkness that twists and corrupts what it touches. After our brush with Flameheart's accursed chest, I started taking into these things more seriously.
Nobody really knows the origins of curses, but it seems to me that they start when someone feels something so strong that it can't be undone. Usually it's hate, or rage, or even deep sadness. With magic being in the very air on the Sea of Thieves (so I believe anyway), sometimes these thoughts get... stuck on stuff. Like, a cherished pendant, or a weapon. A ship, even.
Those with the mystical know-how can place a curse on purpose. The Order of Souls seem to think so. And maybe they'll just be a nuisance like those chests that make you feel drunk, or maybe they'll be more serious like treasure that turns your fingers gold.
But now and then, they're much worse. Especially the very old ones, because like my auntie Flo, they only get meaner with time. Some curses seem to have a life of their own, spreading from thing to thing or changing the people they touch in their very soul. They can kill a person, or prevent death... or both at once, which terrifies me. That's how folks lose their minds and sure, they gain strange powers, but it's not worth it. I hope if I ever become a skelly and lose myself, my wife will come and smash my skull into smithereens.
Be careful what you mess with, pirates. Don't go thinking that you can handle a curse without paying the price.
This is the text from a page that is technically part of the Tales From the Sea of Thieves lore book, and is one of Nine Cat Nura's Lost Pages. The original place to find this page from the book can be found in the news section of the site here. You can also find another link to just the page itself here.
- My Archive of Lore Related Texts (Just like this one)
(Sorry for the long title)
