Black Opal

Azure
Black Opal was originally founded in July (?), 2003, by Sparrow. Sparrow was a trading alt of Bronchitis, a high-ranking member of Mad Mutineers and of their flag at that time, Old Spice (Azure). Originally envisioned as a trading arm of Old Spice, recruited officers quickly gave the crew its own identity. Since Sparrow was not played often enough to warrant the Captaincy, within a few weeks of its founding, the active officer Blair was made its Captain.

Captain Blair, a young, spirited mate, had a knack for recruiting inquisitive folk. The early officers of Black Opal set to trying to figure out the game mechanics and always challenged the conventional wisdom of how to best play the relatively new puzzles.

Since Black Opal grew so quickly, and since Sparrow was completely inactive at this point, the crew lost sight of its primordial ties to Old Spice. Indeed, while most knew that Blair did not found the crew, few (if any) besides him knew the history of its first days. Lacking contacts in Old Spice, unaware of how to become involved at the flag level, discontent grew. Eventually, the first Treasure Hunt pushed tensions to their limits. Black Opal, called upon to serve her flag, aided in the hunt on Mad Mutineer ships. Disagreement as to how the actual engagement of the treasure ship was to be handled led a few weeks later to Black Opal's secession from her flag.

In the mean-time, Blair became strained by a crew which had grown too large and willful for his leadership and his own loyalty to Old Spice, the flag he'd originally joined. Rather than let this strain affect the crew, which had become rather close, he resigned his captaincy to Piscator. Piscator, already a defining and driving force in the flag, continued his work with new authority.

The rapid growth of Black Opal did not come easily. A group of pirates, upset with internal squabbles and largly incompatible time zones between players, quietly split off via alts to form Yellow Turbans and Red Shift, flying the flag of Sanctioned Insanity.

One morning, Piscator logged in at ~7:42 AM, and never logged in again. There were several Senior Officers, so most crew business could continue as usual in his absence. The inability to raise new SOs in a young crew and to affect crew-level changes (such as changing the share distribution and leaving Old Spice) necessitated a new Captain, though. On 24 September 2003, Cleaver intervened to promote atteSmythe to Captain. In a policy meeting that evening, Black Opal left Old Spice to rejoin her bretheren in Sanctioned Insanity.