Brigand King

Brigand Kings (abbreviated BK) are special brigands encountered during a corresponding expedition. During the melee the normal swordfight puzzle background is replaced with a special "Brigand King!" background. Once the battle ends the Brigand King's ship disappears immediately. Barbarian Kings behave exactly like Brigand Kings, except they display  during sea battle, rumble during the melee, and use a "Barbarian King!" background.



Defeating a Brigand King provides a special trinket particular to that king. These trinkets can be held in portraits. The trinkets are inscribed with the message, "Ransomed by  to  on ." Every experienced player1 aboard will receive the same type of trinket, but they may be different colors. Trinkets may be exchanged for eggs at a trading post.

1 ''On doubloon oceans, the player must be holding at least a Pirate badge. On subscription oceans, the player must be subscribed.''

Note: While there have been posts in the forum done under the guise of the Brigand Kings, these are unofficial postings made by players that are not Ocean Masters or any other Three Rings staff and are not approved.

List of Brigand/Barbarian Kings
 Brigand Kings 

Azarbad the Great

Barnabas the Pale

 Barbarian Kings 

Vargas the Mad

 Both Barbarian and Brigand Kings 

Admiral Finius

Brynhild Skullsplitter

Gretchen Goldfang

Madam Yu Jian

The Widow Queen

Brigand King's flotilla
Flotillas will be constant nodes of Brigand King focus. BK flotillas appear at random locations around the ocean; however, a Brigand King ruling an island will not have a flotilla. New flotillas have been observed to appear on Thursdays around Noon game time. A flotilla in a region means the likely target of the Brigand King is nearby, however BKs have been known to drop on islands in other nearby archipelagos if there are no targets near their flotilla.

Should a flotilla not be defeated in time, the Brigand King will declare a blockade on a nearby island. These BK drops occur around noon game time on Thursdays and the subsequent blockade occurs the weekend following the drop, giving the defending island 2 or 3 days to prepare. A scheduled BK blockade also closes an island to player blockades. The flotilla will also remain on the ocean following a BK blockade declaration, and if left alone long enough can drop on a second target.

Any number of players on any number of ships may attack the forces of the BK in a continuous flotilla battle board. Ships may come and go, like a blockade. Sinking a BK's supply ships puts treasure on the board for hauling. Sinking a sufficient quantity of the "green" supply ships forces the BK to relocate his/her flotilla elsewhere, removing the threat from the local islands.

Brigand King's ship
Encountering a Brigand King ship on the open ocean will happen much as it does now. However, if you are a royal of the flag that owns the ship, you get a scuttling prompt on victory. Whether you scuttle or not, the crew gets prizes and booty. If the scuttling flag controls an island, the BK will declare a blockade as retaliation. As with a flotilla drop, flags are given a minimum of one week to prepare for the blockade.

This does not directly affect the Brigand King's flotilla in any way. It indirectly affects his flotilla in two ways:
 * The flotilla signifies a threat to nearby islands, but if the BK is attacking a provoking flag, he is not attacking islands.
 * If a BK claims an island, his flotilla goes to port there.

What happens when a Brigand King takes an island

 * The shop news is reset to a BK-specific rant in every palace room, bazaar, and government building. (The shop news at the island market cannot be reset except by OM intervention) Island news on the events tab is also changed.


 * Taxes are set to 100%


 * All PoE in the palace, estate agent, and construction site coffers before the BK took over vanishes never to be seen again, but all commodities in the hold remain. The PoE is removed without an accompanying entry in the building records. Interestingly, PoE deposited in the bank coffers is untouched.


 * Managers at the palace and gov't buildings are fired


 * (unconfirmed) Any tax revenue PoE gathered during the BK's tenure remains in the coffers, and IS transferred when the island governor changes.


 * New buy offers are enabled for all commodity types, regardless of what settings the governor had in place. BKs set the buy price to tax*10*0.90 and the sell price to tax*10*1.10.


 * Construction sites are wiped out, no matter what stage of progress they were in.

Amassed power
"Power" is a rough measurement of how large the forces a Brigand King has gathered to blockade the island of their choice. Amassed Power can be viewed by looking, on the blockades section of the notice board, at the number of ships that appear after the name of the Brigand King's flag, but before the symbol showing that they are attacking. The Power will also be shown when a BK is defending an island. While originally believed to be related to the number of ships sunk in the associated BK's flotilla prior to a drop, this is not the case. The economy of an island appears to have more effect on the strength of the BK attack.

It is said that power goes down after a period of time when holding an island, however the power can go either up or down while a king is holding an island.

Specially-named ships
Brigand King ships have been observed to use a different naming convention than brigand vessels. A List of known Brigand King ship name adjectives is available.

Historical notes

 * With, Old salts no longer gave information about Brigand King encounters at sea.
 * The artwork for Vargas the Mad was missing until . Players who encountered him at sea would see an error message instead of his face.
 * Azarbad the Great didn't appear on the oceans until the.