Born: 1665, County Tyrone, Ireland
Origin: Gaelic farmland, Ulster (Kingdom of Ireland under English dominion)
Affiliations: Jacobite forces (former), The Graveyard Rose (press-ganged), The Night Wind
Titles: “Torch” (nickname, former), defector of Salvadore’s crew
Languages: Irish Gaelic (native), English (limited literacy), smatterings of French and Greek from shipboard life
Notable For: Defection during the fall of The Graveyard Rose, survival of Jacobite exile, druidic ties

Once a defender of Catholic Ireland during the early collapse of James II’s reign, Ceiran’s life unraveled after the accelerated Glorious Revolution of 1688. Fleeing his homeland in guilt, he was later press-ganged into the crew of the slaver vessel The Graveyard Rose, where he witnessed horrors and eventually turned on his captors.

Now dwelling in Tortuga, Ceiran is a free man outwardly—but one driven by ghosts, guilt, and the quiet weight of broken oaths. He is a man of few words, grounded in old ways, and guided by instincts older than doctrine.

Early Life (1665–1688)

Ceiran was born into a poor but tightly knit farming family in County Tyrone, within a small Gaelic-speaking village surrounded by ancient groves and bogland. His early years were shaped by a deep connection to nature, fostered by his grandmother, a druidic herbalist and spiritual guide for the local community. She taught Ceiran the wisdom of the trees, the omens in animal cries, and the subtle energies that pass between earth, moon, and man.

Ceiran was one of four siblings—two older brothers and one younger sister. His father, Lorcan O’Niell, was a quiet and devout man who held fast to his faith and land through multiple purges and land seizures. Lorcan raised his sons on stories of the old Gaelic order and instilled in them a deep loyalty to Ireland. Ceiran’s mother, Maire, was known in the district for her fierce intelligence and sharp tongue. A village healer with deep knowledge of herbs and druidic traditions, she was both respected and feared—especially by those who whispered that she practiced the “old ways.” Both of his parents died from illness when Ceiran was young. Ceiran believes their deaths were brought about by new illnesses spread by the “filthy” English attempting to invade and settle Irish lands.

Although outwardly Catholic, Ceiran belonged to a family with deep roots in Druidic culture, his grandmother being a notable religious leader of their village. Ceiran was the unnamed heir to this responsibility, being trained by his grandmother in the ways of Druidic culture, lore, and the responsibilities of a wise leader. But as the war engulfed Ireland, Ceiran instead chose to dedicate himself to the resistance.

The Williamite War (1688–1689)

Ceiran’s involvement with the Jacobite cause began not with open battle, but with tragedy. In the spring of 1688, during the political collapse of James II’s reign, local violence spread through Ulster as Protestant militias and pro-William settlers seized towns and retaliated against known Jacobite supporters. Ceiran’s two older brothers, Padraig and Eamon, joined the Jacobite militia earlier than he did and were both presumed killed in action during the early months of the conflict—one at the Siege of Derry, the other in a skirmish in County Cavan. Their absence left Ceiran and his younger sister Brigid alone with their aging grandmother.

With his brothers lost and his home threatened, Ceiran vowed vengeance. In the summer of 1689, he joined a guerrilla resistance cell operating in the borderlands between counties Tyrone and Fermanagh. Armed with little more than hunting spears and salvaged muskets, the group conducted ambushes on supply lines and sabotaged Protestant supply convoys headed for Derry and Enniskillen. Ceiran served as a scout and field medic, using his naturalistic training to track patrols, patch wounds with moss and poultices, and guide refugees through marsh and glen.

The campaign was brutal. Protestant militia raids escalated in spring, and Royalist command structures crumbled following the decisive defeat at the Battle of the Boyne in September 1688. As Williamite forces swept southward, Ceiran’s cell was ambushed near Omagh, leaving him wounded and cut off. With the Jacobite cause shattered and the countryside occupied, Ceiran made a desperate retreat through the forests of Connacht.

He was ultimately rescued by fleeing Jacobite agents loyal to James II, and taken south to the port of Waterford, where the remnants of the royal entourage were gathering under French naval protection. On the night of James’s departure, Ceiran boarded a French vessel bound for Brest, escaping Ireland in the final hours of the war alongside fellow survivors, exiles, and shattered nobles.

A Taste of French Hospitality (1688–1689)

Ceiran fled Ireland in the final days of the war, boarding a French vessel in Waterford as part of the same evacuation that spirited James II to safety. But the welcome he received in France bore little resemblance to the promises of Catholic solidarity whispered to the Jacobite ranks.

He disembarked at Brest as an exile—wounded, penniless, and grieving. While James and his noble retinue were escorted to Saint-Germain-en-Laye under royal protection, Ceiran and hundreds of other low-born Irish survivors were processed like livestock. He was interned in a damp barracks outside Saint-Malo, where Irish veterans were left to rot while French officials debated how many were worth arming, paying, or feeding.

Attempts to petition for aid or news of his family were rebuffed. Ceiran’s limited French, his coarse manners, and his refusal to kneel before lords he did not know marked him as a malcontent. When he attempted to confront a Jacobite officer about food withheld from the common soldiers, he was beaten and jailed for three days. One French officer called him “just another red-headed savage.”

At Saint-Germain, Ceiran sought entry to the royal court—hoping to plead his case, ask for news of his village, or at least hear a prayer in his native tongue. He was turned away at the gates. “Only gentlemen and officers of service,” a clerk told him, “not barefoot peasants.”

By the spring of 1689, Ceiran had given up hope that the crown he bled for would ever remember his name. Disillusioned and increasingly bitter, he left the refugee quarter and took to the harbors of La Rochelle, working odd jobs aboard smugglers’ sloops and cheap merchant craft. He no longer asked for help. He no longer expected fairness. He kept his name to himself, his face to the wind, and his weapons sharp.

That summer, one such vessel took him south along the Atlantic coast of Iberia, delivering illicit cargo to Cádiz—a cosmopolitan port where Spanish officials, French traffickers, and privateers all rubbed elbows. It was there, among the back alleys of the wharfside markets, that Ceiran disappeared.

Witnesses later claimed he was taken by force after a dispute over wages; others say he was sold by the very captain who’d hired him. Either way, when the brigantine Graveyard Rose slipped from Cádiz harbor days later, Ceiran O’Niell was shackled in its hold.

Captivity Aboard The Graveyard Rose (Summer 1689)

Ceiran spent nearly a year aboard The Graveyard Rose, a pirate-slaver vessel infamous for its trafficking in arcane and magically sensitive individuals. Though not formally trained as a spellcaster, Ceiran’s druidic heritage and animal affinity earned him unwanted attention from the crew. He was mocked as “Torch” for his red hair and temper, and beaten regularly by officers and senior mates who suspected he was hiding magical abilities.

He became protective of those imprisoned around him, particularly the wounded and untrained. Over time, he developed a grudging respect for Alethea Argyros and Santiago, though he kept his distance. Despite the cruelty of his captivity, Ceiran never submitted. He watched. He remembered names. He endured.

Defection and the Fall of The Rose (1689)

Ceiran played a key role in The Graveyard Rose‘s downfall. During a raid off the coast of Crete, he seized the moment of chaos to sabotage the crew, fight off slavers, and protect both Alethea and imprisoned innocents. His intervention prevented several deaths and earned him clemency from the crew that overthrew Captain Salvadore. While The Rose escaped, Ceiran did not.

His actions were not born from loyalty to the rescuers—but from a deeper instinct: that no one else should die under that flag again.

Life in Tortuga (April, 1690)

Ceiran arrived in Tortuga in early 1690 aboard the privateer vessel that had taken him in. There, amid the fog-choked streets and salt-hung taverns, he began a life on the edge of obscurity, working as a dockhand and mercenary when needed, earning coin by callused hands and quiet labor.

Though not a mage, Ceiran’s spiritual intuition and druidic upbringing make him sensitive to unnatural forces. He is wary of magic, especially the kind that takes control, and has no love for those who exploit others through it. His nightmares still echo with thunder and chains, and though he walks free, he remains—as ever—haunted.

First Adventure Aboard the Night Wind

On the night of April 20, 1690, during an unnatural twenty-four-hour rainstorm that engulfed Port Cayonne, Ceiran found himself sitting in The Raven tavern, focused more on his food and drink than the commotion around him. When the legendary Captain Scarlette Jane strode through the doors, her presence commanded the room—but Ceiran remained more interested in his meal than theatrics. The pirate captain bought drinks for the house and delivered an impassioned speech about wealth and wonder, offering riches to those bold enough to join her voyage. Despite his initial disinterest, Ceiran accepted the offer, joining a ragtag crew that included Alethea Argyros, Corlissandro de Villanueva, David, Gestra, Chester, and Sabine.

Scarlette revealed their destination: the temple of the goddess Circe, where they would retrieve a powerful artifact called Calypso’s Heart. She warned them of deadly trials ahead—a hall of mirrors, siren-like temptations, and powerful wards—and distributed beeswax balls to protect against siren song. Each crew member received a magical sigil branded onto their hand: a black dot with intricate runes that prevented violence among the crew and offered protection against Circe’s transformative magic. Scarlette stressed one absolute rule: no fire or lights during passage through the Phantom Sea, the supernatural waters that surrounded Circe’s hidden island.

As the Night Wind departed Tortuga, the ship seemed magically aware, responding to those aboard with arcane energy unfurling the sails. Ceiran struggled to maintain his footing as the vessel jolted into the Phantom Sea, the sudden transition throwing several crew members off balance. The waters beyond were unlike anything he had known—lightless, soundless, an expanse that strained the mind and revealed hidden fears.

On the second day of their voyage, Ceiran joined Alethea and Gestra in the galley where Scarlette allowed a tiny blue light to pierce the oppressive darkness. The captain asked how the three had come together, and while Alethea carefully edited their history, Ceiran remained mostly silent, allowing his companions to shape the narrative. Scarlette offered the Haitian saying, “Se apre batay ou konte blese—It is after the battle that we count the wounded,” acknowledging their shared experience of survival.

Later that night, the ship rocked violently from an unseen force beneath the waves. Ceiran joined the crew in desperate attempts to stabilize the rigging and save the vessel from capsizing, making crucial checks to secure ropes and prevent disaster. A massive bioluminescent sea serpent swam beneath the hull, its glowing scales visible in the perpetual darkness, but it made no move to attack.

During Ceiran’s watch on the fourth night, numbing cold gripped his fingers as ice and mist thickened around the ship. At first, his senses failed him—the cold had dulled his perception—but then he heard them: knocking and clicking sounds echoing from around the vessel. Peering over the railing, Ceiran discovered a horrifying sight: approximately one hundred wooden coffins floating in the dark waters, completely surrounding the Night Wind. The lids began popping open in sequence, revealing decayed faces and skeletal hands reaching desperately toward the ship.

A woman’s or child’s wailing cry pierced the silence, and Ceiran felt a wave of overwhelming sadness and grief wash over him, though he resisted through sheer force of will. Then came a voice—distorted, inhuman, yet unmistakable—calling his name. It was his grandmother’s voice. The bloody, wounded specter of the woman who had trained him in the druidic ways appeared on deck, crawling toward him and begging for help in a scene that created genuine psychological trauma. As Ceiran backed away in horror, reaching the limit of his safety rope, the undead from the coffins began climbing toward the ship.

Recognizing the immediate danger to the entire crew, Ceiran overcame his terror and sounded the ship’s alarm, waking everyone below deck. Other crew members emerged to face their own personal apparitions: Gestra saw his deceased sister, David encountered a figure named Ysabel, and Alethea witnessed a mysterious ivy-crowned woman of Grecian appearance. Corlissandro saw an almost unrecognizable dead male figure who pointed at him and declared “soon”. The encounter reached its climax when the ivy-crowned woman demanded that Alethea “wake up” while slamming her sword down, causing all the apparitions to suddenly vanish.

When the crew regained their senses, they discovered that while the coffins, undead, and ghostly figures had disappeared, physical evidence remained: distinct footprints pressed into the frost covering the deck proved the supernatural encounter was more than mere hallucination.

On the fifth day, during David’s watch, the ship came under direct attack from four aboleth creatures—grotesque, fish-like aberrations that clung to the hull with their tentacles, secreting acid that began eating through the wooden structure. Ceiran cast Hunter’s Mark on one of the creatures, discovering it had no resistances to their attacks, then dealt devastating damage with his pistol while applying a slowing effect. Throughout the intense combat, Ceiran contributed ranged attacks and tactical support as the crew fought to defend the ship. When one of the aboleths attempted to flee under Scarlette’s supernatural command, Ceiran seized the opportunity and struck it down with a lethal blow. The battle left the ship damaged but intact, with several crew members suffering injuries from handling the toxic aboleth residue even after death.

On the sixth day, as the Night Wind approached its destination, a supernatural storm erupted around the vessel. A magical bell beneath the ocean summoned a massive whirlpool that threatened to destroy the ship. Ceiran contributed to the desperate efforts to save the vessel as Corlissandro rappelled down the storm-lashed hull to free the jammed rudder, and Alethea and Chester used magic to disrupt the bell’s power. Finally, Percy—the mysterious first mate who had remained detached throughout the voyage—levitated above the deck and used powerful weather magic to calm both the whirlpool and storm winds.

Circe’s Island (April 26-27, 1690)

Some hours after the supernatural storm cleared, an island materialized from nowhere—a tropical paradise that had not existed moments before. The crew disembarked onto pristine beach with warm sand and lush vegetation, though an eerie stillness pervaded the landscape with no wildlife movement and no apparent passage of time. Gestra cast Pass Without Trace to enhance the party’s stealth as they followed a marked path through the jungle to an ancient temple featuring Aztec and Mayan architectural styles mixed with Greek influences.

Inside the temple, the crew navigated through increasingly dark corridors until they reached a chamber containing multiple sarcophagi bearing divine inscriptions. When the party solved a riddle about love, guardian statues animated and moved apart, revealing a narrow passage. As they moved through the corridor, Ceiran remained watchful, his druidic instincts alert to the supernatural forces saturating this place.

The crew entered the notorious Hall of Mirrors, where Scarlette distributed protective coins—each containing a single ruby that would help distinguish reality from illusion. Inside the mirror maze, malevolent echoes of themselves appeared, attempting to break them through psychological torment. Ceiran’s echo called him “pathetic” for failing to save his home, his family, and his king. He heard wolves howling and forest fires crackling—the sounds of everything he had lost in Ireland. The reflection mocked his failures, his exile, his inability to protect those he loved.

But Ceiran had already made his choice years ago when he boarded that ship from Waterford. He had already counted his failures in the cold barracks of Saint-Malo and the back alleys of La Rochelle. He chose his own path forward rather than dwelling on past failures, rejecting the echo’s poison and emerging from the trial with an extra bonus action as his reward for overcoming the psychological warfare.

The Labyrinth

Following the explosive confrontation between Scarlette, Poseidon, and Circe—where Scarlette’s divine nature was revealed as she transformed into her voodoo form to battle the sea god—the party entered the Minotaur’s Labyrinth. Circe had offered two paths: kill the Minotaur for just Poseidon’s Eye, or solve the labyrinth puzzle to also rescue Scarlette’s captured crew. The party split into teams, with Ceiran initially joining “Team Shadow Murder Death” alongside Scarlette.

As they moved through the twisting stone corridors, Ceiran spotted altars laden with offerings—gold, bones, jewels, and stones of various kinds. His pragmatic nature surfaced as he questioned aloud who would come to place such offerings, suggesting they could take some since no one would miss them. Scarlette—the actual certified pirate—immediately warned against disturbing the goddess offerings, and Ceiran reluctantly agreed to leave them untouched.

When their group encountered Team Old Man in the maze, Scarlette made a tactical decision: Ceiran would be safer with Corlissandro’s larger group than continuing with her alone. Without ceremony, she activated her invisibility and departed, leaving Ceiran with Team Old Man. Corlissandro remained unaware he had adopted another member into his growing group.

Tensions flared when Chester—the young British artillerist—made a culturally insensitive comment about Ceiran coming from a “less civilized society,” describing the Minotaur as “a large leprechaun with horns”. Ceiran took offense at the mockery of his Irish heritage, and only Alethea’s quick intervention prevented the confrontation from escalating, ordering them to separate and forbidding them from talking to each other.

The situation turned dire when the Minotaur discovered Corlissandro’s string trail system, following it directly toward their position. Ceiran felt the string pull taut with tremendous force as the beast’s massive body rammed into it. Chester suggested cutting the cord behind them while he cast Grease to slow the Minotaur. Ceiran grabbed the string and cut it, then shouted “It’s coming. We got to go!” The necessary warning—yelled because Ceiran was furthest away—gave the Minotaur absolute certainty of their location.

As the beast closed in, Ceiran cast Jump on Chester, telling him to “get your civilized rear in gear and go,” allowing the young artillerist to spend ten feet of movement to jump thirty feet. Chester’s Grease spell worked perfectly, causing the charging Minotaur to slip and crash to the ground, buying the party precious seconds. During the desperate flight that followed, Ceiran maintained excellent stealth despite the pressure, consistently rolling high as the teams fled through the narrow corridors.

The teams systematically located all four obelisk keys, with Corlissandro discovering the final purple key and paying the blood price—one level of exhaustion—to unlock it. As they converged at the vault room, the Minotaur attacked in a fierce melee. When all four keys were placed into their rune-matched slots, the massive statue opened to reveal Poseidon’s Eye, which Gestra seized with exceptional fortitude. The instant the Eye was removed, the Minotaur vanished into smoke.

Poseidon and Circe manifested in the chamber. What followed shocked everyone: when Poseidon reached for his Eye, Scarlette intercepted it and—channeling her petro lwa Marie Duclair with blood tears streaming and white eyes blazing—held her personal athame against the artifact and forced the sea god to break Corlissandro’s unwanted warlock pact. The severance tore through Corlissandro with worse agony than death itself, and left Scarlette apparently stripped of her own patronage. Poseidon attempted to murder Corlissandro in retaliation, but Scarlette’s channeled deity blocked the god’s attack. Circe’s divine authority ended the confrontation, and in a blink, the party found themselves transported to the beach where the Night Wind waited.

Onward to Cyprus

As they sailed away from Circe’s island approximately twenty minutes underway, six crew members who had been cursed into swine mysteriously reappeared on the ship, dazed and confused. Five massive treasure chests materialized on deck, containing five thousand gold per person, spell scrolls, potions, and ancient relics. Ceiran received his share of the wealth, along with the spell scroll of Spiritual Weapon, a potion of greater healing, a potion of invisibility, and a pair of magical Shrouded Boots.

Scarlette admitted she had hired bodies expecting none to survive, but they proved her wrong. She distributed bottles of rare whiskey for celebration and offered them the choice to stay or depart at Cyprus.

Before the drinking began, Ceiran bonded with his companions. He joined Alethea and Gestra to marvel at a saga few would ever believe and fewer still would understand, concluding that people did not need to believe to love a tale. When asked whether to stay with Scarlette’s crew, Gestra expressed interest if arrangements could be made, while Ceiran simply said he had nothing better to do. The three pledged to stick together, acknowledging they were among their kind even if not among saints.

The night devolved into drunken chaos. Ceiran consumed over a bottle and a half of the potent whiskey—far exceeding his tolerance built on watered-down rum. His body betrayed him as he became poisoned for twenty-four hours, suffering disadvantage on all actions. In his inebriated state, he became tangled upside-down in the rigging outside the crow’s nest, requiring Sabine and Gestra to struggle to free him from the undignified predicament. Gestra eventually curled up asleep across Ceiran like “a living ballast,” while Ceiran remained sprawled on the deck in his drunken stupor.

Dawn came like a cannon blast, with Scarlette splashing faces and prodding the living back toward duty. Ceiran had no memory of how Chester ended up lashed to the mast, and the brutal hangover coupled with his ongoing intoxication made the morning a particular kind of suffering. He remained actively drunk well into the following day, still confused about events and unable to understand why everyone seemed to be talking so loud.

As the Night Wind set course for Cyprus, Ceiran recovered slowly, helped by Alethea shepherding water and food to the worst-afflicted crew members. The day belonged to sobering up and steady work, with the sobering reality that they had made an enemy of a god, lost and gained divine connections, and must now decide whether to continue sailing with the Blood Pirate toward whatever horizon awaited them.