Dante Vellasco



Even amongst the cruelty and barbarism of pirates, Dante Vellasco stands apart. With his jet black skin and prodigious girth, there are few who don't recognize the captain of the Despair, and even fewer who don't stand aside to let him pass.



Hailing from a small island somewhere in the southeast of Sirrion, the earliest reports of Vellasco were of a hard-hearted bosun serving aboard the Calamity. It is believed that the joy of torture was taught to Vellasco by the captain of the Calamity, a Sarnian by the name of Harlan Graves. Numerous stories have circulated about the atrocities committed on the Calamity under the guise of discipline; sailors who were partially flayed about the back and arms, yet still forced to work. Bones and joints intentionally broken and reset at odd angles to create shambling grotesques. Men driven mad with hunger to the point of self cannibalism. Each tale introduced a new level of depravity, and at the center of every one was the sadistic Dante Vellasco.



Captain Graves had served for years as one of the more unpopular Council Lords of the Stormsworn Brotherhood. When he was found with his throat slit in his own cabin aboard the Calamity, no one was very much surprised. However, when Vellasco presented himself to the Council Lords with a document naming himself as Graves' successor, written and sealed by the captain's hand, rumors began to spread. When Graves' former first mate, Cyril Bentley, challenged the document, accusations flew. And when Bentley was found crawling around the docks of Raven's Watch with his eyes, fingers, and jaw missing, dissenting voices were silenced. Vellasco graciously accepted his former captain's seat among the Council Lords.



Standing around five and a half feet tall and weighing nearly 350 pounds, Vellasco commands an intimidating presence. What he lacks in speed and agility he more than makes up for in strength and brutality. He has a particular affinity for firearms, and an accuracy to match. Seldom is he seen not wearing several braces of pistols, and in battle he is known to carry as many as eight or ten at once. His first mate, Galen the Fair, serves as a walking armory, carrying spare pistols and refilling Vellasco's hands as quickly as he requires.



When taking prizes, Vellasco is known to be cunning and deceitful. One particularly cruel ruse has seen him disguise the Despair as a plague ship, outfitting his crew in rags and hanging yellow lanterns over the hull. When a kind-hearted merchant vessel offers to send over food or water, the Despair attacks, taking her prey unaware. While a despicable tactic to be sure, recent reports of Calanian Man-O-War's opening fire on innocent plague ships adds a bitter irony to the tales.



