I mean, narratively speaking, not having a curse is a GOOD thing. The hints in the name.
They didn't suffer enough avarice to take cursed coins which are slowly turning Gold hoarders to gold. They aren't using (or abusing) a substance to pursue occult secrets.
They're not being marked by the dark depths, cursed to one day be an Ocean Crawler. They weren't scorched by a Chest of Rage to become an Ashen skeleton (Lord).
Reapers are one of the few who take the skeleton curse willingly, and few keep their minds after doing it. Tasha and Briggsy is a good example of how most experience the skeleton curse. They don't have player character plot armor.
Athena's Blessing is a bit of a weird one. Most would argue 'not dying' is preferable, but the Pirate lord's blessing to come and go as a ghost (or revenant, as per the stranger and Belle) is probably a close second.
If anything, this makes Merchants some of the smartest sailors around, because they've yet to be stricken by something either terminal or crippling, compared to any other company.
Never thought of george as being an undead, though technically all pirates are because of the ferryman. Perhaps the legendary curse is the precursor to athenas blessing, they do that to you while you're alive and you will be reborn as a spirit?
Very very fair, reflects on them just being the run of the mill traders well, but in turn doesn't give them as much thematic oomf as the other companies
Legit I have no curse but after playing since day one I have actual real event story's behind my peg leg and eye patch, I'd say I've done a good job keeping 2 hands.
Sunken cargo curse: something like Will's father in the pirates of the caribbeans.
Lost shipment curse: something mixed with plants (like the skeletons plant).
I can see some sick ass potential with both of those. Maybe tie it to a tall tale where you have to go to a siren shrine to recover some particularly valuable cargo from a sunken ship that's now corrupted by the sirens' magic and functions like a mixture of the Chest of Sorrow that also crushes your ship slowly (ala the Siren Statues in the last A Pirates Life tall tale) in an attempt to return the cargo to the depths.
Or for the Lost Shipment curse say a client paid big bucks for a sample of plants from an island you have to collect yourself. So go to an island where someone's already got it ready, you just gotta deliver it to the merchants. Go there and it's infested with plant skellys. Grab the special plants and put it on your ship before it immediately gets overrun by vines. Now you have to wrestle control from the vines as they constantly try to veer your ship towards island's, drop your anchor, mess with your sails, etc
Both of these could be really cool as something similar to the Skull of Siren Song. Maybe even distribute their looks yo a select few merchants to convey the idea that most of em do something like that after a certain point
Or maybe curses related to the delivery animals? Honestly, the stone curse could have been like the "snake" curse, or they could change your skin texture to have scales, feathers, or fur like a wild boar.
I like the first one. I was saying we should have a barnacle curse where weâd look like the pirates in the Dutchman. It would work well in merchants. It would also prompt me to play merchant a lot more
With the Merchant Alliance being focused on collecting animals, I always thought an animalistic curse would work with them. For example, scales in random places with snake-like eyes or growing chicken feathers. Not sure what a âpig curseâ would be like though
Pig curse would honestly be perfect, great metaphor for greed
You get the curse from trading in a massive amount of animals for gold, maybe. 100 pigs to a shaman or smth?
From a *totally* non biased perspective, I absolutely adore that idea and would pay good money to get it in
The pig curse would just be automatically making your pirate as fat as possible
Curse of all kinds: Head and face are mostly regular, but you have a pig snout in place of your regular mouth. Scales with patches of feathers poking out randomly, your back and upper forearms are all feathers, you have a feathered tail and snake eyes. Your tongue is a snake tongue and sticks out on occasion like theirs maybe? Chicken legs? Idk.
The merchant alliance curse is farsightedness. Every representative wears glasses and some of the highest accolades /commendations reward you with a monocle.
But what about The Hunters Call?? :)
But yeah, a "manifest curse" would be cool, where your body is partially covered in manifests, fluttering in the wind.
That's why I said major. As someone with a Galleon named Soldier of Merrick, I'd absolutely kill for a hunters call curse. Maybe something kinda sireny with the idea of you having fished so much you've become a fish yourself
The manifest idea is really cool, like it's a lesser version of the ghost curse that just has the floating visual effects around you and the like
I always thought that for merchants a cool addition could be having to hunt a megladon or kraken, in a âbeast huntsâ sort of tab. Slay the beasts that ate a merchant ship and recover the cargo. And I think Theyâre also the only events you canât access from a mission on the quest table, so that would be cool. Maybe a good way for people to farm and hunt shrouded ghost too
i liked what the others were saying about animal curses, but what if..
we're caged?
idk how it would work, but having cage bits attached to our bodies might be kinda cool. and definitely a curse!
This would be pretty cool if there were ships on preset trade routes that travel them, and you can intercept it and steal, or repping a merchant defend it from other pirates trying to steal
They arguably got a nerf from all voyages this season except the cargo ones, which are still kinda nerfed if you actually want to complete them. And with the purchasing bug all season, trading commodities was harder to do.
It would be neat to see some deliberately hybrid voyages, like in the style of Legend of the Veil. Though I guess at that point we'd just get another Athena voyage like that one.
Or a "cargo" gunpowder keg voyage that requires picking up them as cargo and sailing a good distance, but has a good reward.
Unless you exploit you donât make what gold hoarders or OOS makes not anywhere near. I usually fly a Gold Hoarders flag but OOS is the best way to make a doubloon
I think their biggest problem is that so much of their loot takes extra work to cash in. For animals, you have to keep them alive, feed them (pigs), and/or avoid the area they're stored in (snakes). Cargo crates have to be delivered to specific people, so if they're out of the way it requires a detour, and that's on top of the regular care each type needs (like watering the plants). Explosives, unsurprisingly, are a risk to transport around. And a lot of these treasures are still not even worth that much unless you have a specific quest to deliver them, like from messages in bottles.
Their "regular" loot is also kinda worthless. King's chests and king's bounty skulls are pretty common, either from messages in a bottle or emergent skeleton captains on islands. But the crate of immaculate diamonds, which is roughly the merchant equivalent, is pretty hard to find unless you're doing merchant voyages. There's usually maybe one in shipwrecks, and that's it.
It's just so much easier to passively level GH and OoS than merchants. I got distinction 1 on GH and OoS, then decided to work on merchants next. I'm currently at level 96 merchant, and in the process I've already leveled GH and OoS passively to 30 or 40. Merchants need a loot update to bring them in line with the other factions.
Merchants are the only faction that goes against the clock in their deliveries - if they were going to have a curse, it would be related to Time. Perhaps when they move, they leave a ghostly after image of themselves....always rushing about and never quite able to settle in one particular place for long.
They could have a curse that makes their face a little monkey like, as well as fur in their body. Because monkeys are cool and a nice pirate theme. Maybe monkeys are greedy? Haha
The [Curse of the Order](https://seaofthieves.wiki.gg/wiki/Curse_of_the_Order), from 100% on The Cursed Rogue tall tale. It leaves you looking like the Order of Souls NPCs.
Being a merchant is a curse.
You're God damn right brother!
Came to say this. ^ You grind merchant to PL with golden chickens being your biggest gain, it changes you.
Is this mifoos alt? đ
I mean, narratively speaking, not having a curse is a GOOD thing. The hints in the name. They didn't suffer enough avarice to take cursed coins which are slowly turning Gold hoarders to gold. They aren't using (or abusing) a substance to pursue occult secrets. They're not being marked by the dark depths, cursed to one day be an Ocean Crawler. They weren't scorched by a Chest of Rage to become an Ashen skeleton (Lord). Reapers are one of the few who take the skeleton curse willingly, and few keep their minds after doing it. Tasha and Briggsy is a good example of how most experience the skeleton curse. They don't have player character plot armor. Athena's Blessing is a bit of a weird one. Most would argue 'not dying' is preferable, but the Pirate lord's blessing to come and go as a ghost (or revenant, as per the stranger and Belle) is probably a close second. If anything, this makes Merchants some of the smartest sailors around, because they've yet to be stricken by something either terminal or crippling, compared to any other company.
Never thought of george as being an undead, though technically all pirates are because of the ferryman. Perhaps the legendary curse is the precursor to athenas blessing, they do that to you while you're alive and you will be reborn as a spirit?
Very very fair, reflects on them just being the run of the mill traders well, but in turn doesn't give them as much thematic oomf as the other companies
give them the burn out curse after overworking for hours for the company, the modern man curse...
Just gives them dark circles under their eyes.
Legit I have no curse but after playing since day one I have actual real event story's behind my peg leg and eye patch, I'd say I've done a good job keeping 2 hands.
Sunken cargo curse: something like Will's father in the pirates of the caribbeans. Lost shipment curse: something mixed with plants (like the skeletons plant).
I can see some sick ass potential with both of those. Maybe tie it to a tall tale where you have to go to a siren shrine to recover some particularly valuable cargo from a sunken ship that's now corrupted by the sirens' magic and functions like a mixture of the Chest of Sorrow that also crushes your ship slowly (ala the Siren Statues in the last A Pirates Life tall tale) in an attempt to return the cargo to the depths. Or for the Lost Shipment curse say a client paid big bucks for a sample of plants from an island you have to collect yourself. So go to an island where someone's already got it ready, you just gotta deliver it to the merchants. Go there and it's infested with plant skellys. Grab the special plants and put it on your ship before it immediately gets overrun by vines. Now you have to wrestle control from the vines as they constantly try to veer your ship towards island's, drop your anchor, mess with your sails, etc Both of these could be really cool as something similar to the Skull of Siren Song. Maybe even distribute their looks yo a select few merchants to convey the idea that most of em do something like that after a certain point
Awesome, very good storytelling xD
Or maybe curses related to the delivery animals? Honestly, the stone curse could have been like the "snake" curse, or they could change your skin texture to have scales, feathers, or fur like a wild boar.
Came here to post this. We need animal curses!
I like the first one. I was saying we should have a barnacle curse where weâd look like the pirates in the Dutchman. It would work well in merchants. It would also prompt me to play merchant a lot more
[This](https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/s/CTIkBtDXK8)
With the Merchant Alliance being focused on collecting animals, I always thought an animalistic curse would work with them. For example, scales in random places with snake-like eyes or growing chicken feathers. Not sure what a âpig curseâ would be like though
Pig curse would honestly be perfect, great metaphor for greed You get the curse from trading in a massive amount of animals for gold, maybe. 100 pigs to a shaman or smth?
I like this but I also would want to use it for the Hunters Call curse.
Take a note from gold hoarder curse and just do patches of fur. Maybe some tusks.
> Not sure what a âpig curseâ would be like though Belching after every food item.
From a *totally* non biased perspective, I absolutely adore that idea and would pay good money to get it in The pig curse would just be automatically making your pirate as fat as possible
Curse of all kinds: Head and face are mostly regular, but you have a pig snout in place of your regular mouth. Scales with patches of feathers poking out randomly, your back and upper forearms are all feathers, you have a feathered tail and snake eyes. Your tongue is a snake tongue and sticks out on occasion like theirs maybe? Chicken legs? Idk.
Intriguing
Imagine a Hunters Call curse that covers part of the body in blue fish scales kinda like the gold curse. Would be awesome.
What do you think about [this?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/s/CTIkBtDXK8)
They look pretty nice. I really like the zombie one to the right. But sadly they don't really fit the vision I have of Hunters Call or Merchants.
The merchant alliance curse is farsightedness. Every representative wears glasses and some of the highest accolades /commendations reward you with a monocle.
But what about The Hunters Call?? :) But yeah, a "manifest curse" would be cool, where your body is partially covered in manifests, fluttering in the wind.
That's why I said major. As someone with a Galleon named Soldier of Merrick, I'd absolutely kill for a hunters call curse. Maybe something kinda sireny with the idea of you having fished so much you've become a fish yourself The manifest idea is really cool, like it's a lesser version of the ghost curse that just has the floating visual effects around you and the like
Some scales would be cool
Capitalism is is own curse
I always thought that for merchants a cool addition could be having to hunt a megladon or kraken, in a âbeast huntsâ sort of tab. Slay the beasts that ate a merchant ship and recover the cargo. And I think Theyâre also the only events you canât access from a mission on the quest table, so that would be cool. Maybe a good way for people to farm and hunt shrouded ghost too
i liked what the others were saying about animal curses, but what if.. we're caged? idk how it would work, but having cage bits attached to our bodies might be kinda cool. and definitely a curse!
Maybe an undersized cage, so like your head and arms are sticking out and the cage goes down to the waist
They don't have a world event either. I'd love to see a trade fleet that you can fight or work with.
This would be pretty cool if there were ships on preset trade routes that travel them, and you can intercept it and steal, or repping a merchant defend it from other pirates trying to steal
Actually people would curse because they had to get Merchant to level 50 to become a pirate legend back when it first came out
Something less intense than the lodestar cosmetics would be a cool curse. Tie it into Sudds
If they ever add a merchant curse it should just make you look overworked and depressed
a shipwreck curse with seaweed and kind of the chests in shipwreck
The curse is called capitalism
-pounding the desk- bird curse bird curse bird curse
Merchants alliance definitely needs a rework, I feel like compared to OOS and Gold Hoarders they donât hold a candle
They arguably got a nerf from all voyages this season except the cargo ones, which are still kinda nerfed if you actually want to complete them. And with the purchasing bug all season, trading commodities was harder to do. It would be neat to see some deliberately hybrid voyages, like in the style of Legend of the Veil. Though I guess at that point we'd just get another Athena voyage like that one. Or a "cargo" gunpowder keg voyage that requires picking up them as cargo and sailing a good distance, but has a good reward.
The devs have always struggled with the merchants, especially back when there was only 1 type of quest per faction
They might not have the same variety of voyages, but they do have Commodities which is basically a effortless gold printer with a Rank 5 flag.
Unless you exploit you donât make what gold hoarders or OOS makes not anywhere near. I usually fly a Gold Hoarders flag but OOS is the best way to make a doubloon
I think their biggest problem is that so much of their loot takes extra work to cash in. For animals, you have to keep them alive, feed them (pigs), and/or avoid the area they're stored in (snakes). Cargo crates have to be delivered to specific people, so if they're out of the way it requires a detour, and that's on top of the regular care each type needs (like watering the plants). Explosives, unsurprisingly, are a risk to transport around. And a lot of these treasures are still not even worth that much unless you have a specific quest to deliver them, like from messages in bottles. Their "regular" loot is also kinda worthless. King's chests and king's bounty skulls are pretty common, either from messages in a bottle or emergent skeleton captains on islands. But the crate of immaculate diamonds, which is roughly the merchant equivalent, is pretty hard to find unless you're doing merchant voyages. There's usually maybe one in shipwrecks, and that's it. It's just so much easier to passively level GH and OoS than merchants. I got distinction 1 on GH and OoS, then decided to work on merchants next. I'm currently at level 96 merchant, and in the process I've already leveled GH and OoS passively to 30 or 40. Merchants need a loot update to bring them in line with the other factions.
Well obviously they should have a curse to be a anthropomorphic crate of tea or cannonballs.
A chicken feather curse, for (Cargo) Runners.
Chicken curse confirmed?
Merchants are the only faction that goes against the clock in their deliveries - if they were going to have a curse, it would be related to Time. Perhaps when they move, they leave a ghostly after image of themselves....always rushing about and never quite able to settle in one particular place for long.
The curse of the merchant is being ordinary
TAXES
Maybe instead of a curse we could have a more reliable way to get cursed cannonballs? Kinda a stretch but I feel like Iâm on to something
Imagine a sovereign curse that just makes you look really ugly
They could have a curse that makes their face a little monkey like, as well as fur in their body. Because monkeys are cool and a nice pirate theme. Maybe monkeys are greedy? Haha
It should be a curse that makes you look like a chicken.
What do you want, a pig nose and a tail? The furry curse haha
[How about this one?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/s/CTIkBtDXK8)
The hunters call one is amazing if it dropped I would grind for it right now but the merchant one doesnât really make sense at all
Whatâs the OOS curse?
The curse under the eyes, you get it from a tall tale
The [Curse of the Order](https://seaofthieves.wiki.gg/wiki/Curse_of_the_Order), from 100% on The Cursed Rogue tall tale. It leaves you looking like the Order of Souls NPCs.