The upcoming Skull and Bones appears to be a rather ambitious title coming from Ubisoft, with the game aiming to curate a large-scale multiplayer environment on the high seas. Despite possessing a long-term and shaky development process, a lot of hype and discourse surrounding the title still remains among anticipating fans.
The core theme and motif of Skull and Bones is that of old-school piracy, with players working their way up the pirate underworld as a determined pirate captain. From what little official material of the game exists, the infamous Jolly Roger flag has already featured quite heavily, with the contextual importance of the symbol being utterly massive within the history of naval piracy as a whole.
What is Already Known About Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones was originally announced all the way back in 2017, with the title sadly being marred by development difficulties and delays since this initial announcement. Developed and published by Ubisoft, the game was initially built upon the well-received open-world sailing mechanics of the pirate-centric Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, although consistent delays only saw this pre-existing software become outdated and only fostered further postponement.
The title itself is still set in an open world, now finally settling on a geographical setting inspired by the Indian Ocean, which was considered the global hotbed for naval piracy in the 1700s. With the player character eventually being able to control an entire fleet of different ships, customization is predictably a large factor of the core progression and appeal of Skull and Bones' gameplay. A big part of this customization concerns being able to change the color of a ship's hull, as well as its masts and even flags. One motif that has featured heavily in promotional material for the game is the Jolly Roger, a flag that is synonymous with piracy perhaps more so than anything else.
Piracy and the Jolly Roger
The Jolly Roger is the name given to a multitude of flags flown by some of the most famous pirates in human history. While the term itself is quite broad and can be attributed to many different motifs, the most commonly known make-up of a Jolly Roger is a skull and crossbones on a black background, with the title of Skull and Bones being a reference to this.
Considering the huge amount of naval traffic that was present in areas like the Indian Ocean around the golden age of piracy, it was extremely important for different classifications of ships to style themselves in certain ways. Be it official naval ships, merchant ships, or pirate vessels, one of the most overt ways for ships to differentiate themselves was by the color and signage of their masts and flags.
Pirates would usually sail under inconspicuous false flags, and would then raise their form of Jolly Roger when within range of a target vessel. Because of this, the nature of the Jolly Roger is a purely intimidating one, often depicting things like skeletons, weapons, and pierced hearts to give a grim indication to any potential targets of what the cost of resistance would be. Many of the most infamous pirate captains would have a very distinct and well-known form of Jolly Roger which they would become synonymous with, with the likes of Blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts possessing some of the most recognizable variations.
With how synonymous certain iterations of the Jolly Roger were with piracy's most famous figures, the ability for players to fully customize their own unique take on the motif would be a great customization addition to Skull and Bones. Due to the massive cultural importance of the Jolly Roger within piracy, it makes perfect sense for the symbol to feature heavily within the upcoming title.
Skull and Bones will launch March 9 for PC, PS5, Stadia, and Xbox Series X.
