From Freeport to Firestorms: The Origins of The Crimson Legacy
Some stories are born in quiet moments of imagination. Others are forged in the unpredictable tides of adventure.
Before The Crimson Legacy ever came to life on the page, before Ambrose stepped barefoot onto the shores of Jasper’s Refuge, there was Atlas—a sprawling online pirate survival game. And within that world, my journey as a writer truly began.
My husband and I first set sail on Atlas’s official servers, eager and a little clueless, playing on a server called Cobra’s Strike. Like all newcomers, we arrived at the Freeport—a bustling starting zone where new players begin their adventure. Our goal? Earn enough experience to gather resources and buy a small sloop from an NPC vendor. It was no small feat for two new players learning the ropes.
We couldn’t raid others yet—and only he knew the ins and outs of sailing, based on his single player adventures. We scoured the ocean for floating loot crates, known as flotsam, and carefully dove into shipwrecks to salvage what we could. Each crate and sunken hull were a gamble, offering a handful of gold, blueprints (BPs), and the rare made item. Meanwhile, we leveled up just enough to craft a smithy and basic tools and armor to survive. Alongside the smithy, we placed a campfire—essential for cooking meat gathered by hunting the animals roaming the Freeport Island. We also gathered berries and other plants to maintain our food supply and manage the game's complex vitamin system, which was a challenge at best.
Eventually, we scraped together enough resources to buy our first ship paid in resources—a humble sloop—and nervously sailed to the closest island from Freeport. We didn’t understand the difference between lawless and claimed islands back then. We simply found a quiet shore, dropped anchor, and started to build.
We began with simple thatch structures, crafting tools and gathering materials. Slowly, our home expanded. We learned to tame animals and cooked food to keep our characters alive. There was danger, of course—snakes, lions, and crocodiles lurked in the trees—but we were making progress.
What we didn’t realize was that we had settled on a lawless island. Unlike claimed islands, where PvP combat only occurred during limited hours, lawless regions had no such protection. Conflict could erupt at any time. And one night—it did.
A team called Obsidian descended on our modest base, launching flaming arrows and grenades from the backs of savage beasts. Our wooden walls burned. Our animals panicked. My heart pounded in my chest as I tried to hold our crumbling home together. I nervously took extra walls and doors and slapped them in place. Yet to no avail. The structures had to grow I guess you could say. The damage hit point count had to grow before the structure was less vulnerable. As fast as I put up those walls, they took them down.
The in-game chat lit up with taunts. Words meant to belittle. “Bobs,” they called us—a slang term for newbies. I didn’t understand the term at first, but I felt the insult. For a moment, I was ready to quit.
“I don’t think I want to play this game anymore,” I told my husband.
He frowned. “Don’t just quit because a bunch of people talk trash.”
I stared at him. “We’ve got nothing left. What are we supposed to do?”
“I’ll hold them off,” he said. “You take the gold, get on the boat, and sail.”
Panic surged. I barely knew the controls. While I’d played Nintendo and Minecraft, Atlas was a different beast. But I climbed aboard, unfurled the sails, and pressed forward—button-mashing my way into the sea.
The ocean was vast and filled with danger: sharks, storms, and undead ships. I struggled to steer, stopping often to dodge threats. Eventually, when my husband’s character fell in battle, he respawned on the ship and took the helm. We were bruised and broken—but we were free.
We survived. And we kept sailing.
The next island would bring a turning point. That’s where we met the Death Dream Team.
Let’s pause there.
In the next post, I’ll introduce some of the players who became the heart of The Crimson Legacy: Mortalise, Tarti, and Zven. Their camaraderie, quirks, and gameplay inspired some of the most unforgettable characters in my books.
This isn’t where the game ended but it was unbeknownst to me where a story would begin to blossom.
Ready for Part Two? Subscribe to my blog, follow me on YouTube, and dive deeper into the world that inspired it all.
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With heart my lovelies,
Ambrose Fider
Author of The Crimson Legacy series