Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated in the West Indies throughout the 18th century, specifically during the 1750s. The blackest soul and the darkest heart of any pirate who ever lived, striking fear into the bravest of sailors, Blackbeard was a name uttered in terror by all who sail the sea, or any unfortunate enough to encounter him on dry land. Blackbeard's many exploits became the stuff of various myths and legends of pirate lore, including the legend of being killed and beheaded by Royal Marines during the battle of Ocracoke Inlet in 1718.
Originally an Englishman who began his career as one of the many privateers dispensed by King George to raid enemy ships during war, it wasn't until he struck out as a free agent that his true legend was born. He became a renowned pirate, his cognomen derived from his thick black beard and fearsome appearance. His best known vessel was his flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, a fearsome frigate festooned with the bones of his victims and spits Greek fire from its bow to incinerate enemy ships or the occasional crew member fallen out of favor. Blackbeard was known to be incredibly cruel to his own crew, more so than the people he held captive, and occasionally murdered men just so they could remember who he was. He resurrected some of the men he killed into obedient zombie officers. Blackbeard also had supernatural powers, having dabbled in the Black Arts and wielded a sword embedded with one of the three sapphires of Triton, which he used to control ships. He would turn every captured vessel into individual ships in bottles and kept each as a prize for his collection. Through unknown circumstances, Blackbeard would have reunited with his beloved daughter Angelica, who served as his first mate aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge.
In his later life, Blackbeard lived under the shadow of a prophesied death at the hands of a one-legged man named Hector Barbossa, predicted by his zombie Quartermaster. His only hope was to find the restorative waters of the fabled Fountain of Youth. Whatever happened beneath the weight of his heartless ambition, Blackbeard would try and reach the Fountain by any means. After Jack Sparrow was forced aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard embarked on the quest for the Fountain, where he would rendezvous with fate. With Sparrow's help, he and his crew found the Fountain, but the British Royal Navy soldiers led by Barbossa and the Spanish crew led by The Spaniard appeared on scene and started a sanguinary battle in which Blackbeard was fatally wounded by Barbossa and subsequently ended up losing his life due to Jack Sparrow's lies to drink from the wrong Chalice.
