Analyzing the Uncharted PS4 Trailer: Pirates, Pirate Colonies, Treasure, Henry Every and Libertatia

Uncharted for PS4 is real, but all we have to show for it is a tiny teaser trailer that gives brutally few details. To help work out what Naughty Dog has up their sleeves, PSLS took out a fine tooth comb and began looking through the trailer.

The map sets the location as the area around Madagascar and Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, with places like Réunion and Cape Agulhas shown. The area was known for piracy, which is interesting as piratey character models were spotted at Naughty Dog HQ.

naughtydogpirates

What’s more, at one point the map shows “Every betrayed us all”. Henry Every was a seventeenth century pirate who was called “The Arch Pirate” and “The King of Pirates” by his contemporaries, staged the most profitable pirate raid in history, and was never caught – retiring to enjoy his wealth. He also betrayed a lot of his men, and his wealth wasn’t found (perhaps Nathan Drake will find it). Oh, and he did operate around Africa, as well as India and the Caribbean. It’s important to note that the time Every operated in was long after Sir Francis Drake, so that likely rules out older Drake.

At the end of the video, the screen focuses on an island next to Madagascar, circling it like on a treasure map. Île Sainte-Marie/Nosy Boraha is the small island in question, and just so happens to have been a pirate haven throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, and Henry Every is known to have sheltered there at île aux Forbans. The island was also thought to be the home of the possibly fictional Libertatia, an anarchist colony founded in the late 17th century by pirates under Captain James Misson. The pirates freed slaves and apparently used elected systems of re-callable delegates.

If it wasn’t obvious enough, the Libertatia motto was “for God and liberty,” which appears on the teaser trailer for Uncharted. Hodie Mecum Eris In Paradiso’ is ‘Today, you shall be with me in Paradise’ in Latin, one of the seven last words of Christ, and the Libertatians were thought to be very religious and want to build a paradise.

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

– Luke 23:39-43

Are you excited for a pirate themed Uncharted? Do you want it to be modern, or set in the past? Let us know in the comments below, and feel free to share anything else you may have spotted.

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