Editing Pirates of the Baltic Sea (section)

===Raiders of Thule===

One of the fiercest rivals of the Buccaneers. Not as numerous as the Buccaneers, they make up for that with armament, skill and brutality.
Some Estonian scholars believe that the island of Saaremaa – or Ösel, as the Swedes call it – was the location of the historic Ultima Thule. That is where the raiders have their base, and that is where they take their name from.

As it often happens with particularly brutal criminal groups, the Raiders formed when a large number of trained soldiers were let go at once. In their case, the Baltic states decided that it would not be cost effective to update their aging fleets as the rapid increases in technology would leave the new ships outdated too in short order, and the constant upgrades were becoming an enormous drain on the budget. Instead, they started purchasing services from Triton, a mercenary corporation providing services of naval military kind. The fleets were decommissioned and a huge number of Navy people got the boot. Many drifted to other occupations or unemployment. Others gathered together and decided to put their skills in naval warfare to use, forming the Raiders.

Just like the Buccaneers are generally allowed to operate by Åland, Sweden and Finland, Raiders of Thule are ignored by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In their case it is not a case of silent support but one of plain old fashioned corruption, whether of monetary or political kind. The Raiders leave shipping of the Baltic states in peace and provide generous support for far right parties in the governments of the states, and in return they have a secure base of operations in Saaremaa.

Raiders tend to be mercilessly effective in their attacks, often leaving no survivors. Unlike the Buccaneers, they have no code of conduct. They also see the Buccaneers as competition and do not hesitate to try and eliminate any Buccaneer crew should the opportunity arise. Most Buccaneers loathe the Raiders of Thule, but engaging the Raiders in battle is risky even in the best of circumstances. They are all navy trained, well armed, and completely ruthless in battle.