| “ | I am a Man of Fortune, and I must seek my Fortune. | „ |
| ~ Henry Avery's quote from 1864, which is featured in the game's introduction cutscene. |
| “ | My loyal subjects - As the sun sets on our glorious Paradise, we must endeavor to preserve its riches. To that end, we have expelled its weakest element. The traitorous Tew knows our secrets, so we must act quickly. Destroy the dam. Cleanse New Devon, and move my treasure through the passage to my ship. | „ |
| ~ Avery's letter to his men regarding Thomas Tew's betrayal. |
Captain Henry Avery is the overarching antagonist of the 2016 video game Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, the fourth installment of the Uncharted video game series. He was a legendary English pirate and the leading founder of Libertalia, where his goal was to con every pirate into coming to his so-called paradise so he could enslave or kill them and steal all of their treasure for himself.
Biography[]
Past[]
Henry Avery was born on August 23, 1659 in Newton Ferrers, England and later joined the Royal Navy. After eventually leaving the Royal Navy, Avery became the captain of the Fancy, originally named Charles II, seeking out riches for his own gain.
The Gunsway Heist[]
About 6 years ago in August 1695, Avery joined forces with other pirate captains, including Thomas Tew, and sailed to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. Avery was elected as admiral of the pirate ship flotilla and commanded over 400 pirates, despite Tew being more experienced. Once there, they ambushed the Mughal fleet that was making its annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The treasure convoy was comprised of 25 ships, including the 1,600 ton flagship Ganj-i-sawai, better known as Gunsway.
The pirates eventually caught the Mughal convoy four or five days later. During the actual battle, only the Fancy, the Pearl (William Mayes), and the Portsmouth Adventure (Joseph Farrell) were present. Avery's opening broadside destroyed the mainmast of the ship, crippling it in the water. With the ship incapacitated, Avery and his crew boarded. Soon the crew of the Pearl joined them on the deck, and the pirates fought them for two to three hours.
Eventually, the Indians surrendered and Avery lost many of his crew in the raid as a result. The Gunsway was carrying nearly £600,000 (approximately worth now $18M and £13M) in precious metals and jewels. This ultimately made Avery one of the richest pirates ever.
The Gunsway heist and the robbery of all its treasure would become Avery's most notorious crime that it would be complimented with sordid and horrid tales of the torture, mutilation, rape, and murder he and his crew committed upon the hundreds of passengers, to the point that several of them committed suicide to escape such fates, over the course of several days to find every last bit of the ship's riches.
Rise and Fall of Libertalia[]
Avery called on famous pirates of his time, Tew, Mayes, Farrell, Richard Want, Adam Baldrige, Anne Bonny, Christopher Condent, Edward England, Tariq bin Malik, Yazid al-Basra and Guy Wood. The twelve of them, collectively known as the Founders, travelled to an island near Madagascar and named it Libertalia. Avery gathered the greatest architects and engineers to build statues, elevators and houses all over the island, intending on making it a haven for pirates. The pirates then set up deadly tests in various locations in Europe and Africa to prove if any treasure hunters and pirates were worthy of joining their colony.
However, beneath all the glamour and promise of riches and freedom from the law, Libertalia was actually a trap to lure pirate colonists to the island. There, they would be capture, enslaved and/or killed whilst having all of their treasures stolen, making it Avery's greatest con ever. Eventually, the colonists formed a rebellion and engaged in a civil war with the Founders, wanting to reclaim their stolen treasure. In response, the Founders moved the riches from the treasury's vault to their mansions. They then had their military battle the colonists and won the war, resulting in the colonist population wiped out and any survivors were made examples of by locking them into gibbets and left to starve to death.
With the rebellion over, the Founders had all of the treasure to themselves. However, at this point, they all began to distrust each other as they were overcome with greed and paranoia, and started fighting each other. To put an end to it all, Avery had Tew invite the other Founders to his mansion to "abandon our animosities" and form a truce. However, what the Founders didn't know was that Avery had Tew serve them poisoned drinks, resulting in their deaths. The two captains and their remaining allies began moving the treasure through Avery's secret passage to the Fancy. To ensure no one else got to it, they had the passage tunnels rigged with booby traps, including explosive panels and exploding mummies (which were actually enemies of Avery's who were mummified alive).
However, Tew, who felt guilt for killing his fellow Founders on Avery's behalf and knowing he would be next, engaged in a fearsome pursuit for the treasure before Avery could escape. In response to Tew's betrayal, Avery had his men destroy the dam and flood New Devon (the Founders' mansion neighbourhood) and move the treasure. During the battle, Avery used the body parts of Tew's men to create shrines symbolising his former allies' betrayal, such as a sign written "THE HANDS THAT STOLE FROM ME" with arms being dangled from the roof. With both armies exhausted and wiped out, Avery and Tew had one final battle inside the Fancy, but they killed each other in combat. Dying of their wounds, their bodies rotted alongside each other and the treasure as they were never discovered by anyone afterwards.
Legacy[]
Despite being dead, Avery's influence could be felt throughout the entire island of Libertalia. As Nathan Drake journeyed deeper into the ruins, he and Elena Fisher became disturbed by the evidence surrounding how mentally unstable the Fancy's captain became and how the treasure had driven the Founders insane. During the final battle, his and Tew's remains were found by Nate, Sam Drake, Rafe Adler and Nadine Ross. As Nadine left the three of them to die in the burning ship, she pointed out that Avery, Tew and everybody's obsession with the treasure became their downfall. After Nate killed Rafe and escaped with Sam, the ship burnt down along with Avery, Tew and the treasure.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Unlike the historical figures from the previous Uncharted games (including Sir Francis Drake and Marco Polo), Avery is the only one who is villainous due to his paranoia and greed as well as his heinous crimes.
- While he doesn't appear in the game (outside of his skeletal corpse), Avery's influence could be felt throughout nearly every area of the game.
- His booby traps also threatened the lives of Nate and Elena during their mission to save Sam.
- In the survival mode on multiplayer, Avery appeared as one of the supernatural bosses that players face.
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 Villains
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