In Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Edward Kenway is a privateer before becoming a pirate.
Edward is a Welsh sailor who seeks wealth and adventure in the early eighteenth-century Caribbean. At the start of the story, he works as a privateer, a civilian sailor authorized by a government to attack enemy shipping during wartime. He later turns to piracy and becomes entangled in the conflict between the Assassins and Templars.
The game is set during the Golden Age of Piracy and includes historical pirates such as Blackbeard, Benjamin Hornigold, Mary Read, and Anne Bonny. Edward's path is distinct from that of his grandson, Ratonhnhaké:ton, the protagonist of Assassin's Creed III.
Privateers and pirates are frequently treated as identical in casual descriptions, but the legal distinction matters: a privateer operated with official authorization, while a pirate attacked outside that framework. Edward's transition between these roles drives the early premise.