Did you know that in One Piece there are Eighteen
different races in One Piece and only three other them can control elements like water
and fire? Or that we have confirmed proof of a one-thousand
year long war that began well before the void century? Or that there are three ANCIENT, MAGICAL trees
that are all thousands of years old, and one of them is might even grow inside of the Red
Line? Well, today we are diving down the One Piece
Lore Iceberg, going from the the most surface level lore that even the most casual fans
should know down to the absolute deepest and darkest secrets of tier 6 where the most secret
and wild things about One Piece, like the crucial role that whales play in protecting
the one piece But starting with Tier 1 or the tip of the
iceberg, which is the most surface level lore that most casual fans should know And why not kick things off with the lore
that is SO IMPORTANT it is literally in the title of the story. That is of course the actual One Piece treasure
which inspired the great age of piracy and sent pirates like Luffy to chase after the
mythical treasure. Now, there are many things we do know about
the one piece. For example, we know that it is supposed to
be located on Laugh Tale, which is the final island of the Grand Line. On top of that, the author has told us that
the actual One Piece treasure isn’t just something cheesy like “the friends they
made along the way” or something like that. No, it is something real. In fact, the treasure is supposed to include
something that was left behind by a legendary figure from the past and it also includes
all of the former pirate king, Gol D. Roger's treasure. Plus, Roger and his crew are the only people
to have found Laugh Tale in over eight hundred years, so even though this iceberg contains
tons of mind blowing secrets, this is one mystery that is still unanswered even to this
day.. And if you have ever read or watched all of
One Piece then you should know about the poneglyphs, which are these giant, unbreakable stones
that tell the ancient history of the Void Century. Now, we’ll talk about the Void Century in
just a moment, but the MOST IMPORTANT poneglyphs are these four Road Poneglyphs which contain
the information that you need in order to find the island Laugh Tale. And these are so important that the strongest
pirates in the world try to find or steal them so that they can be the ones to finally
find the One Piece and become pirate king. However, those red poneglyphs are far from
the only versions of these stones, which were hidden around the world by the Ancient Kingdom. And without getting too deep into Tier 2 iceberg
territory here, the Ancient Kingdom is a kingdom that basically ruled the world before the
current world government defeated them sometime between eight and nine hundred years ago. Now, the reasons for how World Government
might have defeated the Ancient Kingdom are two spicy for Tier 1, so we’ll save that
information for just a few more minutes down the iceberg. For now, just know that the current World
Government somehow defeated the ancient kingdom and took power. The worst thing about this though is that
the World Government then decided that all history of that time period needed to be COMPLETELY
ERASED. This is why that period of time is called
the Void Century, because almost all information about it has been wiped away. All books were destroyed. Important people were killed. And even to this day anyone who researches
the Void Century or the Poneglyphs is hunted down and killed by the World Government, as
we saw during Robin’s flashback. Now, I’ve already mentioned the Grand Line,
which is the stretch of water right here where all the strongest pirates and marines are
located, but did you know that it also has some important lore regarding the world as
a whole? Because during the Baratie arc we learned
that Sanjis’ dream is to find the mythical All Blue. In case you forgot, the All Blue is rumored
to be a place in the world where the water from all four Blues, or oceans, meet. And what makes it so special to Sanji is that
this place is said to contain fish that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. And while we would love to see Sanji whip
up some brand new dishes, the important thing for the lore of the world is that this place
currently doesn’t exist because the world is separated by the Red Line, which is this
massive stone barrier that goes all the way around the world, and the Calm Belts, which
are these parallel stretches of water that border the Grand Line. And while you might say that the All Blue
does exist right here, I think we can safely say that this isn’t the All Blue since Sanji
already passed this way and didn’t think it was the All Blue. Which might mean that later on something will
happen to the Red Line and the four Blues will be reunited once again. However, you might be surprised to hear that
this wasn’t the only important world lore that was dropped early on in the story. Because when we were introduced to the Warlord
system just before the Arlong Park arc we all of a sudden learned that there were people
out there WAY STRONGER than anyone we had faced so far. The important basics of the Warlord system
are that the world government will invite strong pirates to work for them. Those pirates get their bounty frozen and
can essentially do whatever they want, as long as they come when the World Government
calls them to fight. And for now, the only Warlord that I’ll
mention in Tier 1 is Dracule Mihawk who we learned is the strongest swordsman in the
world and even used to duel with the Emperor Red Hair Shanks. And speaking of Shanks, it’s time to drop
some basic Tier 1 lore about the entire Emperor system of pirates. This system is essentially made up of the
four strongest pirate crews who dominate the final part of the Grand Line, which is called
the New World. They are so powerful that even the world government
struggled to defeat even one of these insane pirate crews. In fact, it takes the World Government PLUS
the combined strength of the Warlords to actually rival the Emperors, which all together creates
the Three Great Powers of the One Piece World. And these Emperors of the Sea have been Luffy’s
main rivals during the second half of the story, however, you might be surprised to
learn that the Emperor system hasn’t been around forever because as far as we know it
did not even exist before Roger became pirate king and the previous era of piracy might
have only been ruled by one or two strong pirate crews. Now we can’t talk about the strongest pirates
without mentioning the most well known abilities in One Piece. I’m of course talking about devil fruits. And while the true origin of these powers
remains a mystery many legends consider the fruits to be kinda like pieces of the Sea
Devil that take the form of a fruit. Which means that by eating the fruit you actually
take a piece of that Sea devil inside of you. Although all of this is just legend and there
are some strong theories about the origins of devil fruits that we’ll discuss later
on. However, once a person takes a bite of a devil
fruit, they instantly gain the powers of that particular fruit for the rest of their life. The only downside is they can no longer swim
and will literally drown if they fall into water. Besides that, it is pretty commonly known
that there is only ever one of each fruit in the world at a time, so there can never
be two people with the same exact powers. Oh yeah, and if you eat TWO devil fruits then
you’ll explode. At least, that’s according to legend, but
we’ve actually seen someone do this in the story and they were just fine. More on that later. But one of the most interesting things about
the one piece lore is that there are many races in the world that have their own unique
elemental abilities. For example, the animal mink tribe have natural
electricity. The fishmen can control water to some degree. And these angel-like creatures even have natural
fire powers. Those are just some of the many races though
because besides humans there are also giants, dwarves, long-arm and leg people, winged people,
and much more that we’ll discuss later. What’s most incredible though is that all
of these races have detailed histories that connect together back to the Void Century. Many of them were even friends of the ancient
kingdom and still protect the Poneglyphs from the World Government to the present day. Now before we get deeper into the iceberg,
here’s a fact that you’ve probably heard even if you haven’t watched or read One
Piece, and that is that Luffy’s childhood friend Ace is actually the son of the former
pirate king, Gol D. Roger. Oh yeah, and he also died at the climax of
the marineford war which as far as we know ended the bloodline of the former pirate king. But in one way both Ace and Roger are still
alive. Shocking right? That’s because we are going to start Tier
2 with the idea of Inherited Will. Now, this part of the iceberg which represents
lore you most likely picked up on if you’ve watched or read One Piece more than once,
and Inherited Will is one of those SUPER IMPORTANT concepts that you probably don’t remember
as a casual viewer. The idea behind it is that if someone dies
without fulfilling their dream then someone else who comes after them can “inherit”
their will and continue their dream for them. In fact, it can even apply to entire generations
passing on their will to future generations This is probably best shown by Roger and the
Emperor Whitebeard who both weren’t able to bring true peace to the world, but passed
their dreams onto the next generation. To explain a bit further, Roger found the
One Piece but actually was too early to use whatever information or power was left from
the Void Century. So because he had an incurable disease and
was about to die, he turned himself into the marines. This allowed him a huge public platform which
let him inspire the next generation of pirates to go search for the One Piece. The same can be said of Whitebeard because
with his dying breath, he confirmed that the One Piece was real, which further inspired
hope for the current generation like Luffy to continue searching for the legendary treasure. And the idea of inherited will works on a
smaller level too, as many of the straw hats have even inherited the will of their prior
mentors. Such as Chopper wanting to become a great
doctor like his first friend and Robin inheriting the will of the scholars of Ohara to find
out what happened during the Void Century. Before we move much further though, let’s
dive in a bit more about the actual One Piece and the Void Century. Because I just said that Roger was too early
to use what was left on Laugh Tale, which means we need to ask exactly what this legendary
treasure actually is. Well, there are many possibilities, but to
truly understand the possibilities we first have to take a look at the people we actually
know from the Void Century and what they could have left behind. The first, and most important, of these people
is the legendary figure called Joy Boy. And the first time we heard about him was
during the fishman island arc, when we learned that Joy Boy wrote a letter of apology to
a former mermaid princess about a promise that he could not fulfill. Now, we don’t know exactly what that promise
was, but we can guess that it involves the fishmen having to live at the bottom of the
sea to escape oppression up on the surface. Which leads us to the most mysterious event
in all of one piece, which is the war between the ancient kingdom and the twenty kingdoms
who founded the world government. And while we don’t know a ton about what
actually happened, we know that somehow the twenty kingdoms won, the ancient kingdom was
destroyed, and the poneglyphs were created to keep the world government from completely
erasing the Ancient Kingdom’s history. Interestingly, we know these unbreakable stones
were created by the Kozuki clan from Wano who are just one of many allies of the former
Ancient Kingdom. But after this great war, the World Government
was formed by the twenty kingdoms and they have ruled the world ever since. As for the Ancient Kingdom, we don’t know
if they had an actual home island somewhere in the world. It could have been Laugh Tale or it could
have been and island destroyed long ago, but we do know that all of the known allies of
the Ancient Kingdom are not allies of the World Government. For example, the samurai of Wano, the Skypeople,
the Fishmen, Minks, and we assume the giants as well. Plus, as we learned in Wano, there is a legendary
figure called Nika who was the Sun God. Now we don’t know if Joy Boy and the Sun
God were the same people. Both of these could just be a title that many
different people could have been called, but we do know that Luffy has now awakened his
devil fruit and inherited Nika and Joy Boy’s will to bring freedom to the world. Now, while much of the lore of the ancient
kingdom is still hidden, there are some absolute facts we do know about that time period. First is that this giant ship was created
in order to carry all of the fishmen and merfolk up to the surface. We assume that this was part of Joy Boy’s
promise to the mermaid princess back which he was not able to keep. And with all this that we’ve reviewed about
the Ancient Kingdom, I think we can get a pretty good idea about what the One Piece
actually might be. Because it seems the main idea that is usually
associated with Joy Boy is the idea of freedom for the many races of the world. So the One Piece has to be somehow related
to freedom right?? If that’s true the one piece could be some
sort of weapon or maybe some information that will help defeat the world government. However, while Joy Boy is the ancient figure
we are most excited to learn about, there is one other LEGENDARY ancient hero that we
have actually met in the story. That’s because the Sword God Ryuma from
Wano was turned into a zombie that Zoro fought during the Thriller Bark arc. And while this was the first time we met him,
we later learned that Ryuma is considered a national hero in Wano who once defended
the country during its golden era. What we don’t know is exactly how long ago
he lived, but it would make a lot of sense to me if he lived sometime around the Void
Century since it would make his timeline line up with the other important people from that
time period. And sticking with Wano there is some very
interesting lore regarding the actual geography of the country. Because while we’ve had a few different
maps showing the layout of the oddly shaped country, there are a few mysteries surrounding
the country’s origins. That’s because if you look at this map here
it really does look like Wano is made up of many different islands that were put together. What’s even weirder is that the weather
patterns for each of these sections are completely different. So if you combine that knowledge with what
we know about islands in the grand line all having their own weather patterns then it
makes a lot of sense that this Wano that exists above the water might have once actually been
several different islands that were somehow smooshed together to create this new Wano
country. We even have a race of extra big giants who
are literally called Continent Pullers, so that is just more evidence to support this
potential lore. Now, you might be wondering why Wano would
be created like this in the first place, and one possible answer might come from the lore
surrounding slavery. Because even though slavery is technically
outlawed by the World Government, it clearly still exists as we see with the slave auction
during the Sabaody arc plus the fact that the Celestial Dragons ride around on slaves
and use slaves to operate their giant moving walkway. And this connects to Wano plus many of the
other allies of the ancient kingdom because there is some evidence to suggest that the
World Government and even people who ruled the world before them used to enslave many
of the people and races from around the one piece world. For example, about 1000 years before the present
story line, the animal mink tribe moved their entire population to live up on the back of
this giant elephant. Why did they do that? Well, the most likely reason is to escape
oppression just like the fishmen who moved to the bottom of the ocean. We also have the dwarf tribe that we met in
Dressrosa who once fled their kingdom and were later enslaved by the ruling family of
Dressrosa. These dwarves were only freed once that ruling
family moved to the top of the Red Line to become Celestial Dragons after the Void Century. So clearly, slavery has been a big deal for
a long time, and to bring this back to Wano, it is possible that Wano was created as a
sory of santuary to protect a group of humans and other races from the oppression of humans
or super powerful races. Speaking of powerful races, there is none
more powerful than the Lunarians, whose introduction near the end of the Wano arc absolutely blew
everyone’s mind. That’s because this race of angelic winged
people once lived on top of the Red Line before they were almost completely wiped out. In fact, they were once referred to as a tribe
of gods which makes me think that they probably once ruled over the world, similar to how
humans rule it now. To explain what makes them so powerful, the
Lunarians get their incredible power from this magical flame on their back which allows
them to create fire AND become nearly invincible while the flame is active. Now, you might be wondering how they were
defeated if they are so powerful, but that’s a bit of lore too juicy for Tier 2, so we’ll
discuss it further down the iceberg. What’s more important though is that the
current most individually powerful race is without a doubt the giant race. Because come on, these people are simply massive
and their average warrior is easily worth one hundred normal humans. Most giants come from their legendary island
Elbaf, but what you might not know is that giants actually live in many places around
the world, as we learned during Robin’s flashback. But man, if there is one island I am super
excited to visit next it is definitely Elbaf because it has some INSANE LORE. First off, the entire island is based off
of norse mythology and we can see this based on the design of their architecture, the name
of their ruler is Loki who is the norse god of trickery and mischief, and also the fact
that there is this giant tree sometimes shown in the background of Elbaf, which reminds
me of the world tree Yggdrasil from norse mythology. However, while it is likely inspired by that
mythical tree, we most likely already know that this tree’s name is the treasure tree
Adam. In case you forgot, we learned during Water
7 that the wood from this tree is UNBELIEVABLY strong, so much so that Franky made the straw
hat’s ship out of it. Plus we know this tree is located in a war
torn country, which perfectly fits Elbaf. And while we’re talking about the Treasure
tree Adam, this is the perfect time to mention that there are some other super important
trees in the one piece world. The second is the Sunlight Tree Eve which
we first learned about during the fishman island arc. This incredible tree absorbs sunlight and
then filters down light and oxygen to the roots that are located at the bottom of the
sea, right above fishman island. What you may not realize though is that we
don’t actually know where the top of this tree is. You might assume it is directly above fishman
island since that is where the roots are, but that is never confirmed AND right above
fishman island is the Red Line. So unless the Sunlight Tree is somehow part
of the Red Line or on top of it, then it could very well be located somewhere else entirely. And continuing with the theme of biblical
references, there is also the Tree of Knowledge that was located on the island of Ohara before
it was destroyed by the world government. This massive tree served as the home for the
scholars of Ohara, who were a group that were dedicated to researching the Poneglyphs. This of course led to their destruction when
the World Government came and destroyed the island with a buster call, which also tragically
burned down the Tree of Knowledge. And while we don’t know that this tree had
any special characteristics like the Adam or Eve trees, the planting of the tree of
Knowledge is actually the OLDEST CONFIRMED event in the story, which took place about
5000 years before the current story. That’s not to say that the other two trees
can’t be older though, we just don’t know for sure. And one thing that may hint at the treasure
tree Adam being way older is its sheer size. I mean, we haven’t ever seen a full, clear
picture, but there have been hints that this tree is massive, like this image right here. In fact, it is SO MASSIVE that we know it
might even reach up to the sky islands. This was hinted at during the Skypiea arc,
when we learned that there is something called the Path of High West, which is the normal
way that people reach the Sky Islands. From this, we can speculate that it must somehow
be some massive, safe, way for people to reach the sky islands, which just makes a lot of
sense for that to be this incredibly huge tree. Plus we have these giant vines such as Giant
Jack that could even be branches that spread out from this massive tree. And now that we’re on the topic of sky people,
we simply have to mention the fascinating lore behind these winged races that you actually
might have missed if you’ve only watched the anime. That is because during Enel’s cover story
in the manga, we learned that sky people once lived up on the moon. It is a mystery when they lived there or for
how long, but one thing that is certain is that they were once up on the moon and later
had to descend to the Earth. Which is how two of the sky races ended up
on the clouds, while the third race found themselves down on the island of Jaya. And it was actually super important that this
Shandian tribe came down to the Blue Sea because they eventually became allies of the Ancient
Kingdom. We know this because they have long guarded
a poneglyph that contains the secret location of an ancient weapon, which we’ll discuss
more about in just a moment. The Shandians used to be an incredibly wealthy
society, even making an entire city out of gold, but their downfall started when they
became involved in some sort of war, most likely during the battle against the twenty
kings during the void century. And we learned all of this during the flashback
during the Skypiea arc which told us the story of Noland the Liar. The important lore to know from this flashback
is that ever since the Void Century the Shandian people were protecting their golden city of
Shandora and the Poneglyphs until a super powerful water burst shot part of their island
up into the sky around 400 years ago. This put the Shandian people back into conflict
with the other winged races, and they continued their conflict until Luffy and the straw hats
brought them together during the Skypiea arc. Continuing with epic events from the past,
one hundred years ago the legendary captains of the Giant Pirate crew started their never-ending
duel on the island of Little Garden. Which is kinda tragic if you think about it
because two friends nearly killed each other over a simple disagreement. But nothing is as tragic as Brook’s backstory,
which contains a super important hint about the secrets of the one piece. Because around fifty years ago, the crew befriended
a baby whale named Laboon who had been separated from its family pod. However, the crew had to leave behind Laboon
once they entered the Grand Line and they promised to return once they traveled around
the world. Sadly, the crew never made it as they were
wiped out by a deadly disease, but the important part about all this is that ever since that
day the music-loving Laboon was waiting for his crew to return. And while that never happened, his presence
at the start of the grand line is just the start of some secret lore regarding the One
Piece that we will simply have to save for way down at the bottom of the iceberg. However, the entire time Laboon was waiting
for his crew there was this old man who was taking care of him. This is Crocus, and man when we first met
him I don’t think anyone would have believed that he is one of the few people alive who
actually knows what the One Piece treasure is. That’s because we later learned that he
was once a member of Roger’s crew when they found the legendary treasure. And aside from Crocus there is one other man
who the Straw Hats met who also knows what the treasure is. This is Silvers Rayleigh, Roger’s former
Vice-Captain, and surprisingly, those are the only two people we currently know of who
absolutely know what the treasure is. Although, there might be others like the leaders
of the World Government who might know as well. However, if we were to pick any other candidate
to know the truth, a good choice would be the world’s greatest scientist, Dr. Vegapunk. And we’ll discuss more of his lore and why
he might know about the one piece in a deeper tier, but his basic backstory is that he is
a genius scientist who has worked for the world government for many years. It is said that he is such a scientific genius
that he is technologically 500 years more advanced than anyone else in the world, and
his creations include things like these destructive cyborgs and even a perfectly cloned devil
fruit. Now for the final bit of lore in Tier 2, we
simply have to include the legendary pirate Rocks D. Xebec who nearly conquered the entire
world thirty-eight years ago. This man was considered Roger’s greatest
rival and he even gathered a ridiculously powerful crew full of future Emperors of the
Sea like Whitebeard, Kaido, and Big Mom. However, what you may not know about Rocks
is that he very likely had some secret connection to the former pirate king Gol D. Roger and
that they may have even once been friends. But now, enough with the casual, normie lore. It’s time to dive deep into Tier 3 which
is lore that you most likely know if you are plugged into the One Piece community and consume
One Piece content outside of the main story. Starting with the rest of what we actually
know about the Void Century. Because we’ve already established that during
this time-period there was a war between the Ancient Kingdom and the twenty kings who went
on to form the World Government. But what you may not know is that the Ancient
Kingdom was made up of allies from all over the world. We’ve touched on a few of them so far, but
to truly understand this we need to look at the most important clues they left behind
about their history. Of course, I’m talking about the Poneglyphs,
and let’s dive into exactly what different kinds there are and where we have found these
ancient texts in the world. So we’ve already discussed the four Road
Poneglyphs which point the way to Laugh Tale. But there are known to be thirty poneglyphs
scattered throughout the world. Nine of these are called Rio Poneglyphs which
tell the history of the Ancient Kingdom, while the others contain messages from people or
information about the location of other poneglyphs or weapons. Now, the first time we learned about Poneglyphs
was in Alabasta. This Poneglyphs was rumored to contain information
about the Ancient Weapon Poseidon that we’ll explain in detail in just a minute. But first, since Alabasta protected a poneglyph
for eight hundred years, that means this desert kingdom was most likely an ally of the Ancient
Kingdom in some way. And recent manga chapters have shed more light
on this complicated relationship, but we’ll cover more of that deeper in the iceberg. We also found normal poneglyphs located in
Skypiea underneath the golden bell, on the island of Ohara, and also in Fishman island
we found this poneglyph describing Joy Boy’s apology letter to the mermaid princess. The next poneglyph we found, which finally
opened up the true nature of these stones, was this Road Poneglyph on top of the giant
elephant. And it was at this point that the straw hats
learned that in order to find the one piece they would need to gather all the Road Poneglyphs
just like Roger had done. Fortunately, the next two Road Poneglyphs
had already been found and were under the control of the Emperors Big Mom and Kaido. And besides the Road Poneglyph, Big Mom also
held a few others which were also copied when the straw hats broke in. Which leads us to Wano, and after defeating
Kaido, Robin was able to read the Road Poneglyph kept hidden in the depths of Wano. However, these weren’t the only poneglyphs
here and it was during this final stretch of the Wano arc that we also learned that
the Ancient Weapon Pluton was indeed located in Wano, and Robin learned of this from reading
the poneglyph in Alabasta. And that’s all we’ll talk about the Poneglyphs
until deeper in the iceberg, but let’s stay on the topic of the most powerful weapons
in the world, the Ancient Weapons. And just to recap there are three of these
super powerful weapons and their names are Poseidon, Pluton, and Uranus. At this point, we know for sure that Poseidon
is the power to control the gigantic Sea Kings. The current mermaid princess Shirahoshi was
born with this power, and it is one of THE MOST important secrets in the entire story
because if anyone evil such as the world government or someone like the Emperor Blackbeard were
to learn about Shirahoshi’s powers, they would definitely try to capture her in order
to use her power. And just to be clear, this is a RIDICULOUS
POWER. I mean just look how massive these sea kings
are! Definitely an island destroying power. Which brings us to Pluton, which at this point
we know is located deep within Wano Country. And while we still don’t know what the actual
weapon is, there is a rumor it was a ship of some sort, since Franky once had the blueprints
to a ship that could counter Pluton. However, there is some mystery about all of
this because apparently Pluton can only be released once the borders of Wano are opened. Now what that means, we aren’t exactly sure,
but it likely has to do with destroying the giant walls that keep Wano separated from
the rest of the world. Now, since Poseidon is a power to rule under
the seas and Pluton is likely a ship to dominate the surface of the ocean, then it makes sense
that Uranus would be a power that rules the air. And this may be a brief manga spoiler here,
but we actually got the clearest hint of Uranus’ power in chapter 1060 of the manga when the
world government’s secret ruler unleashed this TERRIFYING power that destroyed the entire
kingdom of Lulusia. And wow, I mean, it is literally an island
destroying power, which is pretty strong evidence that this is an ancient weapon or something
that was based on one. What’s really scary though is that this
weapon is in the World Government’s hands, and it makes me wonder if it was this power
that helped them defeat the Ancient Kingdom back during the Void Century. Now if you’ve been paying attention throughout
so far, you know that the world government was formed by twenty original rulers. We know who many of these families were, including
the Nefertari family and the Donquixote family. And recently in the manga we’ve learned
the names of many more of these founding families. But besides their names, what’s most important
is what they actually chose to do after they defeated the ancient kingdom. Which is of course to leave behind their original
islands and move on top of the Grand Line to become the Celestial Dragons. And there are theories that these new “gods”,
as they like to think of themselves, moved up there because it was the original location
of the Lunarian tribe. And if you remember the Lunarians were considered
the previous “gods” of the world, so this was like a big, gigantic sign to the world
that the twenty rulers were announcing themselves as the new gods of the world. And this brings us to another very interesting
bit of history. Because these rulers all originally agreed
to rule together instead of appointing a single king or queen to rule them all. This was symbolized by this mysterious chair
called the Empty Throne, which officially no one is supposed to sit on. To take it one step further, each of the founding
families placed a weapon in front of the throne to show that they were basically laying down
their weapons to work together. Of course, we know this was all a giant scam
because at one point the secret ruler Imu took control and is now considered the supreme
ruler of the world. However, we don’t know if this was how it
was from the start or if Imu took power later on. In fact, what makes this even more mysterious
is that Imu is from one of the founding families. So you could say that Imu was one of the original
twenty rulers or it is also possible that they are a descendant who took power sometime
after the world government was formed. But we really don’t know at this point. However, I actually just lied when I said
ALL of the founding families went up to live on Mary Geoise. Because one family decided to give up their
right to become world nobles and stayed behind on their home island. This is of course the Nefertari family and
as we learned recently in the manga, their family ruler at the end of the Void Century
was Neferatri Lili. While there is still a ton of mystery surrounding
her, we have some pretty strong hints that she betrayed the World Government in some
way, most likely something related to the poneglyphs. But all this means we have some vital questions
that still need to be answered about the early years of the world government, and we’ll
get into more theories about this lore in just a moment. But at this point, it is probably a good thing
that the Celestial Dragons mostly stay away from the rest of the world. Because as we learned from Doflamingo’s
flashback, when his Celestial Dragon family decided to come back and live with the common
people they were instantly rejected and nearly executed by a common group of citizens. And even though Doflamingo survived this incident,
the Celestial Dragons refused to let him back into Mary Geoise because his father had already
given up their status as world nobles. So yeah, these nobles are both cruel and they
hold grudges. But they also have absolute power in the world
to enslave people, murder, and waste extraordinary amounts of money. And one of the best examples of this is this
random bridge where Robin was sent after Sabaody. This is Tequila Wolf and its story is that
sometime about 700 years ago some world noble ordered that a bridge be built between two
islands. And here they are still building it all these
years later. Now we don’t exactly know the purpose of
this. It could have just been a random wish, but
I do wonder if the bridge serves a greater purpose. Because if you think about it, we know that
the seas, especially in the grand line, are ruled by people who can sail like pirates
and marines. But maybe the world government decided to
make this bridge so they wouldn’t need to rely on ships that could easily be attacked
by pirates. Just a thought. And another piece of history is that Sanji’s
family, the Vinsmokes, founded their kingdom around 250 years ago in the North Blue. And while they eventually lost their rule
of the North Blue, they recently played an important role in the development of cloning
technology. And if you ask me, this is just an insane
development in the world. In particular, the Vinsmokes specialize in
mass producing clones to fight in their mercenary armies. And there are even crazier clones coming up
in Tier 4, but did you even know that some parts of the One Piece community once thought
that Luffy might be a clone? Crazy, right? But you never know, and in fact Luffy’s
family lineage has always been a bit of a mystery. We know that he has his Grandpa Garp and his
father Dragon, who is the leader of the Revolutionary army. But we’ve never known about his mother,
which means that now is the perfect time to throw in my personal favorite theory that
Crocodile is actually Luffy’s mother. And if you’ve never heard this idea, it
comes from the fact that Crocodile and Ivankov, who is a gender-morphing officer of the revolutionary
army, have some secret that they won’t tell anyone. So the idea is that once upon a time Crocodile
was a woman who gave birth to Luffy and then had Ivankov change them into a man. I’ll just leave it at that for now because
now it is time to dive headfirst into the chilly depths of Tier 4, which is lore that
you would really only know if you are a hardcore fan of the story. And what better way to start this off than
by discussing one of the rarest abilities in the entire story: The Voice of All Things. Now, you may already know the basics, which
is that the Voice of All Things is a mysterious power that allows its users to somehow hear
and understand the voices of creatures and objects in the One Piece World. For example, when Luffy was about to destroy
this giant ship, he heard the Sea Kings telling him to stop. And while he couldn’t communicate back,
he could basically understand what was being said. Other examples include when the future Shogun
of Wano, Momonoske, could understand AND command the giant elephant Zunesha. But even beyond that, the voice of all things
can let its users understand even written text such as that on the Poneglyphs, which
they wouldn’t normally be able to read. However, that’s not to say that these users
understand the messages perfectly. It is more like they get a vague sense of
what is being communicated. What you might not know is that there appears
to be levels of skill with this ability. For example, Roger used this ability to understand
the meaning of many poneglyphs by himself, which led him to go back and find others. On top of that, people like Momo and his father
Kozuki Oden could clearly understand the voice of the elephant Zunesha, whereas Luffy could
usually only hear an unrecognizable voice. To get into the lore side of this, there are
theories that this ability is caused by super strong observation haki and other theories
that the power is tied to certain descendants of the ancient kingdom, but we really don’t
know for sure. Now, one crazy bit of lore you may have never
heard is that the one piece world might not have always been mostly covered by water. And while this has never been confirmed, there
are some hints that it is possible. For example, the original Wano country was
lost underwater, as we saw at the end of the Wano arc. This happened because at one point walls
were built up around Wano and rainwater eventually filled the space between the walls. Plus in chapter 115, we learned that dinosaurs
once freely roamed the world, but now they are isolated on this island. So it would make sense to me at least that
the world used to have much more land exposed and then some natural disaster caused the
world to flood. And you might be wondering what kind of natural
disaster could do that, but we actually have a clue from chapter 1089 of the manga. And fair warning that there will be manga
spoilers for much of the remaining lore. So in chapter 1060, we saw the kingdom of
Lulusia erased by what this mysterious power, but what’s even crazier is that in chapter
1089 we learned that this event somehow caused the sea level all around the world to rise
by one meter. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but man
if you calculate how much water that actually is, you get an insane amount like 4 quadrillion
liters of water. Like, what?? How is that even possible from this one single
event? And if it really was caused by using this
deadly weapon, just imagine if this weapon was used over and over again. I’m just saying, it isn’t too insane to
think that the world might’ve once had much more land. Of course, that is speculation, but if you
want an absolute connection to the disaster that wiped Lulusia off the map, look no further
than the giant hole below Enies Lobby. I mean, these holes look strikingly similar,
right? So we have to imagine that this same weapon
was used at least once before and caused this hole underneath the Enies Lobby. We have to ask then, what was here that was
wiped off the map? Well, it could have been the actual island
home of the ancient kingdom or some other important location, like hmm, maybe Laugh
Tale? Just saying, it would make sense why no one
has found it if the legendary island realy is at the bottom of this giant hole. Now, if that was surprising to you just wait
until you hear this next bit of lore because recently during the Egghead Island arc we
learned that past civilization was WAY MORE technologically advanced than the current
era. And even the genius scientist Dr. Vegapunk
told us that he is barely catching up to the technology that existed in the distant past. Now, of course, we can assume that Vegapunk
is talking about the time before the Void Century and the founding of the World Government. Which is just completely mind-blowing. But to take things even further, many people
assume that the World Government is the one who erased much of the technology from the
world. And while this could certainly be possible,
I would be very careful about assuming that the Government did this for evil reasons. I mean, we’ve all seen stories about advanced
civilizations that eventually wipe themselves out because of advanced technology or evil
robots, so maybe the world government did the world a favor if they truly did rid the
world of most of its technology. However, with this knowledge that the world
used to be more advanced, we open up some incredible possibilities about the lore of
the ancient world. For example, we already discussed that at
one point the winged people of Skypiea and Shandora once lived up on the moon, but that
doesn’t mean they always lived there. In fact, you might say that they fled up there
to escape oppression just like the minks moved up on Zunesha and the fishmen moved under
the sea. And with the advanced technology of the past,
this makes a lot more sense that maybe there was some sort of spaceship to take all the
winged people up to the moon. Although we also have confirmed that the golden
city of Shandora, which was the home of the winged-Shandian tribe, was around about 1100
years ago, so clearly they came down off of the moon well before the Void Century. On top of that, would you believe that DEVIL
FRUITS might also be technology based creations? Just think about it, we know that artificial
devil fruits were created using current technology. And while some were better than others, can
you just imagine the possibilities of a much more advanced society and the powers they
could create? Plus, now that we’re discussing it, I even
wonder if this technological advancement is what allowed humans to eventually overthrow
the Lunarian race. Because remember that the Lunarians were considered
untouchable gods, so something had to change in order for humans to basically wipe them
out, and I can certainly imagine new devil fruits playing a major role in that. Now, as exciting as all these possibilities
are, let’s bring this back to some factual lore that we know from the story. Because one of the oldest events that we know
of in the entire story is the birth of the giant elephant Zunesha. They were born well over 1000 years ago and
were closely allied with the legendary Joy Boy. However, at some point Zunesha committed a
crime and was forced to walk the seas. Now, this is the interesting part though because
while we don’t know what crime Zunesha committed, we might be able to guess based on its behavior
during the Wano arc. Because if you remember, Zunesha briefly came
to Wano right as Luffy awakened Gear 5, but it left before it did anything important. And we can guess that Zunesha left because
the future shogun Momo decided that it was too early to open the borders of Wano. So based on this, we can guess that Zunesha’s
main role was to open the borders of Wano, which most likely means destroying the walls
that were once built around it. Which is just the perfect job for a giant
elephant. But the amazing thing is that we can connect
this to what we discussed earlier about Pluton. Just to recap, we were told Pluton could not
be used until the borders were opened. So that might mean that Zunesha is the key
to unlocking Pluton or maybe Pluton is literally buried in the walls and they need Zunesha
to break it open. So to tie this back to Zunesha’s crime,
I can just imagine that Zunesha was once supposed to help the ancient kingdom by using or unlocking
Pluton but they failed to do so and were then forced to walk the earth as punishment. However, that is not all about this ancient
elephant, because there are some crazy ties between it and the One Piece treasure that
are just too spicy for tier 4, so we’ll save them for the next tier. What should also be hidden from history is
that Dressrosa has a very dark past when it comes to racism. That’s because the Donquixote family ruled
Dressrosa before the Void Century. During this time, they enslaved the entire
tribe of Tontatta dwarves and forced the dwarves to work as slaves for centuries. This only ended once the Donquixote family
moved up to Mary Geoise, after the Void Century. It was at this time that the Riku family took
over leadership of the island and freed the slaves, which led to 800 years of peace until
the warlord Doflamingo came and took back the throne. Now speaking of special races in one piece,
during the Whole Cake Island arc we learned that Big Mom’s dream was to make a paradise
for all of the races of the world. And she almost succeeded because members of
basically every race lived in Whole Cake Island except for three very special ones. The first is the giants, who hated Big Mom
after a potential marriage between their king Loki and one of Big Mom’s daughters didn’t
go as planned. So you won’t find any of these large folk
walking around. The second missing race was revealed during
Wano to be the Lunarians, which actually makes sense why there weren’t any in Big Mom’s
territory because Kaido’s right hand man, King, is the only known Lunarian still alive. And the third missing race was FINALLY revealed
during Kuma’s flashback, which is the Buccaneer tribe. Interestingly, these people seem to be a cross
between giants and humans due to their incredible size and strength. And just like the Lunarians, there is only
one confirmed member of this tribe. That is the former warlord turned cyborg-slave,
Kuma. However, there is actually one other living
creature with Buccaneer blood, and that is the Seraphim S-Bear. Now to be fair, S-Bear is a genetically modified
clone, not a full- on Buccaneer, but I do wonder if somehow this Seraphim will play
a role in restoring the Buccaneer race. And while were talking about the Seraphim,
now is a good time to mention that these creatures are the only ones in the one piece world who
have devil fruit powers without actually eating devil fruit. Now before we get too far away from the Buccaneers,
we also have to mention the MIND-BLOWING possibility that the ancient figure Nika was actually
a member of the Buccaneer race. In case you don’t remember, Nika and Joy
Boy are often referenced when discussing the same person from the Void Century, but we
don’t know that they are the same person. All we do know is that the elephant Zunesha
declared the Joy Boy had returned at the same time that Luffy awakened his Nika devil fruit. One thing that is certain though is that the
Buccaneer race knew about Nika and basically worshiped him as their savior. Plus, if you look at the giant frozen straw
hat in Mary Geoise, it makes a lot more sense now that this hat would fit on the head of
an extra large human, like a Buccaneer, rather than a full-sized giant. So yeah, lots of signs pointing towards a
connection between Joy Boy, Nika, and the Buccaneer race. Before we go to the insane lore of tier 5
though, let’s head back into Mary Geoise because there is of course this mysterious
line about the National Treasure of Mary Geoise. This was revealed by Doflamingo, but we never
got to learn what it is. It could be something we’ve already seen
like the secret ruler of the world, Imu, the mega weapon that destroyed Lulusia, or the
frozen straw hat we just discussed. Another option is that it could be some frozen
warriors of the past, I mean why else keep a giant secret freezer? Or maybe it’s something even more insane
like a secret devil fruit tree that could be the original source of the devil fruits. We don’t know for sure, but one other interesting
bit of lore about the devil fruits is that there is some hint that devil fruits may have
a will of their own. This ties into the whole idea that devil fruits
have some sort of spirit or soul of their own, and they will naturally seek out people
who represent the core ideas of the fruit. The first clear hint we got of this was in
chapter 1044 when the Gorosei said that it seemed like the Nika fruit had been evading
them for the past 800 years even though they had been trying to capture it. And even when we see Luffy awakening his fruit,
it legit seems like he was possessed by some kind of maniac spirit that he literally could
not stop laughing. So yeah, don’t be surprised if we find out
later that devil fruits actually possess their own spirits somehow. However, we can’t end tier 4 without bringing
up one of the MOST MYSTERIOUS and LEAST TALKED ABOUT objects in the entire story. I’m talking about this thing. Like, seriously. WHAT. IS. THIS. THING? It has never been talked about in the story! And it is only ever shown on Roger’s ship. We do know that he had it after reaching Lodestar
island, which is the second to last island on the grand line and the place Roger first
learned about the poneglyphs. So maybe he found it there? We don’t really know. Nor do we know what it is. For a long time, community theorists thought
it was a dragon or an ancient weapon, but at this point who knows? One thing we do know is that it simply has
to reappear before the end of the story. Now as we reach the second to last tier of
the iceberg, we are really getting into lore and history that requires a TON of analysis
and even some speculation. And if you know all of this already, you are
most likely a professional One Piece fan. For example, did you know that just like the
real world, many events in the One Piece world are cyclical? Which means that they happen over and over
again throughout the centuries. And Oda even shows us this by having similar
arcs between the Pre and Post timeskip. For example, Alabasta and Dressrosa are both
very similar. In Alabasta, a Warlord nearly took over a
kingdom but was stopped by Luffy. Then in Dressrosa a Warlord did successfully
take over a country before they were stopped by Luffy. Another example is Arlong Park and Fishman
Island, which both dealt with the issue of racism. Now, why is this important? Well, because if we take the idea that events
happen in cycles then you can surely bet that the events of the Void Century are going to
be repeated in the present story. The key difference though is that Luffy will
most likely succeed where the past Joy Boys failed. And this ultimately means that Luffy will
be successful in uniting all of the races of the world to live freely all across the
world. I mean, he’s already basically done that
with all of his allies and friends he has made along the way. And this time when the world government attempts
their “Great Cleansing” Luffy and his friends will be able to stop it. And while this Great Cleansing is sure to
be a truly awful event, I bet you’ll be surprised when I tell you that the world’s
secret ruler Imu may not be as bad as you think. And this takes some digging into his family
name, which is Nerona. Now, while we don’t know for sure, this
family name could have been inspired by the Roman Emperor Nero, who has a ton of interesting
history and connections to Imu. First, he ruled over Rome at the very end
of what is considered the Julio-Claudian dynasty, just like Imu is ruling over what will likely
be the end of the World Government era. On top of that, Nero is usually considered
one of the worst emperors for some awful acts that he is said to have done, like burning
the city of Rome. However, if you dive a bit deeper into his
history there are a bunch of false myths and legends about Nero that make him seem A LOT
worse than he was. And I won’t get into those here, but if
Nero really was the inspiration for Imu then there might be a whole other story to Imu
that we still don’t know. So I’m not saying he’s a good guy, but
it’s definitely possible that he is more than just a simply evil dictator. Now speaking of Imu’s family, at this point
in the manga, we know many of the family names of the original twenty rulers. They are Nerona, Donquixote, Nefertari as
well as the names of the five Elders which are Jaygarcia, Marcus, Topman, Ethanbaron,
and Shepherd. We may also have another founding family,
the Garling family, but they haven’t been confirmed as one of the original twenty kings. And now to bring this back to Neferatri Lili,
while we don’t know what happened to her at the end of the Void Century, we do know
that she somehow disappeared. So it is possible she was hunted down and
killed by the world government. Another option is that she went on to create
the Island of Women, Amazon Lili, since they share the same name. Either way, something happened between Lili
and Imu which led Lili to reject the other nobles and side with the Ancient Kingdom. But before we move on from Imu, one last shocking
bit of lore is that Imu might actually be some kind of child. Now, we’ve long thought that Imu and the
Gorosei might be immortal, but there are some clues that Imu might have had their age frozen
while they were a kid. For example, his speech style in Japanese
is very similar to that of a child. Plus, if you’ve ever seen Imu sitting on
the Empty throne, they always appear extraordinarily small. Now the throne might just be massive, but
don’t rule out the possibility that they are a child or someone with a very small body. We don’t know exactly why they are so child-like,
but it likely has to do with their mysterious power. In fact, we already have a devil fruit that
freezes your age, which is the Hobby Hobby no mi, and its user was a child who literally
forced people to become toy slaves, so I’m just saying that this kind of ability has
already happened in the story. Now, this next bit of lore stretches way back
even before the Void Century because did you know that the Long Arm and Long legs tribes
have been having some sort of war for over one thousand years! Crazy right? While the rest of the world was battling it
out during the void century, these dudes were just over here fighting each other. And this next bit of lore will honestly shock
you, and it has to do with the current story. That’s because did you know that we have
never had a single person actually drown during the current story? Which is just mind-boggling if you ask me,
so surely that means that Oda is saving this awful fate for some important part of the
story right? Maybe for Imu or Blackbeard or something. If that happens at all though it will likely
be at the very end of the story, which is also when we should finally find Laugh Tale
and find the One Piece. However, did you know that Oda may have been
laying clues about the origin of Laugh Tale and the Ancient Kingdom right in front of
our eyes this whole time? Let me explain. We learned during the Skypiea arc that part
of the island of Jaya was launched up into the sky. And when you put these two pieces together
it forms the shape of a skull. Classic pirate stuff, right? Well, if you look carefully at this skull
shaped map you might also notice that the left eye of the skull is missing. Which at first glance might not mean anything. I mean it is an island after all and they
usually aren’t perfectly shaped, but when you dig into the symbolism of the left eye
throughout the story, you will learn that the left eye plays a significant, although
hidden, role. Because a missing or closed left eye shows
up quite frequently on volume covers that discuss the World Government, Void Century,
or the Ancient kingdom. For example, in volume 11, Nami here has her
left eye closed and in this volume, Luffy and the crew defeat Arlong, save Nami’s
village, and throw a massive feast to celebrate. So really hitting on the themes for freedom,
laughter, and celebration. Then we have volume cover 27 where Luffy has
his left eye closed and in this volume we have the panel of Luffy looking like NIka
dancing by the fire as well some other conversations about the golden bell and it has similarities
to the drums of liberation. And there are many more examples of left eyes
being closed during important volumes such as these. But the important thing is that during all
these volumes we are learning important lore, so clearly there is a tie between the left
eye and the ancient lore. We also have many important scars such as
Luffy, Garp, and Zoro’s being on the left eye and Luffy’s father’s tattoo being
on the left side, so all of this leads me to believe that this missing left eye on the
island of Jaya is just too significant to ignore. Whether that missing piece is Laugh Tale or
maybe the home of the ancient kingdom, I’m not 100% sure but don’t be surprised if
it shows up again in the future. However, it’s now time for the deepest,
juiciest bits of lore in One Piece, starting with the fact that Imu might truly be a demon
or some sort of nightmare creature. There were hints of this during chapters 1085
and 1086 when we saw his shadowy silhouette, but even more evidence is during chapter 1094
when we see this demon-like transformation from one of the Gorosei, Saint Saturn. And I mean, wow! No one was expecting this, and while these
abilities are still a mystery, it truly makes me believe that the Gorosei and Imu might
be devils or have some sort of demonic powers. What’s really interesting about the Gorosei
and Imu though, is that we have been explicitly told that they have natural enemies in the
D. clan. Now I’m sure at this point you know that
there are many people all around the world with the initial D such as Monkey D. Luffy
and his family. There’s also Gol D. Roger and his son, Ace. Plus, this giant is also a D. Even someone
like Law has the initial D, and we recently learned that Nefertari Lili was Nefertari
D. Lili, which means that Vivi, who the straw hats befriended early in the story, is also
technically a member of the D clan. So clearly these D. clan members are not all
related by blood, but you may be surprised to learn that we got a big hint about the
origins of the D clan in a brief recent flashback. In chapter 1085, we learned that Luffy and
Ace told Sabo that he could have the D initial in his name too since he was their friend. And while you might think that they are just
messing around as kids, I highly doubt Oda would just throw this in there if it didn’t
have real significance later on. So it might very well be that the D clan were
a bunch of friends who banded together and adopted this secret initial in order to stand
up for their beliefs. However, this next bit of lore is even more
secret because it is now time to talk about the important role of whales in the story. Now, we already mentioned Laboon and how he
was waiting at the start of the Grand Line for his friends to return, but did you know
that there are many other connections between whales and Laugh Tale? For example, in chapter 8, there was a whale
fountain in the same chapter Nami is looking for a map to the Grand Line. Then at the start of the Grand Line, Laboon
is literally the first thing the crew sees. And then what happens when they enter the
second half of the Grand Line? You guessed it, a whole pod of whales. Then the first time we see a Road Poneglyph
it is literally inside of a Whale Tree. So clearly Oda is making a point that whales
are an important piece of this whole puzzle. On top of that, we know whales love music
and in particular the song Binks Sake, which is a pirate song that is connected to the
One Piece. Now you might be wondering what does this
all have to do with the One Piece treasure? Well, let’s go back to Laboon for a second
because when the crew gets trapped inside of the whale they meet the doctor Crocus who
is taking care of Laboon from the inside. And we now know that Crocus was part of Roger’s
crew when they found the one piece, and he had his own little island inside of Laboon. So all of this could be hints that the island
Laugh tale is inside of a giant Whale. And when you combine this with the Deep Water
currents that we learned about in chapter 604, it all adds up to a very good explanation
for why only Roger and his crew have been able to find Laugh Tale in over 800 years. Which is because the island might actually
be inside of a whale that has been hiding in the Deep Water Currents, and can only be
found using a certain method described on the Road Poneglyphs. And it all fits with the idea of whales and
friendship especially since we know that the Ancient Kingdom already had a connection with
another giant creature, Zunesha. Now, while this is of course partially a theory,
we cannot deny that the clues are there. Just like how I know that if you’ve been
watching this entire time, you either absolutely love one piece and have nothing better to
do, or you are slaving away doing your chores or working. So luckily for you, I have the perfect thing
to keep you going with A MASSIVE One Piece Theory Iceberg video, which you can watch
right here. Shanks for watching, and I’ll see you in
the next one.
