One Piece Guides

One Piece Guides
These are guides written to help those unfamiliar with One Piece or needing specific information on something.

What is a Devil Fruit?

Devil Fruits are rare fruits that give whosoever eats them, even if just one bite, special abilities. The price for these abilities is that the eater loses the ability to swim, sinking like a rock in a body of water, or even standing water like that of a bath tub. Even if only part of them is underwater, they become powerless.

Unless documented from a previous eater, what a found Devil Fruit does is unknown, making anyone willing to eat it only able to find out the ability once they have it. Only one type of every Devil Fruit exists, requiring the person who ate one to die before the same fruit reappears in the world. Attempting to eat another Devil Fruit will result in the person's body destroying itself, killing them.

Kairoseki, aka Seastone or Sea-prism Stone, is a substance that gives off the same energy as the sea. If it makes contact with a Devil Fruit user, the user becomes powerless and drained of energy. Items made from this are used to fight against or restrain Devil Fruit users.

Devil Fruits come in one of three types.

Paramecia
The most common of the Devil Fruits. Their powers from anywhere to becoming like rubber, or to be able to cause earthquakes. They encompass every type of power you can imagine as long as they don't fall under zoan powers and logia powers.

Logia
The rarest of the Fruits, known for their powerful abilities. This type of devil fruit gives the user control over an element such as fire or light. They also turn the user into this element making them intangible. However, it takes great practice to master this, and if the user wishes they can be in a solid form.

Zoan
This fruit gives the user the ability to transform into an animal. It is normally divided into three forms: original user form, the full creature form, and a hybrid of the two. Some have figured out how to get inanimate objects to eat Devil Fruits, feeding them Zoans to give them life.


The One Piece World




The Red Line -- This is the sole continent of the planet. It wraps about the world and has steep cliffs alongside the water, making it difficult to reach.

The Blue Sea -- This is major water area of the planet, where its inhabitants live on islands. It is divided into four areas by the Red Line and Grand Line: North Blue, East Blue, South Blue, and West Blue. It is also used as a collective term for the world below the sky.

The Grand Line -- A sea route that wraps about the planet at a right angle to the Red Line. Chains of islands run down its path. The normal magnetic field is distorted here by magnetic fields radiating from each individual island. This makes normal compasses useless. It is bordered by Calm Belts along both sides. The Grand Line is divided into two parts by the Red Line: Paradise and New World. Islands come in styles based on each of the four seasons.
-The waters of the Calm Belts have no currents or winds, ruining regular means of travel. They are also nesting grounds to Sea Kings, enormous sea monsters that attack ships in droves here.
-The "safe" entrance to the Grand Line from the Four Blues is at Reverse Mountain, a mountain that touches the Four Blues, the Grand Line, and the Red Line. Water from the Four Blues runs up its slopes due to the harsh temperature difference from the mountain. This water then flows down into the Grand Line. The rough currents and weather around the mountain can cause travelers to meet their doom by crashing into the mountain's walls.
-Paradise is the first half of the Grand Line where most pirates begin their Grand Line journey. Although it is considered a dangerous and rough place, it is considered "paradise" to those who have taken on the New World.
-The New World is the half of the Grand Line the Yonkou have claimed. To reach it from Paradise, one must climb over the Red Line, ditching their ship in the process, or by traveling underwater through Fishman Island.

The Sky Ocean -- The Sky Ocean is an ocean that exists in the sky, as the name suggests. It cannot be seen from the world below. The clouds that make up this ocean are different from normal clouds. They are Sea Clouds and Island Clouds, and these special clouds are what makes the very existence of the Sky Ocean possible. It has two seas: the White Sea and the White White Sea.
-Sea Clouds are like water and can be sailed on just as normal water can. They make up the White Sea and the White White Sea.
-Island clouds are like land, being solid and are where the inhabitants of the Sky Ocean live.
-The White Sea is located 7 km (4.3 miles) above the Blue Sea. There are rubber-like clouds here that one can bounce off of as well.
-The White White Sea is above the White Sea, being 10 km (6.2 miles) above the Blue Sea. This is where sky islands are located.
-The animals that life in the Sky Ocean are flat, balloon-like, or enormous compared to their Blue Sea cousins.


What is the World Government?
The World Government is a political organization made up of over 170 countries across the world. They believe in absolute justice, that all those who break the law should always be punished and the more treacherous the act, the more severe the punishment. No matter the situation or circumstance, the same crime is the same crime to them. The main enforcers of the World Government's will and actions are the Marines. Criminal acts are reported to Marine HQ and recorded, with pirates receiving bounties based on the level of threat they are deemed to the World Government.

Other important groups to the World Government's methods include police, the Cipher Pol groups, bounty hunters, and the Ouka Shichibukai.

At times, the World Government does not carry out its belief of Absolute Justice. For instance, World Nobles seem to be exempt to the laws.

The headquarters of the World Government lies on the Holy Land Mariejois, which sits upon the portion of the Red Line that divides the Grand Line into the Paradise first half and the latter half of the New World. This is where the World Council, made up of the leaders of the kingdoms that make up the World Government, meet to discuss important world matters.


Who are the Ouka Shichibukai?
Known often simply as Shichibukai (Seven Warriors of the Sea/Seven Military Seas), they are a group of seven pirates who have pledged loyalty to the World Government. The Shichibukai act as privateers, which are pirates who work specifically for a country or government. The World Government only asks pirates who have shown their strength against other pirates, with high bounties or having accomplished a great feat that proves their strength. Other pirates often consider them to be dogs of the government. The Marines do not think too kindly nor highly of the Shichibukai either.

Although the Shichibukai normally do not have any respect for the World Government or each other, it is a title only pirates deemed strong and worthy enough can hold. Another bonus is that they lose the worry of being chased after by the World Government and can continue on as they normally would for the most part. They can also gain special political benefits, such as protection of their home island(s).

However, they must follow major orders given to them else risk losing their position. The Shichibukai are especially not allowed to disgrace the World Government, and that includes suffering a horrible defeat. The World Government may try to cover up illegal activities and acts of disgrace to preserve the fame and image of the Shichibukai in question. This is done not only for the image of the World Government itself, but to keep the allied power of the Shichibukai as a group strong to keep the power of the Yonkou against the World Government in check. As part of being privateers, they're supposed give the World Government 10% of the treasure they take.

Who are the Yonkou?
The Yonkou (Four Emperors) are four pirates who rule the New World. They each hold their own territory in that half of the Grand Line. Considered the most powerful pirates in the world, their power is feared by the World Government. The group is not a team though, and it is this lack of unity that allows their power to be checked by the World Government.

The Yonkou tend to protect all islands in their territory, although some may require the residents to pay a price to be under their wing. It is this act of protection that gives the Yonkou a positive image to some individuals.