A pirate in the world of One Piece is anyone who raises a Jolly Roger, whether they commit an act of piracy or not. This is not, however, usually enough to give anyone a bounty, but is enough to be arrested by the Marines. Bandits are said to be the opposite of pirates. The two have not been known to get along with each other too well.
Types of Pirates[]
There is also another kind of pirate, known as "rookie" pirates, which the Straw Hats fell under before the timeskip. In fact, all the so-called "Super Rookies", along with the Bellamy Pirates from two years prior the current timeline are considered to be rookies. It is unknown what qualifies a person or crew to be a rookie, though the word generally means that they are new-comers or new recruits. This may mean that these pirates have only been active for a short time and are relatively new, though there is a case of a pirate being considered a rookie even after three years.
Female pirates, though unusual, are by no means rare. More often than not, the women tend to be the captains of their crew, with certain exceptions, like with the Straw Hat Pirates, the Bellamy Pirates, the Donquixote Pirates, the Foxy Pirates, the Beasts Pirates, and the Whitebeard Pirates.
Crew Names[]
A pirate crew gains its name depending on the captain's liking, and mainly follows any of the following trend:
- named after the captain of the crew, such as Buggy's Delivery, Bellamy Pirates, and Barto Club.
- named after the captain's epithet, such as Red Hair Pirates, Whitebeard Pirates and Big Mom Pirates.
- named after a personal motif of the crew's captain, such as Straw Hat Pirates, Heart Pirates, and Cook Pirates.
- named after a theme that runs in the crew, such as Black Cat Pirates, Sun Pirates, and Firetank Pirates.
- named after the crew's location of origin, such as Giant Warrior Pirates, Space Pirates and Kuja Pirates.
- named after a crew that desires to continue a legacy of any sort, may be the same crew that captaincy is inherited via generation shifts, such as Flying Pirates, New Fishman Pirates and Happo Navy.
Hierarchy of the Seas[]
The Four Blues[]
Generally outside of the Grand Line, most pirates operating in the blues are considerably weaker than those inside. Often, they are left untouched by the Marines because their attention is drawn towards the Grand Line rather than the East, West, North, or South Blue oceans.
That is not to say that they do not have their share of villainous pirates, as even in the weakest of the blues, the East Blue, powerful men like Don Krieg and Arlong were found. Generally, few people in the four blues have access to Devil Fruits or general knowledge of them. Most pirates seen before the Straw Hat Pirates entered the Grand Line fight by using of some form of weapon, the only exception being Buggy (whose Devil Fruit was found by the Roger Pirates, in the Grand Line).
The Grand Line[]
While there are individual pirate crews roaming the Grand Line, the more powerful pirates reside in this sea. These are namely the Seven Warlords of the Sea and the Four Emperors.
Generally, the weaker pirates are often weeded out by the Marines or Warlords before they can progress any further. The unfortunate crews do not even make it to their first island due to not understanding on how the weather works in the Grand Line. The Grand Line is where one is most likely to encounter or confront Devil Fruit users, both in and out of pirate crews.
In the second half of the Grand Line the most powerful pirates are the Yonko. The second half of the Grand Line is their playground and it forms a rather dangerously balanced part of the One Piece world.
Due to the Red Line, the Grand Line is separated into two segments. The first half is known as Paradise where the second half is called New World.
Supernova[]
Any rookie pirate who has earned a bounty of over 100,000,000 Beli is considered impressive, and can be considered as a "Supernova". The Worst Generation of Supernovas were during the Golden Age of Piracy, when eleven of them almost simultaneously appeared on Sabaody Archipelago, each holding a bounty of over 100,000,000 Beli, and each member had caused a great influence within the New World, as well as earning themselves much notoriety.
The Pirate King[]
The Pirate King is the strongest pirate alive and owner of the legendary treasure that was later dubbed as "One Piece".
Before his death, Pirate King Gol D. Roger hid One Piece. It was rumored to be located at Raftel, the island at the end of the Grand Line. The frenzy over discovering and owning such a massive treasure sparked the "Great Age of Pirates". Until One Piece has been claimed, there will be no current Pirate King.
Until his death, the closest person to becoming the Pirate King was Whitebeard. Many people who had met Luffy, such as Vivi, Coby and Helmeppo, believe that he will be the Pirate King; Kokoro also addressed Luffy as the Pirate King and Shakuyaku has stated that both she and Silvers Rayleigh were rooting for Luffy to achieve this goal.
The reasons for a person wanting to be the Pirate King vary, Gecko Moriah and Blackbeard wish to acquire it for the power and influence the title would come with, while others like the Four Emperors are considered candidates for it because they are extremely powerful and very close to it, but the two shown so far appear to not have any interest in it except for Blackbeard who later replaced Whitebeard as one of the Four Emperors. Still others like Luffy and Crocodile (prior to the event that caused him to let go of it) wish to become the Pirate King because it is a dream of theirs. Luffy (and Crocodile in his youth) seem to want it for the adventures that are involved with becoming the Pirate King. The Pirate King is said to be the ruler of the sea (Eneru asks Luffy about the country the Pirate King rules after Luffy says that he will be one, Luffy answers this by saying that the Pirate King is the king of the sea, Eneru then says that it would be a very interesting title).
When talking to Silvers Rayleigh, Luffy said that the Pirate King is the person with the most freedom on the sea. After hearing this Rayleigh smiled to himself, possibly because Roger himself had also stated this being his primary value.
History of Pirating[]
Before the Golden Age[]
Pirates have long been a part of the way of life in the One Piece world. The oldest known group of pirates mentioned were the ones under Dorry and Brogy from more than 100 years ago. However, despite pirates existing back then, none of them were known to be noteworthy enough to shake the world.
Then all that changed with the arrival of the great pirate Gol D. Roger (and others like Edward Newgate and Shiki). Roger set about to do what no one had done before - conquer the Grand Line. He succeeded and in doing so made his way to Raftel and left behind something somewhere in the world, his most prized possession, One Piece. Roger brought about an air of romance about being a pirate and upon his death his final words sent others to sea to become a pirate. Things would never be the same again.
The Golden Age of Piracy[]
The death of Roger sent many pirates to the Grand Line, hoping to find his treasure and become the Pirate King. However, with the new wave of pirates came a new change that even Whitebeard noted.
Over the next few decades the old figures of the pre-pirate age began to disappear due to the span of time. This left fewer and fewer people aware of the days of piracy before Roger's death. Many old values shared by the pirates of the pre-pirate age slowly began to die. Even once commonly sung songs like Binks' Sake have begun to fade out of memory, save from the minds of those who still remember the olden days of piracy (such as those like Brook and Shanks). Although newer pirates still adopt these values, some completely go in a different direction, the most prominent is Bellamy who speaks of a New Age where pirates should stop dreaming.
With the Great Age of Piracy spiraling out of control, the World Government became deeply concerned. In response, they created the Shichibukai and sent them out to kill other dangerous pirates. The World Government also allowed themselves to easily be manipulated by Spandam into a machination to acquire Pluton to combat the increase in pirate activity, unaware that he had ulterior motives in mind.
The New Age[]
At the start of the storyline, the New Age was fast approaching. This New Age of Piracy was brought upon by changes in the world. Various characters who have mentioned it either spoke of a world on the verge of chaos, or a great age where pirates no longer chase their dreams.
Related to this oncoming age in particular was the capture of Whitebeard's 2nd division commander Fire Fist Ace by the Marines. This significant action resulted in the Seven Warlords of the Sea and Marines assembling together in preparation for a war against Whitebeard himself. During the war, Ace was killed and Whitebeard attempted to take down Marineford. It was also notable that before Whitebeard died, his famous last words proclaimed the real existence of One Piece that may also aid in increasing the amount of pirates going onto the sea for the treasure. Finally Whitebeard, who held the Age of Pirates together, died, leaving his vast territories for conquest by other pirates in the New World. It may also be noted that after Blackbeard took Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit powers, he said that this age will be "his age" shouting aloud for everyone in Marineford and Sabaody Archipelago (viewing via visual Transponder Snail) to hear. The "New Age" is a phrase used to emphasize the fact that the world is changing, and different pirates obviously have different ideas about what the coming age will be like. Bellamy believed the coming age would be an age without dreams, while Blackbeard believes just the opposite.
Between the Golden Age and the New Age, eleven top rookie pirates, with bounties over 100,000,000 Beli from nine different pirate crews arrived in the Sabaody Archipelago before the Whitebeard War, each having made their names and reputations in public. They were dubbed by Shakuyaku as "The Eleven Supernovas", saying that one of the Supernovas could potentially be responsible for inspiring a whole new generation of pirates and also forge the New Age. All of the Supernovas (with the exception of Zoro) witnessed the Battle of Marineford, while Luffy and Trafalgar Law actively participated in the battle, afterwards heading towards the New World to make their marks.
With the start of the New Age, a new wave of pirates went to sea looking for One Piece, having heard Whitebeard confirm its existence. A number of pirates from the previous era escaped Level 6, and it was noted by X Drake that a new age also means that the Marines themselves now must change with this. However the exact direction this new era will take is still as of yet unknown.
The Eleven Supernovas and Blackbeard have become known as the "Worst Generation" to the world. Whenever any of them causes an incident, other pirate crews get involved and annihilated. Brownbeard and his crew were devastated by Basil Hawkins and his crew, the Kid Pirates wiped out and mercilessly crucified an unknown pirate crew that were trying to go back to Paradise. The Blackbeard Pirates defeated and captured the Bonney Pirates and allowed them to be arrested by the Marines. Although after the timeskip, Bonney was shown somewhere in the New World.
It has been hinted in the One Piece series, though, that it is going farther and farther out of the government's hands, with pirates everywhere, all of which appear to be less and less mindful of the government. Although to counter this it has been stated that the Marines have been granted unprecedented power by the World Government, along with Fleet Admiral Sakazuki moving Marine Headquarters to the New World to better combat the growing threats to these organizations of Justice. The people of Luffy's hometown noted the increase in pirate activity in the seas after the war.
Trivia[]
- Privateers and pirates are often grouped together as one and the same. The only real difference was that privateers can be consider hired "pirates", who were contracted to work for their governments against other nations on the seas, and were generally allowed to do anything they wanted so long as they did not attack their own countries ships. Pirates however, work for no one and worked on their own accords. In One Piece, the Seven Warlords of the Sea are based on "Privateers", however the Straw Hats themselves have done actions that would fall into this classification as well; such as helping Alabasta against Crocodile (originally Nami only agreed to protect Vivi for a price).
- The "Age of Pirates" established by Gol D. Roger, is based on the real world's own golden age of piracy.
- "Pirate King" was a real historical title used by powerful Japanese pirates who operated in the Inland Sea.