Thread by @TypicalJAnt

One Piece Theory

The True History

#ONEPIECE #Theory

We first learned about, 'The True History' at the end of Alabasta. When, Robin joins the crew, she flashes back to her conversation with, Cobra. He asks why she lied to, Crocodile & she revealed that she was searching for this, 'True History.'

The next thing we learned of the True History, was the existence of the lost ancient city of, Shandora.

Hidden in the clouds for 400 years, the 'Golden City' of Shandora had thought to be lost.

Robin found it, 'in the skull's right eye.'

Robin finds multiple poneglyphs in this ruins of Shandora and discovers that the ancient city had been destroyed in attempting to protect the poneglyphs from an invading enemy.

From this we learned that in the past, at least 800 years ago, there was a war revolving around these poneglyphs inscribed with ancient text.

We learned in the Ohara flashback, that this was an event at the end of the 'Void Century'

While the Gorosei protest that studying the poneglyphs is illegal, because those who can might revive the 'Ancient Weapons', Clover does not mince his words.

He expresses that history should not be hidden for these reasons

Clover asks them directly. "Why did the people of the past engrave text on hard stone?"

Because they feared the message may be destroyed.

This immediately connects us back to Skypiea and Shandora, Shandora having been destroyed protecting the poneglyphs.

Whilst in the ruins of the city, Robin also discovered that all of it's books had been burned. The city's entire history was lost.

From this, we know that those who created the poneglyphs, did so because they feared that the message may once again be destroyed, as it had been in Shandora and likely beforehand.

Now we know, that the creators of the poneglyphs were the Kozuki.

If this is the case, that means that Wano & Shandora were once very close allies, if not literally connected.

Once again through Robin in the ruins, she deduces that only the creators of the poneglyphs could have written the texts found in Shandora

Many will know by now that I have theorised that Wano's Flower Capital & Shandora were once neighbours. The line that really drives this possibility home is -

The Great Bell sits at the heart of Shandora & it was custom among the Shandorians to ring the bell as a message to their lost ancestors. "We are here."

This bell that represents memory of those lost, is known as, 'The Light of Shandora.'

But who were the ancestors of Calgara and the Shandorians, where did they come from?

We learned in Enel's cover story, that three winged races came from the moon.

The Lost Moon City of Birka

These winged races were -
Shandorians, who settled on the Blue Sea
Skypiean's, who settled on Angle Island aka Skypiea
& Lunarians, who settled on the Red Line.

It seems that all of the places on which these races settled, became known as 'God's Land' or 'Holy Land'

Gan Fall explains that the Skypieans regard the soil of 'Vearth' as a blessing, as it allow for the natural resources that their races had lacked back in Birka on the moon.

Similarly, as we recently learned from Marco, the home of the Lunarians on top of the Red Line, was once known as 'God's Land' & replacing it, now sits the 'Holy Land' or Mariejois.

A parallel here can be drawn to Enel, who's object was to destroy the old Holy Land and create a new Holy Land on the moon. This is essentially an inversion of what happened before.

Enel believed that he was doing what a God should do, ruling above everyone else.

Gan Fall protested, "The people of this world do not need a 'God'!"

This is very likely to be a parallel to Imu and what happened to the winged races.

It seems that when the winged races came to the blue planet, they were not hostile to the native humans. Instead, they formed bonds of unity with these human races and together established a great kingdom.

One of these bonds, was with the Kozuki, who wear the crest of the moon.

From Enel's cover story, we can tell that the winged races had great technological advancement. Together with the renowned craftsmanship of the Kozuki, and the skills of other races, like the Fishman clan of shipwrights. They were likely able to form a kingdom like no other.

This Fishman clan of shipwrights, is of course the heritage of Tom, Franky's master. It was Tom's lineage who had been tasked with safe keeping the blueprint of Pluton.

This would be the origins of the bond between the Ancient Kingdom and the Fishmen

This bond eventually lead, as we know, to the promise that Joyboy made to the Mermaid Princess of the time, only currently known as the previous, Poseidon.

It is likely this clan who constructed the Noah as well.

An interesting parallel can be drawn here between Skypiea and Fishman Island, in that to get to Skypiea, they climbed the knock-up stream, to get to Fishman island, they took an undersea waterfall & both places contain poneglyphs pertaining to Poseidon

It seems incredibly likely, that these winged races, also had great influence on the giants.

Depictions of an Ancient Giant, can be seen in the map of Skypiea & their importance seems to be central to events of the Void Century -

Many will know already, that as a 2nd part to my theory that Wano is the missing eye of Shandora, I theorised that Onigashima's real name is in fact, Oars I. I believe that it was Oars who moved Wano's Flower Capital from Jaya.

You can check that out here

It seems that there is certainly a deep connection between these Ancient Giants and the Void Century. We've had hints of this for a long time, most notably, the mention of the 'Sun God' in Big Mom's flashback.

It seems then, that all three of these winged races that came from the moon, likely formed bonds with the races that lives on the blue planet and together, formed the Ancient Kingdom.

What happened next, seems to be that this Ancient Kingdom and the worship of these winged races as gods, drew the spite and jealousy of some.

Interestingly, it's here that the parallel to Dressrosa can be made.

Many will know already, that Giolla's abstract art, is supposed to retell the tragedy of Dressrosa. However, it seems evident that within this painting, there are also abstract clues to the fate of the Ancient Kingdom.

Most notably, the painting depicts a Kozuki as a fallen king cowering in fear. Perhaps suggesting that a Kozuki was once king.

On top of this, the right eye being open and the left one closed, seems to reflect the map of Jaya.

This theme, of the right eye being open and the left eye being closed, would also track with the idea, that the 'Light of Shandora', now shines again, since Luffy range the bell, people know it is real.

Meanwhile, Wano is closed and due to be opened. This would be the closed eye

I believe that Wano was once part of Jaya and neighbour to Shandora. Together, they were leaders of one third of the Ancient Kingdom, forming alliances with various races around the world.

It was this that drew their destruction at the hands of what became the World Government.

Though these winged people were worshipped as Gods, but the Shandorians, perhaps they saw it as better to be equal to the human and so they came down to the lower planet.

This parallels with Donquixote Homing

It may be then, that the other winged people did not take this well.

This also, would parallel with the Nefertari family leaving the original 20 families who founded the World Government. They became regarded as traitors.

This makes it possible then, that this war over the Ancient Kingdom, was in fact a civil war between the winged races. Those who lead the Ancient Kingdom, were opposed by an empire lead by one who saw it fit to; as Enel put it. "Doing what a God should do."

It may have been that it was the Lunarians speaking against this decision, that lead to their eradication. They seem to be based on Lucifer and Lucifer was banished from heaven for questioning God's authority.

Perhaps then, this is the reason why the poneglyphs came into existence. To preserve the original message of the Ancient Kingdom

The people of this world do not need a 'God'

This perhaps, is the core message of the 'Will of D.' That the world should be free from divine control and all races on the planet should have free will and freedom.

The reason that history was censored, is because Imu wants people to forget not only the existence of the Ancient Kingdom but also the existence of it's leader, Joyboy.

Once again, this parallels to Dressrosa, with the theme of erasing people from memories.

When 'The light that need to be extinguished from history', that tells us that light represents the memory of the past. This ties back to the theme of the Great Bell being rung to let the ancestors of Shandora know that 'We are here.'

This also ties in to the line from Dr Hiriluk, 'A man dies when he is forgotten.' and this really ties the whole idea together.

The Battle of Shandora, 800 years ago, may well have been the last battle of the Void Century and a parallel event to the destruction of the Lunarian Holy Land.

This was the first 'Great Cleansing.'

Since this battle was fought to protect the Poneglyphs, most notably, the one containing the location of Poseidon, it's even possible that this was the location of the previous meeting of the Two Sovereign.

Quite possibly, it was in this same battle that Joyboy failed to keep his promise to the Mermaid Princess.

Since then, it has been promised that someone would come to fulfil this promise in his stead.

It is surely this promise that Imu is trying to prevent and the identity of Joyboy that he is erasing history in order to prevent people from remembering. His will represents the continuation of the will of the Ancient Kingdom