Dance Powder

Dance Powder is a green powder that is used to make artificial rain. It is a powder that brings both happiness and misery at same time, and is one of the central focuses of the Alabasta Arc.

History and Usage
Dance Powder was created long ago by a country that had no rain. The main raw material to make it is silver. When burnt, it would emit a mist like vapor that would rise up in the air. It speeds up the creation of ice particles in sub-freezing temperature clouds and causes rainfall. The original creators of this powder thus called it Dance Powder because it would make them dance with joy with all the rain that it would create.

Despite the rain it creates however, the powder unfortunately caused long periods of drought in other countries. The process in which the artificial rain is created nurtures clouds that aren't ready to rain yet. When this happens, all of the water contained within these clouds would all be used up. Because of this, other countries and locations, who would naturally benefit from rainfall when these clouds would naturally mature, would be greatly deprived.

The controversy that this powder brought whenever it was used started a war. The amount of lives lost in this war was so great that the World Government prohibited the manufacturing and possession of Dance Powder worldwide.

The Alabasta Scandal
Dance Powder is first mentioned when Vivi and the Straw Hat Pirates paid a visit to Erumalu, a town that was once green but has long since been swallowed up by sand due to the nationwide drought. Three years before the present story line, some delivery men, who happened to be the Baroque Works agents in disguise, brought a large shipment of Dance Power to Erumalu port. They staged an accident in which the cart would break and the bundles containing the Dance Powder would rip open and spill the powder. The agents then lied that the king had ordered for the powder to be delivered to Alubarna, the city where it rained the most. They then fled leaving all those who witnessed the staged accident to doubt the king.

Soon after, an abnormal weather pattern appeared in Alabasta where it only rained in Alubarna. A large scandal then arose around Cobra as suspicions that he had been stealing all of the country's rain came about because of the incident in Erumalu. This scandal was further intensified when large amounts of Dance Powder were somehow brought to and discovered in Cobra's palace. Crocodile, the leader of Baroque Works, then further intensified the scandal by using the Full to process large quantities of Dance Powder to create a drought in Alabasta. As a result, the people of Alabasta blamed the king for the drought. As towns dried up and people starved, a rebellion was stirred up to overthrow Cobra for a crime he did not commit.

Trivia

 * In a response to a fan who asked if Dance Powder was based on the same concept of using jets to get rid of rainclouds so people in England can play tennis matches at Wimbledon, Oda revealed his basis for Dance Powder. The model for Dance Powder is the real life compound, silver iodide, a substance that when burned will send up smoke that increases the size of clouds.
 * It is also possible that Dance Powder is a subtle reference to global climate change, as the effects have been shown to lead to the displacement of large bodies of water as well as dried-up rivers.

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