Humans

Human beings are the dominant race in the world, as they outnumber most other races, and are usually among the most technologically advanced and organized of the races. Most islands are inhabited by humans, even in the Grand Line, where most of the stronger races such as the fishmen and giants are found.

Appearance
Humans come in a range of sizes, ranging from "normal" to much taller (such as Jerry). Some, such as Edward Newgate and Gekko Moriah, are extremely large for human standards; Moriah is 692cm (22'7") tall, far surpassing an average human's height by roughly five to six times. However, these humans remain small compared to giants. These large humans are roughly the same size as Wotans. Some humans have features that are unique, such as Usopp's long nose, which led to people mistaking him for a fishman in Cocoyasi Village.

Further physical differences between humans vary greatly; islands not allied with the World Government form a number of tribes including (but not exclusive to) the dwarves, minkmen, Longarm Tribe, Longleg Tribe, and Snakeneck Tribe. Some humans have an ape-like appearance such as Masira, Shoujou, the Utan Divers, Hamburg and the Coffee Monkeys; Masira claimed openly to be human and not ape, although he was not insulted when called a "monkey". Humans with demonic features have also appeared in the storyline (mainly in the Impel Down Arc) and have traits such as pointed ears, sharp teeth and intimidating facial features; Gekko Moriah is notably demonic in appearance, having white skin, pointed ears and even small horns on his forehead. A few humans have even been seen with goat or sheep-like horns growing on their heads, such as Merry and Caesar Clown. Even amongst families, size and proportional differences may occur, the most prominent example being the Gorgon Sisters.

Biology
The majority of the strange tribes of the Grand Line are also human ; but they can differ significantly in appearance from "normal" humans. Boa Sandersonia and Marigold were normal-sized humans when young, but currently stand noticeably above the size of normal humans, while their oldest sister, once only a little shorter than them, remained normal, if above-average, human size. Amongst the Kuja in particular, there is a notable phenomenon that every child born is female and no males are ever produced, although whether this is due to biology or gender specific culling is unknown. The alterations of other tribes' biology like this have yet to be explained.

Hybrids
Humans can breed with merfolk to produce a human-merfolk child. However, further interbreeding with humans appears to remove all apparent merfolk features. After just two generations, the only merfolk trait is a fast swimming ability, with all other physical traits being human. Humans can also breed with fishmen to produce a wotan, such as Sapi and Dellinger. Humans, fishmen, and merfolk also share the same blood types, and can have transfusions provided the blood type matches.

Inter-species Relationships
The apparent weakness of the humans in the One Piece world often makes other races, such as the fishmen, think poorly of them. This can result in heavy amounts of racism towards humans, although not all fishmen share this belief. Often, this is met by humans with returned racism towards the fishmen, sometimes leading to bloodshed. As a result of a long history of bad inter-species relations, humans tend to think of fishmen and mermen as nothing more than fish, and ignoring any chance of them being viewed as equals with humans. Fishmen children have been seen to view humans as "scary", and in one case an adult fishman attempted to blame their vast numbers as a reason for their species ruling the world.

There is an apparent problem with the non-World Government allied tribes. Their freakish appearances (such as having long arms or legs) are often a lure for kidnapping crews (who are usually humans) at Sabaody Archipelago, who sell them as slaves because their prices are much higher than a regular human. The tribes and races caught up in the slave trade are often sold for a higher price than "normal" humans. Humans themselves are worth an average of 500,000 in the slave market. Members of these tribes may even regard "normal" humans as freaks due to the fact that where they come from, their own appearances are normal and that of "normal" humans is not.

The dwarves of Tontatta Kingdom are widely regarded by the citizens of Dressrosa to be 'fairies', and no real attention is paid to them. In the past, they were enslaved by the king of Dressrosa, but when that king left the new ruler allowed the dwarves freedom, and helped the people believe that they were only a myth. However, when Donquixote Doflamingo took control, he enslaved the dwarves again.

Do not dare to call upon us again, you filthy human. World Nobles are no different from any normal humans. However, in their delusive arrogance of global diplomatic immunity and their esteemed heritage of being the descendants of the twenty kings who founded the world, they see themselves as above humans, believing themselves as gods. They are so detached from humanity that they wear special helmets to prevent themselves from breathing the same air as humans. The Donquixote Family, who forfeited their World Noble statuses, were condemned as traitors to their blood and derogatorily regarded by the other World Nobles as humans; Homing believed himself as one, which was the reason he brought his family away from Mariejois to embrace their humanities. Even so, his elder son Doflamingo believes to this day that he is above humanity, deriding his father's ideals of living as normal humans. The other World Nobles never accepted the Donquixote Family again for fraternizing with humans, stating that the sacred status they abandoned cannot be regained. Because of their attitude, World Nobles see not just humans, but all races, as nothing more than inferior beings compared to themselves, a reason for the business boom in slave trades.

Overall Strength
Most of the inhabitants of the One Piece world are normal humans, and are one of the weakest races on the planet. While the average human is as weak as in real life, with enough training, they are able to become Superhumans- normal humans with high levels of physical strength. They can also train to gain incredible abilities. Some humans like Koala have demonstrated that humans can learn Fishman Karate, despite not being Fishmen themselves. Many humans have developed a variety of martial arts styles to defend themselves with such as Black Leg Style & Hasshoken. Additionally humans often wield swords and other weapons to compensate. Several human swordsmen are shown to be extremely powerful individuals such as Zoro, Shanks, Kyros, Ryuma (when he was alive), and world's strongest swordsman Dracule Mihawk. In addition, normal humans are more likely to consider eating Devil Fruits to compensate for their lower physical abilities.

Their is also a Zoan Devil Fruit called Hito Hito no Mi which grants any animal that eats it human abilities such as intelligence, speech, and the ability to take a human hybrid form and full human form, as seen with its current user the Drum Island Reindeer, Tony Tony Chopper. Using his human intelligence the fruit granted him, Tony Tony Chopper developed the Rumble Ball to grant him further transformations.

Humans are also known for their intelligence and as a result can compensate for their lower physical abilities by out witting their opponents or use their intelligence to figure out how use their opponents' weaknesses/strengths against them. Several humans are geniuses in science and engineering, allowing them to develop unique powerful weapons & gadgets, or use their knowledge of various sciences (from biology to meteorology) offensively. Some humans like Vegapunk and Franky have demonstrated the ability to convert humans (and animals in Vegapunk's case) into Cyborgs, to further increase their abilities or repair damage to their physical bodies (like in Franky's case). Vegapunk's research in devil fruits discovered exactly how Devil Fruit powers are transferred over to a user, allowing him to develop Artificial Devil Fruits and figure out a method to feed devil fruits to inanimate objects, such as swords and guns.

Some humans are fortunate to be more than twice the size of a normal human being. Naturally, even with no training, these tall humans are amongst the strongest men and women in the world. However, compared with true giants, there can still be a massive difference between strength. When the Kairiki Destroyers of the Franky Family (enormous by human standards) face off against the giants Oimo and Kashi, they were completely outmatched. Compared to this, Whitebeard, roughly three times the size of a normal human, blocked an attack from John Giant with little effort.

While the normal human is physically much weaker than races like giants and fishmen, their wide range of attacks, skills, and abilities allow them to become versatile fighters. Even with the physical strength of other races taken into account, there are a handful of humans that can become strong, whether through physical prowess or tactical thinking. Arlong blamed the fact they had numbers as a reason for them ruling over Fishmen, who are noted to be physically stronger overall than humans, as he believed that humans were the weakest species overall. However some extremely strong humans like Zoro and Kyros are shown to be strong and skilled enough to defeat a fishman underwater, a place where normally fishmen have an advantage over humans.

Trivia

 * In the world, humans can live up to at least 141 years old, such as Kureha is, though her case was more likely due to her medical expertise to maintain such good health.
 * Tony Tony Chopper classifies himself as a "man" because of his Devil Fruit abilities from the Hito Hito no Mi, although he is a reindeer by species.
 * Ironically, despite being known as the weakest species, most of the strongest individuals in the series are in fact human. Edward Newgate, a human, is noted to be the "strongest man in the world" prior to his demise. Another is Dracule Mihawk who is currently the "world's strongest swordsmen".
 * It seems that humans are capable of training themselves to naturally create and use fire-based abilities as Sanji, Luffy, Hannyabal, Lucci, and Kin'emon have all demonstrated usage of heat and flames in their techniques in one form or another without the need of an outside source and by generating it through friction.

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