Mary Geoise


 * For the chapter of the same name, see Chapter 906. For the volume of the same name, see Volume 90.

The Holy Land Mary Geoise (聖地マリージョア) is the capital of the World Government, where the top brass of the organization reside and govern. It also hosts the Levely, a council of royalty from various World Government-affiliated nations that is in session every four years.

Mary Geoise is located on the Red Line at the opposite side of the world from Reverse Mountain and serves as the official route for people to cross between the two halves of the Grand Line, although only people acting inside the law are allowed passage; pirates and other criminals must go under the Red Line through Fish-Man Island to cross.

Despite being officially proclaimed as the center of the world and not hospitable to any criminals that attempt to oppose or negotiate with the World Government, there have been notorious individuals who have either deliberately chosen to ignore this policy or have been temporarily exempted from the law.

Mary Geoise is the main setting of the Levely Arc.

Geography
The general architecture of Mary Geoise has an 18th and 19th century European style. Since the World Nobles, the world's highest social class, live here, it is kept in pristine condition. It is located very high above sea level, so it is surrounded by clouds and fog. Around the city are artificially planted forests as well as rivers; their source of water is unknown. The city's conveyor belt walkways, called travelators (トラベレーター), are continually moved by slave labor pushing them from below.



People get to Mary Geoise from the Red Port using an elevator-like boat, they are called Bondolas. They arrive at the bottom of long staircases carved into the Red Line that lead right to the city, and on the sides of the staircases are statues of unknown people.

The city is built around a main intersection connecting both Red Ports, Pangaea Castle, and the Domain of the Gods where the World Nobles live. Each of the four directions has a large gate, considered parts of the castle wall.

Pangaea Castle


Pangaea Castle (パンゲア城) is a gigantic castle that dwarfs all the other buildings in Mary Geoise. Pangaea Castle is where officials of the World Government meet and work; it is also where the Levely takes place. This castle seems to have at least six floors, plus extra structures on top, including a number of towers.

Within Pangaea Castle, there is a monument known as the Empty Throne, a grand chair that is said to be located at the center of the world. Its "emptiness" is meant to symbolize that the world has no one singular supreme ruler. Additionally, each of the 20 royal families that founded the World Government lodged a weapon in the floor around the throne, as a sign of their protection over it. To this day, those weapons still remain stuck in the floor.

The main entrance of the castle is guarded by a group of soldiers clad in armor. There is also a fortified wall surrounding the castle, with the symbol of the World Government plastered above the front gate.

Domain of the Gods


The Domain of the Gods (神々の地) is where the World Nobles and their slaves reside. It is a fairly regular town, with trees and a fountain decorating the streets. However, it is very large as it constitutes most of the area of Mary Geoise. It appears that all of the residences in Mary Geoise are large mansions.

There was also a piece of public art in the Domain of the Gods, a statue in the shape of the World Nobles symbol, the "Hoof of the Flying Dragon", as well as a storage facility for high-quality food. However, both the statue and the facility were destroyed during an attack by the Revolutionary Army.

Celestial Dragon Gate


The Celestial Dragon Gate (天竜門) is one of three heavily guarded gates outside of the Pangaea Castle. It is the passageway between the Pangaea Castle and the entrance to the Domain of the Gods. The gate is large and has the "Hoof of the Flying Dragon" mark above its opening.

It is guarded by several World Government personnel, who prevent the entrance of anyone but the World Nobles.

Artifacts
Contained somewhere within Pangaea Castle is a national treasure that Doflamingo claimed could shake the world. He stated that with immortality, he could have used the treasure to rule over the entire world. So far, its existence has remained a well-kept secret.

Citizens
The highest-ranking leaders in the World Government, namely Imu (from behind the scenes), the Five Elders, the World Nobles, and Commander-in-Chief Kong, reside here. Mary Geoise is also the home of the World Nobles, the descendants of the 19 kings who came to live there after founding the World Government. They live in luxury, free to do whatever they please regardless of the law. It is the only known location where they do not wear resin bubbles over their heads, instead breathing the air from the atmosphere. They are attended to by slaves that they purchase from outside Mary Geoise, although many slaves escaped over a decade ago when Fisher Tiger attacked the city. Leaving the World Nobles, which is extremely uncommon, bars people from ever returning to a life on Mary Geoise as they are seen as commoners from that point.

Past
800 years ago, nineteen of the Twenty Kings moved to Mary Geoise from each of their kingdoms after the World Government was founded. The only ones who did not leave their kingdom were the Nefertari Family from Arabasta.

Around 400 years ago, the king of Lvneel Kingdom had to request permission from Mary Geoise to enter the Grand Line.

200 years ago, a large 700 year old (now 900 year old) robot climbed up the Red Line and attacked Mary Geoise, but it ran out of power before it could do any damage. No one ever found out where it came from and its purpose was also never uncovered. After the attack, the government ordered it to be destroyed, but ancient scientists were just too curious, so they hid it away instead and the World Government was never any the wiser.

33 years ago, a branch of the Donquixote Family renounced their World Noble status and left Mary Geoise in order to live with common people. They were not allowed to return, even when Donquixote Homing begged for his wife and children to be taken back in. Two years later, Homing's son Doflamingo tried to return to Mary Geoise with the head of his father in order to be reinstated as a World Noble, but was denied. Doflamingo then had to escape Mary Geoise with his life due to discovering its national treasure.

At some point, Dr. Vegapunk was invited to visit Mary Geoise, alongside his six Satellites. When Vegapunk and most of his Satellites saw the World Nobles' tyrannical culture there, they deemed such people as despicable and looked down on them for it. One Satellite, York, however, secretly desired to be elevated to a Celestial Dragon, even if it means to betray her peers.



15 years ago, Fisher Tiger climbed the Red Line with his bare hands and attacked Mary Geoise, doing so to free any Fish-Men held as slaves, but allowing all held captive by the Celestial Dragons to be free, including Kuja slaves Boa Hancock, Boa Marigold, and Boa Sandersonia, despite his hatred of humans. He even set the city on fire.

14 years ago, it was here that Spandam manipulated the Five Elders for the rights to seek the Ancient Weapons.

8 years ago, the Levely took place in Mary Geoise to discuss the rise of the revolutionary Dragon. The meeting was notable for an encounter between Drum ruler Wapol and Arabasta princess Nefertari Vivi which would influence fellow Drum soldier Dalton into realizing the true nature of his king.

Jaya Arc


It is here that the Seven Warlords of the Sea and Marines met for a meeting on Crocodile's replacement. During the meeting, the court was interrupted by Laffitte of the Blackbeard Pirates. Laffitte advocated for his captain, Marshall D. Teach to be the successor to the vacant Warlord of the Sea position.

Sabaody Archipelago Arc
Sengoku, Garp, and Kuma met in Mary Geoise and had a conversation about the Straw Hat Pirates. Sengoku noted that the crew's Log Pose would bring them close to Mary Geoise and began to worry about them because of their past actions.

Post-War Arc
After the Summit War of Marineford, Garp approached Kong at his office in Mary Geoise and resigned from the Marines, despite the latter attempting to hold him back from it. Two weeks later, Sengoku did the same thing.

Dressrosa Arc


After Doflamingo falsely told the world of forfeiting his title of Warlord of the Sea and throne to Dressrosa, Fleet Admiral Sakazuki had a meeting in Mary Geoise with the Five Elders, and got in an argument about Doflamingo going behind the government's back before they found out about Doflamingo's defeat.

Levely Arc
The royal families of the world came to Mary Geoise to meet for the Levely. They came to the Socializing Plaza, where Saint Charlos attempted to enslave the Mermaid Princess Shirahoshi with the help of CP0, only to be stopped by Saint Mjosgard.

Admiral Fujitora had also come to the city, and members of the Revolutionary Army headed there in secret in order to declare war on the World Nobles. The Emperor Shanks made his way to the Room of Authority to speak with the Five Elders about a certain pirate. Jewelry Bonney infiltrated Mary Geoise and snuck into the Domain of the Gods. When the Levely began, the Five Elders spoke to a mysterious individual known as Imu and asked what should be removed from history.



While Sabo was infiltrating Pangaea Castle, the commanders of the Revolutionary Army made their move in the Domain of the Gods; officially declaring war on the World Government by destroying the statue of the World Nobles symbol, destroying their food storage facility so the World Nobles would suffer hunger for a change, and freeing as many slaves as possible, including Bartholomew Kuma. The the Marine Admirals and Cipher Pol agents present tried to fight back against them, however, Cipher Pol was no match for the Revolutionary commanders, and the Admirals, while they normally would have been able to win all too easily, could not utilize their full strength because of the presence of the World Nobles who might get caught in the crossfire.

Translation and Dub Issues
For most of its run, the manga depicted this location's name exclusively with the katakana マリージョア—pronounced, roughly, Marījoa. As a result, virtually all fan and professional translations romanized it phonetically, with the Viz manga using Marijoa and the Funimation anime using Mariejois. Interestingly, these have been maintained by their respective translations even after Eiichiro Oda's own romanization of Mary Geoise was established in Chapter 906.

(Unrelatedly, it was renamed Eden Rock—and reframed as a Navy Headquarters training ground—by 4Kids Entertainment's localization of the game Grand Battle! Rush! and its original sequel Grand Adventure, as the contemporary anime dub had not introduced it in any capacity.)

Trivia

 * Mary Geoise is possibly derived from the term bourgeoisie. Technically, the spelling Geoise would specifically refer to a female member of the bourgeoisie, rather than the class as a whole.
 * Mary is likely a reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus from the New Testament, emphasizing the World Nobles' pretence of divinity.
 * According to Emporio Ivankov, Mary Geoise's place at the top of the red line is a double-edged sword; the great elevation makes it basically impenetrable, but they have no defense against food shortages and are completely dependent on imports.

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