Silvers Rayleigh

Silvers Rayleigh, known as the "Dark King", is the former first mate of the Gold Roger Pirates and the "Right Hand of the Pirate King". He became a coating mechanic in Sabaody Archipelago at some point after Gold Roger died and the crew was disbanded. He is one of the central characters of the current arc as the Straw Hats require his skills in order to get to Fishman Island.

Appearance
Two of Rayleigh's most distinguishing marks are that he typically wears glasses and that the facial hairs on his chin are arranged like stripes across his lower jaw. He also has a scar over his right eye, which he has had for many years. When he was younger, Rayleigh kept his black hair cleaned cut and had a moderate amount of facial hair. Over the years, as his hair whitened, he let it grow longer and wild. He also grew a beard from his initial stripped patterned facial hairs.

Abilities and Powers
In his younger days with Gold Roger, Rayleigh commanded the rest of Roger's crew as First Mate. He would do several duties supervising the rest of the crew. Amongst these duties was disciplining the young Buggy and Shanks over their constant arguing about useless things such as which polar region is colder.

After the Gold Roger's crew disbanded, Rayleigh became a coating mechanic in Sabaody. He specializes in coating ships with Yarukiman Resin.

Rayleigh is apparently extremely strong. Shakky, a business partner of his, vouches for his strength by saying that he's "100 times stronger than all the Eleven Super Novas". Rayleigh is also somehow able to utilize his "Spirit" similar to the way displayed by Shanks and Luffy, accept his "Spririt" seems to be on a much higher scale than Luffy's and even Shanks. It is speculated that Rayleigh's spirit power can be focused, as suggested from having rendered a specific target completely unconscious without the aid of eye contact, nor adversely affecting anybody else near the initial target. He disabled an entire room with this power, seemingly targeting everyone but the Straw Hats. He recognizes Luffy from the straw hat he wears, and has been longing to meet him.

Rayleigh also appears to be very smart and a skilled analyst, somewhat similar to another first mate, Ben Beckman. He was able to quickly scan a room he had just entered and determine who his allies and enemies were as well as analyze the danger of the situation. He did all of this while releasing massive amounts of "Spirit".

History
As vice captain of Roger's ship, he disciplined Buggy and Shanks over their constant arguing by beating them over the head, saying that it did not matter. In that appearance, he was not named, though Oda clearly told Toei Animation not to refer to him as Captain in the anime.

He later took himself to the Human Auctioning House to be sold as a slave. Garp stated he most likely built up a debt he couldn't pay off so decided the money for selling himself would repay his debts.

When the manager, Disco, mistreated the newly arrived Camie, he used a "rush of spirit" to knock Disco out. The giant with whom he was in a cage noted this, and asked him who he was, which he shoved of, saying he was just an old man, Garp notes that the only reason he might be in this situation is because he gambled too much and had to sell himself.

Rayleigh eventually breaks out of his cell along with the giant that was also a prisoner at the time. He then reveals that he only had himself put up for auction to eventually rob whoever bought him. He then disables the entire auction house, one of the victims being World Noble Saint Shalulia, with his "Spirit" before addressing Luffy, whom he says he's been waiting to meet for a long time while remarking that the Strawhat suits him.

Anime and Manga Differences
In the manga, when young Rayleigh's glasses were briefly seen, they had a circular shape. In the anime, they had an oblong shape. Also the scar is missing, presumably this is an caused by mistake because the scar is hard to see in the manga.

Trivia

 * When Shanks and Buggy were first revealed to be part of Gold Roger's crew, a fan asked Oda in a SBS question if the man that scolded them was a subordinate captain under Roger that commanded the ship they were sailing on, or even a high ranking officer. Without giving away Rayleigh's name at the time, Oda responded that this man was none other than the First Mate of Gold Roger's crew. Oda also stated in his response that since he had set this fact in stone from the very start, he told the Toei Animation that when they adapt Buggy's flashback for the anime, Buggy and Shanks should not refer Rayleigh as Captain in the anime.
 * His name possibly refers to John Silver from Treasure Island and Sir Walter Raleigh, an English 16th-century explorer and privateer.
 * Silver is traditionally considered the second most valuable metal after gold, and as the First Mate Silvers Raleigh was the second high ranked man in the crew after the captain, Gold Roger.