World Noble

The World Nobles, also known as the Celestial Dragons (天竜人), are the descendants of nineteen of the Twenty Kings who established what is now known as the World Government. The World Nobles — specifically those of Roswald's family — are considered the main antagonists of the Sabaody Archipelago Arc.

Overview
World Nobles... Slaves... Human shops... Against the "purity" of these "upper classes", the villains of the world look positively humane in comparison. It's because the world's in the hands of scum like them that it's all screwed to hell... I mean, we're not the nicest of guys, but at least we're honest about it.

These are the people who are allowed to live in the Holy Land of Mariejois. However, due to their connection to the World Government, they constantly abuse their power and look down on the people below them, referring to them as commoners. They can sometimes be seen walking around Sabaody Archipelago, but are disconnected to the point that they wear resin bubbles over their heads to prevent them from breathing the air of the common people. In the case of visiting places out of the Archipelago, they wear other types of helmets, as the bubbles will pop out of the area. Whenever one appears people instantly bow so as not to upset them, with the exception of the guards, servants, and slaves that are alongside them.

The Celestial Dragons each possesses a government-issued identification chip to identify their statuses; Homing handed his family's over to the government official escort when he had their statuses rescinded.

Appearance
World Nobles wear their hair, or a part of it, combed upward with a distinct curl on top, unless they do not have enough hair to do so, as Mjosgard's father is partially bald. They all wear the same kind of white robe that resembles a spacesuit (sometimes accompanied by a cape) with a skirt, although the border designs of each Noble's clothing appears somewhat different and original and there are variations in the skirt's length. Male World Nobles seem to have a different style of collar than female World Nobles. While outside Mariejois, World Nobles wear an oxygen tank attached to a bubble or glass case around their head in order to not breathe the same air as the "lowly commoners". However some are less likely to do so while in Mariejois, though others still feel the need to. A majority of World Nobles, such as Jalmack, Charloss, Mjosgard and his father, are notably overweight, if not outright obese. A typical Celestial Dragon also has a rather haughty, if not arrogant, look on their face, showing neither pity nor sympathy for those of lesser statuses.

When the Donquixote Family abandoned their statuses, they ceased wearing their World Noble attire, and changed their hairstyles as well. Notably, even before their departure, this family alone seemed to have no members who are overweight, and had rather remarkably kind facial features (except Doflamingo, who possesses the same, nigh-perpetual arrogant look as his amoral former brethren). The male members all grew up to be rather tall.

Culture of the Higher Classes
The Celestial Dragons have various rights and privileges not held by many other people in the world. In particular, they are able to buy people, including pirates, who have been captured and put into slavery and their actions are overlooked by the World Government. They use a branding iron to mark their slaves with the Hoof of the Flying Dragon (天駆ける竜の蹄) on their backs. According to Boa Hancock, anyone who bears this mark is not seen as a human being but as an item or a possession.

Their method of discipline is to inject tranquilizers into the slave to stop them from escaping, in addition to the use of explosive collars. They tend to treat their slaves poorly, working them to exhaustion then punishing them for their weakness. Each Celestial Dragon shown so far has been seen wielding a firearm, mostly for shooting people they dislike. When faced with defiance from commoners that they cannot immediately rectify through the use of their pistols, they have the power to summon an admiral to deal with the offender. Failure in dealing with the offender is considered unacceptable.

Although they often buy people from auction houses, they can make anyone a slave that they choose to. They may also have as many spouses as they wish, can take anyone they wish as their spouse off the street, and can dismiss them in an instant, as demonstrated by Saint Charloss.

World Nobles have been shown to be extremely cruel and brutal towards their slaves. As many people who were their slaves were brutalized so harshly and traumatically that many committed suicide after being freed, another stating his eyes were plucked out solely for sport and another burned alive just for laughs. The horrors the Nobles leave on the slaves is shown to viciously traumatize them even after their release, as both Koala and Hancock, through their horrid experience, were terrified of showing weakness ever again towards others. Even Fisher Tiger, who freed many slaves commented on them representing the "madness" of humanity and warped his personality forever from his years as a slave. During Gild Tesoro's past as a slave, it was shown that the World Nobles even forbid their slaves from smiling.

They also seem to be immensely wealthy; Saint Charloss casually spends 500,000,000 to buy Keimi, a price that even the royalty present could not afford, just to see her try to outrun a pack of piranhas in his fish tank. They can also easily afford the rare and highly expensive Devil Fruits to feed to their slaves simply for sick entertainment, as the Gorgon Sisters suffered. The source of this seemingly limitless income is monetary tributes from the various nations of the world that are affiliated with the World Government, known as Heavenly Tribute (天上金); failure to deliver this source is seemingly consequentially terrible, as the government was forced to comply with Donquixote Doflamingo's demand to make him a Shichibukai when he took the tribute as hostage and each country is forced to comply with giving the tribute regardless of the cost or sacrifice needed to accomplish the quota. Many countries were left on the verge of starvation to pay this tax with many dying from hunger solely to meet these quotas.

The World Nobles claim to possess "the blood of this world's creators", which is their sole justification for their actions. This single fact allows them to utterly disregard any facet of law or society that does not serve their own interests. They have no regard for Justice, at best paying it lip service if at all, and are above any retribution for their actions (to the extent that they cannot be punished by the law, anyway). Eustass Kid regards them as a prime example of how corrupt and absurd the world is. The vast majority are under the impression (or delusion) that they are gods, not humans, and seem to think that being a Celestial Dragon itself is something beyond human comprehension. Because of this, most of them are unable to fear even if they are threatened by those who would ignore the World Government's protection, as Roswald only became wrathful at Luffy for assaulting Charloss, while Mjosgard only became furious at the fishmen for daring to defy him despite being isolated from witnesses and protection.

However, in history there was one Celestial Dragon who chose to abandon his status to live among the commoners; Donquixote Homing was always considered sacrilegious by his brethren for his different view on the lower class, and upon his declaration of being the same as all humans and request to have his World Noble status annulled, he and his entire family were condemned as traitors, forever losing their privileges and diplomatic immunity. The Celestial Dragons are so detached from the rest of humanity that they immediately severed all ties with the Donquixote Family once Homing left to fraternize with the lower class; they felt offended when he compared himself with the rest of humanity, and felt no sympathy for him when he pleaded for them to at least rescue his children and wife from angry civilians, dejecting him for being a "mere human" who cannot regain the position he discarded. Simply being connected to the blasphemous traitor Homing via bloodline, Donquixote Doflamingo could not return to Mariejois either even when he brought his father's head as an appeasement offer. Unable to return to the higher social class, Doflamingo (being the sole member of his immediate family to remain attached to his heritage) felt that he is condemned forever in the hell known as the world of humanity.

Although commoners bow down at the presence of an approaching World Noble, they fear and despise such people due to their arrogance and cruelty, yet do not dare attack due to the fear of an admiral's wrath. Certain people, however, are willing to look past the admirals and attack anyways, such as Fisher Tiger and Monkey D. Luffy. In fact, the Celestial Dragons are so loathed among the citizenry, especially slaves who escaped, that if given the chance, people would eagerly try to kill them. A prime example is Mjosgard became a prime target when nobody would report his murder to an admiral, and instead could be written off as another "shipwreck incident". Even the normally good-natured mermaids appear to support Mjosgard's attack, so long as there is no backlash. Should a World Noble give up their position, they are threatened with extreme prejudice from the common people. When Donquixote Homing gave up his family's status and was no longer under the government's protection, the citizens of the country where he moved to burned down his mansion and hunted him and his family. Since the World Nobles refused to take him back, Homing and his family were forced into hiding in a junkyard and living in squalor until they were caught. Homing and his sons were lynched and threatened with extended torture for the crimes of the World Nobles. However, while commoners and former slaves despise such people, regular Nobles actually idolize them. The nobles of the Goa Kingdom went to great lengths to impress just one World Noble. Even after having witnessed Jalmack seemingly kill Sabo the citizens were more concerned about angering the Noble over the fact he tried to kill a child, then later cheered for the noble while he was riding a slave. Doflamingo is noted for his complete lack of fear of the World Nobles, himself being a former one, as he went as far as rob tributes for them to blackmail the Government, an attitude that the Government finds very troublesome.

World Nobles also appear to have little knowledge of the outside world and therefore, little knowledge of common folk's resentment towards them. As Homing was noted for having little knowledge of the outside world and not knowing of their hatred to nobles and a young Doflamingo was shocked and angry seeing no one bow to him, leaving him under the impression commoners always bow to a World Noble when one is present.

Despite their arrogance, the World Nobles can have a sense of appreciation for people with lesser status when they leave a good enough impression, as Otohime managed to retrieve a support from one World Noble for Fishman Island's migration, and Wapol's company earned so much renown the Celestial Dragons granted him an entire kingdom. Indeed, Goa Kingdom went to great lengths (bribery, arson, murder and betrayal in the Gray Terminal) to obtain a visiting World Noble's gratitude in the prospect of elevating their own noble status. Donquixote Homing was noted to be a benevolent Celestial Dragon who considers himself as human, which was seen by his arrogant compatriots as blasphemy, believing that his family should live the modest life of normal commoners, and abandoned Mariejois, taking his wife and two sons with him. This had a rather adverse effect on both the family's well-being and reputation, resulting them being labelled as traitors by the Celestial Dragons while being treated as scapegoats by the common people.

The World Nobles did have two known fears, despite their arrogant beliefs of political-empowered invincibility:
 * 1) For reasons yet to be fully explained, they considered those who bear the D. in their name to be their enemies, telling their children that if they don't behave themselves, the D would eat them up.
 * 2) When Doflamingo managed to escape Mariejois alive with knowledge of the Celestial Dragon's national treasure, he used this to blackmail them to grant him equal rights that he lost, demands which they granted in fear of him exposing said treasure to the world.

Abilities and Powers
So far, typical Celestial Dragons have shown absolutely no physical combat abilities whatsoever, and appear to merely be simple humans. They have great pull in the government as well as a vast amount of wealth to do whatever they please with. Through the political power they have with the government, they can order things of such magnitude and triviality like the creation of a bridge to connect to every island for no other reason than simply they wanted to, as well as make any commoner they want into a slave of theirs right off the street. They are also completely immune to the entire legal system and justice set by the World Government, as seen where they are allowed to kill anyone that simply crosses their path. Their political authority is above even that of the Gorosei, as they can distribute news of a Shichibukai's resignation — something that can shake the Three Great Powers' balance — and then easily tell the world it was falsified, all of which even the Gorosei could not disobey.

They each seem to possess a firearm of some kind, but more often than not are quite inefficient, using it only to injure and murder people they dislike at point blank range. Usually, they simply rely on people's fear of them, but their greatest weapon is that when they get attacked in any way they can summon an admiral to obliterate their attackers. CP-0 is said to be the strongest of all Cipher Pol units, including the assassination specialists, CP9. It is said that nothing good can come from this group's presence. They work directly under the command of the World Nobles. However, if there are no witnesses to report an attack against a World Noble, then the threat of an admiral is nullified, which would leave said noble weak and vulnerable. Indeed, when the Donquixote Family abandoned their statuses, they found themselves struggling for survival due to their pampered past, and helplessly facing the wrath of angry civilians who took full advantage of the family's lost protection. Although Donquixote Homing and his wife died shortly after leaving the holy land due to their lack of experience with the outside world, their sons Doflamingo and Rosinante managed to survive due to being rescued by their respective circumstances: Doflamingo awoke the rare Haoshoku Haki that saved him from being tortured any further and impressed his four friends — Vergo, Trebol, Diamante and Pica — who protected him and raised him to become their king; Rosinante was saved by Sengoku and recruited into the Marines, training him in survival.

A World Noble has tremendous amounts of influence, even more so than any of the kings and queens of the Reverie. As such, they are able to affect the decisions of the meetings with their words alone. With the support of one, Otohime was able to get many signatures from Fishman Island for a petition promoting the relationship between humans and fish folks.

The Celestial Dragons possesses a national treasure that, if exposed to the world, could shake its foundations, and is of such importance that they were forced to comply with Donquixote Doflamingo's blackmail. If this treasure is used in combination with the Ope Ope no Mi, it would allow the person to effectively conquer the entire world.

Ships
Whenever the World Nobles travel the seas, their mode of transportation takes the form of a large ship with a grandeur design. The ship possesses four masts, with the frontal sail having the World Government insignia on it. At least the front three have a crow's nest, with the top of each also having the Government flag on top. The upper part of the ship is cobalt blue with white edges, while the bottom is wooden with a steel plating under the keel. There are numerous cannon ports on the sides of the ship. The ship's figurehead is that of an golden animal wearing a crown with a white mount, with what appears to be golden whiskers coming out from underneath the figurehead. The ship that carried the Donquixote Family to a North Blue nation and Jalmack to Dawn Island both have a golden lion head with a golden crown, suggesting it's the same ship on two different voyages. The one Mjosgard traveled on has a rat figurehead wearing a silver crown.

Past
Nine hundred years ago, twenty kings used to rule their kingdoms until the Great Kingdom came about and these kingdoms waged war on it and won.

Eight hundred years ago, these twenty kings came together to "build" what is the current workings of the world, and were invited to live in Mariejois after the war. Their descendants later went on to become the World Nobles. Two known clans of these twenty kings are Donquixote and Nefeltari, though the latter refused to leave their kingdom, and thus were not World Nobles.

700 years ago, they ordered the creation of a bridge in East Blue to connect the islands together which became the country called Tequila Wolf for reasons yet to be revealed.

This is the life you have chosen. The discarded cannot be regained. Do not dare to call upon us again, you filthy human.

Forty-one years prior to the current storyline, Donquixote Doflamingo was born a World Noble, as he descended from the Donquixote family. Two years later, Donquixote Rosinante was born into the same family. Another six years later, their father, Donquixote Homing, chose to abandon his status as a World Noble, along with his family, and live among the common people; the other eighteen families tried to dissuade him, seeing his differing views on humanity as blasphemy and an indirect insult to themselves, but to no avail. Doflamingo alone remains attached to his heritage, showcasing the spoiled nature typical of the World Nobles, in which his father intended to reform him. When World Noble hating commoners attacked the now vulnerable Donquixote Family, his wife died of illness not long after, which an 8 year old Doflamingo would blame on the deplorable lifestyle as outcasts that his father brought upon them. When Homing desperately contacted the Celestial Dragons in Mariejois to at least rescue his kin, they coldly turned him down and warned him to never call them again. Two years later, Homing was killed by a 10-year old Doflamingo, who was fed up with the terrible lifestyle. The child then returned to Mariejois with his father's head in an attempt to appeal for his former status, but the World Nobles refused to let "a family of traitors" return. Due to Doflamingo having knowledge of Mariejois' national treasure, seen as a danger by the Celestial Dragons, they tried — and failed — to have him killed, making him an outlaw, and eventual pirate. He was able to use this knowledge to blackmail them into granting him rights (to a certain extent) to the ones he lost when his father dragged him away from the holy land, something he would use 33 years later against his enemies. With his four extremely loyal friends, who worshiped him as their king, Doflamingo was able to simulate the privileges of a Celestial Dragon, as they shot down anyone who offended Doflamingo, and burning down an entire town simply for having a poorly paved street that made him trip. As a pirate, Doflamingo robbed the Celestial Dragon's heavenly tribute and used it to blackmail the government into granting him a position as a Shichibukai. Doflamingo was noted for his complete lack of fear of the World Nobles. His younger brother Rosinante would be adopted by Sengoku into the Marines.

At some point, 15 years prior the current storyline, the fishman Fisher Tiger the Adventurer climbed the Red Line with his bare hands and caused havoc in Mariejois, the home of the World Nobles, in the name of all fishmen and despite his dislike for humans, Fisher Tiger freed slaves of all races as he destroyed the city and told them to "run and never get captured again". It is later revealed that Fisher Tiger was in fact, a slave himself and but chose not to reveal his past until he lay upon his deathbed. Boa Hancock, Boa Marigold and Boa Sandersonia were a few of the slaves freed by Tiger's rampage. The former fishmen slaves were taken in by Tiger and formed the Sun Pirates.

Twelve years prior to the current storyline a World Noble by the name of Saint Jalmack came to Dawn Island. He then gunned down Sabo's ship because it had cut in front of his and was flying a jolly roger.

Eleven years prior, Doflamingo murdered his brother Rosinante for betraying the crew, thereby leaving Doflamingo the last known descendant of the Donquixote bloodline.

Ten years prior, a ship containing the World Noble Saint Mjosgard broke down near Fishman Island. Traveling there with the intent on getting his "Prized Fishman Slave Collection" back after having been pardoned by Jinbe becoming a Shichibukai, his ship was attacked by sea monsters on the way. Being the sole survivor, the citizens of Fishman Island, especially members of the Sun Pirates, tried to kill him without fear of an admiral due to the fact that nobody on the island would report the attack, and instead could be written off as an accident. However, Queen Otohime saved Mjosgard and had his wounds tended to, though he remained highly ungrateful before departing. Despite this, Otohime followed him, and returned one week later with his support for human-fish folks relationship improvement, which will be used for the next Reverie.

Sabaody Archipelago Arc
In the current storyline, they were first seen when two of them, Saint Roswald and his daughter Saint Shalulia, appeared on the Sabaody Archipelago. They were seen upon the fall of the escaped slave Devil Dias. After abusing the slave for his futile efforts to escape. The third member of their family, Saint Charloss, appeared as he was walking through town. People bowed down and even the Supernovas present did not try to walk in his path. Roronoa Zoro of the Straw Hat Pirates, however, did not know who Charloss was and even asked if he (Charloss) needed directions. Appalled at Zoro's actions, Charloss aimed and shot his pistol but Zoro easily dodges while drawing his sword. Another Supernova, Jewelry Bonney, managed to save herself and the rest of the pirates on Sabaody from an Admiral by tricking people into thinking that Zoro was dead. Even though Charloss had a feeling that the swordsman dodged the bullets, he believed that he still managed to kill Zoro.

All three members of the family are later seen at the auction house where Keimi is going to be sold. Charloss made a bid of 500,000,000 on the mermaid Keimi, shutting all other bidders out including Nami, as Luffy, Zoro and the Rosy Life Riders burst through the front door. Hatchan then attempts to stop Luffy from causing an incident, but was shot by Charloss. After a tearful apology from Hatchan and Charloss' constant cheering, Luffy punches Charloss sending him flying through the seats.

After witnessing his son being assaulted, Roswald drew out a gun and attempted to kill Luffy. Roswald called out for an admiral while guards entered the auction house and tried to stop the Straw Hat Pirates. He was knocked out when Usopp fell on top of him. His daughter Shalulia attempted to kill the mermaid they were after, but Rayleigh knocked her out with Haki before she could kill Keimi.

After the World Nobles were all knocked out, word was put out they had been taken hostage by the Straw Hat Pirates, with help from the Heart Pirates and Kid Pirates who had been mistaken to be co-operating with them even though they had just been bystanders. During the aftermath, Saint Shalulia shows her frustration towards the marines for their failure to capture the Straw Hats. She then swore revenge against the very people who defied her and her family.

Marineford Arc
During the war against the Whitebeard Pirates, Admiral Kizaru mentioned that the World Nobles have been demanding Luffy's capture, most likely because he dared to hit one of them.

Two Years Later
Two years after the war, Wapol's company has became so successful with his Wapometal toys, the World Nobles granted him a kingdom, which he named the Evil Black Drum Kingdom.

Dressrosa Arc
Doflamingo used the leverage he has against the Celestial Dragons to blackmail them into mobilizing CP-0 into falsifying his resignation from the Shichibukai in order to deceive Trafalgar Law and the Straw Hat Pirates.

Translation and Dub Issues
All the World Nobles are referred by "Saint" as a prefix-honorific. In Japanese, it becomes a suffix, with the males being "-sei" (聖) and females "-gu" (宮).

Manga and Anime Influences

 * They seem to be based on the stereotype of Old Money, people who believed they were superior to those they saw as lower class, and see themselves as better because of what their ancestors accomplished. This, mixed with a belief that they are somehow godlike, is reflected in how they are referred to as "Saints" (ironic, as they have shown themselves to be extremely cruel; caring little for human life) and live in the "Holy Land".
 * Among other acts of cruelty, real-life tyrant and oppressor Jie of Xia rode on people's backs like a horse while drinking wine, just as Charloss and Jalmack did. In one incident, Jie was riding on the back of a top chancellor, and after a while the chancellor was exhausted to the point that he could no longer crawl or move. He asked King Jie to spare him, and Jie immediately dragged him out to be executed. Similarly, Charloss sold off his slave who was too exhausted to carry him any further.
 * The roles of the World Nobles in the World Government are similar to many European cultures, including Greece and the Roman Republic, where nobles had absolute power simply by right of birth.

Trivia

 * The only descendants of the kings not to be directly called as Celestial Dragons (or sporting their stereotypical behavior) are the descendants of the Nefeltari bloodline, since they have chosen to stay in their kingdom instead of moving to Mariejois, and thus, kept away from the culture developed by the current descendants. If the World Government considers their descendants as Celestial Dragons or not, is unknown. However, they seem to lack the usual protections of the Celestial Dragons, as they were harassed by the Marines for harboring the Straw Hat Pirates.
 * Despite being able to afford Devil Fruits, as well as just using them to feed to their slaves as a form of entertainment, the only ones who have eaten them so far are Doflamingo and Rosinante (the Ito Ito no Mi and Nagi Nagi no Mi respectively), but they did so after losing their status as World Nobles. This could be attributed to having to survive against intense hardships and prejudice from commoners.
 * Doflamingo also wanted Rosinante to eat the Ope Ope no Mi, not knowing about the Nagi Nagi no Mi.
 * Many Celestial Dragons tend to end their sentences with the word "eh", something even Doflamingo once shared; he gradually grew out of it after his ties with his former lifestyle broke down slowly.
 * Although Doflamingo claims that he detests the Celestial Dragons for denying him reinstatement, and that he wishes to destroy their world as payback, he nevertheless continues to believe that his heritage alone makes him superior to humanity, and that he remains an equal (if not superior) to the World Nobles.
 * Enel shares some similarities with the Celestial Dragons such as in his behavior and belief that he is a god. Fittingly, his natural enemy happens to be the Luffy (due to his possession of the power of the Gomu Gomu no Mi) who is a D carrier (which are said to by God's Natural Enemy").

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