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 are considered antagonists of the Sabaody Archipelago Arc.

Appearance
Most World Nobles seem to have the same hairstyle (Mjosgard's father is an exception, as he is partially bald) and 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". All World Nobles also seem to wear the same kind of white robe that resembles a spacesuit (sometimes accompanied by a cape), although the border designs of each noble's clothing appear somewhat different and original. Male World Nobles seem to have a different style of collar than female World Nobles.

Donquixote Doflamingo is one known World Noble who did not share such a dress-style, from childhood to current.

About
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 be sometimes 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 as not to upset them, with the exception of the guards, servants, and slaves that are alongside them.

Abilities and Powers
So far, except for Donquixote Doflamingo, they have shown absolutely no physical combat abilities whatsoever, and appear to merely be simply human. They have great pull in the government as well as a vast amount of wealth to do so whatever they please with. Through the political power they have with the government, they can order 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 any form of Justice, as seen where they are allowed to kill anyone that simply crosses their path.

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 pointblank 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. 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.

A World Noble has tremendous amounts of influence, even more so than any 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.

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.

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.

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. However, there is a limit to their allowable actions, as Doflamingo was stripped of his heritage's status and condemned a criminal when he turned to piracy and took the Heavenly Tribute as hostage.

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 unpopular amongst citizens, 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. 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.

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) to obtain a visiting World Noble's gratitude in the prospect of elevating their own noble status.

Past
800 years ago, twenty kings came together to "build" what is the current workings of the world. Their descendants later went on to become the World Nobles. Two known clans of these twenty kings are Donquixote and Nefertari, 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.

In the past, Donquixote Doflamingo was a World Noble, as he descended from Donquixote clan. For unknown reasons, he ceased to be a Celestial Dragon, but retained enough connections and privileges of his former status. As a pirate, he 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.



At some point, fifteen years prior the current storyline, 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 some 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, where he gunned down Sabo's ship because it cut in front of his.

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 with no fear of the admiral due to nobody on the island will report the attack, instead could be written off as an accident. However, Queen Otohime saved Mjosgard and had his wounds tended, 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, they later appeared at the human auction house. The third member of their family, Saint Charloss, appeared. Having bid 500,000,000 on the mermaid Keimi, shutting all other bidders out, Luffy and the Rosy Life Riders appeared. Hatchan attempted to stop Luffy from causing an incident, but was shot by Charloss. For his efforts, Luffy punched Charloss, knocking him out.

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.

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 off of 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 World Nobles are also like Marquis de Sade, a 18th-century French libertine nobleman who was resistant to authority and committed acts that disregards religion, morality, and law.
 * The World Nobles are also somewhat similar to the four debauched and corrupted libertines from Sade's infamous novel "The 120 Days of Sodom".

Trivia

 * Though they are said to have a great power over the world, it has not been stated if they have any restrictions under the Gorosei, as all they do is use their power and wealth for their own selfish reasons. However, the Marines themselves appear to be used to do their bidding, such as using them to bring back slaves who had escaped, despite slavery itself being illegal. Piracy is the only known off-limit, as Doflamingo is considered a criminal for becoming a pirate.

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