Orb

Orb
Statistics
Japanese Name:	オーブ
Romanized Name:	Ōbu
Official English Name:	Orb
First Appearance:	One Piece: Unlimited Adventure
User(s):	Sealed, island's residents, Monkey D. Luffy

The Orbs are sapient artifacts that possess the power to give shape to people's thoughts. Discovered by a now-lost civilization, they used them to convert their thoughts into energy for incredible feats of construction. However, some Orbs were lost to thieves while the rest disappeared along with the Great Tree, one of the lost civilization's creations. One of the thieves, Sealed, would use an Orb to create prosperity for an island, only for it to produce the Evil Guardian when it was misused. Said Orb would later be used to seal away the Evil Guardian at the cost of Sealed's life.

In the present day, the Orb that belonged to Sealed was discovered by Monkey D. Luffy, who inadvertently used it to call forth Sealed's island. There, he and the Straw Hat Pirates ultimately ended up using the Orb to aid the island's guardian, Popora, by defeating the Evil Guardian once and for all, after which the Orb was destroyed. Soon after, another Orb, in the form of Gaburi, would accompany the Straw Hat Pirates during their ordeals involving the Great Tree before becoming human himself and setting out on his own.

Appearance

The Orbs are round, shiny blue jewels covered in moving white specks. They emit streaks of blue and white light when activated.

Abilities

The Orbs are artifacts of immense power said to be capable of creating their wielders' ideal world. Due to the scale of their power, they are able to either bring great prosperity to an entire island and its people or completely destroying both depending on how they are used.

The Orb's six colors of energy.

Orbs are capable of a multitude of feats which appear to be derived from their ability to give "shape to people's thoughts". Basically, this allows the wielders of the Orbs to create manifestations of what they wish for, although the limitations of this ability are unclear. For example, an ancient civilization was able to turn their thoughts into energy for incredible fears of construction, such as the Great Tree. Sealed, another wielder, could as well use an Orb to create immensely sturdy barriers. Apparently, the extension of the Orbs' ability appears to be limited by their overall power. However, the Orbs can absorb objects for increasing their power and process them into six colors of energy: Blue, Green, Red, Black, White, and Gold. Each of these colors has a measurable Orb Power that dictates the upper limit of their Orb's power. These limits can increase up to "10" by absorbing certain objects of power, such as the remnants of the seals on Popora's island or the seeds produced by the Great Tree. Different levels of Orb Power are required to activate an Orb to perform tasks like altering the terrain or unlocking sealed barriers.

Animation

Sealed using his Orb to give life to Popora.

The most prominent application of the Orbs' ability is its power to instill life in inanimate objects. For example, with an Orb, Sealed was able to turn a clay figure that would become Popora into a being of flesh and blood, while his homeland's inhabitants were able to turn a statue into the Evil Guardian. The creations' personalities are inherently influenced the thoughts of those that they are created by; notably, those that are created out of hatred and hostility will turn out malevolent and destructive. Also, if an entity made by an Orb was created out of too much hate, then not even an Orb can stop it directly.

The following creatures have been created with the Orbs:

Popora

Evil Guardian

Great Tree

Sealing

The Orbs' ability give them the capacity to seal away beings like the Evil Guardian. However, this process requires a great deal of strength from an Orb's user. Because the Evil Guardian and the hatred that had born it proved too strong, Sealed focused his energy on sealing the Evil Guardian away, sacrificing his own life in doing so. As a product of this process, the cage used to hold the Evil Guardian would be maintained by twelve seals while Sealed's spirit was trapped inside the Orb. The twelve seals themselves took the form of stone monuments that could be broken with an Orb. However, these seals possessed defense mechanisms that allowed them to turn into apparitions made in the image of people from the memories of those interacting with them. These apparitions possess the same powers and skillsets as the originals, but are far less powerful. Should these apparitions be defeated, they would revert back to their original form and shatter, although their remnants could be absorbed by an Orb to make it more powerful.

Land Manipulation

Luffy activating an Orb to manipulate the environment.

The Orbs' ability also give them the power to manipulate land and space. The Orb that belonged to Sealed proved capable of raising an entire island from the bottom of the sea in Paradise. On said island, it could as well clear away translucent walls blocking path, summon platforms made from the surrounding environment, and open up walkways leading to the island's seals. When getting close to an appropriate location for it to manipulate, Sealed's Orb would begin glowing stronger.

Memory Projection

Possibly associated with the Orbs' ability to give shape to thoughts, the Orbs are able to project others' memories and show them to those nearby. One Orb could show memories from the Straw Hat Pirates that were similar to Popora's. In terms of application, these memories could be used to understand and communicate with Popora. The memories themselves appear in vivid detail and color but are short-lived.

History

Past

Long ago (at least more than a millennium), at least two Orbs were discovered by a now-lost civilization. Examining these Orbs, the people of this civilization learned how to use these artifacts' abilities to turn their thoughts into energy.

When the civilization began fearing the moral decline of the world, they used the Orbs to create the Great Tree in hopes of making an "ideal world". This tree was meant to select a new leader with the aid of the Orbs. This was done by having the Great Tree create ordeals for chosen candidates and then have the Orbs, which would be turned into creatures by the Great Tree for the purpose of having experiences to form their own opinions with, record their actions. Once the time was right, the Orbs would then unite with the Great Tree for analysis of the candidates' character; if the candidate was deemed compatible, they would be rewarded with a present that the Orb would be turned into by the Great Tree, but if they were deemed incompatible, the Great Tree would destroy the candidate.

Though the Orbs remained a consistent part of the Great Tree's creation, her construction workers would drift away until only one man was left. One of those workers who left was a man named Sealed, who would renounce the Great Tree and steal an Orb, which he would arrive on another island with. There, he continued his research of the Orb on a different path for future generations. Later, those who abandoned the Great Tree after she failed to live up to her purpose would come to take the Orbs, which had already turned into creatures at that point. However, true to their desires like children, the Orbs had matured with the chosen and would sink along with the Great Tree after she was exiled from her homeland and came to rest in the latter half of Paradise.

The island's residents steal the Orb from Sealed.

The Orb that had been acquired by Sealed would be used bring prosperity and bountiful harvests to the island that he had settled on. He also used it to create Popora. However, the island's residents were concerned about invaders and so demanded that Sealed use the Orb to make Popora into something that could fight and protect them. When he refused, the group eventually stole Sealed's Orb from him and used it to bring a statue of the island's guardian god to life. Because he had been born out of thoughts of hatred however, the Evil Guardian was corrupted and wreaked havoc on the island, slaughtering its people. To stop the Evil Guardian, Sealed used the Orb to seal him away underneath the island, but at the cost of his own life. This procedure created twelve seals around island for keeping the Evil Guardian contained while Sealed's soul was trapped inside the Orb.

One Piece: Unlimited Adventure

One day, Sealed's Orb was fished out of the ocean by Luffy with a fishing rod while onboard the Thousand Sunny. After Luffy decided to keep it, the Orb would bring fourth Popora's island from below the sea when Luffy began calling out for an island to appear. Making landfall alone in the Plain Zone, Luffy eventually found a spot with a translucent wall when he noticed the Orb glowing, and when he pulled it out of his pocket, the wall disappeared. When Popora then appeared and hit Luffy with his polearm, the Orb showed the two of them memories of Sealed and Shanks.

After Luffy reunited with his crew and began exploring the island during a hunt for what they believed to be treasure, he would used the Orb to clear pathways and release the island's seals. Along the way, the Orb showed the crew memories of their and Popora's pasts, eventually bringing them together as friends. Along the way, when releasing every seal, the Orb would absorbed their remnants, growing stronger with each absorption.

The Orb shatters, releasing Sealed's soul.

After the group vanquished the Evil Guardian for good and restored peace, the Orb fell out of Luffy's pocket following their escape from the Abyss Zone. The Orb then lost its glow and crumbled to pieces, much to Nami's dismay. However, its pieces then began to glow and let out Sealed's spirit. Before departing for the afterlife, Sealed used the remnants of the Orb to create friends for Popora, who helped him turn his island into a paradise.

One Piece: Unlimited Cruise

The Treasure Beneath the Waves

Luffy holding Gaburi after he had reverted to an Orb.

After Luffy reactivated the Great Tree and accepted her offer of a "present", she would bestow Gaburi, a creature created from an Orb, upon him as a guardian to record and observe the actions of him and the Straw Hat Pirates while they cleared the ordeals she had set up for them on different islands. When the time came for Gaburi to be turned into a present for the Straw Hat Pirates however, the Great Tree got corrupted by fear of humanity from Gaburi's memory of Marshall D. Teach, prompting her to turn Gaburi into the Doom Guardian to kill the Straw Hat Pirates with. Although the crew managed to separate the original Gaburi from the Doom Guardian, Gaburi ended up sacrificing all of his power to save the Straw Hat Pirates and make the Doom Guardian retreat when the latter tried attacking the crew. This effort would cause Gaburi to revert back to an Orb, albeit with his consciousness still intact, which would be claimed by Luffy.

Awakening of a Hero

Though reduced to an Orb, Gaburi was still able to communicate telepathically with Luffy, urging him to escape the Great Tree's wrath. After the Straw Hat Pirates managed to flee from the Great Tree and come to terms with what had happened, Gaburi insisted that they forgot about him and threw him into the sea in order to be safe. Having none of that, the Straw Hat Pirates decided to instead help Gaburi restore his strength and return him to normal by having him absorb the seeds from the Great Tree's ordeals.

Gaburi restoring himself from his Orb state.

Arriving at the Desert Island, the Straw Hat Pirates found a cliff. Using Gaburi's power as an Orb, they were able to open a path along the cliff for them after having him absorb some items. On top of that cliff, they found an ordeal seed that they ultimately got Gaburi to absorb. However, one seed was not enough to restore Gaburi, prompting them to locate another, which they managed to uncover with Gaburi's Orb powers again. After getting Gaburi to absorb that seed too, he gained enough strength to restore himself. However, because he was still separated from the Doom Guardian, it was only a matter of time before they both disappeared. The Straw Hat Pirates thus spent the following period making Gaburi strong enough to remerge with the Doom Guardian without being taken over by it.

When Gaburi later got back together with the Doom Guardian without losing control and made the Great Tree abandon her fear of humanity, he became the true present for the Straw Hat Pirates, which let him grant one wish of theirs. Ultimately though, Luffy let Gaburi have the wish, which he used to become human himself and set out on his own quest to become Pirate King.

Trivia

• The Orb's ability to create living beings out of clay may be an allegory for the creation of man by Prometheus, who defied the other gods and fashioned mankind out of clay.