One Piece: The First World, Explained 

If there was ever any doubt, One Piece chapter 1138 ensured that Elbaf is one of Oda’s best arcs, and had quite easily the best start to any arc in the entire series. One Piece chapter 1138 saw Oda go over the Harley texts, which is the book that’s been passed down from generations in the land of the Giants.

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The Harley texts were first mentioned by none other than Jarul, and now, Oda has gone on to reveal major pieces of information from the Harley, courtesy of Nico Robin, the archeologist of the Straw Hat Pirates. One Piece chapter 1138 saw Robin translate the entire Harley, and it is safe to say that the fans have had their minds blown already.

What Harley Text Has To Say About The First World

• A Massive War Was Fought
• The Sun God Nika Appeared

According to the Harley, and the mural drawn by the Giants long ago, the three worlds of One Piece have been revealed. The First World existed long ago, and as was revealed in the story already, this world existed before even the Void Century. The First World’s exact time period isn’t known. But, if things move in cycles, then the first world could be about 1600 years ago, given that 800 years ago was the Void Century.

During the First World, it appears that the One Piece world was quite modern. There appear to be giant buildings and power plants, along with factories. It is highly likely that this world was incredibly vast and that many large continents existed during this time period, since the world hadn’t been sunk at all. Fans know that mankind existed at this point in time, given that the mural clearly showed humans working. These humans are referred to as slaves in the Harley texts. It is believed that flames engulfed the land during this time period. This Could be literal, as in the world was covered in a sea of flames, or something figurative and more along the lines of the world had discovered an ancient power source, the Mother Flame. Given that Vegapunk already clarified that the world of One Piece had its own sun long ago that powered up everything and the usage of which was mindblowing, this is like what the myth implies here.

The Harley also clearly mentions they the humans of this time period grew greedy and gave in to their desires. They touched the forbidden sun. This forbidden sun could very well be the Mother Flame or the final product of the Mother Flame that Vegapunk wanted to create. Humans gained a lot of power during this time, and rose greatly in the world. It is likely that slavery became widespread during this time in order to create more Motherflame, which is something that the text indicates as well.

The enslaved people, who suffered greatly, wished for relief and the Sun God appeared. This is very important, as Vegapunk mentioned in the Egghead arc that the wishes of the people give rise to Devil Fruits. Two possibilities arise here. The first one is that the wishes of these slaves led to the creation of this Devil Fruit through the Forbidden Sun somehow, and then someone went on to consume this fruit. The second possibility is that the Sun God actually appeared from somewhere, potentially even another Celestial body, just like the Winged races of the One Piece world. In one way or another, the Sun God did end up appearing to free the enslaved from their misery.

Where exactly this Sun God comes from isn’t clarified in the Harley texts. The only thing that fans know here is that the Sun God popped up following the prayers of the oppressed. The rulers of the world clearly didn’t like this, and this is something that Jarul mentioned previously as well. The Harley specifically implies that the God of the Earth was enraged by this and he then collaborated with the Serpent of Karmic in Infernal flames. Together, they destroyed the world and shrouded it in death and darkness. The implication here is that Imu, if they existed during this time, is the God of the Earth.

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This is because Jarul already clarified they those in power fear Sun God Nika’s arrival, and clearly, it was the God of the Earth who grew enraged. Who exactly the Serpent being referred to is remains to be seen. But, what fans know is that this serpent has previously been mentioned by Dorry and Brogy. According to them, they can pierce anything but this Serpent, something that they mentioned long ago in the Little Garden Arc of the series.

The Destruction Of The World

The One Piece World Was Engulfed In Darkness

As the two collaborated, the likely result was the destruction of the world. It is heavily implied that Nika lost this battle and with that, couldn’t prevent the world from being saved. The world was covered in darkness and has since then not seen the dawn. How exactly Nika died isn’t known. What fans know clearly is that Nika fought these two monsters and died. The final line of the Harley reads ‘they would never meet again.” This implies some sort of eternal separation, likely caused by death itself, and could mean that the Sun God Nika’s dream wasn’t met and the people of the world were left longing.

After this time period, fans don’t know what exactly happy to the Earth God, or the Serpent of Infernal Flames. These two are still a mystery to this day. Perhaps, the Earth God itself is Imu and they remained immortal ever since, playing a massive role later down the line during the Void Century and the reappearance of Nika as well. Or, the Earth God could’ve been reborn like Nika as well, which could then have led Saint Nerona Imu to become it. As for the serpent, it is unclear who this is referring to, but fans will most likely find out more about it soon.

The world then heads to the Second World, which is where Joy Boy was born, and fans know that the 20 Kings united to fight the Ancient Kingdom, which itself could be a remnant of the First World, especially knowing that the first world was technologically advanced. Hopefully, Oda will reveal more information about the First World soon enough, but Elbaf has surely blown away minds already with its incredible lore reveals. Fans can’t wait for more such content from Oda later down the line in this arc.

One Piece is available to read via Viz Media. The series can be read by the fans officially and for free on the Shonen Jump and the Manga Plus apps. The release date for the next chapter of One Piece, One Piece 1138, is set to be February 2, 2025.

One Piece

Release Date

October 20, 1999

Network

Fuji TV

Directors

Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou

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  Mayumi Tanaka

  Monkey D. Luffy (voice)

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  Kazuya Nakai

  Roronoa Zoro (voice)

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  Akemi Okamura

  Nami (voice)

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