World Government

The World Government (世界政府, Sekai Seifu), is a political body that appears in the One Piece Series. It is a political organization comprised of the majority of the world at large, seemingly ruled by the Five Elder Stars who in actuality answer to a ruler known simply as Im whose existence within the World Government is not known to the world at large.

It was established 800 years ago. The Marines serve as their primary military organization, headed by the Fleet Admiral, while the Cipher Pol operate behind the scenes, either through sabotage, reconnaissance, spying, espionage and/or assassination; their most powerful enemies are largely pirates and revolutionaries.

The Commander-in-Chief oversees both the Marines and Cipher Pol as well as the Seven Warlords of the Sea, at least officially, and ranks directly below the Five Elder Stars. Impel Down serves as the World Government's most impenetrable maximum-security prison.

Collectively serving as the most prominent antagonists in the series, the World Government is largely portrayed as a corrupt entity, particularly through the application of absolute justice, the suppression of research into the Void Century, and the depravity of the aristocratic World Nobles.

"."
 * —About the World Government.

Overview
"Look at that symbol, pirates!!! That mark represents the unity of over 170 nations... In the four seas and the Grand Line...!!! This is the World!!!"
 * —Part of Spandam's speech on what the World Government is.

The World Government is affiliated with roughly one hundred and seventy countries from around the world. Member countries retain autonomy and run their own internal affairs (though the World Government does sometimes intervene), but cooperate with the World Government for international relations. Their political ideals are unknown and everything they do is considered to be right. Not everyone approves of their political ideals, as there are people like Dragon who are against it.

They approve of Absolute Justice and are based in the holy land of Marie Jois. The World Government is ruled by the Five Elder Stars, the highest authority of the world, rendering the entire political institution a pure authoritarian oligarchy. They depend on the Marines and the Seven Warlords of the Sea to keep the Four Emperors and other antagonistic forces from defying them and causing chaos.

The World Government maintains an international order that claims to benefit all, making the world safe for the sake of everyone. Using the Marines, they pursue criminals endangering the lives of those who are innocent, protecting the people of each country in the world. The World Government, as the largest political power, holds full rights to halt or encourage any political action without question or opposition.

However, the reality is that, unknown to most citizens (and many world leaders), the World Government's actions and policies tend to be secretly based on corruption or questionable motives. They hide the truth or ignore the rights of the people, with many individuals using justice to further their own aims. Individuals who become the enemies of the World Government are viciously hunted down and dealt with, and all those who walk along the same path as them are doomed to share the World Government's wrath. Nico Robin, in particular, spent her entire life running from the World Government, and everyone who she joined soon betrayed her for the bounty on her head, or found themselves against the Marines and other government forces. While some people are beginning to question the motives of the World Government, the general public still trusts them and would tend to believe information from them.

The World Government's power to release information on anyone as they please can often lead to the truth being suppressed, altered or ignored completely. Any countries attempting to protect or harbor criminals are at risk from the World Government, and some have been known to be destroyed completely. For the most part, the important role they have in maintaining world stability far outweighs the corruption they often display.

They allied themselves with seven powerful pirates in exchange for pardoning their past felonies, but allowed them to continue committing crimes in order to maintain power and status. Sengoku was informed about the escape of several Level 6 criminals, only to be ordered by the World Government to suppress the greater details, since they did not want ordinary citizens to know that these potentially dangerous criminals were free to roam the land once again. This meant that the Marines could not issue the warrants necessary for their arrests without releasing information related to these criminals.

Despite the institution of slavery being abolished publicly, the World Government still allows such practice in the underworld, mainly due to the Celestial Dragons' exceptional privileges; in fact, government agent themselves would buy slaves to be trained into soldiers or agents, in order to bolster the ranks of the Marines and Cipher Pols. For that, they conducted transactions with slave traders to obtain entry into different countries such as Elbaph, to allow for a larger variety of "merchandise".

The World Government is willing to eliminate innocent people and their own allies to prevent the possibility of negotiating with criminals or accommodating their demands. This doctrine is the principle of Absolute Justice. This was demonstrated by a 13-year old Cipher Pol agent Rob Lucci who massacred 500 captive soldiers because he deemed them weak, and thus negating a pirate captain's demands to be crowned king in exchange for the release of the hostages. Vice-Admiral Onigumo ordered the destruction of one of the Marines' warships in an attempt to kill a notorious criminal fighting on-board, which resulted in 1,000 unnecessary deaths and the execution of a Marine soldier who questioned the order.

During the Ohara incident, Vice Admiral Sakazuki blew up a ship carrying Ohara civilians in an attempt to eliminate the possibility of an archaeologist escaping by stowing away. None of the Marine or Government officials were reprimanded or punished for their actions. Nonetheless, the Government refuses to bring harm to any World Nobles who are taken hostage, as they are seen as above the bureaucracy, and the Marines desperately tried to tell the Straw Hat Pirates to release Roswald and his children instead of just firing at them.

The majority of the World Government appears to be centered around paranoia, as they appear to divide power very carefully. However, this paranoia can be exploited as seen when Spandam manipulated the Five Elder Stars. According to Wapol, changing the government of Drum Island would provoke the government, although no response has been seen yet. This is further validated by Vinsmoke Judge stating that the World Government will probably revoke the Vinsmoke Family's right to attend the Reverie when they discover the Germa Kingdom's alliance with the Big Mam Pirates. His postulation was later confirmed after the battles in Totto Land concluded and were reported by the newspaper.

The World Government can be described as totalitarian to an absolute extent, as they often will make massive efforts to ensure that they remain in power, including the appropriation or elimination of any source of power that could be perceived as greater than their own.

Associated Groups

 * †: the character is deceased.
 * *: the character's status is unknown. Hovering the symbol may give further details.
 * ≠: the character is non-canon.
 * ‡: the character is no longer part of this group. Hovering the symbol may give further details.

World Government Affiliates
All over the world, there are over 170 countries that are affiliates of the World Government. Within their own territory all these members have their own sovereign government that rules over its people. However, in the large World Government itself, those leaders are treated as equals and each have a seat within it. Among these member countries, not all are of the same kind. Some are large countries with kings as their leaders, while others are simply big cities that are governed by mayors.

Nations who are affiliated with the World Government also gain its protection, and can be helped and defended by the Marines and Cipher Pol. However, member nations must pay a tax to the World Nobles known as the "Heavenly Tribute". These extravagant payments often take a toll on poorer countries, with the people on the island that the Don Quixote Family moved to often starving to death from the loss of resources. Failure to make the payment seems to be very consequential, as affiliates make it their effort to meet the quota despite the resultant poverty. According to Marco, being unable to pay the Heavenly Tribute is the most common reason why a nation does not join the World Government. These nations often fall into ruin due to lacking the World Government's protection, and most if not all unaffiliated nations only manage to survive by becoming an Emperor's territory or being self-sufficient enough to defend themselves, such as Wano Country, which has both forms of protection.

The World Government does not tolerate any of their affiliate nations having associations with powerful pirates, as both Alabasta and Dressrosa were concerned with their friendly relationship with the Straw Hat Pirates, and Germa was disconnected from the World Government once their attempt to ally with the Big Mam Pirates became known. However, the Sakura Kingdom is still a member nation of the World Government despite bearing a pirate flag and Fishman Island is still affiliated with the government despite being under the protection of a pirate. Fraternization with lesser pirates, on the other hand, seem to be more permissible (or simply harder to detect), as the Goa Kingdom made deals with the Bluejam Pirates, and the king even once offered them the title of nobility for a great service (although he actually plotted to eliminate the crew once they served their purpose), while Kano Kingdom employs the Happo Navy. Water 7 is permitted to offer their shipwright services to anyone, even pirates, under the common understanding that the shipwright cannot control how their ships are being used by the clients.

Kingdoms

 * Alabasta
 * Ilusia Kingdom
 * Lulusia Kingdom
 * Sakura Kingdom
 * Goa Kingdom
 * Ryugu Kingdom
 * Black Drum Kingdom
 * Dressrosa
 * Prodence Kingdom
 * Kano Country
 * Germa Kingdom (former)
 * Roshwan Kingdom
 * Ballywood Kingdom
 * Tajine Kingdom
 * Shishano Kingdom

Cities

 * Water 7

Twenty Kingdoms
Kingdoms that fought the Great Kingdom and founded the World Government. Nineteen of the royal families left their countries and moved to Marie Jois and elected new royal families to replace them.


 * Alabasta - The Nefeltari Family chose not to live in Marie Jois.
 * Dressrosa - Originally ruled by the Don Quixote Family. After leaving, they were replaced by the Riku Family. Later, the country was taken back by the Don Quixote Family, but after the events of the Dressrosa Arc, it went back to the Riku Family.

Security Forces

 * Main article: Justice

The World Government also operates a number of groups and organizations that protect the citizens of the world on a global scale.

Culture
The World Government has a religious and holy theme. Marie Jois was called the 'holy land', the place where the Five Elder Stars resides was called the sanctuary, the World Nobles have the word "Saint" in front of their names, with common people believing that defying them is a sin. Impel Down appears to be based on the Hell in Dante's Divine Comedy.

Void Century

 * Main article: Void Century

"They seem to have held great power once, but the information about this kingdom has been carefully erased. As they knew of their imminent defeat by the alliance that would later be called the World Government, they carved the truth into stone, to give to the future. Those are the Poneglyphs that still exist today...!!!"
 * —Clover, explaining about the Ancient Alliance.

800 years ago, an Ancient Alliance was formed by the kings of Twenty Kingdoms. The alliance included the Don Quixote Family and the Nefeltari Family. During the Void Century, they fought against the Great Kingdom and successfully overthrew it. First mentioned by Clover as the "enemy" of the Ancient Kingdom or simply an Ancient Alliance, they were fully explained later by Pappug. Why or how the Twenty Kingdoms overthrew the Ancient Kingdom remains a mystery. After that, they banned research on the Poneglyphs and established their headquarters in Marie Jois.

"Because they have the blood of the Creators in their veins... Eight hundred years ago, a group of twenty Kings... formed a mighty organization known as the World Government."
 * —Pappug, on the World Nobles.

Eventually, by 800 years ago the Alliance became the World Government. Due to this, the twenty kings leading the war against the Ancient Kingdom were referred as the "creators" of the world. Nineteen of the founding royal families moved and lived in Marie Jois. The World Nobles, also known as the Celestial Dragons, are direct descendants of the founding kings who moved to Marie Jois. As such, these Nobles possess the authority to do as they please, simply due to their heritage.

Research for Transforming Humans into Giants
According to Trafalgar Law, the World Government has carried out research for hundreds of years on growth hormones to transform humans into giant soldiers. This research is currently led by Vegapunk; Caesar Clown's idea of kidnapping and drugging children to accomplish the feat is considered unethical and unacceptable, and was rejected.

Treaty with Fishman Island
Over two centuries ago, the World Government signed a treaty with the monarchy of Fishman Island, in an attempt to bridge the gap between the races, and the king of the island was permitted to attend the Reverie. The institution of slavery was also prohibited as a sign of good faith on the World Government's part. However despite the institution of slavery officially being prohibited, slavery would still persist in places like Sabaody Archipelago and Tequila Wolf due in part to the World Nobles.

Amber Lead Revelation
According to Gladius a hundred years before the industry came to be, the World Government and the royal family of Flevance discovered that Amber Lead was poisonous, but chose not to inform the country of its dark nature, as to gain profit from the industry.

Relations with Elbaph and Child Trafficking
100 years ago, after the captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates Dorry and Broggy began their epic duel on Little Garden, some of the Giant Warrior Pirates were captured and sentenced to be executed by the Marines. They were saved by the intervention of Carmel and allowed to return to Elbaph. Joining them, Carmel set up an orphanage on Elbaph for children of all races, named the Sheep's House. Carmel's deeds served to improve relations between Elbaph and the World Government. Despite these acts of benevolence and the goodwill earned from them, Carmel was in reality a spy and child trafficker working with the Government, supplying children who would be brainwashed into serving the Marines or Cipher Pols. Additionally, the horrifying revelation that improved relations with the giants was a charade designed from the start as a means of granting Carmel access to better quality children. 52 years later, the Government would manipulate the Giant Warrior Pirates, Oimo and Kashi, into working as guards at Enies Lobby by claiming that they had captured Dorry and Broggy, when in reality they were still dueling on Little Garden. This shows that the government has a history of deceiving the giants of Elbaph to further its own agenda.

Lineage Factor Discovery
A team of scientists, consisting of Vegapunk, Vinsmoke Judge, and some others had managed to discover the Bloodline Elements, also known as the "blueprint of life". From this discovery, they were able to make applications on manipulating a life-form's growth, including cloning and biology augmentation. The World Government learned of the team's rogue operations and arrested Vegapunk, who would later work for the Government. The group dispersed, and Judge retreated to Germa Kingdom to continue his research, creating an army of clones and genetically altered children. Since then, the Government has decreed that cloning is too dangerous for any outsiders to perform, and its agents would take hard actions if alerted.

Age of Pirates
In 1500, King of the Pirates Gol D. Roger turned himself in to the World Government though they claim to have captured him and executed him before the public. His death, however, sparked the Great Pirate Age.

Buster Call
In 1502, the World Government sent the Buster Call to wipe out Ohara. They accused the scholars of trying to recover the Ancient Weapons and spread lies around the world when in reality they never cared about it. The World Government used that excuse to hide the fact that the scholars of Ohara were researching the Void Century. Nico Robin was the only survivor of Ohara and was hated by the brainwashed world, who believed that she would kill them all. Nico Robin grew up hating the World Government and is determined to find out what happened during the missing 100 years.

Lucci's Mission
Seventeen years ago, a small unnamed kingdom was captured by pirates. Five hundred royal guards were held hostage in an attempt to force the king to make the pirate captain the new king. The World Government sent a 13-year old boy to the kingdom. The boy in turn killed the 500 royal guards for showing weakness before killing the pirate captain and taking his head.

Amber Lead Fiasco
Sixteen years ago, according to Senor Pink by the time the world discovered of the toxicity of amber lead, it was too late to save the heavily poisoned country. All of the citizens became sick at the same time, and started dying. Other countries, mistakenly believing that the Amber Lead poisoning was a contagious disease, surrounded and attacked Flevance in order to eliminate it, and despite the citizens defending themselves, nearly all of them died. It seems that the World Government didn't try to explain to the attacking nations of the poisoning not being a disease. The royal family of Flevance escaped and abandoned their people with the assistance of the World Government.

Spandam's Conspiracy
Fourteen years ago, Spandam manipulated the Five Elder Stars to change their mind about preventing the Ancient Weapons from being recovered and to allow him to revive the weapons to combat the increase in pirate activity. However, Spandam's machination was really to overthrow the government and rule the world himself.

Dragon
Eight years ago, Monkey D. Dragon started to form a rebellion against the government. The Reverie took place in this time to discuss his actions. In time, he eventually became known as "The World's Most Dangerous Criminal".

Baratie Arc
Dracule Mihawk, a member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea was the reason Don Krieg retreated to the East Blue, and later arrived at the Baratie, where he defeats Roronoa Zoro and destroys Krieg's Ship.

Arlong Park Arc
After Monkey D. Luffy defeated Arlong, the World Government considered him as a threat and then have put a bounty of 30,000,000 berries on Luffy. This was really because Nezumi (who the crew beat up) was mad at him so he "warned" the World Government about his defeat of Arlong.

Loguetown Arc
When Smoker is about to arrest Luffy while his crew escapes, he is interrupted by Dragon. Smoker then tells Dragon that the government is looking for him, to which the latter replies that the world is waiting for their answer. After saving Luffy from Smoker's grasp, Dragon laughs and tells Luffy to go as it is his destiny. This prompts Smoker to question him why he is helping Luffy, to which Dragon asks back what his reason for stopping him is. Smoker then decides to chase after Luffy and his crew with Tashigi.

Drum Island Arc
When Luffy gained the upper hand in the fight against Wapol, the latter warned Luffy that if he defeats him, the World Government will not tolerate it. Luffy, however took no notice of his fearful babbling, and knocked him out of Drum Kingdom.

Alabasta Arc
After the Alabasta Incident, the World Government acted swiftly to conceal the knowledge that Crocodile had in fact been defeated by a pirate, Monkey D. Luffy. The credit was given to Captain Smoker, along with a promotion and a medal. Smoker, knowing the truth, disapproved. Crocodile was stripped of his title and imprisoned. The government seemed to take the defeat of a Warlord very seriously as the Marines raised Luffy's bounty to 100,000,000 berries and gave Roronoa Zoro a bounty of 60,000,000 berries despite the fact that they had actually done the World Government a favor, though without the intention.

Jaya Arc
The World Government became greatly concerned when they heard the news that Shanks was planning to meet Whitebeard, fearing a combined power would become a bigger threat and ordered the Marines to prevent them from meeting each other. Meanwhile there was a meeting of the Seven Warlords of the Sea to discuss Crocodile's replacement. Kuma, Doflamingo and later Mihawk attended, Raffit made an appearance to nominate Blackbeard to become the new Warlord.

Long Ring Long Land Arc
At the Marine Headquarters, the Marines were panicking about Admiral Aokiji being gone and contacted the Five Elder Stars. The Five Elder Stars were not happy with Aokiji's rash behavior and labeled him one of the strongest men in the Marines and remarked that he needed to be careful with his rank.

Water 7 Arc
CP9 took Nico Robin into custody on her arrival. Agents were sent in to pressure Iceburg into telling them the location of the Pluton blueprints. CP9 was then ordered to assassinate him and then burned Galley-La Headquarters to eliminate any evidence. They then captured Franky, who possessed knowledge on the whereabouts of the blueprints.

Enies Lobby Arc
The Straw Hats defeated the entire CP9 organization and rescued Nico Robin. The Buster Call, initiated by Spandam, destroyed Enies Lobby without eliminating the Straw Hats and their allies causing the World Government to suffer a complete defeat. In addition to these events, Monkey D. Luffy ordered one of his crewmates to set the World Government's flag alight, effectively declaring war on them.

Post-Enies Lobby Arc
After their massive and spectacular debacle at Enies Lobby, the World Government deemed the Straw Hats a very serious threat, raising the bounties of the entire Straw Hat crew, and released a heavily altered version of the events to the public, blaming the Straw Hats for destroying the island, which had actually been done by the Marines' Buster Call. After the arc Luffy's bounty was raised to 300,000,000 berries, and Zoro's bounty was raised to 120,000,000 berries, Robin's went up to 80,000,000 berries and the other members gained their first bounties.

Thriller Bark Arc
After the Duel at Banaro Island, Blackbeard became an official Warlord.

Gecko Moria, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea ruled the island on his ship, Thriller Bark. The World Government was aware that the Straw Hat Pirates were heading to Fishman Island and Thriller Bark would be in the way. After Moria was defeated, the World Government was afraid that the news of Moria's defeat would cause another global uproar and therefore ordered Kuma to kill everyone on Thriller Bark. Even with Moria defeated, they hoped that he would still be able to keep his position.

Sabaody Archipelago Arc
Following the Straw Hat Pirates' raid on the Human Auctioning House and Luffy's assault on a World Noble, they dispatch Admiral Kizaru to deal with them.

Impel Down Arc
Luffy tarnishes Impel Down's reputation by becoming the first to break into the prison and lead the first mass breakout in history.

Post-War Arc
At the destroyed Marineford, Sengoku is informed by Brannew that Magellan had been beaten to an inch of his life. Upon reaching Level 6, Blackbeard had instructed the prisoners in each cage to engage in a battle for life and death, and the winners would be set free. Although Blackbeard only took four prisoners with him (five including Shiryu), there were many Level 6 prisoners that were missing, having escaped during the anarchy. Although Sengoku demands that wanted posters of the escaped criminals be sent throughout the world, Brannew claims that the World Government has chosen to hide the information of the Level 6 prisoners escaping, lest the world lose trust in the World Government, a decision which enrages Sengoku.

Elsewhere on Marineford, Don Quixote Doflamingo and the Pacifista commenced an assault on Gecko Moria. Doflamingo claims that the World Government had decided that he was too weak to remain in the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and that it would be better if he was thought to be "killed in the war" rather than eliminated by the government. Moria inquires if Sengoku is behind the decision, but Doflamingo claims that the decision was made by powers even higher than the Fleet Admiral implying that either Commander-in-Chief Kong or the Five Elder Stars were behind it. It was later revealed that Gecko Moria escaped with the help of Absalom's Clear-Clear Fruit power, rendering him invisible at the last moment and helping to exfiltrate him from the battle.

The World Government sent a message via messenger bat to Buggy the Clown. The contents of the message are currently unknown. However, as revealed during the Dressrosa Arc, Buggy was one of the 3 people who have been appointed the position of Seven Warlords of the Sea, hinting that the contents of the message may be a Warlord appointment message.

During the Timeskip
After the war, Sakazuki was nominated by many high-ranking World Government officials to succeed Sengoku as Fleet Admiral, over Sengoku's nomination for Kuzan. Both nominees fought for ten days at Punk Hazard for the position, with Sakazuki barely victorious. With Kuzan resigning afterwards, leaving the Marines' military might reduced severely, the World Government granted the Marines unprecedented power to compensate.

Return to Sabaody Arc
Luffy's bounty has been raised to 400,000,000 berries following his actions two years ago. Sentomaru is sent to deal with the pirates on Sabaody Archipelago.

Fishman Island Arc
Jimbei tells about Fisher Tiger and Otohime's attempts to get the World Government to acknowledge the fishman race, albeit in different ways. Otohime gets Fishman Island accepted into Reverie.

Punk Hazard Arc
The first island that the Straw Hats landed on in the New World, Punk Hazard turns out to have been prohibited for any individual to enter by the World Government (which the pirates ignore). Four years prior to the current timeline, Dr. Vegapunk and Caesar Clown were on the island doing top secret experiments on mass murder weapons before an experiment went wrong and destroyed the island.

After the Marineford war, Sakazuki and Kuzan were sent to a duel to the death on this island by the World Government for the position of Fleet Admiral. The battle lasted for 10 days, causing a permanent change to the island's climate.

Dressrosa Arc
Doflamingo blackmailed the World Nobles due to the knowledge of the "National Treasure" of Marie Jois to mobilize CP0 into allowing him to falsifying his resignation from the Seven Warlords of the Sea in order to deceive Trafalgar Law and the Straw Hat Pirates. Fleet Admiral Sakazuki was infuriated by this action and went to discuss the matter with the Five Elder Stars.

As the Fleet Admiral talked with the Five Elder Stars, the argument heated up with Sakazuki demanding answers but the elders ignored him, stating they don't care about the image of the Marines while blaming the Fleet Admiral about Kuzan joining Blackbeard. They were then informed about Doflamingo's defeat as his title of both as King and Warlord were stripped and him and his crew were arrested. They were then shocked and furious to learn that Admiral Fujitora revealed to the world what transpired in Dressrosa, leaving them unable to cover up the ordeal like they did in Alabasta.

Reverie Arc
As the Reverie approached, royalty from many nations gathered at Marie Jois.

It is revealed that due to their attempted alliance with Charlotte Lingling, the Germa Kingdom is no longer a nation of the World Government.

Prior to the Reverie, Shanks spoke to the Five Elder Stars about a certain pirate. When the Reverie began, the Five Elders spoke to their superior, a mysterious individual known as Iamu, and asked what "light" should be removed from history.