Gloriosa

Age has left Gloriosa tiny, deeply wrinkled, and thick-lipped. Her white hair is offset by a pink blossom tucked above her left ear, and she dresses in the customary loose Kuja top with a spotted short skirt held up by a sea-green pearl belt, finished by the tribe's typical cape. In her youth she cut an entirely different figure: tall, slim, and celebrated as a beauty, with reddish-pink hair, a daring blue V-neck blouse, a leg-baring sarong marked with the Kuja crest, red heels, and a white cape bearing epaulettes more often seen on senior Marine uniforms. Even so, men and women alike judged her subordinate Shakuyaku the lovelier of the two.

Built around the archetype of the sage crone, Gloriosa frets over Amazon Lily's wellbeing and holds knowledge her fellow Kuja simply lack, keeping books and a crystal ball to reinforce the image. She is not wholly immune to Hancock's charms, yet she throws them off far quicker than most. She frequently sprinkles "Nyo" through her speech. In her prime she was haughty and vain, flaunting her looks while seething with jealousy toward the more popular Shakuyaku, and her unrequited love for Roger drove much of her behavior, an irony given how closely it mirrors Hancock's later obsession with Luffy. Unlike most of her tribe she carries no real hatred of men, likely shaped by her own history with one, though she still upholds the law that bars males from the island.

Roughly forty-four years before the present day, Gloriosa captained the Kuja Pirates, but she grew weary of her own fame and bristled with envy when she discovered that Shakuyaku drew far more admirers. A raid by the Roger Pirates, who came demanding Shakuyaku join them, stung her further, since Roger ignored her feelings. While fleeing a sudden assault by the young Marine Garp, she was struck down by Love Sickness, the affliction that had claimed many empresses before her. With no cure available she abdicated, left Amazon Lily, and was branded a traitor, passing her crown to Shakuyaku. Around forty-two years ago she joined the violent Rocks Pirates, partly chasing Roger and partly seeking to outrun her illness, and there she kept an uneasy footing with crewmates like Charlotte Linlin and Buckingham Stussy.

When Shakuyaku was abducted and later set up as a prize at the Native Hunting Competition on God Valley, Gloriosa rallied with Rocks and the rest of the crew to rescue her. The resulting God Valley Incident, where Garp and Roger broke the crew, scattered its survivors, and afterward she lived with Shakky and Silvers Rayleigh on the Sabaody Archipelago. Fifteen years ago she found the runaway Boa sisters, fellow Kuja who had escaped slavery under the World Nobles, and took them in until she could return home. Back on Amazon Lily under a pardon, she chose a quiet life on the village outskirts as Hancock's advisor.

During the Summit War era she recognized Luffy as a man the moment he washed up, warned Hancock about her reckless choices, and explained the nature of Love Sickness once the empress fell for the Straw Hat captain, ultimately steering Hancock toward escorting him to Impel Down. She continued to correct Hancock's misreadings of Luffy's actions as marriage proposals across the years that followed, marveling repeatedly at the boy's improbable luck. In the Final Saga she surveyed the damage after the Marines and Blackbeard Pirates struck Amazon Lily, conferring with Shakky, Rayleigh, and the Boa sisters about the island's narrow survival.