Blackbeard Pirates

The Blackbeard Pirates are a notorious and overwhelmingly powerful fleet commanded by their admiral, Marshall D. Teach, the man the world knows as Blackbeard and counts among the Four Emperors. Teach began as a low-profile crewman in Whitebeard's ranks under Portgas D. Ace, until he murdered a comrade named Thatch to claim the Yami Yami no Mi and broke away to start his own band. He later filled Crocodile's vacant seat in the Seven Warlords by handing Ace over to the Marines, then threw the title aside after raiding Impel Down to recruit Level 6 prisoners. Following the Rocky Port Incident, the crew settled on Hachinosu as their stronghold. Their flag bears three glaring skulls, one facing each direction, set over crossed bones.

The crew's backbone is the Ten Titanic Captains, officers who each command a ship and a division of their own. Four of them debuted alongside Teach during the Jaya Arc, five were broken out of Impel Down's deepest level, and the tenth is former Marine Admiral Kuzan, recruited across the timeskip. Many committed crimes so vile the World Government tried to scrub them from history. The crew earned the nickname Ability User Hunters for tracking down Devil Fruit users to kill them and take their powers, and over time every captain gained a fruit of their own. Their feats run from decimating Drum Island with only five members to wounding and capturing Garp, the Hero of the Marines. After Whitebeard's death they annexed most of his old territory and made Hachinosu their base.

Marshall D. Teach stands alone as the only known person to wield two Devil Fruits, pairing the darkness of the Yami Yami no Mi with the quake powers of the Gura Gura no Mi he tore from Whitebeard's corpse, and he descends from the legendary Rocks D. Xebec. Among the Titanic Captains are Jesus Burgess the wrestling Champion, Shiryu of the Rain the invisible swordsman, Van Augur the teleporting sniper, Avalo Pizarro the deposed Corrupt King, Laffitte the winged Demon Sheriff, Catarina Devon the Crescent Moon Hunter, the colossal giant Sanjuan Wolf, the drunkard Vasco Shot, the sickly doctor Doc Q, and Kuzan, the ice-wielding ex-Admiral once called Aokiji. Lesser crews such as the Peachbeard Pirates also fly under their banner.