Kuja

Skimpy warrior garb serves the women for daily life. Straps and brief cuts define their tops, worn above bikini briefs or short loincloths, with legs either exposed or wrapped in stockings and thigh-length boots. Draped over this is a long cape, styled after a Marine jacket, that falls to the ankles; those toiling in the fields go without it, which shows the capes detach freely rather than being sewn on. Casual evening dress trades this for a patterned shawl that bares the shoulders, cinched with a lone bow at the chest and worn over nothing, usually beside a mini-skirt.

An empress dresses distinctly from the rest of her tribe. Her outfit centers on a deep V-neck blouse and an airy sarong marked with the Kuja emblem, topped by a pale cape and by golden serpent earrings shaped like the letter U, which function much like a crown and may be kept even by a ruler who has abdicated. Every warrior keeps a large snake coiled around herself, and these creatures also stand in for the tribe's bows.

To the Kuja, might is what beauty means, and greed or foolishness earns no welcome among them. Custom holds that the empress ranks as the strongest and most striking fighter on the island, and her fame for both spreads across the world. Their grasp of Devil Fruits runs shallow: many read Luffy's stretching as normal male anatomy, and Marguerite reasoned that men drown because they are worthless. Turning that ignorance to her advantage, Hancock claimed her power and her sisters' came from cutting down a Gorgon, hiding that the World Nobles fed them the fruits during their enslavement.

Raised as warriors, the women are frequently robust and strong, and they take on chores men handle elsewhere, from hunting and farming to building and smithing. Nearly all of them command Haki with genuine skill, an uncommon talent in the wider world, and they coat their arrows in Armament Haki to strike harder. Each Kuja carries a serpent that curls around her while idle and reshapes on command without any spoken order; its usual form is the bow, which fires Haki-charged arrows able to shatter stone, though it can also become a staff, a chair, binding ropes as tough as steel cable, or a rising corkscrew.

Boa Hancock rules the tribe as its current Pirate Empress. Before her, the throne passed through a line of women who often fell to Love Sickness, an affliction that struck an empress infatuated with a man and frequently killed her. Gloriosa dodged that fate forty-four years ago by abandoning the island to pursue Gol D. Roger, for which she was exiled; leading the Kuja Pirates, she and first mate Shakuyaku raided the Roger Pirates before retreating once Love Sickness took her. Shakuyaku later reigned, survived her own bout, and gave up the throne to live abroad with Silvers Rayleigh.

Hancock returned home after escaping slavery, guided by the exiled Gloriosa. She hid the truth of her captivity and her Devil Fruit, took the throne thirteen years ago from Tritoma, and struck a bargain with the World Government that spared the island yet branded every Kuja a pirate. After she fell for Monkey D. Luffy ahead of the Marineford war, the tribe eased its ban on men for him and a few others. Once the Warlord system ended, the treaty lapsed and a Marine fleet closed in; two Seraphim helped the Marines land, and Blackbeard nearly seized Hancock before Rayleigh and Shakuyaku arrived to repel both forces.