Whitebeard Pirates

The Whitebeard Pirates served Edward Newgate, the towering captain better remembered by his epithet "Whitebeard." His standing as the lone rival who could trade blows with Gol D. Roger placed his crew among the four mightiest forces on the seas. Rather than a single tight band, the organization functioned as an enormous fleet: sixteen divisions of roughly a hundred fighters each, every division steered by its own commander, with Newgate presiding over all of them.

Beyond the core roster of around 1,617 sailors, dozens of independent New World crews swore loyalty to Newgate, who regarded every long-serving subordinate as one of his own children. Their banner carries a mustached skull above crossed bones, a mark many members wore proudly; Portgas D. Ace famously inked it across his back. The crew also held sway over numerous territories, the poverty-stricken island of Sphinx and Fish-Man Island among them.

For decades the crew prowled the second half of the Grand Line as a counterweight to the World Government, sheltering weak islands that could not afford the Heavenly Tribute. Newgate had built it after leaving the Rocks Pirates, recruiting talents such as Kouzuki Oden, who briefly led the second division, and later Marshall D. Teach, whose betrayal would prove catastrophic. Teach murdered fourth division commander Thatch to seize the Yami Yami no Mi, then fled, prompting Ace to chase him down.

The turning point arrived at the Summit War of Marineford, where Newgate threw his entire fleet against the Marines to stop Ace's public execution. The battle cost the crew both Ace, struck down by Akainu, and Newgate himself, finished off by the assembled Blackbeard Pirates. A year later the survivors marched into the Payback War to avenge their fallen and were crushed, letting Teach claim the Emperor seat his old captain once held.

In the years that followed, what remained of the crew was hunted by Edward Weevil and his mother Buckingham Stussy, who claimed Newgate's bloodline and fortune; that pursuit only ended once an Admiral captured Weevil. Marco kept guarding Sphinx, and both he and Izou later joined the alliance that stormed Onigashima, helping topple a sitting Emperor at the cost of Izou's life.

First division commander Marco, nicknamed "the Phoenix" for his regenerative Devil Fruit, stood as Newgate's right hand and the figure most able to hold the remnants together. The second division passed from Oden to Ace, the late Pirate King's son, whose capture was deemed valuable enough to earn Teach a Warlord title. Other prominent officers include the diamond-bodied Jozu of the third division and the swordsman Vista of the fifth, both able to spar evenly with Warlords.

Oda confirmed that division numbers carried no ranking; every commander stood equal. The wider organization counted more than forty subordinate captains scattered across the New World, among them Squard of the Maelstrom Spider Pirates, the giant Little Oars Jr., and the "Ice Witch" Whitey Bay. Jinbe, then a Warlord, counted himself a close friend and ally, valuing Newgate's protection of Fish-Man Island enough to risk his standing with the government.