World Noble

Eight hundred years ago, twenty royal houses banded together to raise the World Government, and the Celestial Dragons trace their line to nineteen of them. Those original sovereigns surrendered the crowns of their homelands and relocated to the sacred capital of Mary Geoise, where their heirs remain to this day. Only the Nefertari Family broke from the pattern, choosing to stay in Arabasta, and for that they hold none of the Noble privileges and are quietly branded traitors by the rest.

So absolute is their belief in their own blood that they style themselves gods, and no one clings to that conviction harder than the Nobles themselves. Every one of them bears the title of Saint, occupies a lavish mansion in the district called the Domain of the Gods, and has each desire satisfied by attendants and slaves alike. Even the Admirals are frequently pressed into serving their personal errands. Beyond the capital walls, many encase their heads in resin bubbles to avoid sharing air with ordinary folk.

Because the Five Elders who preside over the government are themselves Celestial Dragons, the Nobles sit at the true center of its power. Most take no role in everyday rule, yet a single passing whim of theirs can bend world events, which is why the Revolutionary Army has decided that removing the Nobles, rather than dismantling the whole apparatus, is the way forward. Their staggering wealth is fed by the Heavenly Tribute, a levy set on member states by their population that drives some nations to starvation just to meet it.

That standing sanctions horrific cruelty. Nobles buy captives and sear onto them their crest, named Hoof of the Soaring Dragon, snatch and discard spouses on a whim, and mount a Native Hunting Competition every three years in which the people of an unaffiliated island are slaughtered for sport. Whenever a commoner dares to threaten one of them, a Marine Admiral can be called down to settle the matter, and it is largely that power which teaches the rest of the world never to provoke them.

Noble rank passes by birth and, once surrendered, can never be reclaimed. The Donquixote Family discovered this the hard way after Homing abdicated: cast out and stripped of protection, they were hunted and lynched by furious commoners. Outsiders almost never gain entry, the scarce exceptions being those drawn into the Knights of God or, in a singular case, Vegapunk's treacherous satellite York, who traded the Mother Flame for the title.

Atop the whole class sit the Five Elders, who steer government policy while secretly deferring to the deathless Imu. The Knights of God, a formidable guard empowered even to put to death Nobles who wrong one another, blend pure-blooded members with invited ones such as Figarland Garling and Manmayer Gunko. Among the rank and file, the loutish Saint Charlos and his kin embody the class, while the ex-Noble Donquixote Doflamingo and the strikingly kind Donquixote Mjosgard illustrate just how far one individual can stray from the mold.