Yukari

Making its sole appearance in the second chapter of the One Piece novel HEROINES, Yukari counts as a small, self-governing power from within the last few hundred years. Hostile and far larger states pressed in on every side, so the little nation spent its days holding them at bay. In the end a neighboring country annexed it, and because that surrounding territory stayed locked in warfare, the bulk of what once described the place has since vanished.

Though it ran its own affairs, the nation still carried on trade with states tied to the World Government. Its landscape gave little: resting on limestone soil where trees would not grow, it held a stone palace that later fell to ruin, its kitchen consumed by fire. Both a spoken tongue and a written script belonged to Yukari, the latter recorded in a phonogram alphabet. Because the writing closely resembled a period script called Son Cruso, Nico Robin and Koala were able to decode it, while its spoken form sat close enough in sound to how the World Government speaks that listeners could grasp it simply by ear.

Only scattered pieces of the writing endure, among them characters voiced as "G," "O," and "zgu," which combined form the opening of the word for sesame. Today the ground of the old nation stays an active battlefield, yet the Revolutionary Army has mounted at least one mission there, pulling ancient tablets and relics from the rubble and handing them over to a group of archaeologists. As for the name itself, Yukari means "eucalyptus," a term the VIZ edition shortens to "Eucaly."