Karagatan Ng One Piece, Mga Mapa at Mga Barko

The Blue Sea, which is where the bulk of the storyline takes place, consists of one large continent, one long chain of islands, and Four Seas that make up two larger oceans. The continent is called Red Line, the big chain of islands is called the Grand Line and the Four Seas are called North Blue, South Blue, East Blue and West Blue. The map below should be helpful to visualize that.

The Red Line is the one and only continent in the One Piece world. It circles the entire world from north to south. The Red Line seperates the two oceans into four smaller seas. One ocean makes the two seas East Blue and South Blue, the other one makes North Blue and West Blue.

As explained above North Blue, South Blue, East Blue and West Blue make up the four seas of the world. Within each Blue, sea travel works as it does in the real world. You can sail to any destination you want with a regular compass or other navigational equipment. However getting from one Blue to one other is much more difficult as the four Blues are seperated from one another by geography. The Red Line divides the globe into Eastern and Western Hemispheres, while the Grand Line and Calm Belts divide it into Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

These regions are constantly calm. Winds do not blow and sea currents do not flow within this region of the sea, hence the name Calm Belt. As a result, sailing through this area is difficult. However, an even larger reason to avoid the Calm Belt is because these areas are the nesting ground for Sea Kings of the largest variety. Even if a ship doesn´t require wind or currents to sail, it would still be in danger of being attacked by these creatures that can be the size of islands. These two reasons are why the chances of entering the Grand Line by this method are very slim.

The Grand Line and the Red Line have one thing in common. Both circle the entire world. But unlike the Red Line, the Grand Line goes from east to west, thus functioning as an equator, and is the primary searoute in the entire world. The Grand Line isn´t a continent, but one big line of islands that come one after another. Since the Grand Line is surrounded by the Calm Belt on both sides, it isn´t easy to enter this route. The primary entrance to the Grand Line can be found at Reverse Mountain, which is shown in the picture below.

Once a ship has entered the Grand Line it enters a sealane with its own strong magnetic field, which diverges into seven smaller fields. The islands of the Grand Line each are so rich with minerals that they cause abnormal magnetic fields along the entire line, which makes the usage of a regular compasses impossible. To navigate safely through the Grand Line, the crew needs a Log Pose. A Log Pose is a special kind of compass that adapts the magnetic field of the next island. Below is an image that shows how this sort of navigation works.

From here on there´s seven routes that can be taken. Each one begins with an island and once a route is entered there´s no turning back and it has to be followed until the end. The image below shows how that works.

Click to to see large Image

Each of the seven routes follows the same step by step traveling rule. As it can be seen on the image further down the routes the Grand Line meets the Red Line for a second time, but as seen on the image the journey doesn´t end there. How exactly the routes cross the Red Line isn´t clear yet because the story didn´t get to that point yet. The routes themselves will sooner or later meet and join with each other until they all become one final route that ends at the last island of the Grand Line, Raftel. What waits there and how the Grand Line can be left from there on is yet to be revealed.

As explained, following the step by step rule with a Log Pose is an easy way to navigate the Grand Line. What makes travels on the Grand Line is the climatic conditions there. The many islands with their magnetic fields cause huge disturbances in the weather. On the direct route from one island to the other the weather can change from sunny to strom to snow to sunny again all pretty rapidly. Predicting the clima is impossible there and Hurricane´s can come up in a second and destroy entire fleets. This climatic disturbances are what makes the travels within the Grand Line dangerous. The only places where the weather is stabilized is within the magnetic field of the islands themselves.

There is also the possibility that the Grand Line can be exited and entered at or near the Holy Land of Mariejoa, but this has not yet been confirmed.

As a final note on the Grand Line, the region of that sealane between Mariejoa and Raftel (or that seperates North Blue and West Blue) is known as The New World. It appears to be home to some of the strongest pirate crews and is presumably more dangerous than the first half of the Grand Line.

The Sky Ocean is a place that is unknown to most people in the Blue Sea. The reason for that is that the Sky Ocean is entirely made of clouds, which from the Blue Sea doesn´t look like an ocean in which people live after all. The Sky Ocean clouds however are no normal clouds. There´s two kind of clouds up there, Sea Clouds and Island Clouds. Sea Clouds are just as water, which means that you can sail on it if you´re not to have to sink through it, whereas Island Clouds are dense enough to carry all kinds of things.

The reason why such clouds can exist explain itself through an extraordinary solidification process. The responsible element for this is Seastone which comes from the Blue Sea. It can be found in \"Pyrobloin\" which is a sulfur protein particle that gets transported into the sky through volcano eruptions. When it reacts with the vapor, the differences in density determine whether Sea or Island Cloud will be formed. The image blow should help to visualize it.

There´s different ways to get to the Sky Ocean from the Blue Sea. The only way that has been shown so far is the unorthodox and dangerous way in which the sailors have to to take a Knock Up Stream (soon to be explained more deeply). Not shown, but described is High West, which is the more typical method of reaching the White Sea. The Knock-Up Stream is reknowned as an all or nothing method; either the whole crew lives or the whole crew dies. Arriving by High West all but guarantees that some, but not all, of the crew will make the journey intact. It is not yet known why this is.

In the Sky Ocean there´s two known sea´s, the White Sea and the White White Sea.

The higher of the two known seas in the sky. It lies 10.000 meters above the surface of the Blue Sea. To get to the White Sea from here the same Milky Road as mentioned above can be taken. Whether or not there´s other Milky Roads that connect the White White Sea to the White Sea is not known so far.

To leave the Sky Ocean one has to go to Clouds end and take an Octopus Balloon there. The Octopus Ballon which grabs the ship that wants to get to the Blue Sea, blows itself up with hot air and slowly glides down.

~credits to the original uploader~

Sabaody Archipelago

Sabaody Archipelago is an area close to the Red Line. Though it is called an archipelago, it is actually a massive mangrove forest growing out from middle of the ocean with each tree of the forest serving as an "island" for which people live on. Since it is just a forest and not an island like those found in the Grand Line, it has no magnetic pull for which to affect a Log Pose. Its name comes from the Portuguese word Sabão meaning soap, and corresponds to its unique environment wherein soap-like bubbles come out from trees.

Due to the place being in close proximity to the part of the Red Line bordering the first half of the Grand Line and the New World, it is a highly visited rest stop for all sorts travelers to prepare before entering the New World. Aside from its unique environment and it being a booming business hub, it is notable for the World Nobles who visit there and a thriving slave trade supported by them. One notable slave group there are the Flying Fish Riders whose headquarters are several kilometers from the area.

Geography

The Sabaody Archipelago is, in actuality, a massive mangrove forest in the middle of the ocean made up of 79 separate trees known as Yarukiman Mangrove. Their name is a pun on the Japanese phrase," Yaru Ki Manman", which means being pumped up or motivated. The Yarukiman Mangrove trees are the largest mangroves in the world and are strong enough to grow from the bottom of the ocean to the top. They don't sink into ocean during high tide like other mangrove trees, and the texture on their barks has such a distinct look that they resemble large candy canes. Each tree is called a "Grove" and serves as an "island" for which people live on. People can get from one Grove to another via the various bridges built connecting around the many tree roots.

Each Yarukiman Mangrove tree is capable of producing a special resin, which is blown into bubbles when the trees "breathe out" through cellular respiration and photosynthesis. These bubbles can only exist in and around the Archipelago. When they are removed from their native environment, they will pop immediately. Due to the fact that this knowledge is not widely known outside Sabaody, many of the local shop keepers in the archipelago often sell bubble based merchandise to unsuspecting tourists who don't know that they would be wasting their money on products that easily burst outside the archipelago.

The 79 trees are divided into several different areas, with each one dependent on the number of the area:

1-29: A lawless area where pirates and bounty hunters run amok.
30-39: Sabaody Park, an amusement park with bubble-based attractions
40-49: The tourist area, filled with shops and souvenir stands.
50-59: A shipping area.
60-69: Local headquarters for the Marines.
70-79: A hotel town.

The location of the mangrove forest is crucial in the travels through the Grand Line due to its approximation to the only two crossing points on this side of the world. Although there are several paths that traverse the equatorial ocean, the only two points that cross to the other side (Mariejoa and Fishman Island) are on the exact same place, with one at the top of the Red Line and the other in a hole in the depths of the ocean. Because this the only point where one can cross into the New World, the location of the Sabaody Archipelago makes it ideal for anyone who needs to prepare to cross this section of the ocean by either means. Thus, everyone from the high-ranked nobles to the traversing pirates use the Sabaody Archipelago as a rest and preparation point as they look back on their previous journeys and prepare to enter the New World.

Culture

The people native to the Sabaody Archipelago have learned to live both within and alongside the trees and the large bubbles that they create. Each tree houses a different use, many of which are for the various commerce for those who visit the area. Like the trees, the bubbles are also used for many different and varied means, going from transportation devices such as bubble bikes called Bon Chari, to personal hotel rooms, to even special helmets used by the World Nobles to prevent them from breathing the air of commoners.

For those who wish to move further along the Grand Line, the mangrove is important in order to stock up on supplies and prepare themselves for the journey to cross the Red Line. Most normal travelers generally stay here and wait until they are given permission to cross the Red Line on foot by Mariejois. The rest, such as pirates, must typically seek "coating mechanics" found around the archipelago to cover their ships in the special resin produced by the trees. It is this resin that allows ships to go underwater to Fishman Island.

Slavery and Discrimination

Due to the proximity of the archipelago to the holy land of Mariejoa, World Nobles are sometimes seen going around the place. While they provide to the mangrove wealth and prosperity, their views on commoners makes life horrible for both the inhabitants and visitors alike. Since they see commoners as completely below them, World Nobles generally expect absolute obedience shown. Anyone that crosses their path is expected to bow and give way for them. World Nobles also do what they like around town without question, whether it be shooting civilians on sight or taking them against their will. Anyone that doesn't coincide with what they do is punished severely.

Because of how World Nobles view commoners as nothing more than things that they can freely do with, this supports and legalizes a booming slave trading industry that caters to their desires. A thing that is normally banned in the rest of world. As a result, the mangrove is home to many kidnapping gangs and bounty hunters who do business with the trade. These various slave traders would thus capture anyone who presents a fine prize and sell them for the highest bidder to do whatever they desire. Once sold off to a World Noble or to a someone just as rich enough to afford a slave, these slaves, from ordinary people to even the fiercest of pirates, are treated like trash after capture.

While people from all sorts of trade suffer from Sabaody's slave industry, the ones that suffer the most are Fishmen and Merfolk. This stems from the fact that Sabaody still holds onto the old notion that these races are classified as just another type of fish. This notion was abolished two hundred years before the current storyline when the World Government allied with Fishman Island. Sabaody however still practices this horrid fact along with slavery. As a result, since Fishmen and Merfolk are seen as nothing more as fish, they are captured regardless if they are criminals or not. Most of them are thus forced to stay away from the mangrove. This is such a horrible thing especially as the childhood dream of most of them can only be found in the mangrove. This being to ride the large bubble ferris wheel in Sabaody Park. Those that dare to venture into the mangrove to do business, fulfill their childhood dream, or otherwise, must wear disguises and pretend to be human else they be captured.

Pirate Activity in Sabaody

Being the last stop before going to the New World, Pirates land on Sabaody to prepare for the dangers that lay ahead. They however can't do things as freely as they did before reaching the mangrove. Due to the mangrove being practically next door to both Mariejois and the Marine headquarters, pirates are in the most dangerous possible place to be in when in Sabaody. Aside from the multitude of strong bounty hunters and kidnapping gangs native to the mangrove, they have to be aware that they maybe attacked at any moment by either Marines or by the World Government itself. In fact, because of the proximity to the World Government and it's forces, notorious pirates don't even get to roam freely on Sabaody as they are captured by the Marine forces that are normally stationed in the mangrove, unless these forces are attending something else.

With the various dangers before them in Sabaody, pirates must therefore restrain themselves else they attract unwanted attention onto themselves. They can't pillage or even have fights amongst themselves. Above else, they shouldn't attack any of the World Nobles that frequent the mangrove. Should they attack a World Noble for whatever reason, a large number of Marines led by a Marine Admiral is dispatched to eliminate any and every pirate within the mangrove. This fact did not, however, keep Luffy from punching one in the face after Hachi was shot by him.

Technology

Everything in this island is bubble-based, with the bubbles from the Yarukiman Mangroves used in a variety of fashions. The bubbles can be manipulated into a cart known as a Bon Chari by simply sitting on it. Many other bubbles are used for the rides and attractions of Sabaody Park, including the ferris wheel, drop tower and roller coaster. Bubbles can also be transformed into individualized hotel rooms at certain lodging areas on the island.

~Credits to the Original Uploader~

~Credits to the original uploader~