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This theory comprises many ideas that have been written before but I added some of my ideas.
I wrote this theory originally in response to @Cross_Marian 's Nika theory but then it became too long so I made my own thread.
Please check out his thread first:
https://worstgen.alwaysdata.net/forum/threads/nika-was-a-mink.24018/
My theory is that the Minks, Fishmen, Oni and Lunarians are earth's original inhabitants.
But for some reason, sometimes monkey Minks were born without fur.
As Wanda mentions in the image above, Minks are proud of their fur.
I speculate that fur was the catalyst that drove ancient Minks to develop the Electro powers.
Now, you might think, if fur is all that's necessary then why can't normal animals use it?
Compared to other animals, Minks are a sapient species with the intellectual capabilities of humans.
Them making use of their intelligence to enhance their bodies' natural properties would not be far fetched. Likewise, Fishmen developed Fishmen karate that utilises water.
Over time, Electro became an important tradition in Mink civilisation and fur became a defining element of Mink identity.
It is a logical assumption that any (monkey) Mink without fur would face repercussions and would have been excluded from many aspects of society.
Like Wanda mentions in the panel, the lack of fur makes you a "lesser Mink" In the distant past, those hairless monkey Minks might have been treated as second class citizens and would face discrimination, maybe they were even expelled from community events or forced to live in a seperate place/village.
One day, a hairless monkey Mink with exceptional willpower didn't want to put up with this any longer.
This individual who would become the founder of the Monkey family, was Nika.
Nika opposed the discrimination of the hairless Minks, he would bring joy to his people and inspire them to fight for their freedom.
To make up for their lack in power from their missing fur, the hairless monkey Minks would develop technology and later the devil fruits. Over time, they evolved into their own species (humans). They formed their own civilisation and their own culture, seperate from the Minks.
But because they became reliant on their technology, humans grew weaker than the other evolved species on earth.
Then, at some point in history they used their technology to travel to the moon and make a new home for themselves.
We already know from Enel's cover story that the humans from the moon had to leave it for lack of resources. It was a sad departure as they had to leave their humanoid robots behind.
At that time, humans had already formed highly technologically advanced civilisations.
Maybe the evolved non-human species on earth didn't like their "new"/old neighbors. Due to their physical advantages and elemental powers they still saw themselves as superior races and persecuted the humans with the goal to wipe them out.
As a response, humans used their advanced technology to create the devil fruits.
(I'm not exactly sure whether to place the creation if the devil fruits before the journey to the moon or after the return to earth. The assumed presence of the devil fruit tree in Mary Geoise makes me favor the latter scenario)
The combination of technology and devil fruits gave humans an advantage. They were now able to stand their ground, create more offspring, raise their numbers and eventually out-breed the others (maybe loosely inspired by the alleged relationship between homo sapiens and Neanderthal).
The humans, now immensely powerful, came to be arrogant and went on to persecute the other species with the result being the Lunarians' and Oni's near extinction while the other species were forced into hiding/secluding themselves. The minks chose the safest way, living on a gigantic animal that can't be tracked down with any human navigation apparatuses. Unlike islands, Zunesha lacks a magnetic field.
Over time, humans diverged into two factions: one wanted to reconnect with the other species and promoted equality, the other wanted humans above all.
The former faction was the so called "Ancient Kingdom" which stood for freedom, equal rights and the abolition of all forms of slavery.
Its leader was Joyboy.
The enemies of the Ancient Kingdom, the predecessors of today's world government, were human supremacists and promoted humans as the master race, Imu being their leader.
They fought the Ancient Kingdom and its non-human allies and eventually defeated them.
In order to remove any future threats to their dominance and supremacy, to erase the very idea that humans and evolved animals/hybrids can live equally, they destroyed all evidence that the Ancient Kingdom ever existed and spent 100 years vanquishing its influence and achievements.
We know that Zoans, not exclusively, but moreso than the other Devil Fruits, have a will on their own.
Nika's will, being the embodiment of freedom, liberation and equality, went on to travel the world in the form of a devil fruit throughout the epochs, in a quest to find the one individual that can bring true liberation to all inhabitants of the world.
Nika does not care which species this individual is from because that was his/her stance to begin with:
Who brings liberation does not matter. It is the positive spirit, the willpower, the ability to think out of the box, to break barriers and to form genuine friendships with all kinds of people that makes one a liberator in Nika's sense.
In this scenario, Joyboy was the first user in history that managed to awaken Nika's full ability.
He fought for Nika's centuries old dream, to liberate all the races, to fight supremacy.
But eventually his effort was not enough.
Yet Joyboy laid the groundwork for future generations that may once again try their best at achieving this admirable dream.
The Ancient Kingdom itself may have been defeated.
Meanwhile their old allies, human and evolved animal cultures alike, preserved its memory and maintained the poneglyphs.
We can assume that Joyboy, like Luffy, had the voice of all things and future sight.
He saw that a new warrior of liberation will be born in the far distant future.
Claiming that Joyboy or Roger "failed" because they were not able to bring the dawn is false.
They did their part. Without the work of the previous generations of "attempted liberators" the new generations would have nothing to build their work on.
Nobody is strong enough to achieve such a big goal all by themselves. (This is one of the main themes of One Piece, as shown through characters like Oden)
The essence of the hairless monkey Mink Monkey (D.) Nika was preserved in the form of a devil fruit.
He was the founder and liberator of the human race.
His power is now being used to liberate not only humans but also non-humans, the former oppressors.
And its driving force, the one individual with the right personality and values to bring freedom to all the races is Luffy, Nika's descendant.
If at least parts of this theory were to come true it would be a poetic and beautiful outcome for the story.
I wrote this theory originally in response to @Cross_Marian 's Nika theory but then it became too long so I made my own thread.
Please check out his thread first:
https://worstgen.alwaysdata.net/forum/threads/nika-was-a-mink.24018/
————————————————————
Long before the void century
My theory is that the Minks, Fishmen, Oni and Lunarians are earth's original inhabitants.
But for some reason, sometimes monkey Minks were born without fur.
As Wanda mentions in the image above, Minks are proud of their fur.
I speculate that fur was the catalyst that drove ancient Minks to develop the Electro powers.
Now, you might think, if fur is all that's necessary then why can't normal animals use it?
Compared to other animals, Minks are a sapient species with the intellectual capabilities of humans.
Them making use of their intelligence to enhance their bodies' natural properties would not be far fetched. Likewise, Fishmen developed Fishmen karate that utilises water.
Over time, Electro became an important tradition in Mink civilisation and fur became a defining element of Mink identity.
It is a logical assumption that any (monkey) Mink without fur would face repercussions and would have been excluded from many aspects of society.
Like Wanda mentions in the panel, the lack of fur makes you a "lesser Mink" In the distant past, those hairless monkey Minks might have been treated as second class citizens and would face discrimination, maybe they were even expelled from community events or forced to live in a seperate place/village.
One day, a hairless monkey Mink with exceptional willpower didn't want to put up with this any longer.
This individual who would become the founder of the Monkey family, was Nika.
Nika opposed the discrimination of the hairless Minks, he would bring joy to his people and inspire them to fight for their freedom.
To make up for their lack in power from their missing fur, the hairless monkey Minks would develop technology and later the devil fruits. Over time, they evolved into their own species (humans). They formed their own civilisation and their own culture, seperate from the Minks.
But because they became reliant on their technology, humans grew weaker than the other evolved species on earth.
Then, at some point in history they used their technology to travel to the moon and make a new home for themselves.
The return to planet Earth
We already know from Enel's cover story that the humans from the moon had to leave it for lack of resources. It was a sad departure as they had to leave their humanoid robots behind.
At that time, humans had already formed highly technologically advanced civilisations.
Maybe the evolved non-human species on earth didn't like their "new"/old neighbors. Due to their physical advantages and elemental powers they still saw themselves as superior races and persecuted the humans with the goal to wipe them out.
As a response, humans used their advanced technology to create the devil fruits.
(I'm not exactly sure whether to place the creation if the devil fruits before the journey to the moon or after the return to earth. The assumed presence of the devil fruit tree in Mary Geoise makes me favor the latter scenario)
The combination of technology and devil fruits gave humans an advantage. They were now able to stand their ground, create more offspring, raise their numbers and eventually out-breed the others (maybe loosely inspired by the alleged relationship between homo sapiens and Neanderthal).
The humans, now immensely powerful, came to be arrogant and went on to persecute the other species with the result being the Lunarians' and Oni's near extinction while the other species were forced into hiding/secluding themselves. The minks chose the safest way, living on a gigantic animal that can't be tracked down with any human navigation apparatuses. Unlike islands, Zunesha lacks a magnetic field.
The age of human supremacy
Over time, humans diverged into two factions: one wanted to reconnect with the other species and promoted equality, the other wanted humans above all.
The former faction was the so called "Ancient Kingdom" which stood for freedom, equal rights and the abolition of all forms of slavery.
Its leader was Joyboy.
The enemies of the Ancient Kingdom, the predecessors of today's world government, were human supremacists and promoted humans as the master race, Imu being their leader.
They fought the Ancient Kingdom and its non-human allies and eventually defeated them.
In order to remove any future threats to their dominance and supremacy, to erase the very idea that humans and evolved animals/hybrids can live equally, they destroyed all evidence that the Ancient Kingdom ever existed and spent 100 years vanquishing its influence and achievements.
Nika's Legacy
We know that Zoans, not exclusively, but moreso than the other Devil Fruits, have a will on their own.
Nika's will, being the embodiment of freedom, liberation and equality, went on to travel the world in the form of a devil fruit throughout the epochs, in a quest to find the one individual that can bring true liberation to all inhabitants of the world.
Nika does not care which species this individual is from because that was his/her stance to begin with:
Who brings liberation does not matter. It is the positive spirit, the willpower, the ability to think out of the box, to break barriers and to form genuine friendships with all kinds of people that makes one a liberator in Nika's sense.
In this scenario, Joyboy was the first user in history that managed to awaken Nika's full ability.
He fought for Nika's centuries old dream, to liberate all the races, to fight supremacy.
But eventually his effort was not enough.
Yet Joyboy laid the groundwork for future generations that may once again try their best at achieving this admirable dream.
Final thoughts
The Ancient Kingdom itself may have been defeated.
Meanwhile their old allies, human and evolved animal cultures alike, preserved its memory and maintained the poneglyphs.
We can assume that Joyboy, like Luffy, had the voice of all things and future sight.
He saw that a new warrior of liberation will be born in the far distant future.
Claiming that Joyboy or Roger "failed" because they were not able to bring the dawn is false.
They did their part. Without the work of the previous generations of "attempted liberators" the new generations would have nothing to build their work on.
Nobody is strong enough to achieve such a big goal all by themselves. (This is one of the main themes of One Piece, as shown through characters like Oden)
Tl;dr
The essence of the hairless monkey Mink Monkey (D.) Nika was preserved in the form of a devil fruit.
He was the founder and liberator of the human race.
His power is now being used to liberate not only humans but also non-humans, the former oppressors.
And its driving force, the one individual with the right personality and values to bring freedom to all the races is Luffy, Nika's descendant.
If at least parts of this theory were to come true it would be a poetic and beautiful outcome for the story.
