First of all I'd like to give credit to a post in reddit for coming up with this first in this post
At first I thought that it might make sense but I also had doubts. So I decided to explore this more. I advise that you read the linked post first since what I'm putting is is kind of an addition to it. Also, I'd like to ask that you hear me out, I may not have a lot proof from within the context of the manga itself but I'm putting this out just because I thought it was worth discussing.
First, a kingdom is defined as such because it is ruled by a King. As we all know, a King's rule is mostly dictated by lineage and the same is the case for the Kings in One Piece. Most of the time a kings lineage is defined because of divine right or as if they became kings due to being descendants of a deity. This is similar to what the Tenryuubito are. They rule over the world because they are descended from the 20 Kings who made their world as it is and are thus worshiped/feared as Gods. Now I know that there are plenty of kingdoms in the One Piece world that have benevolent rulers but truth be told, our very first taste of an actual King in One Piece was actually Wapol, who was pretty much a milder version of the cruelty of the Tenryuubito. So to draw a further contrast with the World Government, and the Tenryuubito , what if this country that the government wiped out wasn't even a Kingdom but followed a rule of the people?
Thinking that Oda likes to create stories and characters with real life parallels, I went into research mode to find out if an actual kingdom, or at least a country of pirates actually insisted in real life. I then found out about the Republic of Pirates.
Now, a bit of history:
The Republic of Pirates existed around 1706 and wasn't really a formal Republic or state but a loose confederation of Pirates that followed a Code of Conduct. This was a very powerful pirate stronghold. The Republic of Pirates was dominated by two famous pirates who were bitter rivals – Benjamin Hornigold and Henry Jennings. Now this is where it really gets interesting. Both Hornigold and Jennings were mentors to several pirates that would go on to achieve notoriety. Hornigold's most famous mentee was none other than.... Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard. After the Republic was finally destroyed, the pirate crews that were mentored by Hornigold and Jennings continued on their pirating ways in different parts of the world, and many historians believe this was one of the sparks for the Golden Age of Piracy. Yep, you heard that right.
Tinfoil hat time:
Drawing parallels with reality and the One Piece Universe, the Great Kingdom could have followed a rule of Democracy instead of Aristocracy, of free travel and trade and choosing or deposing leaders by popular vote. Now if Piracy was originally a term for people in the One Piece world who followed a philosophy of living freely and sailing, then by freely venturing out to sea and exploring the world, this country was able to flourish from all the different knowledge, treasures and resources gathered from their travels.
What if it was a Republic that had two major leaders? One leader followed a different ideology of Piracy and freedom from the other and this contrast would naturally cause them to be rivals.
The World Government's main philosophy is to maintain power, maintain order and maintain the status quo. Everything they do in the series, from suppressing knowledge, killing people, establishing themselves as deities are in service of that philosophy. The very existence of freedom loving pirates/people who do whatever they want contradicts heavily with that. I suspect that the 20 kings joining together was with the primary goal of ruling the world, but if they were to enforce their control over the world, then their biggest enemy would have been a country that followed a philosophy that went directly against that. And so the great war happened.
This republic/country, after sensing that their country was going to end, did not only leave the Poneglyphs and the treasure behind but also made sure to pass on their will to future generations. But this was not a singular will. There was no traitor for there were two wills passed. One will had the goal of bringing the world to it's Dawn, and the other wanted to bring it further to Darkness. I don't have a theory was to what these goals would be but this kind of sounds similar to Luffy and Blackbeard and how they follow two different wills. One inherited the Will of Roger and one inherited the Will of Xebec.
Super Tinfoil Hat time: What if the Will of D. was not just one thing but meant two things. One was Dawn and one was Darkness?
Let's take a look at the central conflict in One Piece between the World Government and Pirates. Both of these two powers follow Philosophies that could either be good or bad depending on which side of the spectrum you prefer to follow. While the World Government is authoritarian, they do protect the innocent and maintain order. On the other hand while Pirates are freedom loving some of them interpret freedom for Nihilism or Anarchy and some interpret it as living life in your own terms but having a moral code. With that in mind, Luffy and Blackbeard represent those two ends of the pirate spectrum.
Time and again the idea of Luffy, or at least a prophesized figure bringing the world to it's dawn has been presented to us. If D were to stand for Dawn, then why would Blackbeard be a D? He represents Darkness and is the complete opposite of that.
In Christian mythology, there's a figure by the name of Lucifer. Lucifer is Latin for "The morning star" but other times he's also called "The son of Dawn". This kind of fits well with the idea of Luffy bringing Dawn to the world. Luffy also looks kind of like a shortened version of Lucifer, but let's disregard that for a moment since that's probably just me pushing things to fit my theory. Now Lucifer according to the mythology, was an angel (Skypiea connection) who had Free Will and who question God's authority (World Government) and was then banished from the Heavens (Great war? Moon race connection?).
Anyway, Lucifer in Christianity is interchangeable with Satan or the Devil. The weird thing is, Satan/The Devil has been referred to time and again as "The prince of Darkness".
So here we have a figure that stands as both a Bringer of Dawn and a Bringer of Darkness who has Free Will and questioned God's authority. This closely follows the parallel between Luffy and Blackbeard and the Will of D. It also circles back to the central conflict of the series between Authority (God) vs Freedom (Lucifer) and the two interpretations of both Philosophies depending on which side of the spectrum you fall on. Basically, the Will of D could be a good thing (Dawn) or a bad thing (Darkness) and it depends on which will wins at the end (Luffy vs Blackbeard).
This hits several of the overarching themes in One Piece: The Authority that the World Government enforce vs the Freedom that Pirates espouse. Inherited Wills. The Sea or sailing the sea as a metaphor for Freedom. The Dawn of the world which was been referenced several times by different characters and arcs, and the SH crew themselves being an embodiment of this theme while Blackbeard being an embodiment of the theme of Darkness.
So that's it, if you disagree with me that's fine. I may be going over several important elements in the manga but I had a thought and I wanted to share it. Sorry if the composition is a bit messy.
TL;DR: Great Kingdom wasn't a Kingdom but a Republic of Pirates that had 2 rulers. Both rulers passed on 2 different wills, Will of Darkness and Will of Dawn.
At first I thought that it might make sense but I also had doubts. So I decided to explore this more. I advise that you read the linked post first since what I'm putting is is kind of an addition to it. Also, I'd like to ask that you hear me out, I may not have a lot proof from within the context of the manga itself but I'm putting this out just because I thought it was worth discussing.
First, a kingdom is defined as such because it is ruled by a King. As we all know, a King's rule is mostly dictated by lineage and the same is the case for the Kings in One Piece. Most of the time a kings lineage is defined because of divine right or as if they became kings due to being descendants of a deity. This is similar to what the Tenryuubito are. They rule over the world because they are descended from the 20 Kings who made their world as it is and are thus worshiped/feared as Gods. Now I know that there are plenty of kingdoms in the One Piece world that have benevolent rulers but truth be told, our very first taste of an actual King in One Piece was actually Wapol, who was pretty much a milder version of the cruelty of the Tenryuubito. So to draw a further contrast with the World Government, and the Tenryuubito , what if this country that the government wiped out wasn't even a Kingdom but followed a rule of the people?
Thinking that Oda likes to create stories and characters with real life parallels, I went into research mode to find out if an actual kingdom, or at least a country of pirates actually insisted in real life. I then found out about the Republic of Pirates.
Now, a bit of history:
The Republic of Pirates existed around 1706 and wasn't really a formal Republic or state but a loose confederation of Pirates that followed a Code of Conduct. This was a very powerful pirate stronghold. The Republic of Pirates was dominated by two famous pirates who were bitter rivals – Benjamin Hornigold and Henry Jennings. Now this is where it really gets interesting. Both Hornigold and Jennings were mentors to several pirates that would go on to achieve notoriety. Hornigold's most famous mentee was none other than.... Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard. After the Republic was finally destroyed, the pirate crews that were mentored by Hornigold and Jennings continued on their pirating ways in different parts of the world, and many historians believe this was one of the sparks for the Golden Age of Piracy. Yep, you heard that right.
Tinfoil hat time:
Drawing parallels with reality and the One Piece Universe, the Great Kingdom could have followed a rule of Democracy instead of Aristocracy, of free travel and trade and choosing or deposing leaders by popular vote. Now if Piracy was originally a term for people in the One Piece world who followed a philosophy of living freely and sailing, then by freely venturing out to sea and exploring the world, this country was able to flourish from all the different knowledge, treasures and resources gathered from their travels.
What if it was a Republic that had two major leaders? One leader followed a different ideology of Piracy and freedom from the other and this contrast would naturally cause them to be rivals.
The World Government's main philosophy is to maintain power, maintain order and maintain the status quo. Everything they do in the series, from suppressing knowledge, killing people, establishing themselves as deities are in service of that philosophy. The very existence of freedom loving pirates/people who do whatever they want contradicts heavily with that. I suspect that the 20 kings joining together was with the primary goal of ruling the world, but if they were to enforce their control over the world, then their biggest enemy would have been a country that followed a philosophy that went directly against that. And so the great war happened.
This republic/country, after sensing that their country was going to end, did not only leave the Poneglyphs and the treasure behind but also made sure to pass on their will to future generations. But this was not a singular will. There was no traitor for there were two wills passed. One will had the goal of bringing the world to it's Dawn, and the other wanted to bring it further to Darkness. I don't have a theory was to what these goals would be but this kind of sounds similar to Luffy and Blackbeard and how they follow two different wills. One inherited the Will of Roger and one inherited the Will of Xebec.
Super Tinfoil Hat time: What if the Will of D. was not just one thing but meant two things. One was Dawn and one was Darkness?
Let's take a look at the central conflict in One Piece between the World Government and Pirates. Both of these two powers follow Philosophies that could either be good or bad depending on which side of the spectrum you prefer to follow. While the World Government is authoritarian, they do protect the innocent and maintain order. On the other hand while Pirates are freedom loving some of them interpret freedom for Nihilism or Anarchy and some interpret it as living life in your own terms but having a moral code. With that in mind, Luffy and Blackbeard represent those two ends of the pirate spectrum.
Time and again the idea of Luffy, or at least a prophesized figure bringing the world to it's dawn has been presented to us. If D were to stand for Dawn, then why would Blackbeard be a D? He represents Darkness and is the complete opposite of that.
In Christian mythology, there's a figure by the name of Lucifer. Lucifer is Latin for "The morning star" but other times he's also called "The son of Dawn". This kind of fits well with the idea of Luffy bringing Dawn to the world. Luffy also looks kind of like a shortened version of Lucifer, but let's disregard that for a moment since that's probably just me pushing things to fit my theory. Now Lucifer according to the mythology, was an angel (Skypiea connection) who had Free Will and who question God's authority (World Government) and was then banished from the Heavens (Great war? Moon race connection?).
Anyway, Lucifer in Christianity is interchangeable with Satan or the Devil. The weird thing is, Satan/The Devil has been referred to time and again as "The prince of Darkness".
So here we have a figure that stands as both a Bringer of Dawn and a Bringer of Darkness who has Free Will and questioned God's authority. This closely follows the parallel between Luffy and Blackbeard and the Will of D. It also circles back to the central conflict of the series between Authority (God) vs Freedom (Lucifer) and the two interpretations of both Philosophies depending on which side of the spectrum you fall on. Basically, the Will of D could be a good thing (Dawn) or a bad thing (Darkness) and it depends on which will wins at the end (Luffy vs Blackbeard).
This hits several of the overarching themes in One Piece: The Authority that the World Government enforce vs the Freedom that Pirates espouse. Inherited Wills. The Sea or sailing the sea as a metaphor for Freedom. The Dawn of the world which was been referenced several times by different characters and arcs, and the SH crew themselves being an embodiment of this theme while Blackbeard being an embodiment of the theme of Darkness.
So that's it, if you disagree with me that's fine. I may be going over several important elements in the manga but I had a thought and I wanted to share it. Sorry if the composition is a bit messy.
TL;DR: Great Kingdom wasn't a Kingdom but a Republic of Pirates that had 2 rulers. Both rulers passed on 2 different wills, Will of Darkness and Will of Dawn.