Ok so we know Oda loves mecha. Who is one of, if not the most famous mecha manga authors out there? The legendary Go Nagai. He created Mazinger Z and UFO Robot Grendizer (among other things such as Cutie Honey, Devilman and Maou Dante).
Let's quickly read a bit about Mazinger Z from wikipedia:
Mazinger Z is an enormous super robot, constructed with a fictional metal called Super-Alloy Z, which is forged from a new element (Japanium) mined from a reservoir found only in the sediment of Mt. Fuji, in Japan. The mecha was built by Professor Juzo Kabuto as a secret weapon against the forces of evil, represented in the series by the Mechanical Beasts of Dr. Hell. The latter was the German member of a Japanese archeological team, which discovered ruins of a lost pre-Grecian civilization on an island named Bardos, the Mycéne Empire. One of their findings was that the Mycene used an army of steel titans about 20 meters in height. Finding prototypes of those titans underground which could be remote-controlled and realizing their immense power on the battlefield, Dr. Hell goes insane and has all the other scientists of his research team killed except for Professor Kabuto, who manages to escape. The lone survivor goes back to Japan and attempts to warn the world of its imminent danger. Meanwhile, Dr. Hell establishes his headquarters on a mobile island, forms the new Underground Empire, and plans to use the Mechanical Monsters to become the new ruler of the world. To counter this, Kabuto constructs Mazinger Z and manages to finish it just before being killed by a bomb planted by Hell's right-hand person, Baron Ashura, a half-man, half-woman. As he lays dying, he manages to inform his grandson Koji Kabuto about the robot and its use. Koji becomes the robot's pilot, and from that point on battles both the continuous mechanical monsters, and the sinister henchmen sent by Doctor Hell.
The Mycenae Empire sounds quite technologically adept to have what are essentially giant mechs. Sounds familiar? I think One Piece's Ancient Kingdom may be inspired, in part, by the Mycenae Empire from Mazinger Z.
As for the power source of the Ancient Kingdom's mech, I think it may be inspired by the idea of using photons as energy, but not really solar energy as it requires a special type of fission. As you already read, the titular robot of Mazinger Z uses a fictional element called Japanium for the special alloy that armors it. However, it also uses Japanium for its power source. From the Mazinger wikia:
Professor Juzo Kabuto's expedition within Mt. Fuji led him not only to Japanium but in the volcanic area, nuclear fission from the elements within Japanium gave rise to a new kind of energy. The professor researched this energy noting the large amount of photons and how it gave off no pollution. The professor managed to reverse engineer the nuclear fission process that brought in a new energy revolution, surpassing nuclear power. The professor dubbed the energy Photonic Energy.
With Dr. Hell's threat coming into fruition, Juzo continued his research developing the Photon Engine for the Mazinger Z's power supply. The photonic energy makes up most of the Mazinger's features such as Koshiryoku Beam photon cannons and photon propulsion rockets.
Ok, so it appears to be using a power source that is referred to as nuclear fission, except it's better. Sounds more like nuclear fusion if you ask me. And what process does the sun use to keep itself going? Nuclear fusion. You could say that the sun is kind of like an undying flame. Well it will die eventually, but to us, it's undying because we will be long gone by then. Now what did Vegapunk Lilith say in ch. 1067?
"I thought, if only there were such a thing as an undying flame... we could create our own sun!!"
An undying flame could be used to create a new sun, she says. I think this may be why Vegapunk was stumped when it came to the Ancient Kingdom's mecha power source. I think it uses nuclear fusion or some sort of sci-fi photonic energy rather than a literal undying flame. Now this power source stuff is a bit fucky so far, but we know the sun and the dawn have massive importance in One Piece.
Sun God Nika
So, we know that Luffy has a Mythical-type Zoan Devil Fruit that allows him to transform into the Sun God Nika. I think it's a pretty common opinion that the Devil Fruits were created by the Ancient Kingdom. And because they were created by people, it's interesting that it's a literal god fruit. That's kinda weird right? Well here's what I'm thinking right now: The people of the Ancient Kingdom worshiped the sun and their sun god was called Nika. Now, this god wasn't actually real, but they became so technologically adept that they quite literally created a god, or perhaps put another way, found a way to grant the powers of gods (or devils) to people, people who ate a special fruit. I think the Devil Fruits were actually a last-ditch effort once the Ancient Kingdom's mech army was destroyed (or perhaps rendered inert somehow and then destroyed). To the Ancient Kingdom, this particular fruit was created to be their savior, their god made flesh. I think the powers of this fruit were what their Sun God could do in the myths they believed in. The other fruits were also based off of myths and legends and stories, but only Luffy's fruit was intended to make the user into a true god. After the Ancient Kingdom's defeat, the fruits were spread around the world, possibly by the surviving D clan families.
I think that the power source they came up with was inspired by the sun and they eventually were able to mimic the sun's undying energy. It's still a fucky hypothesis, but these are the ramblings of a raving lunatic in the middle of the night. The power source could also be some type of solar/light energy rather than nuclear fusion. I think it's entirely possible that the supergenius Vegapunk may have overlooked the sun as a power source. After all, there's a bunch of light based tech on Egghead, but it appears to all be based on fire as an energy source as Lilith said. And she said she would use an undying flame to create a sun, rather than create a mini-sun of sorts to power things instead.
However, the Mycenae Empire used to be a peaceful people, until it was taken over by the Emperor of Darkness. The now evil empire were driven underground by an earthquake until the modern day. In Great Manzinger, a sequel to Mazinger Z, the Mycenae Empire under the emperor's leadership, are the main antagonists. Could this mean that Oda may bring back the Ancient Kingdom, but with Imu at the helm for the final battle? The corrupted Ancient Kingdom and the World Government against the Ancient Kingdom's sun god, Nika and his allies.
The Mycenae Empire exists on an island called Bardos. Bardos is clearly inspired by the real life island called Rhodes. From wikipedia: "In Greek mythology, the Telchines were the original inhabitants of the island of Rhodes and were known in Crete and Cyprus."
From wikipedia again: "The Telchines were also regarded as wizards and envious daemons. Their very eyes and aspect were said to have been destructive. They had it in their power to bring on hail, rain, and snow, and to assume any form they pleased;" Huh, kinda sounds like the Telchines were "daemons" with special powers, or perhaps had machines that could do these things.
But that's not all! "Telchines were said to have invented useful arts and institutions which were useful to mankind and to have made images of the gods. Telchines were regarded as excellent metallurgists;" Now what else is Rhodes known for? The Colossus of Rhodes, a statue of the Sun God Helios. Now, in Crete: "In the Cretan dialect, talôs was the equivalent of the Greek hêlios, the Sun: The lexicon of Hesychius of Alexandria notes simply "Talos is the Sun" Finally, there was a temple on Rhodes dedicated to Apollo, a god associated with the sun and light.
So, the Mycenae Empire uses giant steel automatons called talos, and the real life Talos legend is an equivalent to Helios, a sun god. Man this shit's getting a little nuts but it's weird how all this is related somehow. Though, sometimes when the gears start turning, they spin out of control and everything turns out to just be a silly little coincidence.
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Some other bits I was thinking about:
Go Nagai's very close friend Ken Ishikawa also wrote a super robo manga way back then called Getter Robo. Nagai served as a consultant for it. People used to mistake it for a Go Nagai work, but it was actually Ishikawa's magnum opus and was sadly cut short when Ishikawa passed away. It may be worth looking into for possible inspiration/influence for Oda though I can't think of any obvious connections at the moment. There was a race of humans turned onis if I'm remembering correctly. Hyakki Empire they were called. There was also a spacefaring civilization called Andromeda Country in the manga. We know there are space pirates in One Piece, so...
There may also be some stuff in Devilman and Maou Dante worth a look because, duh, Devil Fruits. In Maou Dante (the 2002 anime at least), the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were actually super advanced civilizations under the rule of a man named Satan until a mass of energy referred to as "God" came to earth. God ended up destroying Sodom, and some of the survivors that were exposed to the energies of this God entity became demonic in appearance. In other words, they became devils. The main character Ryo is a reincarnation of a man from this ancient civilization called Dante. Ryo goes on to defeat God and it gets scattered back into outer space to find another world to destroy. We know the D are the enemies of "god" and Luffy is the reincarnation of Joyboy who is, perhaps, the original Nika user.
So yeah, this isn't quite some college-thesis megatheory, and has a lot of reaching, but it's some interesting stuff I thought about tonight. I don't know where the Lunarians fit in though. They were once considered gods after all and they have an association with fire as well, but also the moon due to their name.
Thought? Opinions? Point out the holes in this hypothesis.
Sources:
https://mazinger.fandom.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazinger_Z
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_Lord_Dante#2002_anime
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo
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