The National Treasure of Mariejois Theory

We are past the halfway point in One Piece, and it seems like we are finally coming to understand how the story is going to play out when Oda introduces another novel idea to ensure that us fans still have theories to delve into.

The national treasure of Mariejois:

As Doflamingo said, this national treasure’s existence, if revealed, is enough to “shake the world”. So, here is the question: Are there any clues that could possibly reveal what this treasure is?

Doflamingo’s knowledge of the National Treasure:

The context with which Doflamingo reveals the National Treasure is very intriguing. He says he still has the political power to mobilize CP0, despite no longer being a Celestial Dragon, because of his knowledge of this treasure.

This isn’t the only time that we have heard about Doflamingo blackmailing the World Government to achieve power. King Riku seems to think that Doflamingo attacked ships transporting Celestial Dragon’s “heavenly gold” and that Doflamingo used that to blackmail the World Government into giving him the title of Shichibukai.

Doflamingo doesn’t refuse the statement.

Let’s consider what we know:
1. Doflamingo said that his knowledge of National Treasure allowed him to regain the power of a Celestial Dragon.
2. Riku heard Doflamingo was able to blackmail the World Government because he’s been attacking ships transporting “heavenly gold” tributes from nations within the World Government.

Riku could be misinformed regarding how specifically Doflamingo blackmailed the World Government, however, I wonder whether the National Treasure could have been found, at least in part, on these ships he was attacking.

The National Treasure can be “used”:

Doflamingo reveals a little more about the National Treasure which could help us understand what it is. He tells us that if he had Law’s devil fruit, the Ope Ope no Mi, he could have “used the National treasure of Mariejois to control the world”.

He further explains what specific abilities the Ope Ope no Mi has that makes it so useful.

He specifically mentions two abilities:
1. “Personality transplant”
2. Ageless surgery, a.k.a the ability to grant immortality

Given the context with which Doflamingo talks about the abilities of the Ope Ope no Mi, it’s heavily implied that one, or both, of the abilities would allow the user to “use” the National Treasure. Doflamingo seems to place greater emphasis on the ageless surgery ability, though, so let’s focus on that ability.

Let’s first explain immortality and how it differs from invincibility:

If you are invincible, then nothing from outside your body can harm you, you can still grow old and die. If you are immortal, then nothing will ever harm you from within your body and you can live forever, but if you get trapped in a burning building you’re toast. In simplest terms, someone who is immortal can survive poison, illness, age etc. They are still susceptible, however, to physical destruction and injury.

The key idea we must address is, what could the National Treasure be if you would need to be immortal to “use” it? This suggests that the National Treasure would have killed Doflamingo “from the inside” if he attempted to use it without being immortal. There is only one thing I can thing of that makes sense based on what we already know.

If a person consumes two Devil Fruits, it is supposed to mean death. However, the type of death this causes is unique. Even though Blueno thinks they may “explode“, this should not be akin to a bomb going off. Lucci clarifies what is going on when he describes this death as the result of the “curse” of the Devil Fruits.

I believe death by “curse” would constitute a death from inside your body. Despite Blueno’s claim that the user would “explode“, this seems more similar to poisoning to me. This is not a physical damage or injury, and thus, immortality should protect you from this kind of death.

The World Government and Devil Fruits:

So, the National Treasure is related to Devil Fruits? Devil Fruits are a pretty mysterious aspect of Oone Piece. Although we see many abilities, and ability users we don’t know much else for sure. However, we do know that Devil Fruits are hardly ever found outside of the Grand Line. Once you travel to the Grand Line, it seems as though every major player has a fruit of some kind. It’s also pretty interesting that the World Government seems to have a monopoly on the strongest ones. Every Marine Admiral possesses a frightening powerful Devil Fruit and the 3 original Admirals each consumed one of the rarest kinds of fruits, Logia type.

The World Government seems to prioritize the acquisition of these fruit as well.

Spandam, a high ranking member of the World Government, also speaks rather cryptically about “connections” in obtaining Devil Fruit.

I think it’s very possible based on this information that the World Government may have collected the majority of all the Devil Fruits that currently exist. If we  imagine all these Devil Fruits located in a room in Mariejois, this could very well be the National Treasure that Doflamingo speaks of.

How the Ope Ope No Mi could “use” the national treasure to “control the world”:

Doflamingo spells out something that really favors the idea that the National Treasure may be the accumulation of Devil Fruits the World Government probably possesses. He says that only someone with “true brilliance” would know how to use the Ope Ope no Mi to grant immortality. Doflamingo is probably saying that he’s figured out being immortal would allow someone to eat many Devil Fruits. The power of having so many Devil Fruits at once could very reasonably be used to make Doflamingo the strongest person in the world. A mortalperson could only eat one fruit. Doflamingo needed immortality to “use” the Devil Fruits the World Government possesses to be capable of “ruling the world”.

The second ability of the Ope Ope no Mi, personality transplant, allows the fruit users to switch the “souls” of people so that they are no longer in their own bodies. This is a very powerful ability and would allow you to put your own followers in the bodies of Celestial Dragons and other World Government officials. Doing this, Doflamingo could secretly take over the entire World Government without drawing much attention to himself. Keep in mind that this would have been Corozon’s role, as Doflamingo planned for him to eat the fruit.

After this it would be simple to access the National Treasure, have Corozon grant him immortality at the cost of his own life and eat as many Devil Fruits as he wished to forever rule over the world.

So with these two abilities of the Ope Ope no Mi, Doflamingo secures his eternal rule over the world:
1. World Government takeover
2. Immortality
3. Practical invincibility

The Celestial Dragon Tribute ships:

It’s very interesting that the World Government seems to be hoarding all the Devil Fruits, while at the same time, Doflamingo and other brokers of the underworld deal artificial Devil Fruits.

If the National Treasure is a huge number of Devil Fruits, I think Doflamingo was targeting these “tribute” ships for the Devil Fruits that are likely to have been given to the World Government as tribute. Devil Fruits are extremely valuable, and there’s little doubt in my mind the World Government would have accepted these fruit as substitutes for actual money.

This would explain the rumor that it was his attacks on tribute ships that allowed him to blackmail the World Government. And it’s maybe why Monet had the powerful Yuki Yuki no Mi. I think Doflamingo was openly showing off that he knew of the National Treasure by raiding supply ships to specifically steal the Devil Fruits given to the World Government.

Why would this knowledge “shake the world to its core”:

The World Government does whatever it can to ensure that Pirates stay away from Mariejois. Currently, there is really no reason to even try to attack it because there’s little that can be gained for such a risky move. Gold can be obtained elsewhere. One thing that can’t are Devil Fruits.

If it was revealed that the World Government had hundreds, I think you would see many Pirates, including a Yonko like Kaido, who wishes to have an army of ability users, attempt to steal these fruit from the World Government. This would explain the World Government’s fear of this knowledge being revealed. In order to protect Mariejois, the World Government had to either kill Doflamingo or let him do as he liked.

Why is Blackbeard the first man in history to eat two Devil Fruits?

This is speculation, but there are several solutions:
1. Doflamingo is the first to realize that the Ope Ope no Mi can be used to eat multiple Devil Fruits
2. Even if Blackbeard is the first “man” to eat multiple fruits, maybe a “god” already has achieved this feat. The Celestial Dragons are thought of as gods, perhaps the Gorosei are just surprised a lowly “human” would be able to do this as well.

It seems unlikely that the Ope Ope no Mi has been used to grant immortality more than just a few times. With so few instances of someone becomming immortal using it, it’s very possible those who did become immortal wouldn’t have considered eating multiple fruits. The idea of doing so is not obvious.

Why doesn’t the World Government already have all the Devil Fruits:

As we saw with the death of Smiley, Devil Fruits re-spawn after the original user of the fruit dies. Over an 800 year period, the World Government most likely lost many of these fruits when the person who they had given the fruit to died and they could not retrieve the fruit. This would explain why the World Government does not have every overpowered Devil Fruit including the Mera Mera no Mi (Ace/Sabo), Goro Goro no Mi (Enel) and Gura Gura no Mi( Whitebeard).

This would also explain why Devil Fruits are a “myth” outside of the Grand Line but so prevalent within it. The World Government would only have given fruits to those within the World Government, and the majority of their high ranking members seem to mostly stay within the Grand Line. This would mean they are likely to have died in the Grand Line as well.

Why would the World Government give people “weak” fruits:

We see a lot of fruits that don’t compare to the higher powered ones. If we assume the World Government has controlled the flow of Devil Fruits for years, why have they even touched these weak fruits? This is because the World Government doesn’t know what abilities all of the fruits give. Spandam tells CP9 he doesn’t even know what the fruits he’s giving them are supposed to do.

I think the World Government may be slowly testing out the fruits that they have, but don’t know anything about, by giving them to “lesser” members of the government. This is a good guess to why some of these weaker fruits remain in circulation around the world.

Why can Blackbeard eat more than one fruit:

Firstly, we don’t know two things that are important for this idea:
1. Obviously, we don’t know how Blackbeard does it. We only know the outcome.
2. We don’t know the specificities of immortality granted by the Ope Ope no Mi. For instance, why does the user die when they use the ageless surgery.

However, I wonder if the user dies because they transfer their life-force, or soul, into the person who’s receiving immortality. This could potentially mean that those who become immortal through the Ope Ope no Mi have multiple souls within one body. Maybe Blackbeard became immortal by having ageless surgery performed on him.

While I question the idea that someone would have sacrificed their life for him, I wouldn’t completely discredit the idea without more of Blackbeard’s history. This would certainly explain a lot of the “weirdness” people remark upon when they talk about Blackbeard. However, his Jolly Roger has 3 skulls. Shouldn’t that suggest that he has 3 souls within him?

Here’s a possible explanation of how Blackbeard could have 3 souls:
1. The Ope Ope no Mi also stores the souls of the users who sacrificed themselves to perform the ageless surgery. Given Doflamingo and Law know the Ope Ope no Mi can grant immortality, clearly this ability has been used in the past. Maybe the ability was used twice, so far. Meaning that Blackbeard, when he received the surgery, received both of the souls of the previous users who performed the surgery.

Regardless, I think it’s possible for there to be two ways of consuming multiple Devil Fruits.

*All rights go to the maker of this theory