One Piece’s Elbaf Arc Just Confirmed the Biggest Theory About the Red Line

One Piece‘s world has the most puzzling geography that, for over two decades, has gone mostly unexplained. From the curious Red Line that vertically wraps around the world to the strange Calm Belts and Grand Line that divides the four seas, One Piece‘s blue planet is brimming with mysteries and the Final Saga may finally give fans some answers. Vegapunk’s broadcast during the Egghead Arc already uncovered one major mystery explaining why One Piece‘s world is made up completely of scattered islands with the shocking revelation that the world was submerged due to warfare during the Void Century, and next up, the Elbaf Arc may finally reveal the origins of the Red Line.

Elbaf’s newly revealed Harley texts may have just confirmed one of the biggest and oldest fan theories about the Red Line, which is that it may have been artificially created during or even long before the Void Century. In Chapter 1138, the first stanza of the Harley describing the First World curiously mentions a “serpent of hellfire.” This serpent, instead of a literal snake made of flames, could be referring to the Red Line in One Piece, inspired by the Norse legend of Jörmungandr, the giant serpent said to encircle the entire world.

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One Piece’s Harley Texts Reveal the Origins of the Red Line

In the Harley, the “earth god’ together with the serpent of hellfire is said to have shrouded the world in death and darkness, as a result of which “they will never meet.” While the meaning of the last line is still up for speculation it begins to make more sense if the serpent in question is the Red Line dividing the four seas and its people, not allowing them to meet as a result.

This idea that the Red Line was artificially created has been a popular fan theory for quite some time with fans long having guessed that the Red Line could be inspired by Jörmungandr from Norse mythology. The giant mythical serpent is said to completely encircle Earth or Midgard by biting its own tail, thus earning its epithet as the World Serpent. Interestingly, the image of Jörmungandr biting its tail represents the ancient Egyptian symbol of Ouroboros, which is also sometimes illustrated as a red serpent. Jörmungandr releasing its tail is said to herald the beginning of Ragnarök, the apocalyptic war. This particular part of the legend of Jörmungandr may find its way into One Piece as the destruction of Red Line, which is another hugely popular theory in and of itself associated with the Final Saga and Madam Sharley’s prophecy of Luffy destroying Fishman Island.

Furthermore, when fans first meet Dorry and Brogy at Little Garden, the two giants also curiously mention a “snake soaked in blood.” To be specific, in Chapter 129, as Dorry and Brogy prepare to strike down the giant goldfish in the Straw Hats’ path, Dorry claims that the only thing they can’t pierce is this blood-soaked snake, which likely refers to the same serpent of hellfire from the Harley, aka, the Red Line.

One Piece’s Red Line Destruction Theory Just Got More Solid

Overall, if this serpent in the Harley is indeed the Red Line, then the popular One Piece theory about Luffy destroying the Red Line may come to be true as well. With the Celestial Dragons currently inhabiting the strip, the Red Line is very much a symbol of the power, authority, and self-imposed divinity of the World Nobles and the World Government. While the identity of the earth god who supposedly created the Red Line is still up for debate, the very existence of the Red Line and the rise in sea levels that occurred during the Void Century both clearly work in Imu and the World Government’s favor by isolating and spreading out the population, thus restricting their freedom and preventing them from banding together against the World Government.

As such, destroying the Red Line would be the first step of resistance, serving as the clearest possible declaration of war as well as allowing the people of the four seas to finally be reunited again as the Harley texts prophesize, and Luffy, the inheritor of Sun God Nika’s will in One Piece is sure to be at the center of it all.

One Piece is available from Manga Plus and Viz Media.