Birka
Hierarchy
The Moon
Japanese Name
月
Romanized Name
Tsuki
English Name
Moon
First Appearance
Chapter 5;Episode 12
Region
Outer space
Introduction
The Moon is a giant celestial body, a rock-composed sphere, that orbits the Blue Planet. For the world's inhabitants, it is typically the main (if not only) source of natural light at nighttime.
Details
The moon appears throughout the series, but the first time the moon was seen was when Zoro fought Kuina in his childhood flashback. Later Kuro used the moon as a signal to carry out his three-year plan; the sight of a crescent moon makes him uncontrollably murderous. During the sequences that influence Kuro, the moon was shown to be a red-orange crescent. In subsequent appearances the moon begins to be hard-sketched. During Nico Robin's flashback of Ohara, a model of the world with seven satellites (which includes their world's moon) can be seen inside the library of the Tree of Knowledge. The anime shows the model caught fire and was presumably destroyed when the Buster Call attack caused the tree to collapse. Traveling to the moon seems to be considerably easier than in real life, as Enel managed to go there using the Ark Maxim, and the four automata managed to go there traveling in balloons. During nights in which the full moon is visible, members of the Mink Tribe can look at it to transform into their Sulong form, which they can maintain as long as their sight to the moon remains unobstructed.
Ancient Civilization Of Fairy Vearth
There is an ancient city on the moon named Birka (ビルカ, Biruka?), where technology and architecture were highly advanced. The city's name is the same as Birka, a Sky Island far to the southeast of Skypiea. From paintings on the walls, some of the city's history is revealed: it was home to "Moon People" (月の人, Tsuki no Hito?, VIZ: "Mooninites")—the ancestors of Skypieans, Shandorians, and Birkans, but one day they left Birka and headed to the main planet due to lack of resources on their homeland. They left their creations on the moon: the robot-like creatures named automata. It is unknown when their emigration took place, but it was at least 1,100 years ago, since it was at that time that the city of Shandora was prosperous. The descendants of the citizens who left the moon appear to have forgotten their origins, although the moon, called Fairy Vearth (限りない大地（フェアリーヴァース）, Fearī Vāsu?, literally meaning "Endless Earth"; VIZ: Endless Varse; Funimation dub: Endless Vearth) is a legendary land that Enel mentions throughout the Skypiea Arc. Enel believed the Fairy Vearth to be a place of dreams, as recalled in folk tales amongst the Birkans. Enel, after studying history within the Upper Yard, came to the belief that the moon is the legendary land that he sought: an endless land of sacred dirt, also known as "Vearth". This is the reason that he constructed the Ark Maxim. Enel wanted to travel to Fairy Vearth after he destroyed Skypiea. The city, which was in an underground basement within the moon's surface, has been uninhabited for a long time, and has long since fell into ruin. Despite this, the city retains its advanced look, with the automata being in capsules with inactive electric generators and machinery. The Space Pirates had been digging into the ruins while also warring with the four automata that were created by Dr. Tsukimi. During his adventures on the moon, Enel eventually finds the ruins of Birka after defeating the Space Pirates and gaining the loyalty of the four automata he had rescued from certain death. After reading the murals on the walls, he recharged the ancient automata and decided to settle there.
Moons Progressions
During the early chapters, it was possible to use the moon to create an estimated time span for Luffy's adventures, presuming the One Piece world's time span is equal to that of Earth's. The moon phases in One Piece follow the moon phases of the real-life Southern Hemisphere. In some cases, the phase of the moon even gave the chapter its title. Over time, however, this idea seemed to have been retired, and it is no longer possible to use the moon as a time scale. The full moon later plays a part as the minks' Sulong form was introduced.
- Chapter 28 – waxing crescent (moon stage noted in chapter's title)
- Chapter 95 – first quarter
- Chapter 107 – waxing gibbous
- Chapter 152 – full moon (moon stage noted in chapter's title)
- Chapter 160 – waning gibbous (still nearly full)
- Chapter 162 – waning gibbous
- Chapter 213 – waning gibbous (heading onto half-moon)
- Chapter 232 – half moon
- Chapter 253 – half moon
- Chapter 334 – half moon (heading to last quarter)
- Chapter 458 – full moon
- Chapter 811 – full moon
- Chapter 888 – full moon
- Chapter 973 – waning crescent
- Chapter 987 – full moon
Trivia
- The ancient lunar city, Birka, may have been named after the real-life Birka, a Viking-age trading center in Sweden.
- The minks's Sulong transformation is similar to the myth about Werewolves, who would also transform from humans into a ferocious bipedal animal (wolves) under the light of the full moon.
- One confusing aspect of One Piece lore stems for a shot of an orrery seen in the Tree of Knowledge on Ohara, which depicts the world being surrounded by six natural satellites. Whilst this could be interpreted as the world having six moons, no other explicit reference to the existence of multiple moons is made in canon, suggesting that instead the archaic orrery uses a geocentric model of the solar system, with one satellite representing the world's moon and the other five satellites representing other planets in its solar system.
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