Shandia

The Shandia (jap. シャンディア) are the indigenous people of Jaya. Long ago, the entire tribe was transported to the sky by a knock-up stream, where they waged war for a long time. Now, fortunately, peace reigns between the Shandias and the Celestials.

The Shandia on the road

Empire & Spread

Shandora, the Golden City

The greatest treasure of the Shandians is their capital Shandora (jap. シャンドラ), which was also called “the Golden City”. This was because all the buildings were covered in gold. This city was also home to the golden bell, which was rung on special occasions and could be heard far across the ocean.

After Shandora was shot into the sky, only the tops of the buildings were visible, as other clouds, later destroyed by Enel, obscured the city. When Enel became the god of Skypiea, he ordered all of the city’s gold to be removed so that he could launch his Maxim Ark. Meanwhile, in the Blue Sea, it was assumed that the Golden City never existed and that Mont Blanc Noland was lying as usual. Mont Blanc Cricket, on the other hand, suspected it had sunk.

Very interesting was also the location of the city before Jaya was divided. At that time the island looked like a skull and the gilded Shandora was located in the right eye of this skull. That’s where Noland’s last sentence came from, before he died.

Currently, Shandora and its surroundings are being renovated by the generation around Wyper and thus made habitable again.
Also the bell, which is the only one that still shines in its old bloom, is now back in its original place.

The Golden Bell – The Light of Shandora

A huge bell of pure gold is called the Light of Shandora. It stood 400 years ago in the middle of the golden city of Shandora. Embedded in its base is a poneglyph that tells of the ancient weapon Poseidon. The inhabitants of the city, the Shandia, never knew about the content of the inscription of the poneglyph, but protected it with their lives.

Since it is called “Light of Shandora”, one does not speak of “ringing” the bell, but of “letting the light of Shandora shine”. Its sound is also spoken of as the “voice of the island.” The Shandia ring it so that the souls of their ancestors may find the golden city of Shandora again. Mont Blanc Noland, during one of his explorations, was also attracted by its magnificent sound.

400 years later, Enel wants to use her for his own purposes. But she is no longer to be found in Shandora. The Knock-Up Stream threw her up, and she’s been lying on a petrified cloud floating in the sky above Giant Jack ever since. When Robin later deciphers the poneglyph she sees that next to it is engraved a message from Gol D. Roger, so he must have visited Sky Island as well.

Village on Jaya

Kalgara’s home village was on Jaya until it was partially blasted into the sky by the Knock-Up Stream. The people used small stone houses insulated with straw mats for shelter. Several totem poles adorn the image of the small village. The strongest warrior of the Shandia, Kalgara, gave the island a fearsome reputation, as no sailor dared to sail the island anymore, which was home to such a monster as Kalgara, who could sink whole ships by himself.

Several hundred years ago, the tree fever disease struck the village, killing almost all of its inhabitants. Only thanks to the quick help of Mont Blanc Noland’s ship’s doctor, the epidemic could be stopped. The reason for the plague were special trees, in which the souls of the ancestors should live. Accordingly, everyone was very shocked when these trees were cut down.

When the knock up stream erupted under Jaya, almost the entire village was blown up into the sky. Only half a house remained, which is later used as a house by Mont Blanc Cricket.

Village behind the clouds

The Shandia village was hidden behind the clouds, right next to Giant Jack. Its inhabitants lived here peacefully with each other, far away from the war. Most of the houses consisted of tents, so-called Tipi. In the middle of the village was a statue of the great warrior Kalgara.

Gan Fall often came to this place during his first time as god to negotiate with the Shandia, but this always failed. After Enel took off with his Maxim Ark, the inhabitants had to flee. Eventually, the village was destroyed by Enel. Only the statue of Kalgara remained standing proudly.

Miscellaneous

• The architecture of the village is strongly reminiscent of that of the former Indians of North America.

The altar of sacrifice

The sacrificial altar serves as a place of execution, ritual and sacrifice. To appease the gods, e.g. at the time of the tree fever plague, human sacrifices were offered to them. These “gods” were (obviously) nothing more than oversized animals, however. Preferably, pretty and young women, preferably virgins, were tied to a stone altar so that they could not escape, although this was already quite impossible due to the large moat.

When Mouse was to be sacrificed to the snake god, the ceremony was interrupted by Noland, who cut off the “god’s” head, causing horror among the Shandia. Immediately Kalgara intervened, taking up the fight with Noland and throwing a dagger to his daughter to somewhat appease the wrath of the gods again. But this too was thwarted by the traveler, who was severely injured by Kalgara in return. The earthquake that shook Jaya the next day was considered to be the result of the murder of a god.

The Straw Hat Pirates also encounters the Altar of Sacrifice when some of them are brought here by the special Lobster Express on the Going Merry. While Zoro, Robin and Nami go to explore the island, Chopper begins repair work. Later, Chopper is attacked here by the priest Shura.

Since there is now peace among the celestials, it can be assumed that no more offerings are made to the gods.

Religion

Originally, the Shandia believed largely in ancestor worship. A large part of their religion revolved around the golden bell. By ringing this bell, they believed, the spirits of their ancestors could find their way back to the island, where they would eventually enter the White Trees to find their eternal rest.
Secondly, they worshipped many gods such as the Serpent God. This one was a giant boa, a species of animal native to Jaya. They tried to appease their gods in emergency situations with human sacrifices. These were offered on the sacrificial altar to the giant reptile, which appeared at the altar and devoured its victim. When the god appeared, the Shandia would utter their petitions, hoping that their god would grant them through the human sacrifice offered.
A very special position was occupied by the medicine man, who selected the sacrifices for the gods. The victims themselves (Mouse, for example) were even proud to be sacrificed for the good of the village.

The faith of today’s Shandia has changed greatly since Mont Blanc Noland’s visit. They have turned away from the cult of sacrifice and their image of God has also changed. Now they worship their ancestors, like Kalgara, who is most important to them.

History

Ancestry

The Shandia were once called Shandorians. They lived on the moon along with the other lunar races: the Birkans and Skypieans. The three races had also built a robot race called Spaceys. However, when the resources on the Moon ran out, the three races left the Moon and went to Earth. The Spaceys left them behind.

Battle for the Golden City

About 800 years ago, the Shandia fought for their capital Shandora against a powerful adversary. Their enemy is unknown, but it is known that the enemy’s goal was to take the Poneglyph, which is located in the Golden Bell. The battle ended in a narrow victory for Shandora. However, Shandora was weakened so much in the process that the outcome of the battle is known as “Shandora’s Downfall”. Since this victory, it seems that hardly any guests have landed on the island. Later, it was the great warrior Kalgara who drove all strangers from the island.

The epidemic

Jaya was struck 400 years ago by a terrible disease called tree fever. None of the Shandia knew about the origin, nor about neutralization of the virus, and so the demise of the people seemed sealed. When the medicine man also died, it was decided to sacrifice the most beautiful virgin to the gods. While the ritual began at the sacrificial altar, Noland’s explorers landed on the island, where their doctor was able to immediately determine the situation on the completely exhausted guard Seto. The young Shandia was immediately inoculated, allowing him to inform the explorers of the ceremony. Noland immediately rushed to the sacrificial altar where the pretty Mouse was tied up and the snake god, a huge boa, was about to eat her. Before that could happen, Noland cut off the monster’s head. Now Kalgara intervened, who confronted Noland and threw a knife at his own daughter Mouse. Once again Noland prevented a kill, but only got Kalgara’s spear in the back for it. After a brief speech about the accomplishments of Noland’s other explorers, the chief gives him a chance to save their village by sundown, or else his men will be sacrificed.
In the midst of Noland’s quest, an earthquake suddenly shook the island, causing him to fall into a crack in the earth. Kalgara found his enemy and was amused, interpreting it as the gods’ revenge. After several hours and many attempts to free him, a giant boa appeared to eat Noland, who held in his hand the salvation of the village. Kalgara no longer cared about the gods, killed the snake and helped Noland. Back in the village, all the Shandia were immediately vaccinated and peace was made.

Best Friends: Kalgara and Noland

After successfully fighting off the plague, Noland spent another month on Autumn Isle. During this time, as a token of his trust, he was led by Kalgara to Shandora, where even he was overwhelmed by her splendor. The explorers were even allowed to take as much gold as they could carry.

After the said month the Shandia began again to behave very strangely and hostilely towards their rescuers, for which Noland saw no reason. For this reason he sought Kalgara in Shandora, where he threw his spear at them in farewell. The reason for his change of mind was the trees which Noland had cut down. According to Shandia belief, the spirits of the ancestors should live in those trees, but now that they no longer exist, all former Shandia have also died forever. Because Mouse wanted to tell this to the researchers, she went to Noland’s ship on the last night before departure, where she was told that these very trees were to blame for their mass death. The next day Noland cast off. To his surprise, Kalgara appeared on the shore, apologizing to him in tears for his stupidity and wishing to see him again soon, since his daughter had told him everything. They even rang the golden bell in farewell, but it was then that they should have met for the last time.

Flight into the sky

Four years later, part of the island of Jaya, along with the golden city of Shandora, was catapulted into the sky by a knock-up stream. At first the Shandia thought it was a normal earthquake, but Kalgara immediately sensed it was something bigger, more powerful. The column of water threw the huge chunk of earth right at the Giant Jack, which bore into the earth. The Giant Jack shot the golden bell at a petrified cloud, while the Shandia didn’t understand what had just happened. Although they had great problems with the pressure conditions, they faced the sky warriors commanded by the god of the time shortly after their arrival. Kalgara threw himself into the fight to keep his promise to Noland to see him again one day.

Noland, who reached the rest of Jaya a year after, did not know what had happened, and supposed that the golden city had sunk. But the king did not believe him and condemned to death for him for his alleged lie.

Negotiations with Gan Fall

Ever since the Shandia landed in the sky, they have fought the sky dwellers with all means at their disposal with the sole aim of defending their homeland. However, they failed to do so and retreated to petrified clouds where they built a village of tents and a power-giving Kalgara statue. During Gan Fall’s first term of office 400 years after the first warlike encounter, peaceful attempts were made by the god, but these failed again and again due to inhumane demands by the Shandia. In addition, the young Wyper, for example, demanded their Vearth, as the earth is called in the heavens, without reciprocation, which was no longer possible, since life without Vearth had already become impossible for the celestials. That was why most of the talks ended in fights, which brought no success for the Shandia.

Battle for the Upper Yard

With the involuntary end of Gan Fall’s rule over Skypiea by the now self-proclaimed god Enel and his priests, the time of peaceful negotiations also ended. The four priests were each assigned to a portion of the Upper Yard – with the exception of the altar of sacrifice – which they defended against intruders. There seemed to have already been several battles between them and the Shandia, all of which ended in defeats for the Shandia.

It wasn’t until the Straw Hat Pirates managed to take out one of the priests, Satori, that the Shandia were able to keep up with the priests, who still proved to be tough opponents. When Warrior Mantis was injured in a fierce battle and external circumstances turned against the attackers, Wyper gave the signal to retreat. In the village, Wyper encouraged the fighters and promised himself to cut off Enel’s head the next day.

The next day, arguably the most important in the history of the Sky Shandia, the Shandia stormed the Land of God just like the day before with the small difference that now not only the priests participated in the battle, but also 50 men from Enel’s Divine Soldierss, God himself, the gold-seeking Straw Hats, and ex-God Gan Fall. In total, there were 25 Shandia roaming around the Upper Yard that day. There were several battles in which mostly the Shandia lost out. Only in the fight against the Divine Soldierss the stronger tribe members could shine and eliminate them in rows.

Final battle for Shandora

In the end, only Wyper and three unnamed warriors from his village were able to continue fighting. All of them were locked in Ohm’s iron cage to undergo the test of iron. One by one the three weakened Shandia fell victim to Ohm and his dog Holy, who in turn was defeated by Zoro, who like Gan Fall had taken part in the test. Now Enel became active, simply destroying the cloud on which Wyper and Zoro had been fighting the giant boa Nora, thus transporting them to Shandora, the home of the Shandia, along with Gan Fall, who, like Luffy, had been swallowed by the boa and spat back out, along with Nami and Aisa, and Robin, who had been on the lower level earlier. Immediately, Wyper recognized his home, for which he and his people had fought for so long. Enel now explained to the final five of his prophecy that three hours after the estimate, there could only be five people left standing including him. Therefore, one person now had to be chosen to be eliminated. The unanimous result was “Enel”, who found this extremely rude and so defeated Gan Fall, Robin and Zoro in turn as they attacked him. Even Wyper, despite weakening him with sea stones and stopping his heart with a Reject, could not defeat him and had to admit defeat after several dangerous lightning attacks.

He was later found by the young Shandia girl Aisa, who subsequently accompanied Luffy to Enel’s lair and his Ark Maxim, where Luffy, as the only natural enemy, gave the god quite a run for his money until he was tricked into falling off the Ark.

When Wyper awoke after some time, Luffy was already on his way to Enel again. Robin told him about Mont Blanc Cricket in the Blue Sea, and that he, like Wyper, was also a descendant of the Kalgara-Noland team. Wyper remembered the words of his chief, who had told him of the story of his ancestors, and wished Luffy well in his battle against God Enel, which Luffy eventually won. The voice of the island heralded the end of the age that brought hatred and fighting.

Ceasefire

With Luffy’s victory over Enel, peace returned to Skypiea. The badly injured Wyper lay in a tent, and upon awakening, immediately wanted to fight for the recovered city of Shandora. The chieftain stopped him and told him that no one wished to fight anymore and that a huge celebration was taking place outside the tent. Wyper also joined his friends and danced with his former enemies around a huge bonfire.

As the crew around the straw hat made their escape, the warriors of Shandia sat before their statue of Kalgara and thanked him and the gods that they had finally found their home: the sky.

While the Straw Hat Pirates is on Enie’s lobby, the Shandia are seen making the forest habitable to rebuild their village there. Conis, Aisa, Laki and Nora can also be seen laughing as they walk through the forest. Even the chief is active and drinks a little alcohol with Gan Fall.

Miscellaneous

• The Shandia are probably a reference to the Aztecs and Shandora to Tenochtitlan their capital, reminded of the step pyramid, the sacrifice, the death by conquerors and the whole appearance.