Pirates. On both accounts. [Pinches the bridge between his eyebrows, he realizes that doesn't sufficiently explain anything, but it takes him a little bit to get warmed up.]
There are 4 main oceans in my world, one strip of Land that encircles the globe called "The Red Line" and the Grand Line is a fifth ocean divided by Calm belts where there aren't any winds and seakings breed.
The pirates mostly want to reach the end of the Grand Line, to Raftel, because they think One Piece is there. And if not, they try for the New World in order to try to prove that they're the best.
There's only one entrance for pirates into the Grand Line, and that is up Reverse Mountain. No matter which ocean they come from, there's a route that sails up the mountain, over the Red Line and into the Grand Line. So each ocean has a marine base on the island closest to Reverse Mountain to try to catch pirates before they even reach there.
The Grand Line itself has hundreds of different islands and countries, and most of them prefer to keep enough of their own sovereignty to deal with pirates on their own. Which, as the former Drum Kingdom proved; is not always the best plan. When Blackbeard targeted it, the King couldn't mount a defense and the marines were too far away to help until he'd already moved on and by then it was too late. Alabasta was using a shichibukai to protect them against pirates, but Crocodile was just conning its people while mounting a rebellion.
In general, the marine bases were situated to best grab pirates, but as years go by, the pirates catch onto where the bases are and figure out ways around them.
Akainu, the new Fleet Admiral, rearranged some of the bases so that he could face the pirate emperors more directly, but we'll see how effective that is.
[Voice]
There are 4 main oceans in my world, one strip of Land that encircles the globe called "The Red Line" and the Grand Line is a fifth ocean divided by Calm belts where there aren't any winds and seakings breed.
The pirates mostly want to reach the end of the Grand Line, to Raftel, because they think One Piece is there. And if not, they try for the New World in order to try to prove that they're the best.
There's only one entrance for pirates into the Grand Line, and that is up Reverse Mountain. No matter which ocean they come from, there's a route that sails up the mountain, over the Red Line and into the Grand Line. So each ocean has a marine base on the island closest to Reverse Mountain to try to catch pirates before they even reach there.
The Grand Line itself has hundreds of different islands and countries, and most of them prefer to keep enough of their own sovereignty to deal with pirates on their own. Which, as the former Drum Kingdom proved; is not always the best plan. When Blackbeard targeted it, the King couldn't mount a defense and the marines were too far away to help until he'd already moved on and by then it was too late. Alabasta was using a shichibukai to protect them against pirates, but Crocodile was just conning its people while mounting a rebellion.
In general, the marine bases were situated to best grab pirates, but as years go by, the pirates catch onto where the bases are and figure out ways around them.
Akainu, the new Fleet Admiral, rearranged some of the bases so that he could face the pirate emperors more directly, but we'll see how effective that is.