The World Nobles, also known as the Celestial Dragons, are the descendants of 19 of the 20 founding kings of the organization known as the World Government in Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga. But, as the previous sentence suggests, one of them was the "black sheep" of the group, and even though she established the World Government, she refused to abandon her people and settle in Marie Geoise. The monarch we're talking about is Queen Lili of Alabasta, and in this article, we'll tell you everything we know about the rebel queen of the Void Century.

Nefertari Lili was the ruler and queen of the Kingdom of Alabasta during the Void Century. She is credited with creating the World Government along with the 19 other monarchs of her era. But, unlike the others, Lili refused to become a World Noble and move to Mary Geoise, preferring to return to Alabasta; she never arrived home, as she disappeared on the way back. She was succeeded by an unnamed younger brother.

The rest of this article will focus on Queen Lili of Alabasta, her story, and her role in the world of Oda's One Piece series. We'll introduce you to her story and tell you what exactly happened to her, how her character developed, where Queen Lili is now, and what she's doing. This article will contain many manga spoilers, so if you're not fully up to date, you've been warned.

Queen Lili was a nonconformist who believed in this cause, but it likely cost her her life.

One Piece fans will know how important and notorious the Void Century is in history. The Void Century is a 100-year period with no records except for the inscriptions on the Poneglyphs. Chronologically, it takes place 900 to 800 years before current events. Therefore, everything that happened during this period is unknown and remains a true enigma.

From this period only the mysterious Poneglyphs remain, steles scattered throughout the world, on which are engraved texts written in a mysterious language known only to a few scholars (almost all of them are now deceased, the only one still alive being Nico Robin).

The only people who seem to have any knowledge of the Void Century are the members of the Five Elders, the former members of the Roger Pirates (except for Shanks and Buggy), and the Kōzuki clan (Oden being part of the Roger Pirates at the time of its discovery). However, Kōzuki Momonosuke and Kōzuki Hiyori were too young (it cannot be ruled out the possibility that they were told everything before the events of 20 years ago).

However, they don't seem willing to announce what they've discovered (except at least Silvers Rayleigh, who intended to reveal to the Straw Hat Pirates what One Piece is). According to Professor Clover, the 20 founding Kingdoms of the World Government 800 years ago wiped out a gigantic kingdom called the Old Empire, and the Poneglyphs tell the story of that kingdom, which is why they're so important.

But it's not just about the Poneglyphs and the Old Empire; the Void Century contains many other intriguing stories, and one of them is directly linked to the World Government.

Chapter 1084 of the manga shows a scene where King Nefertari Cobra of Alabasta approaches the Five Elders to tell them about the Empty Century and the founding of the World Government. He confirms that he knows the story and that his ancestor, Queen Lili, also founded the organization, but she refused to go see Marie Geoise, which is why there are only 19 weapons surrounding the empty throne.

The Five Elders confirm this story and ask him what it's for; Cobra replies that he wants to know what happened to Queen Lili because, evidently, she never sailed back to Alabasta, and the kingdom was later taken over by her younger brother, who is, at the time of writing, still nameless.

The Five Elders confirm this but say that Lili's fate has been lost to the annals of history, implying that they also don't know what happened to her, which is likely a lie.

Before leaving, Cobra asks them what the initial "D" stands for, but before answering, they ask him why he is asking. Cobra then replies that he is in possession of a short letter written by Queen Lili herself, which was passed down to her family members. Their answer is not revealed, and when the manga returns to this specific scene, we see another shocking moment: Im, the secret leader of the World Government, appears in the room, shocking the Five Elders (as Cobra was still there), goes up to the empty throne and sits on it, shocking Cobra when he mentions Lili's name.

Queen Lili is thus given a central role in the story. We don't know much about her, except that she was apparently very close to her own people and was a powerful leader at the time. All post-Void Century texts make no mention of her, and without Cobra's letter, no one would know her fate. This implies that the World Government has decided to erase her from existence, which is their standard operating procedure when it comes to something that threatens their stability.

Queen Lili was certainly a danger to the original world nobles, so they eliminated her at some point in the story. She also seems to be connected to the Will of D in some way, but at this point, we don't know how; this will likely establish a relationship between Lili and Luffy, which will be important in understanding the meaning and importance of the Will of D to the story. I also seem to have taken an interest in her, which implies that Lili's story will be very important later in the series and that her role could be groundbreaking.

As for Cobra, it's unclear whether this scene took place before or after Sabo's assault. Namely, if it takes place afterward, it means that Sabo really didn't kill Cobra and that the World Government framed him so they could eliminate him because he became a threat to them. This would mean that Sabo was telling the truth the entire time.

On the other hand, if the scene takes place before then, then we have two possible scenarios: one, Sabo really did kill Cobra and is lying about it, which would be too easy for Oda and seems like an obvious diversion; two, I ordered Cobra's execution because the ruler of Alabasta knew too much and then they decided to blame Sabo. This would mean that, on the one hand, Sabo is still telling the truth, and, on the other hand, that the World Government is sticking to its old plans. This solution seems the most plausible from our perspective.

Either way, Cobra's encounter with the Five Elders will have a big impact on future events, and we can't wait for the upcoming chapters to reveal more details about the history of the One Piece world.