#i know they're about to destroy all my personal worldbuilding 😭

[risingsunresistance]

listening to moving to mars, now i am thinking about barry and scarf

[onepiece-oc-archives]

I’ve been sucked into one piece so bad and now really want to make an OC. So I had an idea for a character whose inspired by old maritime/pirate folklore of witches and sea witches.

I’m struggling though with how to go about that. So should it be like a devil fruit thing? Or a friend suggested I just come up with a separate race/tribe like the Kuja? I’m so lost with what direction to take with this 😭

For some info I want to put my OC with the straw hats and want to avoid them just being this insanely over powered person. I did find when researching that some background character from a later arc is categorized as a ‘sorcerer’ but don’t really know what that implies.

Help!!

Hi, welcome to the chaotic world that is One Piece and welcome to my blog!

I really love the idea of making an OC based off of pirate folklore! Sounds like there would be a lot of cool things to do there! The way I see it, you have four options:

Option 1: A devil fruit. I think a Mythical Zoan would be your best bet. Probably a Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Sea witch. You could put that in One Piece and nobody would bat an eye. Just remember that your OC wouldn't be able to swim. Do you want that for a sea witch?

Option 2: A new tribe/race. This is an option that gives you a lot of freedom because you can pretty much do whatever. You could create a race that has devil fruit style powers as part of their DNA. Oda has done that too. It comes with a few issues though. First of all, your OC's powers wouldn't be unique, because there's a whole tribe of sea witches. This could be good or bad. Second of all, there's a possibility that the World Government or other organizations hunt that tribe down. Once again, this could be good or bad for your story. Maybe this also makes your OC unique again because they're the only one of their kind left? Or at least one of few. This would, of course, have a strong effect on your OC's story and a lot of things that happen to them, so make sure to really consider if you want this.

Option 3: Science. I won't go too much into detail because of spoiler reasons, but incredible things are possible through One Piece science. This would most likely link your OC to a group of people or a specific person who develops said funky science and that's a connection with a lot of lore implications, so you should evaluate if you want that. Implications don't always need to turn into something big, but they can. If this is the option you decide to go for, let me know and I'll tell you more about that science and the people involved, but it will probably contain at least some spoilers, so be warned.

Option 4: It is what it is. I'm not kidding, this is a totally valid option that has been pulled by Oda multiple times. Your sorcerer example would fall under this option, though I believe he hasn't actually been seen practicing sorcery in any canon material. A canon example of this however is a certain woman who, for some reason, can accurately tell the future using a crystal ball. No one knows why. Never explained. And still completely canon. So, if none of the other options speak to you, going "it is what it is" is still a completely valid option.

Maybe as a sort of guideline of how I dealt with a similar issue:

My oldest One Piece OC used to be firmly in the Option 2 category. She's based off of mythology, mostly of Greek Myth, the goddess Selene in particular. Just going "oh yeah, she comes from a race of people who are just like that" worked really well for me for, I dunno, six years? But then a new manga chapter came along with a new lore drop and I thought I'd have to drop my OC's concept for good because it coincided/collided too much with the new lore drop. But then another lore drop happened and I was able to save her through sprinkling in some of Option 3.

The lore drop destroying my concept was purely bad luck. So you'll probably be doing really well with Option 2 if you commit to it. It might take a bit of worldbuilding, but you could also not explain anything. Both works. And if that fails, science can save your butt.

Also, I'm currently working on a new One Piece OC who falls into Option 4, simply because a mermaid being unable to swim would be a little stupid, so I can't give her a devil fruit, and her being involved with funky science just wouldn't suit her character that well. Also, I already kinda pulled that with said oldest OC, so I don't really wanna do it again.

Creating OCs is very situational, but sometimes "fuck around and find out" works surprisingly well or is the only thing that works. Mix and match things together. Run with a certain idea until canon throws a wrench in the works. Adjust things and make stuff up as you go. Sometimes, it's just about taking that first step, the rest will come all on its own.

I hope this helped at least a little. If you have any more questions, feel free to let me know!