Roy Verneel

Captain of the Verneel Pirate Crew

Part I: Childhood at Verneel Manor

Roy is born to Finneas and Maria Verneel on a small island in the North Blue. Finneas is the CEO of Verneel Corporations, a weapons manufacturer that is contracted by the World Navy. His wife, Maria, is his childhood sweetheart whom he’s been married to for many years.

Maria becomes very sick, as a result of complications during Roy’s birth. She passes shortly before his third birthday. The death of his wife proves too much to handle for Finneas. He dives into his work, leaving a young Roy to himself in the Verneel mansion. He is raised mostly by his nanny, a kind, older woman, who makes sure he has a happy and stimulating childhood.

As a result of his status as the son of a rich man, he is isolated from the outside world. He becomes educated through private tutors, teaching him various topics far above what is typical of kids his age. He becomes educated in topics such as world affairs, philosophy, biology, and many more, even before the age of 10.

At the age of 11, his familial situation changes a bit. After many years of mourning the loss of his wife, his father finally allows himself to move on. He starts making an effort to be a part of Roy’s life and over the next few years, the two of them become closer. During this time, Finneas begins to introduce Roy to the workings of the company, and Roy finds an interest in it. He sees how the weapons are made and meets many of the employees who work at the factory, located a short distance from the Verneel Mansion. One thing he was always curious about was the negotiations with the World Navy. Being raised in a household that was directly connected to the World Government, Roy thought the World Navy was a super cool force of good in the world. As he got older, Roy began to notice that his father’s discussions with the Navy were always very secretive, causing his curiosity to grow.

Being a curious kid, he decides to sneak a listen on one such conversation. The conversation shatters the young boys mind. He finds out that his Father’s dealings with the Navy went far beyond a simple weapons contract. He was, in fact, funding the Navy’s sketchy scientific research into biological and physical weapons by Dr. Vegapunk, as a part of various shady dealings in their attempt to keep the general populous and pirates under their control. Roy only catches snippets of the specific projects that they discuss, as they discuss many, but he clearly hears the words “devil fruit”.

What he does hear is something that haunts him to this day. They discuss the logistics of testing their weapons and research… on people. The Government representative talks about various towns and villages on isolated islands with very little government control where they can easily test the weapons. And Roy’s father agrees without hesitation. But what hits Roy the hardest is when they talk about some lab tests that they would be performing… on children. This completely destroys his world.

Finding out the truth is too much to bare for Roy. Having everything he’s ever known come crashing down on top of him leaves him with no other choice but to leave his home. He takes some personal belongings, as well as a decent amount of money, and runs away from home at the young age of 15. He is able to stockpile a good amount of money and uses this money to secure passage away from his home island.

Part II: Road to Pirating

Roy’s escape from the mansion is so sudden and uncharacteristic that the staff of the mansion think it’s just a joke or that he may be with his Father (who spends a lot of his time at the Factory). After a day, they become worried and this is when Finneas finally finds out. They spend another day scouring the island before Finneas is able to contact the Navy and get them to assemble a small search party.

By this point, Roy has made it a few islands away and found a place to hide out, even going so far as to change his appearance and ditching some of his clothes that make him stand out. He moves around quite a bit in the beginning, knowing it would be good to keep anyone from gaining his trail.

With the couple days head start he had and his quick thinking, Roy’s able to evade detection in those crucial times and eventually finds a quiet town to settle down in. At first he decides to simply start a new life, working in a port town a few islands away from where he was born.

However, living a normal life and working in a prospering port town meant two things, seeing a lot of World Navy officials, and seeing a lot of pirates. Seeing those who worked for the World Navy made his blood boil. He is unable to sleep at night, thinking of everything his father is doing, and seeing these officials only fuels the flames of his hatred. On the opposite side, he finds himself envying the freedom of the pirates, living outside the bounds of a corrupt and shady government and doing whatever they pleased.

After only a few months, he can’t take it any more. He leaves his job and buys a small boat, setting sail with the hopes of becoming a pirate, not only to spite his Father, but also to make up for and combat all the atrocities that his Father was committing with the Navy.

However, becoming a pirate isn’t a simple task. His journey begins as a simple adventurer, using the skills he gained in the port town to maintain his small ship and explore the sea and islands of the North Blue. He gains new skills and learns from all his experiences, both practical skills and increasing his knowledge through reading books in the various towns he visits along the way.

Being of an intellectual mind, Roy is smart with his money he had taken from his childhood home and that which he earned at his first job, only using it when he absolutely needs to. He tends to camp in the wilderness or on his boat and even tries to find his own food when he can, only going into towns for work, continuing his education, or reading up on current affairs. Through his efforts to gain hard skills and using his growing knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, he trains his body to be stronger.

This adventuring phase lasts over 2 years, over the course of which he grows to be a strong and intelligent man. Along his adventures, he meets many people, some of which have also been wronged by the World Government and decide to follow him on his journey.

Part III: Captain Roy Verneel

Through his encounters with various people of varying backgrounds and experiences, Roy’s seemingly clear opinions on the debate of Marines vs Pirates becomes noticeably gray. Though his general emotions towards the World Government and the resulting resolve he gained were immovable, as an intellectual he understood the desire for the general public to support a form of law-enforcement. On his travels he saw what good could come from having Marines around, though he never forgot about the conversation he had heard all those years ago when he was just a child. Though it did not change his resolve, he did find that his anger towards Marines was significantly muted compared to when he was younger and he was smart enough to understand that a simple marine foot soldier was not automatically a demon in disguise, but rather another human being like himself who just happened to find themselves on the opposite side from where he was standing.

Likewise, his feelings on Pirates changed over the years as well. Though he respects their drive for freedom and strength to oppose tyrannical powers, he knows of the deep selfish and dangerous nature that surrounded many pirates. He’d heard of all the atrocities that pirates could commit and this leads to him becoming generally wary of most pirates that he comes into contact with.

One pirate he holds in high regard is Whitebeard. He appreciates the stories of his high moral standards and that he considers all members of his crew to be his family. Roy’s own experience with family being so poor, he decides when he becomes a pirate, he will forge real bonds of friendship and love with his crew.

While making his way towards the southern corner of the North Blue, towards the Grand Line, he hears about a master fighter who lives on an isolated island near the Calm Belt. Though Roy has been training his body to be stronger, he is still lacking as a fighter. He knows that if he wants to be an effective pirate, he has to learn to defend himself and his crew, so he decides to make the journey towards the mysterious island. He tells his friends that he’s going to be training so he will be gone for a while, momentarily parting ways with the friends who would eventually become his pirate crew.

On the island he meets the master fighter, an older man by the name of Yamaguchi. He trains under him for a year, first learning a few different types of martial arts. One of these forms utilizes staff-like weapons, and Roy excels in this. Towards the end of his training, he is allowed to choose a weapon from Yamaguchi’s personal collection and he chooses a lance called Yūyake (Red Sun). He trains with this lance for the remainder of his time with Yamaguchi and after completing a full year of training, he returns to his friends and continues his travels.

His group eventually becomes too large for the small boat he had started his journey with and so he buys a new ship and finally forms the Verneel Pirate Crew when he is 19. Him and his crew make a decent name for themselves, taking every opportunity they can to mess with the shady dealings of the Navy, causing their captain to amass a bounty of 100,000,000 beli by the time he is 21.

The crew destroys weapons manufacturing plants and ambushes shipments of Verneel corporations, among other things, overall interrupting as much business between Finneas Verneel and the Navy as possible. They also take every opportunity they can to investigate the scientific research that Finneas is funding, though this proves to be quite difficult.

Shortly after amassing this large bounty, they have a run in with Bartolomeo’s crew at a bar. It seems like it could lead to a fight, but Roy felt he distinctly heard Barto talking about the Straw Hats. While Barto was clearly a fangirl, Roy had a deep respect and admiration for them, creating an interesting dynamic between him and Bartolomeo. No fight occurs and the two men leave the bar with a mutual feeling of respect.

At the age of 24, the Verneel Pirate Crew cross paths with the Straw Hats at Dressrosa while investigating the SMILE Fruit and join the large group of people who work together to take down Doflamingo. After working together, the Verneel Pirates follow Barto’s lead, joining the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.