Sapphire Scale Disease Was Created By The World Government - One Piece

The World Government banned any research of the Poneglyphs and methodically erased the information on the “Great Kingdom” from all historical records and texts. Thus, until now we still don’t know how the World Government was able to defeat the Ancient Kingdom with its highly advanced technology.

I believe the latest chapter may have given us the way (or at least a way) that the World Government used to get rid of the people from the Ancient Kingdom.

We now know of the Sapphire illness, how it is incurable and causes death, but we also know that the symptoms are “accelerated” when exposed to natural light, or just “Sunlight”. What if, that disease was created, 800 years ago, as a way to indirectly kill the civilians, “exposed” to the Sun God Nika?

You know, like, “you worship your god, you die a horrible way”.

Now I know Nika (Luffy) doesn’t emit sunlight by himself, but it can also just be a metaphor for the “exposure to freedom” : “you want to be free, you die.” Because obviously, being forbidden to enjoy Sunlight isn’t the best freedom there is.

It is also a nice parallel to Thriller Bark. Everyone without a shadow also did not have their freedom and had to stay away from the sun. And it could be an explanation why the Celestial Dragons always wear clothes similar to space suits – to not get infected.

TL;Dr: Sapphire illness was created by the World Government, so the Ancient Kingdom couldn’t worship the Sun God Nika anymore.