Ponecliffs

The Ponecliffs (ポーネクリフ, Pōnekurifu) are mysterious stone blocks with history inscribed on them in the form of strange letters. They are scattered among the islands of the world, and it is said the only person left in the world who can read them is Robin Nico.

"."
 * —About the Ponecliffs.

Appearance and Type
Ponecliffs are massive blocks made of an indestructible type of stone. They have text written in an ancient language carved on them. There are a total of three types of Ponecliffs scattered across the world; Historical, Instructional and Road Ponecliffs:


 * "Historical Ponecliffs" reveal pieces of ancient history as well as messages written by ancient people.
 * "Instructional Ponecliffs" contain instructions and/or clues about the locations of Historical Ponecliffs.
 * "Road Ponecliffs" (ロードポーネクリフ, Rōdo Pōnekurifu) detail a location. The combined locations detailed by all four Road Ponecliffs, allows one to locate Raftel.
 * Rio Ponecliff (リオ・ポーネクリフ, Rio Pōnekurifu), according to Robin, is the message carried by all the Ponecliffs along the Grand Line Region. It contains the true history of the world (including the "Void Century" of which research is forbidden). In order to find it, one must take all other passages from the other Ponecliffs with them on their travels. Roger D. Gol seemed to have accomplished this task, according to Rayleigh. According to Tamago, the Rio Ponecliff is in fact composed of only nine Ponecliffs.

Both Historical and Instructional Ponecliffs are dark blue in color, while the Road Ponecliffs are deep red in color.

Overview
According to Tamago, there are about thirty Ponecliffs in the world. The blocks are impervious to damage, even from explosions.

Each Historical Ponecliff tells a piece of history long forgotten. This history includes mentions of three weapons of mass destruction: Pluton, Poseidon and Uranus. In the eyes of the World Government, they are dangerous artifacts; however, despite the World Government declaring the Ponecliffs dangerous because of the weapons, the reality is that the ideals of the fallen Kingdom written on some of the stones are far more dangerous than any of the weapons. The Road Ponecliffs are sought by several organizations interested in the treasure located on Raftel: two of the Four Emperors, Lingling Charlotte and Kaido, have each claimed possession of a Road Ponecliff.

"Keep thy motives in heart, with closed mouth. We are those who will weave history with the ringing of the great belfry."
 * —Words inscribed on the Shandora ruins.

The stones are left in the care of the descendants of ancient civilizations, as seen in both Alabasta and Shandora. The Shandorian Ponecliff was a fiercely guarded treasure of the people, and they felt a deep visceral connection to it - particularly the bell built around it - that was passed down to the present era, where the descendants of those who fought and died to protect it still put their lives on the line to reclaim it, along with their homeland, even though they had forgotten about the existence of the Ponecliff itself. They still cherish what it represents a great deal, and the shaman of their people openly wept upon hearing they had fulfilled the wishes of their ancestors by passing its information on to Robin Nico, thus relieving them of their centuries-long duty.

Unlike its Shandorian counterpart that was guarded by its people to protect the information in contained, it is clear that the hidden nature of the Alabasta Ponecliff was to conceal its existence from the people and not protect it, as Alabasta is an affiliate of the World Government united against the creators of the Ponecliff. This is inferred by Robin in her conversation with the King of Alabasta, Nebra Nefeltari, when she scoffs at and rebukes his statement about a hereditary charge of the monarchy to "protect" the stone, though he was truthfully unaware of the deeper reasons or motives of its concealment decided long before his time.

Roger D. Gol managed to follow the passage of the Ponecliffs because he could hear "the voice of all things", and thus uncovered the truth of the Void Century with his crew; however, Rayleigh Silvers notes that they may have interpreted what they learned incorrectly because they did not possess the intellect of Clover or the other scholars of Ohara.

The Kozuki Family passed down the knowledge of how to read Ponecliffs within their family up to Oden Kozuki's generation. Also a member of Roger's crew, Oden journeyed to Raftel with him and, like Roger, could decipher the Rio Ponecliff. Oden was killed by Kaido and the Shogun of Wano Country after he refused to tell Kaido a secret he knew (presumably either the location of Raftel, One Piece, knowledge of what was written on the Rio Ponecliff, or how to read Ponecliffs), preventing Oden from passing on the knowledge to how to read Ponecliffs to his son, Momonosuke Kozuki, and leaving Robin as the only known individual who can decipher the ancient text.

Due to its ties with the Kozuki Family, the Mokomo Dukedom is somewhat knowledgeable about Ponecliffs despite being unable to read them, as they are aware of the existence of the Road Ponecliffs and Cat Viper reveals that it is possible to copy a Ponecliff's message onto a gyotaku, simultaneously proving that it is possible to copy the information written on a Ponecliff and record it on a different material, albeit one that lacks a Ponecliff's indestructibility.

Record of the Void Century
800 years ago, in the Wano Country, a clan of stonemasons known as the Kozuki Family invented indestructible stone blocks for the purpose of recording important history on them while preventing it from being destroyed. Those stone blocks would become the Ponecliffs.

The stones were written to preserve the events of the Void Century. After the Void Century ended, the stones were left in the guardianship of the descendants of ancient civilizations, who guarded them from people seeking to destroy or claim them. The World Government, in an attempt to cover up the events of the Void Century, made researching and deciphering Ponecliffs a crime punishable by death. However, this did not stop others from gaining possession of Ponecliff knowledge, transferring the cryptic language on the Ponecliffs to paper in hopes of finding someone who can read it, or keeping the stones themselves in their own possession in order to gain superiority over those looking for them.

Roger D. Gol's attempt
"I have come here and will lead this passage to the farthest ends of the world."
 * —Words inscribed by Roger D. Gol.

Roger managed to successfully follow the path of the Ponecliffs and decipher their meanings, leaving at least one message along the way to encourage others to follow his path. However, his crew chose not to awaken any of the ancient weapons detailed in the Ponecliffs.

Roger also had a member of the Kozuki Family, the inventors of the ponecliff, within his crew: the Wano Country daimyo Kozuki Oden, who also witnessed the secrets held in Raftel.

At some point in time, Roger encountered Big Mom's Road Ponecliff and was able to interpret the characters in order to reach Raftel.

The Demons of Ohara
The researchers on Ohara decided to study their island's Poneglyph in an attempt to discover the missing history of the world. However, they were limited by lack of access to and knowledge of the other Ponecliffs, and thus sent out researchers to find more information on them, knowing the study of the Ponecliffs was illegal.

Olvia Nico, along with thirty-three other archaeologists, set out to sea. Sadly, their attempt failed and they were intercepted by the Navy, leaving Olvia as the sole survivor. The Navy found information among the belongings of the dead researchers that allowed them to trace the team back to Ohara, and a CP9 unit was sent to investigate. The World Government had always been wary of the scholars because of their knowledge, but researching the Ponecliffs meant they had an excuse to act against them.

Olvia escaped the Navy with the help of Saul D. Jaguar and managed to return to Ohara in time to warn her comrades about the Navy heading their way. However, CP9 had already arrived on the island and a Buster Call attack commenced after Clover revealed that he had discovered the knowledge held by the Ponecliff in the Tree of Knowledge. Ohara was destroyed, wiping out the entire Island and all of its inhabitants with the exception of Robin Nico, who managed to flee in the process, leaving the fate of the Ohara Ponecliff a mystery.

During her time on the run, Robin deciphered at least one Ponecliff and constantly strove to find others.

Alabasta
Crocodile targeted the Alabasta Kingdom because of its Ponecliff, which contained information on the whereabouts of Pluton, and created the Baroque Works syndicate in an attempt to bring down the Alabasta Kingdom and claim Pluton, employing Robin to read the Ponecliff. When Robin finally got the chance to read this Ponecliff, however, she lied about its contents, which caused Crocodile to turn against her because he no longer needed her. Due to the ferocious battle between Luffy D. Monkey and Crocodile, compounded by an attempt from King Nebra Nefeltari to crush Crocodile underneath the rubble by displacing a pillar, the Tomb of the Kings where the Ponecliff was held became unstable and began collapsing around them. Luffy saved Robin and Nebra, but the Ponecliff was buried in the collapse.

Skypiea
Robin joined the Straw Hat Pirates, claiming Luffy was the one responsible for her continued existence, and traveled with them to Skypiea where another Ponecliff was held. There was a wall in the Shandorian ruins cryptically describing the location of the Ponecliff in the same runes that the Ponecliffs themselves were inscribed with. The Ponecliff itself, located at the base of the Golden Belfry, contained details about Poseidon and a message written by Roger, telling further researchers to keep going forward. According to Gunfall, he had no idea when or how Roger managed to reach the ponecliff on top of Giant Jack. Robin informed the Shandia that their duty to protect the stone was over, freeing them from their ancestors' burden.

Sabaody Archipelago
At the Sabaody Archipelago, Roger's first mate, Rayleigh Silvers, mentioned to Robin during the Straw Hats' meeting with him that he knows what the Void Century is and that Roger solved the mysteries of the Ponecliffs; however, he also admitted that saying what it was would take away the impact or any further interpretations of the lost history, due to his crew not being proper historians like the Ohara scholars, before telling Robin to search out the Ponecliffs and draw her own conclusions regarding the lost history. Despite this, Rayleigh offered Robin the chance to hear the information from him, but she declined his offer and chose to continue to pursue the Ponecliffs herself.

Fishman Island
After arriving at the Sea Forest, Robin read the Ponecliff there and discovered that it was engraved with an apology letter from a man known as Joy Boy to Poseidon.

Zou
When Jack and the Beasts Pirates invaded Zou to look for Raizo of Wano Country, the Mink Tribe chained him to the Road Poneglyph within the Whale Tree to keep him from showing himself. Seventeen days later, the Straw Hats, Team Natsu, Law Water D. Trafalgar, and Raizo's samurai comrades freed him from the Ponecliff. When Robin noted its red color, Duke Dogstorm explained that it had a different purpose than the normal blue Ponecliffs did and gave her permission to read it.

After Robin deciphered the Road Ponecliff, Dogstorm explained its purpose of revealing the location of Raftel when its information was combined with that of the other three Road Ponecliffs.

Reverie
Nebra and his daughter Vivi Nefeltari left Alabasta to attend Reverie. Despite his ill health, Cobra wished to attend because he planned to ask the World Government about Ponecliffs, a desire he has held ever since his encounter with Robin.

Totto Land
Lingling Charlotte's Road Ponecliff became a target of interest for the Straw Hat Pirates when they invaded her country in order to retrieve Sanji Vinsmoke from her clutches. Brook and Pedro underwent their own side operation to create a copy of the ponecliff while the rest of the crew focused on Sanji, and eventually, Brook was able to break into her ponecliff storehouse and defeat her guards. Lingling subdued him personally for this, and after defeating him, she recounted how she failed to stop Roger D. Gol from breaking into the very same room over twenty years ago to interpret the Ponecliff.

Lingling also revealed that members of the Three-Eye Tribe have the potential to awaken the ability to "hear the Voice of All Things" just as Roger did, and currently, she is waiting for her daughter Pudding Charlotte (who is a human and three-eye hybrid) to awaken this ability and lead her to Raftel.

Despite being defeated, Brook is later revealed to have successfully created copies of Lingling's three Ponecliffs, making the Straw Hat Pirates one of the few factions in the world to own one of the Road Ponecliffs.

Anime and Manga Differences
The first artifact to actually be recognized as a ponecliff was seen in Alabasta in Episode 123. However, another ponecliff was seen in Episode 102, also in Alabasta, when Luffy, Natsu, Trace, Erza, Zoro, and Chopper were lost in the desert and fell through the top of an ancient ruin where a Ponecliff was seen half buried in the sand. However, it bears no significance to the series, since it was shown in a filler episode.

The Word in different Languages

 * Poneglyphe (French)


 * Понеглиф (Russian)


 * Poignee Griffe (Italian)