Silvers Rayleigh

Silvers Rayleigh, also known as the "Dark King", is an extremely powerful and famous retired pirate who formerly served as the first mate of the legendary Roger Pirates, being known as the "Right Hand of the Pirate King". He is one of the major figures, along with Whitebeard, Shiki, Monkey D. Garp, Sengoku, and Kong from the times when the "Pirate King" was alive.

After the disbandment of the Roger Pirates and the execution of Gol D. Roger, Rayleigh became a coating mechanic at the Sabaody Archipelago. Also, at some point after this, he became the husband of Shakuyaku and befriended Hatchan.

Rayleigh is an ally of the Straw Hat Pirates during the Sabaody Archipelago Arc and served as Monkey D. Luffy's mentor in the use of Haki during the two-year timeskip.

Appearance

Rayleigh is an elderly man of relatively tall height with a very muscular build and tan skin. Two of his most distinguishing traits are his round glasses and facial hair, which is arranged embattled across his lower jaw. He also has a scar over his right eye, which he has had for many years.

Rayleigh chooses to dress quite simply, usually just in a nearly plain t-shirt, shorts, and sandals. When out in public, he also seems to enjoy the cover of a large silver hooded cloak, though the hood is often down. Underneath these clothes, the old man's body is surprisingly built and very well-toned, a testament to his incredible strength.

When Rayleigh was younger, he had clean cut strawberry blond hair (black when first seen in the anime) and had a moderate amount of facial hair. Over the years, as his hair whitened, he grew it out. He also grew a beard from his initial striped facial hair. During Roger's last year alive, Rayleigh was noticeably taller, reaching almost the same height as his former captain. Regardless of his age, Rayleigh is a muscular man with a broad chest and well-built body.

During Rayleigh's first appearance in Buggy's flashback, he was seen wearing a t-shirt with an ornately decorated collar, a motif that appeared even in the long coat he wore during the Battle of Edd War. He wore an orange shirt, light-brown spotted bermudas, and simple sandals. He also has a silver-colored coat hanging from his shoulders.

After the two-year timeskip, Rayleigh now wears a black T-shirt as well as his silver hooded cloak.

Personality

Rayleigh is light-hearted, casual, and fun loving, much like his captain Roger was. In the past, he was shown to have been impatient with the antics of the younger crew members and took the position of crew disciplinarian very seriously. However, he has changed his personality in his older years, becoming much more relaxed even when training Luffy.

Though he often has a serious air, Rayleigh enjoys going with the flow and appearing in unexpected places and in unexpected ways, especially given his status and age. He often comments on his age and how his body "does not work the way it used to", much like Garp.

Rayleigh is not often headstrong, looking before he leaps and taking time to plan ahead before taking action, although he does not hesitate to act if needs be. Even when entering into an unfortunate or unplanned situation such as engaging a Marine admiral in combat or having his ship sink in the Sea King infested waters of the Grand Line, Rayleigh remains completely calm, pushing forward through adversity with no hesitation.

He is typically open and talkative, and like Whitebeard, seems to enjoy talking about the past and its great times, as well as the good old days of their near-bygone era. In spite of this, he appeared reluctant to get into the darker topic of the Void Century. He was willing to divulge the whole truth to Nico Robin if she wished, but she declined his offer.

As stated by Shakky, he loves alcohol and women, which he proved when he is first introduced saving Camie from being mistreated by Disco while holding a hip flask. He prefers to be called "Ray-san". Despite once being enemies with the Whitebeard Pirates, Rayleigh seems to have great respect for their captain, like Roger, and shed a tear for Whitebeard's passing.

Abilities and Powers

As the former "Right Hand of the Pirate King", Rayleigh is an extremely skilled and powerful combatant. Shakuyaku stated that he was "100 times stronger" than all of the Eleven Supernovas by the time they first arrived on the Sabaody Archipelago. In his younger days with Gol D. Roger, Rayleigh commanded the rest of Roger's crew as his first mate and held several duties, like supervising his subordinates, including the young apprentices Buggy and Shanks.

When Vice Admiral Garp was informed that Rayleigh may be on the Sabaody Archipelago, he told his men not to confront him, nor should Fleet Admiral Sengoku be informed. Garp reasoned that the marines should not confront two legends, Whitebeard and Rayleigh, at the same time and even admitted that if the marines were to make an honest attempt at capturing Rayleigh, they would need to do serious preparation if they did not want to lose countless soldier in the attempt, a true testament to his extraordinary strength.

Rayleigh's immense battle prowess allowed him to fight on par with Admiral Kizaru, preventing him from attacking the Straw Hat Pirates. However, he himself has admitted that he is not as young as he used to be, and as a result can tire in battle. This implies that when he was in the prime of his strength, he may have been even stronger than when he fought Kizaru. Eustass Kid himself even states that Rayleigh was "a legend".

Rayleigh is also an expert in the coating business, as he performs such operations for various pirate ships heading down to Fish-Man Island, and he understands the workings of deep-sea currents.

Intelligence

Rayleigh has an extremely crafty and cunning mentality; he has managed to evade the grasp of the expansive World Government for over 20 years and quickly learned to exploit the slave-trading business on Sabaody Archipelago for personal gain (getting himself caught and sold to a wealthy bidder, before escaping and robbing his "master"). Calm and level-headed at virtually any and all times, he was the individual to break up arguments and disputes aboard the Oro Jackson, as first mate and the right-hand man to Gol D. Roger himself.

Rayleigh knows the "true history" of the world from his time with Roger. However, he has also stated that, as a pirate crew lacking the archaeological knowledge of scholars of Ohara's caliber, they could have interpreted that information differently than the Ohara scholars. However, this is questionable given the Roger Pirates had Kozuki Oden, who possessed the knowledge on how to read and write the language on the Poneglyphs.

Another noticeable trait of Rayleigh is his incredible perceptive and deduction capability. This is shown when he was (within a matter of moments) easily able to deduce what had happened after ending up on the slave auction stage on the Sabaody Archipelago.

Physical Abilities

Rayleigh possesses immense physical strength despite his elderly age. He was capable of killing several Sea Kings with his bare hands even after swimming to Amazon Lily from outside the Calm Belt. In the anime, he could throw bullets with extreme force and accuracy to destroy cannonballs fired at him.

Rayleigh is extremely fast and possesses extraordinary reflexes. When removing Camie's exploding collar, he patiently calculated the time when the collar released itself and quickly tossed it away before it detonated. He could intercept Kizaru's attack when the admiral was about to kill Roronoa Zoro, and also managed to keep up with his light-enhanced speed.

Though tarnished by his old age, Rayleigh still possesses tremendous levels of endurance and stamina, being able to swim to Amazon Lily from outside the Calm Belt while killing a number of Sea Kings in his way despite swimming such a long distance.

However, after intervening in the Marines and Blackbeard Pirates' invasion of Amazon Lily, Rayleigh admitted that his working to drive Marshall D. Teach off was the best he could do, because if he fought him in an actual battle, he would have stood no chance against Teach due to his age.

Swordsmanship

Rayleigh is an immensely skilled swordsman, though he claims his skill in swordsmanship is nowhere near the level it once was from his younger and healthier days. By combining Busoshoku Haki with his swordsmanship, he was able to fight on equal grounds with Kizaru, who himself is a highly skilled swordsman when wielding his Ama no Murakumo, and managed to cut and draw blood from the admiral's face. He can also create extremely powerful compressed air slashes, as shown when he cuts the ground to prevent marines from chasing after Luffy.

Haki

Busoshoku Haki

Rayleigh is an immensely skilled user of Busoshoku Haki, which allowed him to kick and redirect an attack from Kizaru and hurt Luffy with a simple flick. He is able to imbue his Haki into certain parts of his body or objects to harden them, as shown during his training with Luffy.[12] He can also use two advanced applications of this type of Haki, as shown when he repelled and injured a giant elephant by emitting his Busoshoku Haki and destroyed Camie's collar from the inside out by channeling his Haki into it.

Kenbunshoku Haki

Rayleigh is an extremely skilled user of Kenbunshoku Haki. He could sense that there were five hundred creatures on Rusukaina who were stronger than Luffy before his training had begun, and used it to dodge an elephant's attack with his eyes closed.[20] He also has knowledge of how high-level users of this Haki can see into the future.[21]