Rayleigh Silvers

Silvers Rayleigh is a character from the One Piece anime and manga.

Silvers also known as the "Dark King", is the former first mate of the Roger Pirates,known as the "Right Hand of the Pirate King".

He became a coating mechanic in Sabaody Archipelago at some point after Roger died and the crew was disbanded. He served as Luffy's mentor in the use of Haki during the two year timeskip. He is also the husband of Shakuyaku.

In the AWA fics, Silvers serves as one of the many instructors in the AWA Academy.

Appearance
Rayleigh is an elderly man of relatively tall height with a very strong and defined build. 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.

The Dark King 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 cloths, the old man's body is surprisingly built and very well-toned, a testament to his incredible strength.

When he was younger, Rayleigh had strawberry blonde hair (black when first seen in the anime) clean cut, 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. Regardless of his age, Rayleigh is a muscular man with a broad chest and well built body.

During his 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 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 he 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, 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 is typically open and talkative, such as when it came to the mysterious 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 Keimi 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
In his younger days with Gol D. Roger, Rayleigh commanded the rest of Roger's crew as his first mate. He would do several duties while supervising the rest of the crew. Amongst these duties was disciplining the young apprentices Buggy and Shanks over their constant arguing about pointless things, such as which of the two polar regions is the colder one. After Gol D. Roger's crew disbanded, Rayleigh became a coating mechanic in Sabaody. He specializes in coating ships with Yarukiman resin, a process which enables ships to travel to Fishman Island.

Rayleigh is extremely powerful, easily one of the strongest characters introduced. Shakuyaku vouches for his strength by saying that he is "100 times stronger than all of you boys", referring to the Eleven Supernovas. Furthermore, when Vice Admiral Garp was informed Rayleigh may be on 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. Admiral Kizaru even admitted that if the Marines were to make an honest attempt at capturing Rayleigh, they would need to do serious preparation, further explaining his great strength.

Due to his phenomenal strength, he was able to fight Admiral Kizaru equally and he even managed to scratch the admiral. However, Rayleigh himself has admitted that he is not as young as he used to be, and can tire in battle. This may mean when he was in the prime of his strength he may have been even stronger than when he matched Kizaru, a true testament to his strength. Jinbe, a former Shichibukai who was used to seeing Whitebeard, was later shocked to see Rayleigh in person. Eustass Kid himself even states that Rayleigh was "a legend".

Another glimpse of his strength is seen when he seemingly snatches off Keimi's exploding slave collar and tosses it into the air before it could self destruct.

Rayleigh is well known for his crafty and cunning mentality: he has managed to evade the grasp of the expansive World Government for over 20 years now, and had 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 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.

Another noticeable trait of Rayleigh's 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 at the slave auction stage on the Sabaody Archipelago.

Mechanics
Rayleigh is an expert in the coating business, as he performs such operations for various pirate ships heading down to Fishman Island, as well as understanding the mechanics of the deep-sea currents. Rayleigh is also highly knowledgeable in locksmithing, able to remove the slave collars that was placed on him and the giant he was enslaved with without using any keys at all. He also demonstrated being able to remove Keimi's exploding collar without the keys, albeit in a more dangerous method as it does not stop the collar from exploding.

Culinary Expertise
Rayleigh is a highly skilled chef as according to Luffy. The stew Rayleigh prepared for dinner smelled very delicious.

Physical Abilities
Rayleigh has tremendous physical strength despite his elderly age. He is powerful enough to kill several Sea Kings with his bare hands while swimming in the Calm Belt. In the anime, he could throw bullets with extreme force and accuracy, able to destroy cannon balls fired at him.

Rayleigh has shown to be extremely fast with extraordinary reflexes. When removing Keimi'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 without Kizaru noticing, and also managed to keep up with his light enhanced speed.

Though tarnished by age, Rayleigh still has an enormous amount of stamina, as he was able to swim to Amazon Lily from another ocean and was also still able to kill a number of Sea Kings despite swimming such a long distance.

Swordsmanship
Rayleigh is a tremendously powerful and skilled swordsman, though he claims to have degraded in skill somewhat from his younger and healthier days. Like Zoro, he can create extremely powerful compressed air slashes as shown when he cut the ground with ease to prevent the Marines chasing after Luffy. He can combine Busoshoku Haki with his swordsmanship, allowing him to fight equivalently with Kizaru, who himself is a highly skilled swordsman wielding his Ama no Murakumo light energy sword and also managed to cut and draw blood from Kizaru's face, who is a Logia user.

Haki

 * Further information: Haki

Rayleigh is able to utilize Haki in the same way Shanks, Luffy, and Whitebeard can. He can use all three types of Haki: Kenbunshoku Haki, Busoshoku Haki, and Haoshoku Haki. Rayleigh is also shown to possess great mastery of Haki, and made use of all three types while teaching Luffy about them, and training him in the basics.

Haoshoku Haki
Rayleigh has mastered Haoshoku Haki to the extent that he can render a specific target completely unconscious. He is able to do this without adversely affecting anybody else near the initial target. He disabled an entire hall room of hostiles with this power, save for the Kid Pirates and Heart Pirates. Rayleigh later commented that the pirates still standing were no ordinary rookies. Only very strong and determined individuals can resist from being knocked unconscious. One of Trafalgar Law's crewmen was very close to being knocked out, and even Law and Eustass Kid were sweating slightly after enduring the blast.

Busoshoku Haki
Rayleigh has an extremely high level of skill in Busoshoku Haki, allowing him to effectively bypass the powers of a Devil Fruit user and touching the "substantial body" beneath whatever protection the fruit provides as seen when he used Busoshoku Haki to kick and redirect an attack from Admiral Kizaru. While teaching Luffy the basics of Haki, Rayleigh could deflect a giant elephant's stomp and cause significant damage to the elephant with only the sheer force of his Busoshoku Haki, whereas Luffy's Gear Second Enhanced attack could not deal any damage at all, and also hurting Luffy with a Haki-imbued flick to demonstrate his the capabilities of Haki. Overall, Rayleigh's immense proficiency in Busoushoku Haki allows him to use it for devastating offense. He is also able to harden certain parts of his body or objects, as shown during his training with Luffy.

Kenbunshoku Haki
Rayleigh is highly proficient in Kenbunshoku Haki, able to sense the emotions and nature of others. He could also use it to sense the strength of others on a wide scale. This was shown when Rayleigh used this Haki to sense that there were five hundred creatures on Rusukaina who were stronger than Luffy at that time. Rayleigh also used Kenbunshoku Haki to expertly dodge an elephant's attack with his eyes closed.

The incredible mastery Rayleigh has over this kind of Haki is also shown by the fact that he can sense people all over the island he is currently on while most people can sense only in their immediate vicinity.

Weapons
Rayleigh possesses a double-edge straight sword, with a cross hilt and a large round pommel, roughly half as long as his body height. Combined with his Busoshoku Haki and sword skills, he can fight evenly with a Logia-enhanced Kizaru.

During his attack against the Marines who tried to chase down Luffy after the timeskip, he switched to using a katana.

Trivia

 * His name is similar to John Silver from Treasure Island and Sir Walter Raleigh, an English 16th-century explorer and privateer. It should be noted that Sir Walter Raleigh's name has been spelled in over forty different ways, in which also includes the spelling "Rayleigh" (note; the "y" would actually be pronounced as "i").
 * It is possible that his name is related to the phenomenon known as Rayleigh Scattering. In particular, when fighting Kizaru, Rayleigh was shown to be able to 'scatter' Kizaru's light attacks, which is a visual pun on Rayleigh Scattering, which involves the scattering of light.
 * When Rayleigh fought Kizaru, he told him that if he were to get rid of his wanted poster, he could go into a peaceful retirement. This means that Rayleigh has an active bounty; the amount has yet to be revealed.
 * Silver is traditionally considered the next most valuable metal after gold, and as the first mate, Silvers Rayleigh was the second highest ranked man in the crew after the captain, Gol D. Roger also known as Gold Roger.
 * There is a theme of rare metals among the senior members of the Roger Pirates, as another member is named Scopper Gaban, as in "copper".
 * Rayleigh and Coby share the same birthday.
 * He is the first former pirate known to still have an active bounty.
 * In the 5th fan poll, Rayleigh ranked 32nd.
 * In the One Piece Blue Deep: Characters World databook, his relationship with Shakuyaku is written as that of friends, rather than husband and wife. As he was referred to as her "Uchi no hito" in the manga, their relationship as stated in the databook may be an oversight by Oda.
 * Rayleigh's blood type is XF.


 * When Shanks and Buggy were first revealed to be part of Roger's crew, a fan asked Oda in a SBS questionif the man that scolded them was a subordinate captain under Roger that commanded the ship they were sailing on, or even a high ranking officer. Without giving away Rayleigh's name at the time, Oda responded that this man was none other than the first mate of Roger's crew. Oda also stated in his response that since he had set this fact in stone from the very start, he told Toei Animation that when they adapt Buggy's flashback for the anime, Buggy and Shanks should not refer to Rayleigh as Captain in the anime.