| Impel Down | |
| |
| Kanji | インペルダウン |
| English | Impel Down |
| Romaji | Imperu Daun |
| Location Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Type | Prison |
| Located In | Grand World |
| Controlled By | World Government |
| Primary Function | Housing Criminals |
Located on the Grand World, The Great Underwater Prison Impel Down (海底大監獄インペルダウン Kaitei Daikangoku Inperu Daun) is the World Government's maximum-security prison for the most dangerous criminals and pirates. It is located underwater in the middle of the Calm Belt.
Entering Impel Down[]
Impel Down is located in the middle of the Calm Belt, where Sea Kings thrive, making entrance difficult. The only way to get there with the greatest of ease is to use the Tarai Current, a water current accessible by going through the Gates of Justice located at either the Marine Headquarters or Enies Lobby. Also, the only way to safely get to the prison is to use one of the Seastone lined Marine battleships, as the entire place is surrounded by Sea Kings.
Because of its brutal nature and being renowned for being inescapable, almost no person wishes to ever go there. However, there are people who choose to enter it willingly, and they usually have a purpose for it.
Usually, Impel Down is a hell-fortress with maximum defenses, making intrusion and breaking-out by criminals impossible.
Arrival Procedure[]
When prisoners arrive in Impel Down, they are put in boiling water to disinfect and sterilize them. This is ritualistically referred to as "baptizing" them.
While most have screamed in pain due to the extreme heat, prisoners of great durability can tough it out.
Most prisoners them have their clothes taken before they are given a striped black and white pair of shirt and trousers. However, they are permitted to keep certain articles of clothing, glasses, or artificial limbs.
Exceptions to this rule are prisoners who were not meant to stay long before death.
The residents of New Kama Land seem to have managed to retrieve their old clothes after escaping from their cells.
After sterilization and a change of clothing, the prisoners are then placed in one of the six known levels of Impel Down, based on their crimes and strength. The more heinous or powerful a prisoner is, the lower the level in Impel they will be placed. From then on, the prisoners are tortured everyday in various ways, depending on their assigned levels, with most of them supposedly having no chance of ever leaving alive.
Visiting Rights[]
Whether outside people are permitted to visit the prisoners is unknown. Government agents and Marines have the authority to do so, but they would need permission from their superiors.
As Impel Down is a World Government facility, it is obvious pirates cannot enter without being branded as intruders and criminals. The Shichibukai are allowed, at the permission of the Government. Even so, they would be subjected to a full body search, then be forced to wear Kairoseki-cuffs, for safety measures. Without permission, they would be considered as traitors.
General Layout[]
Impel Down is a large submerged tower-like structure whose foundation is at the very bottom of the sea bed. Due to it being built within the Calm Belt, the entire structure is constantly surrounded by gigantic Sea Kings swimming below the water. Along with these beasts, the prison is guarded by a force of Marine battleships.
Within the dark confines of the prison are various cells and torture chambers that are used for the prisoners. The cells are all made from seastone to keep those with Devil Fruit powers from escaping. The torture chambers are used for all sorts of brutal unspeakable acts. Among these include continuous whipping, brutal beating to death, boiling cauldrons for burning and drowning, and spiked pits used for impaling.
The prison is carefully monitored all around by a Surveillance Den Den Mushi. Tiny versions of them are found in specific locations throughout Impel Down. Whatever they see is transferred to a larger version that sends video feeds to monitors connected to it, allowing the guards to keep surveillance. Each of the smaller versions has an alarm beeper connected to the shells. The large Surveillance Den Den Mushi is kept in a monitor room somewhere within the fortress.
There is also what appears to be a medical laboratory stationed somewhere within the great jail, with doctors and a variety of medical equipment for immediate treatments of anyone within the prison, both prisoner and staff alike. However, the doctors seem to have a limit, as they cannot produce a cure for an accumulation of various poisons.
The generator room of the entire prison is located on the first floor, before Level 1, and as are the controls to open the Gates of Justice
Levels[]
A prisoner's assigned level is usually determined by the bounty value on his or her head. Although with exceptions, such as a prisoner who has no Bounty, or cases where the Government acknowledges their strength is obviously superior to their bounties.
Along with various cells to keep inmates, each level possesses a unique form of torture. Because of these unspeakable acts being performed, each level is given the title of hell. With each descending level, the tortures worsens.
Level 1: Crimson Hell[]
Crimson Hell (紅蓮地獄 Guren Jigoku) is the first level of Impel Down in which prisoners are kept. While the level relatively is used for less wanted criminals, it contains a large forest of red trees. The leaves of the trees, known as Kenju (剣樹 bladed tree), are as sharp as blades, while the grass on the floor, the Haribarisō (針々草 needle grass), is as spiky as needles. Here, prisoners are forced to run through the forest while being chased by poisonous spiders and guards to experience all the pain from being cut from all directions. As consequence of prisoners being forced through this forest, it is soaked in blood. Deep within the forest is a hole that leads to Level 2. For those who do not wish to live through the pain of being cut any longer, they were given the option of jumping down the hole to Level 2, which contains an even more terrifying hell that nobody is willing to risk. The security here seems to be somewhat lax, as a prisoner has managed to sneak a Black Den Den Mushi into his cell, eavesdropping on what is happening around the fortress
Level 2: Wild Beast Hell[]
Wild Beast Hell (猛獣地獄 Mōjū Jigoku) is the second level of Impel Down in which prisoners are kept. Every prisoner kept on this level has a bounty higher than 
15,000,000. It contains various wild beasts of sorts. The beasts kept here include Puzzle Scorpions and Manticores. Puzzle Scorpions are large poisonous insects that can join together to become giant centipedes. Manticores are man-eating human faced lions that will devour everything from their prey including the bones. Their human faces allow them to speak however they can only imitate what they hear like parrots as they do not understand what they are actually speaking. The words they speak are mostly things they heard from the prisoners so some of the things that they say are completely out of place. Among these regular-sized beasts kept here are also two gigantic beasts, the Basilisk and the Sphinx.
The Basilisk is a gigantic snake born from a chicken. It is a feathered mutant that possesses both snake and chicken traits. Though formidable, the Basilisk is not the most powerful beast in the level. It is considered to be the "second-in-command".
The Sphinx is a gigantic human faced feathered lion. Significantly larger than the Basilisk and much more fearsome than the other beasts, it is considered the "boss" of the level and is charged with guarding the stairway that leads out of the level. It is so fearsome that the prisoners kept in the level, and even the other beasts hide from it. Like the Manticores, it is capable of imitated speech. It randomly says the names of types of noodles and apparently understands the concept of giving thanks before meals. It is such a strong beast that it is capable of breaking the floor beneath it if it hits it enough times.
With these various beasts, prisoners kept here are forced to be chased by them through the corridors of the level. Because of the fearsome danger, prisoners often either lose the will to go on, or refuse to escape even when their cells are unlocked.
Level 3: Starvation Hell[]
Starvation Hell (飢餓地獄 Kiga Jigoku) is the third level of Impel Down in which prisoners are kept. Most of the prisoners kept here are pirates who have a bounty of 50,000,000 or higher. On this level, prisoners feel the heat rising up from Level 4 and are given precious little food and water to keep them in a near death state. They are reduced to the point where, by merely looking at them, one cannot tell that they were ever once frightening criminals. And while the temperature here is nothing compared to level below, it is intense enough to cause overwhelming dryness, resulting in Level 3's somewhat desert-like terrain.
In the middle of the level is a large hole going directly to Level 4 down below. This, combined with a gigantic fan directly above the hole, serves as the main ventilation system to redirect the smoke produced from below. Level 4 can be reached through this hole, however, to travel down it holds a risk of death or scalding by the fire and heat from the floor below.
Level 4: Blazing Hell[]
Blazing Hell (焦熱地獄 Shōnetsu Jigoku) is the fourth level of Impel Down in which prisoners are kept. At this level, a pool lies filled with boiling blood heated by a raging fire making it extremely hot. The heat caused by this is so intense that it also heats up the level directly above it. If one tries to jump down to this level from Level 3 using the large hole used for ventilation above but do not land in a safe place, then they will die.
Prisoners from other levels are regularly tortured here. The most prevalent form of torture however is being thrown into the gigantic pot of boiling blood in the middle of the level.
The warden of Impel Down, stays here. Their office contains a lift, which can take several people to all the levels throughout the fortress, bypassing the stairs. This is also where the kitchen of the prison is located, right next to the warden's office.
Level 5: Freezing Hell[]
Freezing Hell (極寒地獄 Gokkan Jigoku) is the fifth level of Impel Down in which prisoners are kept. This is the level where criminals with bounties of 100,000,000 and over are kept. In stark contrast to the level above it, the entire level here is a giant freezer. The level is so cold that not only do the prisoners kept here either freeze to death or lose pieces of their flesh from severe frostbite, but the food given to them is frozen to the level of being virtually inedible. Due to the extreme cold, Den Den Mushi do not function in this level, thus cutting off both contact and surveillance, except on the locations localized around the entrances that connects Level 5 to the previous and next levels. Along with the severe cold, the level is inhabited by wolves. These wolves roam around the level like the beasts of Level 2, where they were originally stationed at. However, they proved to be too brutal to be in Level 2 as they also hunted the other beasts as well, including the Basilisk and the Sphinx.
Along with the bitter cold of the level, there seems to be a occurrence of prisoners mysteriously disappearing as well. Prisoners who are incapable of moving by themselves have been disappearing without a trace. Because of this, the Impel Down staff and the prisoners call this phenomenon, the "demoning away". The superstition is that the missing prisoners have been actually pulled away by demons to the Gates of Hell itself. The belief of this superstition has been carefully kept within level 5 so that no inmates from the upper levels were aware about it Among these missing prisoners is the current queen of the okama. He was imprisoned here until he mysteriously disappeared from his cell. Since then, he was rumored to be living in an abandoned guard's office deep within a forest situated in the level.
Level 5.5: Newkama Land[]
Known as the The "Prisoners' Secret Flower Garden", Newkama Land (ニューカマーランド Nyūkamā Rando) is a hidden sub level of Freezing Hell, and is where all the prisoners who have been supposedly "demoned away" have gone to. The secret area is located inside a rock between Levels 5 and 6. It was carved out long ago by a prisoner with a tunneling Devil Fruit power, and is a secret location unknown by the jailers. It is ruled by the "Queen", and it is called the Okama Paradise where all the okama and prisoners party and have fun all the time. It has been described by the current "Queen" as a "paradise within hell", and true enough, not one inmate from this hidden level is inclined at all to escape the goal as a result. However, since the level itself is hidden, the inhabitants seem to abide by very strict rules that prohibit them from actively interacting with the other levels, at least not without covert movement. Still, they do not seem to discriminate should new arrivals find their way here.
One of its main rooms is a combination of a sit-down cafe and a discotheque, with the main attraction being a cabaret stage where the current "Queen" and his followers perform. Apparently, there are also secret entrances existing from the other levels (save for Level 6) that leads directly into this hidden level which the inhabitants can use to their advantage in procuring any necessary supplies. The level also has a Surveillance Den Den Mushi that captures feeds from Impel Down's main surveillance system so the prisoners can see what is going on from all levels in the prison. They also steal newspapers from the prison's garbage cans to stay informed about current events.
Its name is a pun on "new comer" and okama, and refers to the okama who are completely able to change genders thanks to Queen's powers. In Japan, a "New Half" is a man who undergoes a "sex-change" operation.
Level 6: Eternal Hell[]
Eternal Hell (無限地獄 Mugen Jigoku) is the lowest level of Impel Down. It is where prisoners who are insanely powerful, have caused crimes extremely atrocious, and/or whose mere existences have become a major threat to the World Government itself are kept. Even a single Level Six prisoner lurking in a remote country could be an incredible danger to the public. The prisoners on this level have been given either the death penalty or a life sentence. They are basically "erased" from history. Most people dismiss Level 6 as just a rumor. Though the prisoners on this floor are either jailed for the rest of their lives or until their execution day arrives.
It simply seems to be a holding cell for life or until an execution and prisoners do not have to endure terrible conditions (burning heat, freezing cold, etc.) unlike the higher floors. However, some people are able to move through the other levels and are unaffected by those conditions, the inhabitants of this level may simply be too powerful to be affected by torture. However, solitary imprisonment has been proven to be an effective torture in the real world.
Admin Notes[]
While Impel Down has free reign among users, it is best to keep Newkama Land's "Queen" similar to Ivankov in terms of powers and how they arrived at the Newkama Land to begin with. As such, any "Queen" of Newkama Land should (but not must) have:
- The Horu Horu no Mi. Purely to allow free changing between genders, which was a big part of the Newkama Land when it was introduced.
- Obey the "backstory" listed for the current "Queen" within the Freezing Hell section of Impel Down.