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THE FIRST WORLD
Within the earth there was fire.
Mankind succumbed to greed and touched the forbidden sun.
The enslaved prayed, and the sun god appeared.
The earth god raged, and with its serpent of hellfire, shrouded the world in death and darkness.
And they will never meet.
The Red Line was created as a result of a volcanic cataclysm that nearly wiped out life on the Blue Planet. Mankind siphoned off magma from below the earth's crust, stemming from the mantle and core, using slave labor. A figure with the powers of Nika battled to free the slaves. The battle ended in the Red Line being created from a volcanic eruption.
"Shrouding the world in death and darkness" refers to the lives that would be lost in the eruption and the volcanic ash that would ensue. Large enough eruptions, such as Mt. Tambora in 1815, can cause ash to block out sunlight. Tambora's eruption resulted in what researchers have dubbed "the summer of no winter," and the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs is often attributed to being largely the result of life being unable to fare under the ash cloud kicked up by the meteor collision.
"The serpent of hellfire" refers to the initial burst of magma that encircled the planet. I believe this is a reference to the Pacific Ring of Fire, a series of volcanoes and earthquakes. While the Ring of Fire is not a circle, the imagery is consistent with imagery within the series. King's final assault on Zoro consisted of flaming dragons that Zoro compared to magma; the hellfire imagery continues with Zoro defeating King with King of Hell, Three-Sword Serpent: 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation. The Red Line is referred to by the giants of Elbaph as the blood-soaked serpent; while the Red Line's color makes this a fitting moniker, the phrase would be even more fitting if its creation is associated with the death referenced in the mural.
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, Nami explains to the crew that there are more volcanoes below the ground than above it, and that undersea volcanic activity creates new islands. The "serpent of hellfire" refers to the magma that encircles the globe during the cataclysm that then hardened into the Red Line. This is consistent with Nami's explanation
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that the Red Line is akin to an aggregate of islands.THE SECOND WORLD
Within the void there was breath.
The forest god tamed demons and the sun spread the fires of war.
Those of the half-moon dreamed.
Those of the moon dreamed.
Man killed the sun and became god, and the sea god stormed.
And they will never meet.
"Within the void, there was breath" refers to Imu, a being who emerged from the Abyss.
When the Revolutionaries are discussing Imu
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, a book labelled "Genesis" can be seen. Mars refers to Imu as "the Creator"
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. The book of Genesis describes the earth as formless and void prior to Creation; Imu's personal pronoun of "mu" can both be translated to mean "void" or "nothingness." Imu's power over the Abyss is also a Biblical reference to voids and nothingness, as the Abyss in the Bible is a place that is completely boundless and too deep for the human mind to comprehend. Descriptions of both the Abyss and the formless world prior to Creation are also evocative of deep waters, making it more likely that the Harley's mention of the "void" is meant to refer to Imu and the Abyss. I think the rest of the stanza is fairly simple. The fires of war being spread by the sun and the dreams of the half-moon refers to Joy Boy's faction of the great war, the Will of D. Those of the moon may refer to either the Sky People, or perhaps the alliance of 20 kings. The forest god taming demons, I believe, refers to the power of the Devil Fruits being harnessed. Man killing the sun and becoming god refers to Joy Boy's defeat and the rise of the Celestial Dragons as the new gods of the world. The sea god storming refers to the great flooding that befell the world during the war.