The Devil Fruit abilities of a former Emperor of the Sea are always something that inspire fear throughout the world of One Piece, and this is especially true when the pirate in question is none other than Charlotte Linlin, also known as Big Mom. Belonging to the Paramecia class, Big Mom's Devil is known as the Soru Soru no Mi, and grants her the ability to control and manipulate human souls. Such a fearsome power can be applied in a broad variety of ways, and Big Mom has employed it to its fullest extent in One Piece while creating the utopia that she dreamed of with Totto Land.
Originally eaten by Mother Carmel, a child trafficker who raised Linlin on the island of Elbaf, the Devil Fruit's powers were later acquired by the future Emperors through unknown means. In the years since gaining it, she has deployed her abilities to subdue every resident of Whole Cake Island, and the archipelago of Totto Land that she rules over. The Soru Soru no Mi permits her to both shorten the lifespan of a target, or extract pieces of an individuals soul and infuse them into inanimate objects, thereby giving them life. Big Mom has used this ability both in combat, negotiation, and in intimidating her opponents, in addition to create the powerful subordinates she calls Homies, some of whom, are infused with pieces of her own soul.
The Ability To Command Souls
In essence, the Soru Soru no Mi gives Big Mom the power to extract and manipulate the souls of anyone she chooses. The only prerequisite condition for this is that the target must be consumed by fear when confronting the Emperor, which gives her full control over their soul. For the most part, Big Mom's reputation and imposing stature make it near impossible for a target to avoid having their soul extracted. However, certain individuals such as Jinbe, Trafalgar Law, and Eustass Kid have shown themselves to be immune to this ability due to their indomitable will.
Big Mom can choose to either extract entire souls, which kill those they belong to, or only segments, which effectively shorten the lifespan of the individual in question. The manifested soul appears as a light pink substance with a texture that is reminiscent of smoke, but is tangible for the user of the Soru Soru no Mi. This technique, known as Soul Pocus, is one of the signature abilities of the Soru Soru no Mi, and it lies at the foundation of creating homies, who she uses as her personal enforcers throughout Whole Cake Island and Totto Land.
The Power Of Her Homies
Aside from extracting souls and decreasing an individual's lifespan, the user of this Devil Fruit can also infuse inanimate objects with soul fragments and bring them to life, in a manner that is similar to Gecko Moria's Kage Kage no Mi. These objects, known as "Homies," then gain personalities, human-level intelligence and the ability to speak. Virtually anything can be made into a homie — from plants, animals, and objects to food, air, light, and other substances. Certain homies also gain special abilities after being infused with soul fragments and the strength of a homie is proportional to that of the soul it was infused with.
Most of the time, homies are infused with soul fragments from other individuals, but there are certain unique homies who hold pieces of Big Mom's own extremely powerful soul. Till date, there have been four such special homies shown in One Piece so far. They include Zeus, a cloud capable of altering the weather and unleashing lightning strikes, Prometheus, a fireball in the style of the sun who can release fire-based attacks, Napoleon, Big Mom's hat that can transform into a sword, and Hera, another cloud created to replace Zeus after he abandoned Big Mom for Nami.
Since all homies, including these special ones are subservient to Big Mom, they cannot ignore any of her commands and must execute any order given to them. Although, in some cases, such as that of Zeus, the homie's personality gives them some form of agency which permits them to act on their own. Homies cannot attack anyone in possession of Big Mom's Vivre Card, as it contains the essence of her soul. In such cases only the presence of the Soru Soru no Mi user can override this issue. Weaker homies are also somewhat defenseless in front of Brook's Yomi Yomi no Mi powers. A user's control over their homies can also be neutralized if the user is rendered unable to speak and issue commands. Big Mom can also manifest pieces of her own soul as large black humanoid blobs called Incarnations, which she uses to collect the toll she demands from citizens of Totto Land.
Creating Her Utopia
Linlin has used the Incarnations to enforce a biannual collection process to maintain order within Totto Land, where each resident of the archipelago must give up a month of their lifespan to continue living there. The Incarnations are capable of extracting soul fragments of their own and have the ability to speak and carry out their tasks towards this end. Big Mom instituted this process as part of her vision to create a land where all races could live in harmony without any fear of discrimination.
This was her main desire when creating Totto Land, with Whole Cake Island at its core, where she reigns as the Queen and supreme leader. Her control over her homies and Incarnations has allowed her to weaponize every aspect of the territory and assemble an army of soldiers that are entirely obedient to her. Even the Queen Mama Chanter, the flagship of the Big Mom Pirates is a homie, as are the Chess Soldiers, the Seducing Woods that defend Whole Cake Island, and Randolph, a combatant for the Big Mom Pirates. Hence, the power of the Soru Soru no Mi gave Big Mom complete dominion over Totto Land, making her one of the most feared characters in One Piece.