Stitch #79
It has come to my attention, as of recent and due in large part to Leia-san’s questions, that without Nel-san’s presence and her uniquely informative post, that there is within the City a certifiable dearth of information about my world. While the overall representation is small when one considers the size of the City, I feel that this will at least save me the effort of having to repeat myself, should anyone come to have questions.
Absolutely reason enough, but it may be useful to you as well, if you’ve ever wondered what a Shinigami, or more importantly, a Quincy is.
Now then, shall we begin?
General Overview
Every person has a soul, and not in a religious sense, unless you pray to that idiot. Everything is composed of, the air is filled with, spirit particles. Each person has spirit energy of a level dependent upon their soul, but understand that 99.9% of the population has such negligible energy that all this is utterly irrelevant to the majority. My earth is one of standard modernity, of electricity, of television shows, instant meals, cram schools, but also for the extremely rare, one of spiritual awareness. But for everyone else, all of this is about as feasible as a fairytale, or the plot of Star Wars your standard post-apocalyptic, sci-fi, man-in-space scenario.
The soul is connected to the body by a chain of fate. In death, the chain is severed from the body. Should the soul have reason to remain in the mortal world, whether through attachment to a person, place, or otherwise, then it risks becoming a Hollow. The Hollow is the spirit that has lost its heart, gives into instinct, becomes a beast, and seeks to devour other human souls.
Shinigami
It is the job of the Shinigami, of Death Gods, to send the lost souls to “Heaven” and to vanquish the Hollows. The blade of the Shinigami is capable of both tasks; by killing the Hollow, they purify its soul.
Of course, though duped into believing in this Heaven, this wonderful Soul Society, the truth remains that souls go to the outskirts, the numbered districts of Rukongai where they dwell in poverty, where the higher the number the most desperate the circumstances, where anyone with a bit of soul power starves. Am I biased? Of course, but then, I walked those streets. It is quite interesting, wouldn’t you agree, that in the countless centuries that pass for the shinigami, not a thing has been ostensibly done to improve the lot of those souls who must wait in that varying hell before reincarnation? Ah, but that is Heaven, and oh, but they might be lucky enough to apply to the Shinigami Academy, to join their prestigious ranks.
The pure, incorruptible Shinigami, who take their status as god quite seriously, in both attitude and action.
Quincy
Yet, they proved quite insufficient for the problem of Hollows attacking humans on earth, so inferior that eventually some humans who could see the Hollows devouring their loved ones determined to take matters into their own hands. Relatives of magic hunters, developing their spiritual awareness into ability, there was a time when the Quincy had numbers across the world. By manipulating the spirit particles of their surroundings, they became archers. (The Shinigami fights with a blade that represents his soul, the manifestation of his or her soul power).
In what happened then, at least, the Shinigami were probably correct. Despite their flawed system, it at least posed no threat to the entire world balance - unlike the Quincy. As, their arrows did not purify, but eliminated the Hollows completely, disrupting the crossover of souls between the worlds. When the Shinigami asked them to stop, the Quincy of course refused, on the grounds that the Shinigami were not up to task - on the grounds that they would protect.
The Shinigami wiped the Quincy almost entirely from the earth. Two hundred years ago, in my world, the Quincy became near-extinct. Those that survived remained under close surveillance by the Shinigami.
Unfortunately, despite the interest of those Quincy regarding working together with the Shinigami, they were ignored, not given a shred of respect, to the extent that a madman (permitted to be the captain of a division) was quite able to bribe every pure supervising Shinigami into arriving too late when the Quincy faced Hollows beyond his skill. This was executed so to allow that man to experiment on over two thousand Quincy, down to the very last my gr.
That, however, is another story.
Arrancar
There has developed an advanced stage of Hollow evolution, as aided by the rogue Shinigami Aizen Sousuke in all but a few exceptional cases, where a Hollow becomes an Arrancar. Bone mask in pieces, retaining a humanoid form, their power is exponentially greater, more devastating, and Shinigami-like in their possession of blades and releases. Their intentions, as lead by Aizen, need not be elaborated on here, as it remains a problem unique to my world.
Without getting very technical, I would advise any citizen who encounters such a creature to be wary. Though they are not able to eat the souls properly here, that doesn’t often stop them from trying. Still without hearts, still ruled by instinct, they are best perceived as monsters. Even if
I, Ishida Uryuu, am a Quincy.
If you’ve any questions, I might answer them. Bear in mind: this is a rough draft.
[ooc: woops, passed out last night! now - sry loading taking foreverrrr and nw mom wants to see a movie -- SO BB IN A FEW HOURS, AT WHICH POINT WILL PROPERLY GET REPLIES -- OBVIOUSLY MEAnT A FEW DAYS]
Absolutely reason enough, but it may be useful to you as well, if you’ve ever wondered what a Shinigami, or more importantly, a Quincy is.
Now then, shall we begin?
General Overview
Every person has a soul, and not in a religious sense, unless you pray to that idiot. Everything is composed of, the air is filled with, spirit particles. Each person has spirit energy of a level dependent upon their soul, but understand that 99.9% of the population has such negligible energy that all this is utterly irrelevant to the majority. My earth is one of standard modernity, of electricity, of television shows, instant meals, cram schools, but also for the extremely rare, one of spiritual awareness. But for everyone else, all of this is about as feasible as a fairytale, or the plot of Star Wars your standard post-apocalyptic, sci-fi, man-in-space scenario.
The soul is connected to the body by a chain of fate. In death, the chain is severed from the body. Should the soul have reason to remain in the mortal world, whether through attachment to a person, place, or otherwise, then it risks becoming a Hollow. The Hollow is the spirit that has lost its heart, gives into instinct, becomes a beast, and seeks to devour other human souls.
Shinigami
It is the job of the Shinigami, of Death Gods, to send the lost souls to “Heaven” and to vanquish the Hollows. The blade of the Shinigami is capable of both tasks; by killing the Hollow, they purify its soul.
Of course, though duped into believing in this Heaven, this wonderful Soul Society, the truth remains that souls go to the outskirts, the numbered districts of Rukongai where they dwell in poverty, where the higher the number the most desperate the circumstances, where anyone with a bit of soul power starves. Am I biased? Of course, but then, I walked those streets. It is quite interesting, wouldn’t you agree, that in the countless centuries that pass for the shinigami, not a thing has been ostensibly done to improve the lot of those souls who must wait in that varying hell before reincarnation? Ah, but that is Heaven, and oh, but they might be lucky enough to apply to the Shinigami Academy, to join their prestigious ranks.
The pure, incorruptible Shinigami, who take their status as god quite seriously, in both attitude and action.
Quincy
Yet, they proved quite insufficient for the problem of Hollows attacking humans on earth, so inferior that eventually some humans who could see the Hollows devouring their loved ones determined to take matters into their own hands. Relatives of magic hunters, developing their spiritual awareness into ability, there was a time when the Quincy had numbers across the world. By manipulating the spirit particles of their surroundings, they became archers. (The Shinigami fights with a blade that represents his soul, the manifestation of his or her soul power).
In what happened then, at least, the Shinigami were probably correct. Despite their flawed system, it at least posed no threat to the entire world balance - unlike the Quincy. As, their arrows did not purify, but eliminated the Hollows completely, disrupting the crossover of souls between the worlds. When the Shinigami asked them to stop, the Quincy of course refused, on the grounds that the Shinigami were not up to task - on the grounds that they would protect.
The Shinigami wiped the Quincy almost entirely from the earth. Two hundred years ago, in my world, the Quincy became near-extinct. Those that survived remained under close surveillance by the Shinigami.
Unfortunately, despite the interest of those Quincy regarding working together with the Shinigami, they were ignored, not given a shred of respect, to the extent that a madman (permitted to be the captain of a division) was quite able to bribe every pure supervising Shinigami into arriving too late when the Quincy faced Hollows beyond his skill. This was executed so to allow that man to experiment on over two thousand Quincy, down to the very last my gr.
That, however, is another story.
Arrancar
There has developed an advanced stage of Hollow evolution, as aided by the rogue Shinigami Aizen Sousuke in all but a few exceptional cases, where a Hollow becomes an Arrancar. Bone mask in pieces, retaining a humanoid form, their power is exponentially greater, more devastating, and Shinigami-like in their possession of blades and releases. Their intentions, as lead by Aizen, need not be elaborated on here, as it remains a problem unique to my world.
Without getting very technical, I would advise any citizen who encounters such a creature to be wary. Though they are not able to eat the souls properly here, that doesn’t often stop them from trying. Still without hearts, still ruled by instinct, they are best perceived as monsters. Even if
I, Ishida Uryuu, am a Quincy.
If you’ve any questions, I might answer them. Bear in mind: this is a rough draft.
[ooc: woops, passed out last night! now - sry loading taking foreverrrr and nw mom wants to see a movie -- SO BB IN A FEW HOURS, AT WHICH POINT WILL PROPERLY GET REPLIES -- OBVIOUSLY MEAnT A FEW DAYS]