Quick Links
The long-awaited return of The Thousand-Year Blood War, has blown fans' expectations away. Still, those who are not familiar with Tite Kubo's best-selling comic series could be surprised or confused by the new villains of the anime, the Quincy.
First introduced in the earliest stages of the series through the character of Uryu Ishida, the Quincy were never really developed much past that. However, to everyone's surprise, the clan of Hollow hunters comes back as the main villains of the final saga, and they manage to hit the Shinigami of Soul Society even harder than Sosuke Aizen did. Without providing any spoilers for The Thousand-Year Blood War, here is an overview of the Quincy's story and abilities to help fans navigate the exciting new Bleach anime.
Who Are The Quincy?
The main difference between Shinigami, Hollow, and Quincy, is that while the former two are souls who reach different stages of evolution after death, the latter are humans who can use spiritual energy (Reishi). Because of their spiritual powers, Quincy can see ghosts, including the predatory Hollows, and thus they dedicate their lives to hunting and destroying them. However, while Shinigami "purify" Hollows, sending them back as pure souls to the Soul Society, Quincy don't believe that the cruel Hollows should be given a chance at redemption. Quincy's techniques completely destroy Hollows, thus altering the "balance of souls" among the different worlds (Soul Society, Human World, and Hueco Mundo), maintained by the Soul King. As a result of the Quincy's actions, there could be more souls in the Human World than in Soul Society, risking a catastrophe as life and death get mixed together, leading to the eventual end of the world.
Quincy have their own unique abilities and ways of fighting. They can absorb and manipulate the Reishi in the atmosphere and mix them with their own energy to create spiritual weapons that usually take the form of bows and arrows, called Heilig Bogen and Heilig Pfeil. This style of fighting comes from the fact that Quincy are still humans, so their bodies would receive great damage from Hollow attacks, hence they prefer to keep their distance. Quincy also have a variety of other powers, including spells and a transformation called Vollständig, which is similar to Shinigami's Bankai. Quincy's techniques and weaponry are named using the German language, just like Hollow and Arrancars followed a Spanish theme.
The Quincy Are At War With The Shinigami
Because of their habit of destroying Hollows, Quincy quickly moved from simple rivals to bitter enemies of the Shinigami. Hundreds of years before the events of Bleach, the Shinigami decided to wipe out the Quincy to preserve the balance of souls and prevent the catastrophe known as the Collapse of Worlds. After a bloody war, the King of the Quincy, Yhwach, was defeated and imprisoned. Few Quincy survived, and they stopped hunting Hollows, or at least their numbers were so low that it did not matter. Uryu Ishida and his father, Ryuken, were believed to be the last surviving Quincy before The Thousand-Year Blood War arc.
In truth, after losing the war with the Shinigami 1,000 years ago, the Quincy found refuge in the Seireitei, the center of the Soul Society, thinking it was the last place the Shinigami would look for them. They used the Reishi to create a hiding space in the shadows, called the Wandenreich, the "Invisible Empire". The Quincy then used the abundant Reishi found in Soul Society to gather their power, hiding and waiting for 1,000 years until their King awakened from his slumber, before launching their attack against the Shinigami.
Who Is The King Of The Quincy?
The "Sealed King" of the Quincy and the Emperor of the Wandenreich is Yhwach, who made his debut at the conclusion of the first episode of Bleach: The Thousand-Year Blood War. Yhwach is also known as "Father of the Quincy" because he is the progenitor of their entire line, and his blood flows in every single member. However, over the millennia, the Quincy began differentiating between those descending directly from Yhwach, called Echt, "pure-blooded", and Gemischt, "mixed-blooded". Uryu is a Gemischt, because his father, of Echt lineage, refused to go along with the arranged marriage prepared by his family and instead married a Gemischt. Fans of Bleach who will follow the anime will sound find out that Uryu and Ichigo's destiny were connected long before they were even born.
The prophecy seen at the beginning of the first episode of The Thousand-Year Blood War refers to Yhwach's return: "The Sealed King of the Quincy, after 900 years, he shall recover his heartbeat. After 90 years, he shall recover his intellect. After nine years, he shall recover his power." Thus, 1,000 years after being defeated and imprisoned, Yhwach returns and the Wandenreich declares war on the Soul Society (as seen in episode #1), triggering the events of Bleach's final arc. Without going into spoilers, Yhwach is the most powerful enemy that the Shinigami and Ichigo Kurosaki have ever faced, and his plan threatens to destroy the world by completely upsetting the balance of souls. Yhwach's final goal is to create a world without fear of death.
Overall, the choice of the Quincy as the final enemies of Bleach is a rather unexpected one, but it makes sense, considering that previous arcs had focused on Shinigami and Hollows. Quincy are a completely different kind of foe because they represent the ideal opposite of Shinigami (while Hollows are the opposite of humans), thus their conflict is more radical than what was seen before in the series. Fans can of course expect exciting battles and epic fights from the anime, but they will also get the answers to some long-standing Bleach mysteries, including the origins of Ichigo's powers.
