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| “ | I thought I told you I see all. There is no room for comprehension or countermeasures against my power. All that I see...is powerless against me. You seem to think that I am still one without name. My name is Yhwach. The one who will rob you of everything. | „ |
| ~ Yhwach upon regaining The Almighty. |
| “ | The path has now closed. Ichigo. The path to a world without fear. The Human World, Soul Society, Hueco Mundo. They belong together as one. They should have been brought together, that life and death may mingle as one. But now that path exists no longer. All thanks to you, Ichigo. How disappointing. Because of you, life and death will not lose their form. All living things will continue to live their lives in fear of death...for all eternity. | „ |
| ~ Yhwach's last words to Ichigo Kurosaki. |
Yhwach (ユーハバッハ Yūhabahha), often referred to as "Your Majesty" (陛下 Heika) by his underlings, is the overarching antagonist of the Bleach franchise, serving as the main antagonist of the Thousand Year Blood War arc and its 2022 anime adaptation. He is the monarch of the Wandenreich, the Father of the Quincy, and the son of the Soul King, with the designation A: The Almighty.
Yhwach seeks to destroy the Soul Society and kill the Soul King so that he can merge the three worlds into one and create a world without death under his rule, a goal that he has been utterly obsessed with achieving for the past 1000 years. As the Quincy King, he is both directly and indirectly responsible for various events that have occurred throughout the series, most notably the birth of Ichigo Kurosaki, the death of Ichigo's mother Masaki, and the destruction of the Quincy race.
He is voiced by Takayuki Sugō in Japanese and Richard Epcar (who also voiced the Joker in Injustice, Akuma in Street Fighter V, Manda in Naruto, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and Terra-Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts) in English, both whom also voiced Old Man Zangetsu in the same series.
Quick Answers
What is the significance of Yhwach's title 'The Almighty'?
Why does Yhwach want to kill his father, the Soul King?
What is Yhwach's ultimate goal in the Bleach franchise?
What is the role of Yhwach as the monarch of the Wandenreich?
Who are the Quincy and why is Yhwach referred to as their father?
Appearance
Yhwach is a tall, middle-aged looking man with light skin and a lean, yet muscular build. He has a long face with pronounced facial features, such as a Grecian nose, broad chin, strong cheekbones and Burgundy colored eyes with lowered folds. His long black hair reaches all the way to his lower-back, with several bangs parted so as to unevenly frame his forehead and partially obscure his left eye. He also wears a bushy mustache which connects to his well kept muttonchops. His attire consists of an all-white, double-breasted, buttoned uniform jacket with a black belt tied around his waist and buttoned cuffs, with matching white trousers, silver army boots and a dark maroon cape tied around his neck with a red ribbon. During the Wandenreich's second invasion of Soul Society, Yuhawach replaces his cape with a white version of it.
One thousand years ago, Yhwach looked slightly younger, with less wrinkles and a stubble mustache. During his teenage years his face looked rounder and was lacking in any facial hair. According to the Shinigami blacksmith, Ōetsu Nimaiya, the spirit manifesting Ichigo's Quincy powers is a facsimile of Yhwach during these periods of his life. Zangetsu's Shikai form resembling Yhwach from a thousand years ago, while his Bankai form resembled Yhwach as a teenager.
After having activated his power, the Almighty, Yhwach's eyes grow multiple irises and pupils. With the absorption of Mimihagi's power, the left half of Yhwach's face and upper chest become covered in a black, oozing mask. After having stolen the Soul King's powers most of Yhwach's body is concealed behind a shroud of pouring shadows with yellow eyes, leaving only his scalp, lower face, his mouth area, his hands, knees and most of his legs to be visible.
Personality
Yhwach's behavior and actions showcase the mentality of a madman guided by desperation and grief. He has lived by the creed that the cycle of life and death is a crutch meant to propagate fear and sorrow, and should be removed entirely from existence. To that end, he came to the conclusion that the three worlds-the Human World, the Soul King, and Hueco Mundo-had to be fused together in order to remove the fear of death from humanity's mind, even if it meant causing the deaths of every living being in all three worlds. This mentality extends toward his overall attitude towards life.
Yhwach is adamant in his dislike of conflict to the point where he will attempt to stop it himself at all costs, even if he required to use cruel methods in order to do so. He believes that all battles and conflicts must be ended swiftly to prevent pain and anguish, and is dismissive of "humanitarian" concepts such as honor and justice, which he perceives as signs of weakness which propagate the endless cycle of suffering. It was for this reason that he initially had great respect for Yamamoto and the original Gotei 13 for the brutality and ruthlessness that they demonstrated towards their adversaries, and ultimately came to despise how they grew soft and weak during his 1000 years of absence.
Yhwach's contempt for Arrancar is apparent, as shown by how he mercilessly wounds and slaughters those who have sworn allegiance to him after he deems them to have fulfilled their use. This same disregard extends to all of his subordinates, regardless of species or rank, and is an attitude that he has allegedly always possessed. However, in regards to his fellow Quincy, this mentality is somewhat inconsistent. He cherishes the Quincy as his children and loves them greatly. In order to keep them close to him, he takes great care in recruiting as many Quincy as possible into the Wandenreich, even using force if required to do so. At the same time, however, he was more than willing to use Auswählen on those Quincy he deemed to have served their purpose or were wasting their power. Although using Auswählen on these Quincy strips them of their power and their lives, Yhwach sees them as necessary sacrifices to further his own goals, as he believes that the Sternritter are comrades and should be prepared to assist each other as needed, even if it means that certain members should give their lives for others.
Yhwach's relationship with his father, Adnyeus, is very complex. Although Yhwach shed tears when he saw his father separate the three worlds and take his place as the Soul King, he also blames his father for the endless oppression and persecution that the Quincy have suffered from over the past few millennia. Regardless, Yhwach cannot stand his father's existence as the Soul King and views him as a travesty of eternal suffering and humiliation that needs to be put to an end. His desire to end his father's imposed suffering is so strong that it seeps into the blood of his descendants and forces them to slay the Soul King if he happens to be nearby.
Biography
Origin and Backstory
| “ | The sealed King of the Quincy. Over 900 years, he shall recover his heartbeat. Over 90 years, he shall recover his intellect. Over 9 years, he shall recover his power. And over 9 days, he shall recover the world. Let us go forth. Uryū. Haschwalth. These 9 days will be the end of this world. | „ |
| ~ Yhwach to Uryū Ishida and Jugram Haschwalth. |
Yhwach is the alleged progenitor of the Quincy clan, although the Quincy themselves do not believe Yhwach to have been the first of their kind. They instead claim that he had either bestowed them their powers, or that he is their closest, modern, common ancestor. Isshin Kurosaki corroborates the ancestral hypothesis by claiming that Yhwach's blood flows through all modern Quincy. His unique spiritual abilities directly infer an ancestry with the Soul King, who's purpose is to maintain the balance between birth and death via soul distribution between the Human World, Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. What is known about Yhwach is presented as historical fact among his people.
Yhwach was born over 1,200 years ago as the son of the Soul King and an unknown woman. He was a nameless infant who could not speak, could not hear or see and was entirely motionless. Despite these hindrances the child feared nothing because he instinctively knew that he would survive. People afflicted with either a physical, mental, or spiritual handicap would touch the child and, as a result, were healed of their respective illnesses. This was due to the baby's inherit spiritual ability to distribute his soul onto others. As the fragments of the child's soul began healing the afflicted they in turn became imprinted with aspects of the souls of those people.
Once the pieces of the child's soul completed the healing they would immediately return to the child, resulting in the deaths of their recipients. Despite the fact that none of the people who were healed by the child lived for very long the child continued to be surround and venerated by the masses. In time, the child started to develop his own senses, as well as his mobility, following the return of the pieces of his soul. Just as he became able to hear, the boy noticed how the people were calling him by their god's name: "YHWACH". The child chose to take up this name as his own.
With the passage of time Yhwach gained strength and formed the Quincy nations, which he tried structuring under an empire known as the Lichtreich. His conquest led to the destruction of many cities, the death of the unworthy and culminating in the formation of the Sternritter, the Lichtreich's elite warriors. During an attempted coup at the hands of a Quincy duo: the prodigious Bazzard Black and the seemingly powerless Jugram Haschwalth, Yhwach chose Jugram as his first Sternritter candidate, realizing that the boy possessed the power to distribute his soul akin to Yhwach. During his initial reign over the Quincy, Yhwach continued honing his spiritual abilities. His greatest achievements were the Auswählen and the Schrift, two extensions of his innate spiritual ability.
About 1,000 years ago, the Lichtreich turned their attention towards Soul Society. Yhwach led an invasion upon the afterlife in an attempt to usurp his father, the Soul King in order to destroy the balance between life and death. He was opposed by the Shinigami led by their captain-commander Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, whom Yhwach had personally fought with. Sometime around or during the course of this event Yhwach witnessed the capabilities of Yamamoto's Bankai, Zanka no Tachi. After their bloody battle, Genryusai was able to defeat and seal Yhwach away by putting him into a seemingly eternal slumber. The remaining invading Quincy were forced to retreat. Instead of returning to the Human World, however, they hid inside the pocket dimension known as Schatten Bereich, located in the shadows of the Seireitei inner district of Soul Society.
For the past thousands of years the newly created Quincy empire, known as the the Wandenreich, bid their time, all-the-while accumulating spirit energy for a future invasion led by their emperor in the wake of his eventual return. Unknown to Genryusai or his other Shinigami, Yhwach was able to recover in the following millennium. The Quincy, both hidden in the Schatten Bereich and the ones from the Human World, prayed for Yhwach's resurgence via a chant called the Kaiser Gesang. As the prayer demonstrated: After nine hundred years of sleep Yhwach regained his bodily functions.
After another 90 years, he regained his consciousness and intelligence. And after a final nine years he regained his former power by using Auswählen to drain every impure living Quincy of their spiritual energy, which either left them vulnerable to Hollow attacks, or killed them on the spot. Two notable victims of this purge were Kanae Katagiri and Masaki Kurosaki, the mothers of Uryū Ishida and Ichigo Kurosaki, respectively. Kanae died do to a clot of Still Silver, located in her heart, while Masaki died at the hands of the hollow Grand Fisher. With her powers having been removed, Masaki could not defeat the hollow and instead died while protecting her son. Their mothers's deaths left a profound mark on the lives of the two boys, who would later grow up to become strong exorcists and developed a subconscious hatred for Yhwach.
In the modern age Yhwach continued to recruit Quincy for his troops. One such individual was Äs Nödt, a religious man who had been hospitalized after an accident had occurred. His belief in an afterlife coupled with his fear of death made him a prime candidate for Yhwach's indoctrination. At some point during the seventeen months after the defeat of Sōsuke Aizen, the Wandenreich invaded Hueco Mundo, murdering several Hollows in the process and imprisoning Arrancar in order to be used as cannon fodder for their army. During this invasion Yhwach had personally defeated Hueco Mundo's defacto ruler, Tier Harribel, keeping her as a prisoner of war in the Wandenreich castle of Silbern and claimed the territory of Hueco Mundo for the Wandenreich, regarding it as another foundation stone to invade Soul Society.
Bleach
First Invasion of Soul Society
The Wandenreich started attracting attention after Soul Society noticed a sudden imbalance in the life-and-death cycle following the disappearance of multiple hollows. Soon after the Yhwach had his army invade Soul Society after Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends (sans Uryū Ishida) had left for Hueco Mundo to stop the Jagdarmee (the Wandenreich's hollow hunting corps) in Hueco Mundo. The Sternritter and their soldat underlings proceeded with an onslaught which had decimated most of the regular Shinigami and severely wounded several seated officers. The captains, although having survived, had their bankai stolen by the Sternritter. Captain-Commander Yamamoto engaged with Yhwach personally in a harsh battle in which he had the Quincy emperor obliterated with his bankai, only to realize that his enemy was a decoy, the shape-shifting Sternritter Royd Lloyd. The real Yhwach showed up behind the weakened captain-commander, stole his bankai and immediately after annihilated Yamamoto with a flurry of Quincy projectiles. During the captain-commander's fight with Royd, Yhwach had stole into Seireitei's lowest prison in order to try and recruit Aizen, only for the later to refuse. Yhwach thanked his underling for having given his life for the empire's cause and proceeded to give Royd a mercy kill in order to end his suffering.
The Quincy emperor is surprised when, out of the blue, Ichigo jumps him, having managed to defeat the Jagdarmee and escaped capture of their commanding officer, Quilge Oopie. Although having put up a fight, Ichigo is hastily defeated, with his Zanpakutō having been broken and Yhwach pinning him down with a slash to the neck. Ichigo could only evade certain death thanks to the unexpected manifestation of Blut Vene on his body, a Quincy ability. Yhwach ridicules Ichigo for his ignorance regarding his mother's heritage and decides to have Ichigo brought to Silbern for indoctrination. But Yhwach's intentions are prevented after he and his underlings are forcefully swept back to their headquarters. Fearing that the Royal Guards were to mount an attack against them should the Shinigami have been whipped-out, Yhwach had an emergency timed escape plan put into place. Yhwach lost track of time following his interrogation of Aizen, who had used a time based illusion on the Quincy in order to prevent any further attacks.
With his forces having been returned to Silbern, Yhwach brought forth an announcement: Uryū Ishida's joining into the Sternritter, as well as his coronation as Yhwach's successor. The majority of the Sternritter are left outraged by this declaration since Uryū had never even went through any of the proper channels of indoctrination into their ranks. Yhwach bent these rules in order to include Uryū due to specific circumstances: Uryū Ishida was the only impure Quincy to have survived the Auswählen massacre nine years prior, the same incident which claimed the boy's mother's life. With that said, Yhwach passed on a Schrift onto Uryū and had him taken under Jugram's wing.
As Ichigo begins his training under the Royal Guard, Zanpakutō blacksmith Ōetsu Nimaiya revealed that the old man Zangetsu spirit of Ichigo's sword was actually Ichigo's Quincy powers which takes on the form of Yhwach from a thousand years ago. This spirit reveals that it is simultaneously a being in-of-itself, as well as a partial fragment of Yhwach's soul.
Second Invasion of Soul Society
Nine days following their first invasion the Wandenreich launch a second onslaught. Yhwach uses his unique form of Shadow to have Seireitei replaced with a Quincy city, thus giving his army a field advantage. Yhwach is absent on the battlefield, having relegated to Jugram the job of coordinating the Sternritter's attacks from Silbern castle. Instead, Yhwach spent this time falling asleep in order to unlock the full potential of his powers. As members of the Sternritter all killed off their Schrift return to Yhwach, further augmenting his abilities. After his forces have been severely depleted and beaten, Yhwach gathers his top lieutenants Jugram and Uryū, as well as his personal bodyguards the Schutzstaffel: Pernida Parnkgjas, Gerard Valkyrie, Lille Barro and Askin Nakk Le Vaar; as well as Nianzol Weizol. Together they mount an attack on the Royal Palace. The Sternritter left behind are subjected to the Auswählen, stripping them of most of their power and killing others.
Although the Schutzstaffel put up a fight against the Division Zero they are non-the-less outmaneuvered and killed one-by-one. Thanks to Yhwach's Auswählen The Schutzstaffel are resurrected and their respective powers augmented to such a degree that they are able to break through the royal palace defenses. At the climax of the battle Yhwach fends off the Division Zero's commanding officer Ichibē Hyōsube. Hyōsube's power to bend reality through name-alteration proves to be more than a match against Yhwach. The commanding officer's power enables him to seal away Yhwach's physical strength and later bestows upon the Quincy emperor the name Black Ant, which alters Yhwach's physical resilience to be equal to that of an ant, thereby allowing Ichibē to stomp his opponent into nonexistence. However, at that time Yhwach finally awakens his "A-The Almighty". This Schrift enables Yhwach to negate Ichibē's powers through means of time manipulation. Now having become virtually omnipotent Yhwach obliterates Ichibē and seizes the Royal Palace.
The Collapse of the Worlds
Yhwach breaks into his father's chambers and proceeds to stab the Soul King, thus "ending his eternal torment" as he would put it. Just then, Ichigo and company (Orihime, Chad, Urahara and Yoruichi) arrive to stop the Quincy from ending the world. As Ichigo tries to land a blow on the Quincy overlord his Blut Vene suddenly activates and instead slices the Soul King in half. Yhwach explains to Ichigo that because of their shared blood relation the boy is inherently compelled to execute the emperor's mission and slay the Soul King. He further belittles the young Shinigami by explaining that his soul purpose in life, since the circumstances which lead to his birth and culminating with him gaining spiritual powers, were all for the purpose of assisting in the collapse of the worlds. Ichigo denies being a pawn, but regardless Yhwach claims dominion over all Quincy, Ichigo included.
With the Soul King dead Yhwach is interrupted by the arrival of Squad 13th's commander Jūshirō Ukitake, who attempts to become a new Soul King after having sacrificed his life to the god Mimihagi, the Soul King's right arm. Despite their best attempts, commander Ukitake and Mimihage are also absorbed by Yhwach alongside the Soul King, and with that accomplished Yhwach begins merging the Human World, Soul Society and Hueco Mundo into one realm. His first step in the process was the merging of the Royal Palace with Silbern, thus creating the Wahrwelt (真世界城 (ヴァールヴェルト), Vāruveruto; German for "True World", Japanese for "True World Castle"). This action once again leaves Yhwach in a state of fatigue and requires him to sleep again before completely merging the worlds. Meanwhile, his Schutzstaffel engage the Shinigami captains and Ichigo's crew accompanied by the Arrancar, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez. Yhwach also sent down upon Seireitei an army of shadow creatures to wipe out the remainder of the Shinigami, but these are overcome by the arrival of the Vizored and a recently released Aizen. Jugram is forced to fight Bazz-B, after the latter decided to take revenge for having been targeted by the Auswählen. Sternritter Liltotto Lamperd and Giselle Gewelle also attempt to murder their emperor for the exact same reason, but are easily killed of by him.
After having broken through his defenses, Ichigo and crew reach Yhwach's quarters, but are prevented from doing so by Uryu. The Quincy prince reveals himself as an infiltrator who had been secretly plotting an assassination on Yhwach and the destruction of his castle. The crew is immediately after split up by the arrival of Jugram and his forces. While Uryu fends off against Jugram and Chad takes on his soldiers, Ichigo and Orihime go to confront Yhwach. This culminates in a heated battle wherein Ichigo throws all he has at the emperor, only for Yhwach to use his The Almighty to restore himself and prevent any of the attacks from landing a blow. Orihime's Sōten Kisshun is able to, in turn, restore Ichigo's power in order to give him a constant trump in the battle. And as a result Yhwach activates his Auswählen a final time in order to absorb Jugram and Gerard's powers, resulting in the latter two's deaths. The battle culminates back in Seireitei, wherein Yhwach fends off Ichigo, Renji and Aizen. After having taken several attacks Yhwach is struck by Uryu in the heart with an arrow made out off Still Silver, the same fragment that had killed Uryu's mother. The Still Silver's properties cancel out Yhwach's entire powers long enough for Ichigo to deliver a final Getsuga Tensho which ultimately kills the emperor. In his final moments of life Yhwach curses Ichigo for his actions, lamenting that the cycle of birth-death-and-rebirth will now be allowed to continue and will forever damn the human soul to an eternal suffering, with Ichigo looking disappointed at Yhwach's accusation.
Epilogue
Ten years after the Wandenreich's defeat, the remnants of Yhwach's spirit energy resurfaces as a final ditch attempt of The Almighty to bring Yhwach back into existence in the future. However, that energy proved to be to weak on account of Yhwach's defeat a decade prior and thus fades away, permanently ending the Quincy emperor's chance at world conquest.
Powers and Abilities
Due to his overall strength and power, Yhwach is without a doubt the strongest character in the entire franchise, who would have succeeded in his goal if not for the intervention of Uryū.
Soul Distribution (魂を分け与える力, Tamashī o wakeataeru Chikara): Back during his infancy Yhwach demonstrated the innate power to fragment and distribute his soul onto other living beings through physical contact. This ability was, in essence, the opposite of the usual Quincy ability to store ambient spiritual energy and redirect it. Yhwach's unique ability allowed the recipient to cultivate that soul fragment by imbuing it with their experiences and physical qualities until it could return and reunite with the rest of Yhwach's soul. The applications of this power proved numerous:
- Genius-level Intelligence: Yhwach is genius quincy that using his plans to conquest,possuing genius level intellect,he planned ichigo is arrested by two subortinates to conquest Hueco Mundo and destroys Soul Society,he manipulated Yamamoto have believe fight with him,he finds sosuke then yamamoto fighting his fake yhwach.
- Perfect Healing: Yhwach's soul could perfectly heal a person of whatever it was that affected them. As an example, after cowardly individuals had touched the infant Yhwach they would suddenly gain courage, while the physically disabled would regain the use of their vestigial limbs after having touched the baby. The healing process took time to complete, ranging between weeks, to months, to even several years, but immediately following a full recovery that shared soul fragment would escape the person's soul and return to Yhwach, inadvertently killing the recipient. Subsequently, Yhwach's vestigial senses and motor skills began developing as more fragments of his soul began returning to him, but also allowed him to live up to thousands of years and slowed his aging process considerably. A much more advanced form of this ability allowed Yhwach to forcefully steal the souls of other people. According to Jugram Haschwalth, should Yhwach stop using his soul distribution he would eventually fall back into torpor and loose his senses.
- Power Bestowal through Letter Engraving: In addition to being able to share his base spiritual energy Yhwach could also bestow distinct abilities onto other Quincy by having them drink his blood. These unique powers, referred to as Schrift, took the form of titles designated by a letter engraved upon the recipient's soul. These powers ranged from typical fighting abilities, such as poisoning, heat generation, lightning manipulation, to the more bizarre, such as mind control, enlarging one's mouth, reality warping, etc. In the event of the recipient's death the Schrift would return and meld back into Yhwach's soul. All recipients of these powers were members of the Sternritter.
- Sleep-Induced Power Swapping: Yhwach and Jugram shared a very close bond, seeing each other as two sides of a scale that balanced the karmic nature of the world. Whenever Yhwach fell asleep Jugram would replace him as ruler of his domain. As such, Jugram gained control of The Almighty, while Yhwach gained The Balance (世間調和 (ザ・バランス), Za Baransu; Japanese for "World Harmony"). But Yhwach never used this ability on account of him being inactive during its activation.
- Auswählen (聖別 (アウスヴェーレン), Ausuvēren; German for "Select", Japanese for "Holy Selection"; "Consecration" in the Viz release): An insidious application of Yhwach's soul distribution power, Auswählen forcefully strips Quincy of their spiritual power so that it can be added to his own or given onto others. Those Quincy bestowed power onto them gained a massive jolt of power that evolved their capabilities beyond normal boundaries. This power could even resurrect dead Quincy, as was the case for the Schutzstaffel. Auswählen manifests as large pillars of light which engulf the unfortunate Quincy, either severely crippling them or killing them instantly. Kanae Katagiri was left physically unchanged by this power, while Sternritter Robert Accutrone had been obliterated, with only his skeleton left standing. The only trace proof of this power having been used was a clot of silver (Still Silver) located inside the hearts of the dead Quincy.
The Almighty (全知全能 (ジ・オールマイティ), Ji Ōrumaiti; Japanese for "All-Knowing"): The Almighty enables Yhwach to warp reality via a combination of clairvoyance and time travel. Thanks to this power Yhwach can perceive every possible outcome of any event he is currently participating in, akin to perceiving every grain of sand in a sandstorm, and then selects whichever one best suites his intentions, thus replacing any current event with an alternate conclusion. Once he activates this ability his eyes gain two extra pairs of irises and pupils, signifying his omniscience.
- Power Immunity: A direct corollary of this power allows him to render any ability that he had witnessed as incapable of harming him. This was the case while fighting of Ichibei and Ichigo, in both instances having cancelled out their powers or destroying their weapons.
Quincy Powers
Reishi Absorption: After having fully developed his soul distribution power Yhwach soon after learned how to absorb spirit particles (reishi) from outside his body and then solidify them into solid matter, ranging from creating furniture and his palace's surroundings to various spirit weapons and other assorted attack capabilities. Do to living in Soul Society, a realm comprised entirely out of spirit particles, he could amass an near endless supply of spirit matter for personal use.
Spirit Weapons: Yhwach proved to be an exceptional user of Quincy spirit weapons. Like most high-ranking members of the Wandenreich, Yhwach used weapons other than the standard Heiling Bogen (Hairihhi Bōgun; German for "Holy Bow", Japanese for "Sacred Bow"), his most notable weapon being a black broadsword with a cross-guard shaped like an eagle. At some key moments he simply picked up a standard Heilig Pfeil (神聖滅矢 (ハイリッヒ・プファイル), Hairihhi Pufairu; German for "Holy Arrow", Japanese for "Sacred Destruction Arrows"), thickened it, added a cross guard in order to be used as a broadsword. As for his Heiling Bogen, Yhwach could generate a bow the size of a small building, with colossal sized arrows. He only used this weapon once in order to propel himself into the air.
Hirenkyaku: He was a master of the Hirenkyaku (飛廉脚, Pure Flying Step; Viz "Flying Bamboo-Blind Slide"), the ability of a Quincy to move at incredible speed and mimic flight by generating platforms of reishi beneath their feet. With this power Yhwach could propel himself at faster than sound speeds and easily outmaneuver most Shinigami using shunpo.
Blut: By absorbing reishi into his bloodstream Yhwach could augment his strength, speed and other physical attributes to high levels. The application of Blut (血装 (ブルート), Burūto; German for "Blood", Japanese for "Blood Guise") came in three different forms: Blut Arterie (動血装 (ブルート・アルテリエ), Burūto Aruterie; German for "Blood Artery", Japanese for "Moving Blood Guise") which augments the attackers physical power and Blut Vene (静血装 (ブルート・ヴェーネ), Burūto Vēne; German for "Blood Vein", Japanese for "Stilled Blood Guise") that enhanced a Quincy's defense.
- Blut Vene Anhaben (外殻静血装 (ブルート・ヴェーネ・アンハーベン), Burūto Vēne Anhāben; German for "Wearing the Blood Vein", Japanese for "Shell of Stilled Blood Guise";Viz "Blood Vein Outer Shell") was Yhwach's unique form of this technique that extended outside of his body, creating a near impregnable shield that could block any form of attack, be it a sword slash or a Shinigami's kido.
Shadow: Yhwach could freely enter and exit Soul Society via a teleportation ability that engulfed his body in shadows. Likewise, this ability allowed him to summon any of his underlings at any given place he currently occupied.
Soul King Powers
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Trivia
- Several elements of Yhwach's character mirror Judeo-Christian lore, not unlike how the Quincy clan are themselves based off of Western culture according to Bleach's author, Tite Kubo:
- The prophecy of Yhwach recovering over a period of 999 years is reminiscent of the story of Revelations and the rise of Satan to dominate humanity. The number 999 is an obvious nod to the Number of the Beast (666).
- His name is based on YHWH, one of the earliest names attributed to the Jewish and Christian God.
- There are some obvious parallels between Yhwach and Jesus Christ, such as both being the offspring of a major deity, both having been born under supernatural conditions, displaying healing abilities, both had been seen as monarchs by their respective followers and in some capacity or another both had been resurrected. Though, his antagonistic role and destructive actions makes him more similar to Antichrist.
- It's worth noting that the prophecy Yhwach recites excluded months and weeks; though it's possible that these times in the prophecy were thrown off by Aizen's machinations.
- Yhwach believe what he done was a right thing; seeing as he intends to being about salvation by destroying the three worlds to erase the cycle of death and rebirth, thus make everyone immortal. But Primodial World was describe to be chaotic, no progression and regression, and humans can still randomly turn into hollows, it more likely that Yhwach dream of revert the world back to original stated would cause more suffering than it fix.
External Links
- Yhwach on the Bleach Wiki
