Post by Gaz on Dec 20, 2023 22:41:18 GMT
The Mortals
What came first? The Mortal or the Soul? That has always been a point of contention for many historians and philosophers in the Soul Society. Before the words split into four distinct planes of existence all lived on one earth. Souls that were deemed incredibly pure were ascended to some higher plane and those that died had their soul linger. In these early days of existence, a clan of humans took it upon themselves to protect the living from the hollows that plagued the world. Just as souls developed into the Shinigami, the humans developed their own methods of combating the imperfection of the world.
The Quincy was initially a clan of humans that bound together and with diligent work learned how to draw upon the worlds spiritual energies and while mixing it with their own, create weapons that could fight the Hollows. In this task they found their weapons more than purified a soul, it ascended them to the higher plane that had come to be called heaven. They spread far and wide on a valiant crusade to make the world safe for souls and mortals alike. Research into Quincy and their abilities has been difficult, their souls seem to resonate at a different frequency to other mortals and souls. This may explain why when they die there is no tangible afterlife for them. This resonance forms a letter, a letter that each individual Quincy understands the meaning behind. When this letter becomes clear to the Quincy they gain remarkable powers, those that excel in their training have been seen to sprout wings of pure Reishi and be adorned by a Halo.
With their manipulation of the spiritual energy, they could gather from the world the Quincy were a great weapon against the ever-growing tide of hollows that plagued the world. This mastery allowed them to strengthen the very blood that ran through their veins to defend themselves, while this limits their movement masters of the art appear to be unhindered. To move with haste the Quincy developed an entirely unique art, they can gather reishi around their body and manipulate that to propel or puppet themselves.
Other humans had learned to harness the power of their soul and the spirit energy their bodies exuded. However, for humans that cannot draw upon the external source of spiritual energies like a Quincy can, projecting spiritual energies is incredibly difficult. Those that can are rare individuals. This does not make humans powerless; it just made them incredibly resourceful and crafty in their applications. These humans became Fullbringers, using their power to communicate with the souls of objects in the world around them. When they have an item that they know intimately and the item knows them they can perform a Fullbring, transforming that item temporarily and gaining unique powers temporarily. This process is incredibly draining, but those who have aptitude manifesting a fullbring have the same potential as a captain class Shinigami. Some Fullbringers have even been known to use multiple Fullbrings at once, be them the basic ability to manipulate the world around them or transforming multiple items and carrying an armoury of unique powers.
Fullbringers have always been considered rare, their powers are not trained like the Quincy and are usually something that happens in response to a person with a larger than normal Spiritual Energy when they come into close contact with spiritual entity. In the old times when they emerged, they were a force to be reckoned with. When their mortal body died their soul retained the abilities they had learned in life, some of the strongest Shinigami were once Fullbringers in life.
Then the world split into four and the earth became a place for the living, the Hollows got Hueco Mundo and Souls the Soul Society. Souls that had committed grave sins in life were condemned to hell. With humanity safe Fullbringers became exceedingly rare due to the lack of interaction with powerful souls and Hollows. The Quincy however dedicated themselves to protecting the world from what little threat remained. Some clans tried to rule it, others tried to stay in the shadows. They all had their clashes with Hollows and Shinigami on occasion, for one reason or another, but ultimately a balance was made between the Three spiritual races. The Quincy protects the living, the Shinigami souls and Arrancar would keep to themselves in Hueco Mundo.
Over the course of human history, humanities reliance on religions and a belief in something greater was seen as a hinderance. It had led to a dark age of regression that pushed the forward momentum of humanity back by generations. Combine this with the fighting between the Quincy clans for dominance over the human race or to live their lives in the shadows and the period stagnation lasted all too long. Thus, when the Quincy civil wars had ended the clans agreed to a new roll, to hide the spiritual realm from humanity. This allowed humans to focus on their own betterment and get out of the dark ages they had consigned themselves to.
The Quincy now exists as a secret society, interwoven with all levels of society. They work with governments, media companies and law enforcement to stamp out anything that could potentially lead humanity back into the dark age of regression. They also operate to clean up spirit based incidents, compensating businesses and families for property damage, wiping the memories of large crowds to stop unwieldy rumours from spreading and locking up mortals who pose too much risk to regular humans.