User blog:FutureEeveeKing13/Origins of the Sternritter

Howdy folks, it's the Cuban Eevee King here. Welp, it's taken me a while to write up a blog but I felt that this was the right topic. Chapter 635 featured Lille mentioning a certain game, and after researching what that game was, it heightened my curiosity in regards to where the Sternritter may have come from. It's become clearer by the chapter that the Sternritter likely hail from places outside of where the Bleach story is set, with Yhwach possibly gathering them all under his command like a more hairy version of Professor X. So, I decided to look through the story again, to see if there are any hints as to where certain members of the Wandenreich come from. Some of them have more hints than others, and of course there are a few (ie., BG9) that give no real indication at all. With that in mind, let's get started:

These are the only ones I've found good evidence for thus far, though I could have easily missed something. Depending on how the story progresses I could be way off on some of these. What are some of your thoughts of where certain Sternritter may have come from? If you have any thoughts and have some evidence, feel free to leave a comment. I'm all ears. -FQ
 * Lille Barro: in Chapter 645, Lille mentions a game called "Escondite Ingles". This game, without going into too much detail, is essentially a Spanish version of "Red Light, Green Light." In the MangaStream translation he refers to the game as "Chocolate Ingles". "Escondite Ingles" has a number of alternate names depending on what country it is played in; according to my research, "Chocolate Ingles" is the name it takes on in Aragon, one of the autonomous communities that makes up Spain. Combined with the hat he wears, the bicorne, being traditionally worn in European countries (including Spain), and it seems plausible that Lille could come from Spain.
 * Äs Nödt: in Chapter 570 we get a glimpse of Äs' past when he was found by Yhwach. He is laying in a hospital bed, and next to him is a book with a title with the last four letters being "ibel". At that moment, Äs is speaking about heaven and hell, indicating some sense of religious faith. With that in mind, it's likely the book is the "Bibel", the German Bible. The letters "A" and "o" in Äs' name also possess two dots above them, called a diaeresis, which is commonly used in certain languages, notably German. This indicates that Äs could very well come from Germany, or at the very least a country where German is a prominant language.
 * Cang Du: The kanji for Cang's name contains Chinese symbols, similar to Suì-Fēng. In addition to this, he uses a technique called Shé Jìn Zhǎo, Chinese for "Snake-Strong Claws". This implies that Cang may have Chinese origins.
 * Mask De Masculine: Mask's entire motif is that of a masked wrestler, and while the concept of the masked wrestler is not tied to any one country, it is most closely associated with Mexican "Lucha Libre". The "De" in his name indicates a Spanish background, as "de" is a Spanish term meaning "of". While nothing in Mask's manner of speaking indicates ties to any particular country, his motif and name could hint at his origins.
 * Gremmy Thoumeaux: Gremmy's last name contains the letters "-eaux", which usually indicates the plural form of a word ending with "-eau" in French. In terms of surnames, it is most often associated with Cajuns. Cajun immigrants to the United States whose last names ended with "-eau" often romanized their names as "-eaux", though for what purpose is debatable. Given Gremmy's status as a sentient brain, his exact origin might be difficult to pinpoint, but given his last name, he may have some sort of French connection.