User blog comment:SunXia/Bleach Wikia Podcast - Chapter 626 Review Ft. Besty17/@comment-25897574-20150517112431

This is something that's been bugging me for a while now. Way back near the beginning of Bleach, Urahara said that the only way for beings with living bodies (Uryu, Orihime, and Chad) to enter Soul Society was to pass through a special gate that converted their physical bodies into spiritual bodies. Fast forward to the current arc. Quincies are living humans with spiritual abilities yet they've been living in Soul Society this whole time. Does that mean they all passed through this gate thousands of years ago when they went into hiding? Or have they really been all dead this entire time? The latter would explain how Haschwalth is still alive if he is indeed Yhwach's first born son.