Bount

The are a tribe of artificially-created beings who can live forever by consuming Souls.

Overview
Bount are spiritually-aware beings who were artificially created by an accident during an experiment in Soul Society many centuries ago; this experiment was meant to investigate the concept and possibility of eternal life, with the researchers using Artificial Souls based on their own Souls and the Souls of their fellow Shinigami due to ethical concerns about using Human Souls, but one of the Jōkaishō used for the experiment experienced a meltdown and exploded, releasing a large quantity of energy that made its way into the cycle of rebirth and affected a large number of Souls being reincarnated in the Human World, which resulted in all the Bount being born across the world during a specific period.

Due to the unique circumstances of their creation, the Bount were born with the ability to maintain eternal youth by consuming either living or dead Souls; this, combined with their fatal attacks on living Humans for their Souls, led to the myth of the vampire being created by Human society. In addition, the visible agelessness of the Bount caused Humans to persecute and hunt them down under the impression that they were witches and monsters;  eventually, the Bount decided that they had no place in the Human World and sought to return to Soul Society, only to end up warring with the Quincy and slaughtered alongside them by the Shinigami. After centuries of genocide with a complete inability to produce offspring, the Bount were reduced to a small tribe under the leadership of Jin Kariya.

History
Over a thousand years before Ichigo Kurosaki was born, a group of scientists predating the Shinigami Research and Development Institute attempted to create beings that could live forever. Led by Ran'Tao, the scientists used the slow-aging souls of Shinigami as a base for Artificial Souls, since experimenting on Human Souls would be ethically questionable regardless of the experiment's probable success, which were experimented on using the Reishi-generating Jōkaishō; however, one of the Jōkaishō exploded after a meltdown, destroying a tenth of the Seireitei and releasing energy from the Artificial Souls that made its way into the cycle of rebirth, affecting Souls that were approaching reincarnation in the Human World.

The affected Souls were born all around the Human World with powerful spiritual abilities and became known as the Bount; due to the Souls of the researchers being used as a base for the original Artificial Souls that the Bount were created from, some of the Bount were born as physical copies of those Shinigami templates, with Yoshino Sōma looking nearly identical to Ran'Tao herself. Though the Bount tried to live peacefully among Humans, this did not last long due to Humans noticing their agelessness and persecuting them out of fear, causing some Bount to instinctively summon their Dolls and fight back while others simply fled and fell into deep depression over their inability to fit in.

When Soul Society learned of the high number of Humans being born with spiritual powers and the increasing number of incidents arising from Bount defending themselves, Ran'Tao and other Shinigami were sent to investigate these reports, where Ran'Tao witnessed the persecution of the Bount and felt guilt for her role in creating them. Deciding to help the Bount as best she could, Ran'Tao gathered them from across the land inside an elaborate cave system on the outskirts of what would become Karakura Town and instructed them to build a city within so they could wait for her while she worked to establish protection for them in Soul Society, a process which she believed would take a number of years to accomplish, which the Bount were happy to do for the promise of safety.

However, upon returning to the Seireitei, Ran'Tao was immediately summoned by Central 46 regarding the Bount, whom Central 46 had decided to bury alongside all evidence of the experiment that created them. Despite Ran'Tao's argument that the Seireitei had a duty to protect the Bount as their creators and not abandon them since it could lead to them growing incredibly dangerous, Central 46 ruled that they could pose a threat to the equilibrium between Soul Society and the Human World, which led a horrified Ran'Tao to realize that they intended to exterminate the Bount instead of simply hiding their existence, though Central 46 claimed that they would live with the burden of their mistake.

Despite this, Ran'Tao refused to give up on the Bount and returned to Human World without permission in order to save them. Following Central 46's decree, dozens of Shinigami mobilized in the Human World and raided the cave city of the Bount, whom they slaughtered in droves without offering any opportunity to surrender. Though most of the Bount had already died or fled by the time she arrived, Ran'Tao managed to find a young boy named Eugene Currier who had hid from the Shinigami and carried him to safety, where she gave him an amulet to draw out his dormant Bount powers and had him run away to find the other Bount. Following this, Ran'Tao was arrested and had her spiritual powers sealed as punishment for her defiance, but she continued working in secret over the subsequent centuries with the hope of helping any Bount who came to Soul Society.

Eugene and the other Bount that escaped from the massacre in the caves wandered aimlessly and lived like vagabonds, a life that held much danger for them because their Reiryoku attracted Hollows, causing them to be frequently attacked. During an attack in a desert, Eugene's anger and panic caused Ran'Tao's amulet to activate, summoning his Doll, Messer, and merging him with it at the same time, which allowed him to fight off the Hollows alongside the Bount in the group who could already summon their own Dolls naturally. Unfortunately, this created a rift between Eugene and the other Bount, who were unnerved by the power and violent tendencies he possessed at such a young age.

Eventually, the majority of the Bount decided to move their civilization to Soul Society, as most of them felt that remaining in the Human World was futile since they were an irregularity there and that living in Soul Society would be the best option for them. Eugene vocally opposed this decision and asserted that there was no need for the Bount to preserve their ties to the Shinigami when they could build their own paradise with their own strength, but he was ignored in favor of the majority. Though the Bount could create Senkaimon that connected to Soul Society, they lacked the ability to manipulate Reishi, preventing their Senkaimon from converting their bodies to Reishi upon entry, which led them to seek the assistance of the Reishi-manipulating Quincy in order to accomplish this.

However, the Quincy refused to help the Bount, resulting in the two factions going to war with each other. Seeing this conflict as an opportunity to finally eradicate the Bount once and for all, the Shinigami interrupted the battle and slaughtered both the Bount and Quincy who were involved. Incapacitated during this, Eugene was forced to helplessly watch as his comrades were massacred in front of him, and after the battle was over, Eugene decided that the Bount who perished were too weak and abandoned his idea of using his powers to create a paradise. After taking the name Jin Kariya, he decided to gather the strongest Bount together and destroy Soul Society for inflicting such misery on them.

Kariya's first step was to help all Bount summon and form a bond with a Doll; since the Bount were based on the Souls of Shinigami, they could create and use Dolls in the same way Shinigami could create and use Zanpakutō. Though some older Bount could naturally summon Dolls, others required external aid, such as Kariya himself with his amulet. Knowing there was a way to help Bount summon their Dolls, Kariya worked extensively with Ugaki in order to establish a method for all Bount to call forth a Dolls and used this method to sort the weak Bount from the strong, though he still grieved for Bount like Cain who were killed when their Dolls deemed them too weak.

Despite his setbacks, Kariya managed to gather the remaining Bount to him with the promise of power and strength. With those who followed him having mastered their Dolls and proven themselves powerful enough to aid him, Kariya began enacting his plan to invade and destroy Soul Society.

Powers & Abilities
Soul Absorption: All Bount can consume the Souls of other beings. Though the tribe's sole law instructs Bount to only consume the Souls of deceased Humans, they can also drain the Souls from living Humans to greatly enhance their own power. However, consuming Souls almost always renders a Bount infertile; by the time that Jin Kariya put his plan to destroy Soul Society into motion, Yoshino Sōma was the only Bount left who could produce offspring, making her crucial to Kariya's plan to produce the Bitto.


 * Immortality: Consuming a Soul extends the lifespan of a Bount; as long as they consume Souls, a Bount can effectively live forever.


 * Empowerment: By consuming the Soul of a living Human, Bount gain a massive boost in power that further enhances their unique abilities. However, consuming thousands of living Souls causes a Bount's body to age rapidly, as demonstrated with Sawatari.

Reishi Absorption: Though they cannot freely manipulate Reishi in the same way Quincy can, Bount can heal from almost any physical injury, repair their damaged clothing, and empower themselves at the same time by absorbing Reishi into their bodies from their surroundings; this cannot be done in the Human World where the Reishi permeating the air is thin and weak, but in Soul Society where everything is composed of Reishi and especially in the Seireitei where it is even purer than normal, the Bount are nearly invincible. Through Reishi absorption, a Bount can boost their Reiryoku and Reiatsu to levels high enough to allow them clash evenly with a captain of the Gotei 13.


 * However, this ability is not without flaws and limitations: it cannot heal Bount who have been poisoned no matter how much Reishi they absorb, certain fatal injuries to vital areas of the body cannot be healed before the Bount dies, a Bount can end up absorbing more Reishi than their body can handle and become visibly unstable, and if a Bount is stabbed in a certain area on the left side of their torso, while they will still be able to heal their immediate injuries with no difficulty, they will eventually lose the ability to absorb Reishi altogether, with the stab wound leaving a large scar unlike every other wound healed with Reishi.


 * The commonplace items acting as the sealed form of the Bount Dolls, with the curving, symmetrical emblem on them serving as the default insignia of the Bount. This emblem also appears on various spells used by the Bount. Using the Bount crests, Dolls can be summoned with the command
 * A ritual devised by Jin Kariya and Ugaki for Bount who cannot naturally summon Dolls. After setting up a small table emblazoned with a Bount emblem and a large candle surrounded by six smaller candles as a point of focus, the Bount must carefully lay out small portions of sulfur, phosphorus, carbon, water, fat, magnesium, and lime before reciting an incantation; from this, the Doll is born within the flames of the center candle before being fully summoned into the world, where it can initially be tired and desire rest.

English= "Together with ye, my blood-relatives of eternal life. That power that embodies our desirous force... Rise, crimson flame of the awakened first-birthed cry. Thus do I offer unto you my life as proof of my pure selflessness. Our hearts are now bridging to the next world as all time approacheth becoming one." Kanji= "永遠の命を有する我が血族とともに｡ その力を具現化させる手段を欲する 大いなる力よ… 目を醒まし その産声を真紅の炎のなかにあげよ｡ さすれば 我は 我が命を その心の清廉さの証しとして 差し出そう｡ 我らの心は 今 異界を跨いでひとつになるときを迎えた｡" Rōmaji= "Eien no inochi o yuusuru waga ketsuzoku to tomo ni. Sono chikara o gūgenka saseru shudan o hossuru ōinaru chikara yo... Me o samashi sono ubugoe o shinku no honō no naka ni ageyo. Sasureba ware wa waga inochi o sono kokoro no seiren sa no shirushi toshite sashidasou. Warera no kokoro wa sima ikai o matai de hitotsu ni naru toki o mukaeta."

Spells: When empowered by the Souls of living Humans, Bount can perform specialized and potent spells through an incantation and considerable preparation. These include:


 * After killing Yoshino Sōma and absorbing her maternal power to fuel the spell, Jin Kariya used this spell to create the Bitto by first forming a large, intricate square seal made of red energy and emblazoned with the Bount emblem below his feet, then generating hundreds of egg-like containers that fell into the air below and hatched to reveal the Bitto, with the seal fading several seconds after the swarm of Bitto flew away; according to Kariya, this could only be done with Yoshino's energy.


 * This spell forms a large, intricate, metallic gate with an arching upper section flanked by curving protrusions on either end that are supported by evenly-scored columns on a thick base with multiple steps; each of the four segments emerges from the air at 90-degree angles and slide into place, allowing a Senkaimon to form within, before settling on the ground.


 * After a Shinigami stabilizes the previously-created Senkaimon, changing its color from green to gold, the practitioner steps forward and holds out their hands in front of them to form a large and intricate square seal, adorned at each corner with an inward-facing crescent moon within a much smaller square, with the Bount emblem in the center before pressing it against the Senkaimon and pulling it apart at the center like two sliding doors, changing the color from gold to blue underneath it. Following this, a Quincy can fire a Heilig Pfeil into the Senkaimon, causing it to glow light-blue and giving it Reishi conversion properties, which allows any Bount who passes through it to enter Soul Society in a flash of golden light.


 * After locating a Jōkaishō, Kariya stood in the center of its glowing Bount emblem and clasped his hands together with his index fingers pointing outward to perform this spell, resulting in the full power of the Jōkaishō entering his body and turning the crest on his chest black in a flash of white lightning-like energy that pierced the roof of the room he was located in and unleashed a wave of force across the surrounding area. Through this, Kariya gained the ability to detonate any of the other Jōkaishō around the Seireitei through the lightning of his Doll, Messer, as well as to perform his attacks using the energy of the Jōkaishō instead of his own Reiryoku, which increased their power.

Dolls
are the main weapon of the Bount and their equivalent of a Shinigami's Zanpakutō due to Shinigami Souls being the template for their creation, though there are several differences between the two, such as some Dolls being fully sentient and capable of speaking to those around them as well as varying in size and shape from small rodent-like creatures to enormous humanoids. Though every Bount has the potential to bond with a unique Doll, some can do so naturally without any training while others must perform a special ritual devised by Jin Kariya and Ugaki; even then, if the Bount is not strong enough in both body and spirit, the Doll will immediately turn on and kill them. This danger remains even after a Bount has successfully summoned, bonded with, and mastered their Doll, but a Doll working in tandem with their master can be incredibly dangerous and versatile.

Trivia
"A long time ago... An infinitely long time ago... We lived in the shadows of history. Countless are those who have experienced hardships, tragedies beyond description... it is under these circumstances, that now, the Bount will finally emerge from the darkness."
 * The liner notes of "TV Animation Bleach Official Soundtrack 2" contains two poems, one pertaining to the Bount, with the second likely to as well:

"We have lived on for ages... So long, that our countless memories have long since turned ash-gray."


 * The Bount have a German motif, similar to the Quincy.