Quincy

The are a line of spiritually aware Human warriors. They use their ability to absorb and manipulate Reiryoku to create bows and arrows from spiritual energy. These arrows and their related techniques are dangerous to spiritual beings. The majority of them were killed more than 200 years ago. There are only three known living Quincy; Uryū Ishida his father, Ryūken Ishida and Ivan Azgiaro.

Overview
Quincy are spiritually aware humans able to absorb and manipulate Reiryoku into weapons. Unlike the Shinigami who use a sword as their primary weapon, the Quincy's weapon of choice is a bow or a crossbow. These are constructed from spiritual particles drawn from their surroundings. This is also unlike the Shinigami, who rely on their own innate spiritual energy. (As a reflection of this, the Quincy have white spirit threads like normal humans, while Shinigami have red spirit threads.) A Quincy bow is summoned using an artifact called a Quincy Cross. The only limit to a Quincy's ability to create and fire arrows is their own stamina and ability to absorb ambient spirit particles. Quincy also have various tools and battle aides that can increase their power or serve as secondary weapons.

Reiryoku Absorption & Manipulation: A Quincy primarily absorbs spiritual energy from the atmosphere and combines it with his or her own spiritual energy to form weapons. They have an easier time collecting this energy in environments with higher concentrations of spiritual particles such as in Soul Society or Hueco Mundo. To a sufficiently powerful Quincy, there is no difference between spiritual particles and spiritual energy as a source of power. They can manipulate spiritual energy for offensive purposes. A Quincy most commonly reshapes spiritual particles into various types of bow and arrows but can also concentrate spiritual energy into the form of swords, Seele Schneider, or Gintō.


 * Quincy Bow & Spirit Arrows: All the Quincy have the ability to create a unique spirit bow and subsequently generate spirit arrows for the bow by using a Quincy cross or pentacle. The bow and arrows are made up completely of reiryoku from the user's surroundings and last as long as the wielder's stamina and Reiryoku reserves allow.

Spiritual Awareness: As a spiritual being, the Quincy can sense Hollows and other spiritual beings at a significant distance or tell in what direction they are in.

Appearance
The final point of contrast between the Quincy and Shinigami is their respective choice of uniform. While the Shinigami wear traditional, black, flowing hakama, the Quincy wear white, form-fitting, high-collared tunics. These bear some resemblance both to Mandarin Chinese dress and to cassocks of Catholic priests. This gives the Quincy a distinctly "foreign" or "Western" style compared to the Shinigami. One peculiar recurring motif of Quincy is that of a cross, which appears frequently on their uniforms and artifacts. The cross is not the same shape among all Quincy (e.g. Uryū uses a Celtic cross, while Ryūken uses a pentacle). There is also a six-pointed cross that appears on the back of Uryū's Quincy tunic. The differences between Quincy and Shinigami in costume and iconography are minor compared to the differences in weaponry and ideology.

History
The Quincy were scattered all over the world at one time. They were relatives of magic hunters who specialized in the war against Hollows. Most of the Quincy were destroyed by the Shinigami over 200 years ago in order to prevent the destruction of the world. Shinigami govern the souls between the Human World and Soul Society, which maintains a balance that if not kept would result in the mutual destruction of both worlds. All souls, including Hollows, are subject to the Shinigami governance of maintaining the balance. Quincy completely extinguish Hollows. Thus the souls that come to the Human World do not return to Soul Society and therefore the souls would increase only on the side of the Human World. Meaning, the Human World becomes heavy in souls causing Soul Society to spill over into it; mixing life and death. The ultimate result would be the end of the world. Since the origin of the Quincy, many years passed with Soul Society trying to appeal to the Quincy that the handling of Hollows should be left to the Shinigami. The Quincy refused to accept the situation. As time went on, the number of Quincy increased and the cycle of souls became more unstable, forcing the Shinigami to reluctantly wipe out the Quincy in order to maintain the balance of the world.

The Quincy line was closely monitored over the decades, as their numbers continued to dwindle. Later the Quincy advanced the idea that since they were already among the living and still more numerous at the time, they could act as "first responders" to Hollow attacks; protecting Humans until the less-numerous Shinigami could send a representative to finish the Hollow off. Embittered by the recent war, the Shinigami refused to participate, opting instead to allocate their limited resources to reacting to the most dangerous Hollows and current Hollow attacks. This caused great enmity towards Shinigami by Uryū Ishida, Ichigo's classmate and a Quincy, whose grandfather, the last advocate of the Quincy plan, had been slain by a team of Hollows before the Shinigami could arrive.

Philosophy
While they are trained to confront Hollows in order to defeat them just as Shinigami do, the biggest difference between the Quincy and Shinigami, since ancient times, is whether to kill or not to kill Hollows. The Shinigami purify Hollows with their Zanpakutō and send them to Soul Society, while the Quincy killed the Hollows. The idea can be seen as comparing justice and vengeance: "Hollows devour souls of Humans, so why must it be that those who harm and kill friends and relatives get sent peacefully to Soul Society?"

Archery
Archery is the most used form of combat among the Quincy. Since they're still human, maintaining a distance from highly dangerous Hollows as well as launching numerous attacks on multiple opponents gives them a great advantage offensively and defensively.

Gintō
are small silver cylinder capsules that store spiritual energy in a liquid form and are used by the Quincy for spell-casting in the same way that Shinigami use Kidō. Like Kidō, they're activated by calling out various commands.

Hirenkyaku
is analogous to the Shinigami Flash Steps or the Arrancar Sonído. The Quincy Hirenkyaku allows the user to move quickly over short distances; according to Uryū Ishida it is faster than flash steps, though Mayuri Kurotsuchi's superior speed suggests that this is just a generalization. To perform the technique, the user gathers spiritual particles under their feet and rides them to the desired location. Like the air-walking skill displayed by most Arrancar and Shinigami, it can also be used to hover or fly for long distances. Mayuri compliments Uryū on being able to use this technique at such a young age, suggesting that it's difficult to master.

Rare Quincy Techniques
To go with their bow, the Quincy have a number of rare special techniques to give them an edge in combat:


 * — This is a high level technique that allows the user to control their body parts using strings of spirit energy controlled by their brain, forming lines or strings out of countless spiritrons. By using this technique, the user can control their body as one would a puppet, allowing them to move freely despite paralysis, broken limbs, or any other force that would impede normal movement. It was originally created to allow elderly Quincy to fight effectively, and is rare enough that Mayuri had never encountered a Quincy (out of the 2661 that he examined or studied) who could use it before Uryū. Mayuri stated it as "the most powerful technique for the Quincy," but he did not know of the Quincy: Letzt Stil, which means as far as Mayuri knew it was the strongest.


 * is the last resort for a Quincy reached after removing the Sanrei Glove. It gives the user a tremendous amount of power, but at the price of loss of their powers upon its completion.

The only way for a Quincy to regain their powers after using the final form is to first exhaust themselves both mentally and physically. They must then be hit exactly 19 mm to the right of their heart with a spirit arrow. After this, a pentacle-shaped scar will form on the point of impact and their powers will be restored.

Quincy items
The Quincy possess numerous artifacts and equipment which help them in different ways.


 * Hollow bait: This item is a small, coin-shaped disk that attracts Hollows when crushed. When used by Uryū, the bait, in combination with Ichigo's powerful spiritual pressure, was able to draw a Gillian-class Menos out of Hueco Mundo.


 * The Quincy Bangle is an artifact designed to mimic a Quincy's natural powers. It works by drawing in spirit particles from the environment, much like a Quincy does regularly. It can only be used properly by those who are already adept at forming and directing spirit particles.


 * A cross in the shape of a Quincy Zeichen that only those who have inherited Quincy abilities and techniques are allowed to possess. Only those that have achieved the powers of a Quincy may possess it.

Standard equipment for any Quincy, the Quincy Cross acts as the focus for a Quincy bow. The cross need not necessarily be in a cross shape, as Ryūken's cross is a pentacle.


 * This is a powerful Quincy artifact that can increase a Quincy's power exponentially, but requires a dangerous and exhausting type of resistance training by wearing it for a week while constantly firing spiritual arrows to master. The glove works by scattering the spirit particles in the surrounding area, making it much harder to form a working bow. If a Quincy can summon a bow and use it for the required amount of time, they will have undergone a massive increase in power. When removed, however, the user will be overwhelmed by their own heightened ability to gather spirit particles - first transforming them into a being of tremendous strength, the Quincy: Letzt Stil, before "burning out" and losing their Quincy powers as the body abandons the ability to gather spiritrons.


 * The Seele Schneider is a thin sword that can be fired similarly to an arrow. It's much longer than a standard arrow and functions something like a chainsaw: the spirit particles of its blade vibrate at ultra-high frequencies, loosening the molecular bonds between any spirit matter it cuts so that the Quincy user may easily absorb the freed spirit particles. Uryū also stated that using it increased his spiritual power. The Seele Schneiders Uryū uses are stolen from a secret storage room under Karakura hospital.


 * Gintō are small liquid-filled capsules that store spiritual energy, and are used by the Quincy for spell casting in the same way that Shinigami use Kidō. Like Kidō, they are activated by calling out various commands.


 * Soul-synthesized silver was used by Ryūken Ishida to construct the hidden chamber in which Uryū trains.


 * Like soul-synthesized silver, soul-synthesized glass was used to construct the hidden chamber in the Karakura Hospital.

Known Quincy
(† = confirmed death)

Trivia

 * Tite Kubo has used a German motif on some of the Quincy's items and abilities throughout the series.

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