Quincy

The in modern terms, were Human mediums, having the ability to detect the existence of Hollows. It all started when they began training to confront Hollows in order to defeat them, the same as Shinigami do. Most of the Quincy were destroyed by the Shinigami over 200 years ago in order to prevent the destruction of the world. Quincy are the polar opposite of Shinigami.

Overview
Quincy are spiritually aware Humans able to absorb and manipulate Reishi into spiritual weapons.


 * Reishi Manipulation: A Quincy uses the Reishi in the atmosphere, and combines it with his/her Reiryoku to create weapons. They fight using a power from outside. They have an easier time collecting this energy in environments with higher concentrations of Reishi such as in Soul Society or Hueco Mundo. To a sufficiently powerful Quincy, there is no difference between Reishi and Reiryoku as a source of power. The ability to manipulate such energy allows for a variety of abilities offensive, defensive and supportive.


 * Spirit Weapon: The weapon that Quincy create by gathering the Reishi in the air. The only limit to a Quincy's ability to create and fire arrows is their own stamina and ability to absorb ambient Reishi.

Spiritual Awareness: As a spiritual being, the Quincy can sense Hollows and other spiritual beings at a significant distance, and tell in what direction they are in. Quincy have an acute perception of Reiatsu.

Gemischt and Echt Quincy
At some point within their history, the Quincy began to distinguish themselves based upon an individual's ancestry and adopted the practice of true-breeding. Those who were descended from a long line of only Quincy and so, were thought to have a pure heritage, came to be known as Quincy, while all others were instead referred to as. In order to preserve their pure lineage, many families conducted arranged marriages between their own children and only those belonging to other pure families.

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.

Origins
The Quincy were created by Yhwach. He is their King and his blood flows in every Quincy. The Quincy were scattered all over the world at one time. They were relatives of magic hunters who specialized in the war against Hollows.

Fall of the Quincy
Since the origin of the Quincy, many years passed within 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.

Failed Reconciliation
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. Uryū Ishida, Ichigo's classmate and a Quincy whose grandfather, Sōken Ishida, was the last advocate of the Quincy plan was slain by a group of Hollows before the Shinigami could arrive.

Quincy Legend: History Realized
Within Quincy legend, there is a song known as the which speaks of a sealed king. According to the song, the seal would be broken and the king would regain his heart after 900 years. 90 years after, his intellect would return. And 9 years afterwards, his power would return. To regain his powers, the king would have to steal the powers of impure Quincy. This legend was proven true when Yhwach stole Masaki Kurosaki's and Kanae Katagiri's powers. However, according to Yhwach, there is an additional part of this song: 9 days after he regained his power, the emperor will regain the world.

Danger to the Balance
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. As a result, 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.

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?"

Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi surmises Quincy are not hostile to Hollows so intensely simply because of tradition because hostility is born from different ideologies, but it is impossible to hate something which has no will or ideology, and theorizes there is only one reason one could maintain such a grudge for so long: the innate fear which comes of something that threatens one's very existence. This view is corroborated by Kisuke Urahara, who reveals that Quincy have no "anti-bodies" to defend from Hollows and everything composing a Hollow is poison to a Quincy. If a Quincy is eroded by a Hollow, not only does their Reiryoku weaken, but their soul itself is destroyed, and they die: they cannot even undergo Hollowfication like a Shinigami. This is why Quincy must eradicate Hollows.

Quincy Combat

 * Archery: It 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: A capsule-shaped tool used by Quincy to store their Reiryoku. It is an antiquated tool, but the use of it allows Quincy to perform certain techniques.


 * Hirenkyaku: An advanced Quincy moving technique. It allows for high- speed movements by riding on the flow of Reishi created below the user's feet.


 * Blut: A Quincy ability that gives a practitioner inhuman defensive and offensive capability. By making Reishi flow into their blood vessels, Quincy increase their attack and defense power drastically. Though Blut is significantly dangerous, it has one big flaw; the two forms of Blut for attack and defense work using two different Reishi systems, so they cannot be used at the same time.

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


 * Ransōtengai: A high-level technique that allows the user to control their body parts using strings of Reiryoku controlled by their brain, forming lines or strings out of Reishi. 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.


 * Quincy: Letzt Stil: 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.


 * Quincy: Vollständig: A part of Quincy evolution and the answer to the drawbacks of the outdated Quincy: Letzt Stil. It is the easiest ability to understand because a practitioner's appearance and power change drastically.


 * Kirchenlied: Sankt Zwinger: A powerful Quincy spell that creates an area of Reishi shaped with countless Quincy crosses protruding from the ground: Though its effects remain unseen, Royd Lloyd described it as "the spell of maximum protection among the Quincy techniques of offense and defense" and stated the "light of the lord" will "strike dead" anything which comes within its limits.

Training
Quincy training is referred to as. Additionally, there is a location they can train at known as, which is where Sōken Ishida was training at the time of the White incident.

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


 * A cross in the shape of the Quincy symbol that only those who have inherited Quincy abilities and techniques are allowed to possess. 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. Uryū's first Quincy Cross took the shape of a cross, but his recent one also takes the shape of a pentacle.


 * Sanrei Glove: 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 Reishi in the surrounding area, making it much harder to form a working bow.


 * Gintō: Gintō are small liquid-filled capsules that store Reiryoku, 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.


 * Seele Schneider: 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 Reishi 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.


 * The Quincy Bangle is an artifact designed to mimic a Quincy's natural powers. It works by drawing in Reishi 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 Reishi.


 * 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 Reiatsu, was able to draw a Gillian-class Menos out of Hueco Mundo.


 * 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.


 * Armor which Ryūken temporarily wore when preparing to save Masaki. While the full set has not been seen, it includes a large bow and a staff hung across the wearer's back with a chain.

Trivia

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

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