Post by Admin on Aug 5, 2021 15:41:36 GMT -8
Quincy
"Do you know what it means to be a Quincy? It's about the hunt. The hunt is in your blood, and that blood is the same blood that ran in the veins of the most skilled hunters to ever draw breath or bow. Do you know why they were the greatest?
Because they removed sin from the world without hesitation, regardless of what shape it took."
The Quincy are more than just hunters, despite what they tell themselves when the going gets rough. They are guardians, exorcists, nomads, martyrs, unshakeably human, and above all--what they cannot let themselves forget lest it trivialize the sacrifice of the dead--they are murderers. They have been made to pay for it in advance, even if their hands never end up stained. It has been 400 years since Shinigami enacted a proclamation of genocide against the Quincy in the name of the Balance of Worlds, openly tracking communities of Quincy down and slaying them while they slept. Even today, Hollowbreeds confronting Quincy are often left to rampage just a little too long and a little too late. Quincy fight back the only way they know how: with the gift the heavens gave unto them.
It just happens that the gift is capable of erasing souls from the spiritual tapestry of the realms.
Blood of the Quincy
Quincy are an offshoot of humanity that has existed as far back as the Bronze Age of Earth. They possess a hereditary supernatural gift: the ability to manipulate the reishi outside of their body. The most basic and inherent use is to manifest a Spiritual Weapon composed of reishi. This weapon is often a bow, as a fair share of Quincy still must make do with mortal flesh and bone. They call upon this ability using a focus, known as a Quincy Cross--though not always a cross in shape--and only a dash of their own reiryoku. The "arrows" they fire are not genuine arrows, but condensed reishi. Regardless of who it is aimed at and what it takes the form of, should it kill the target, the soul will never again be reborn.
They use this ability to craft an array of tools that can be used in addition to their Spiritual Weapon. The most notable tools they use are Ginto, a form of Quincy spellcasting activated by incantations and metal tubes of reishi. Gloves and Bangles designed to augment performance are rumored of, but rarely witnessed, as they are often to the detriment of the wearers or kept locked away in clan vaults.
The versatility of their ability is harnessed within their body as well, in the form of Blut, Shadow, and Hirenkyaku. Blut manifests in Quincy as one of two ways: either it allows reishi to reinforce the flesh of the user, thus making them less prone to their enemies (called Blut Vene) or it allows for increased reishi synthesis in the user, fueling stronger attacks (called Blut Arterie). Shadow is a multi-purpose skill that allows Quincy to manipulate the reishi of shadows, allowing them to cloak themselves, their reiatsu, or even transport matter from shadow to shadow. Hirenkyaku is similar to Hoho and Sonido and works by allowing the Quincy to "flow" at high speed on a current of reishi that they create beneath their feet, allowing for a quick dodge or getaway. It was pioneered by the Japanese branch of Quincy, who share the duties of adjudication and leadership of all Quincy with the German branch. Despite their differences, all Quincy are capable of these skills and have access to their technical brilliance.
The ability of reishi manipulation is best used while in areas of high reishi density, or while facing opponents too unskilled (or stupid) to limit their reiatsu output; Quincy were all but made to hunt down their natural enemies, the Hollowbreed. Even the body of a Quincy responds with animosity to the presence of Hollowbreed reiatsu: chills, nausea, vertigo, and in the worst cases, skin corrosion are all common symptoms when confronted with a particularly strong Hollowbreed. If a Quincy were foolish and/or desperate enough to ingest the meat of a Hollowbreed, death would likely soon follow unless extreme measures were taken. So strong is the natural repulsion to Hollowbreed within the Quincy that a Quincy soul cannot even undergo Hollowfication once relieved of its body. The Chain of Fate exists as it does on a mortal soul, but if corroded by Hollowbreed aura, the Quincy soul is eradicated; as eradicated as a Hollowbreed and its masses of souls would be if a Quincy arrow cuts it down.
The Quincy have indeed taken their genetic configuration as a message of destined purpose, leading to a race of highly secretive, highly organized, and highly prideful supernatural hunters. The story of their origin that they pass unto their descendants confirms their lifestyle, as does their Schrift, the blood-borne power that manifests as a letter (or other such marking) upon the skin and imbues their Spiritual Weapon with a unique ability. This ability is always attuned to the personality and beliefs of the individual Quincy; the form of a Spiritual Weapon can be passed down through the Quincy Cross of their parent, but a Schrift cannot (even if they have the same letter or shape of marking). The Spiritual Weapon and the Quincy Cross might look the same, but inside, there is still an individual ready to deviate from tradition.
Meanwhile, a Schrift can look identical to the Schrift of another Quincy, but that power will still be unique: it is from the blood, from within, and although mortal representations of the power are limited to mortal definitions, the true boundaries of their power are not. Nor does the Schrift heed to the limitations of Quincy society, as goes that time-honored tale of a Gemishct and an Echt having the same letter and coming to blows over becoming the paragon associated with that symbol. It remains common folklore that those holding the same visual manifestation of Schrift can find guidance if they look to the stories of those that came before them, functioning as a sort of astrology for the Quincy.
Although a hierarchy does exist and its efficiency can rival that of Seireitei, many Quincy do just that. They long for the life lived by "the sheep"--what born-and-bred Quincy choose to call the ungifted mortals they righteously protect. Their Quincy Cross gathers dust while they go to college and marry someone that will never be so cursed as to see the monsters walking in the distance. Their children are referred to as the Gemischt, the mixed. They are often treated as expendables, foot soldiers, sometimes even breeding stock despite the unfounded belief of their spiritual inferiority.
Gemischt Quincy, regardless of skill, often find themselves passed over within the official hierarchies in favor of an Echt Quincy--a pure-blood, or true, Quincy. An Echt may only come about when two Echt Quincy produce a child, or less favorably, an Echt Quincy and a Gemischt Quincy. The Echt are afforded more in Quincy society, owing to the belief that the ancient power-granting blood is stronger when untainted by human genes and thus, the powers manifested are stronger too. It goes without saying that this is not scientifically proven, nor would it matter; most of the leadership likely doesn't truly believe Echt are inherently superior to Gemischt.
What matters, though, is that it is tradition. It has been passed down from the furthest, oldest iterations of their genetic material. This is how it has always been and will always be. They are the force that endured what was nearly the end of the world, that endured the near-extinction of their kind enacted by the proclaimed Death Gods. They were chosen to shepherd this world and survive, at all costs.
Even if that cost is the Balance between worlds.
Belief of the Quincy
When did you first manifest your Spiritual Weapon? Did you still believe in fairy tales, doing your homework in between your lessons on Hollowbreed weak points? Were you just a confused young adult, blood in your mouth, finding that hidden strength on the edge of death?
It's a trick question, in all honesty. No matter what age they are, when a fledgling Quincy manifests their Spiritual Weapon for the first time, it won't be long before the seniors in the area realize that someone new has answered the Call of the Blood. The ways Quincy use reishi means that their unique reiatsu signature is stamped somewhere in the residue leftover at the scene; young Quincy are particularly guilty of not hiding their signature in their handiwork. From there, it's just a matter of tracking the newborn down. What comes next is the Initiation.
The Initiation is what separates flukes and unbelievers from real Quincy. A senior is sent to sit the fledling Quincy down and relay to them the nature of their powers and what is expected for their future. For children raised in Quincy clans, this is often done by the guardian of the child. The common rule for areas without an established Quincy clan is to send out the eldest of the local brigade, typically a Quincy that can no longer contribute to the effort due to severe injury or old age. This allows for the most learned to relay their knowledge and still contribute to Quincy society. The fear of never being able to do enough and faltering in the hour they're needed is the one ghost the Quincy can't kill, as much as they wish they could.
At the end of it all, the fledgling is told of the Legend of the Hands. Also known as the Origin of the Quincy, the Tale of the Beginning, and by particularly jaded Quincy, the Daydream, the Legend of the Hands is an oral history passed from generation to generation of Quincy. The earliest tellings of the story originated with the Echt clans of old, some of which still occupy their ancestral houses and vie for rulership. Most of the versions passed down to fledglings are similar to one another, with some variations from region to region (notably, between the Japanese and Germanic versions).
Every retelling focuses on a time long ago, often placed by Quincy scholars as starting around 1800-1300 BCE (with the journey described within as unknown, as it is always said to have taken multiple lifetimes and reincarnations). All agree that it was a time of brutality and bloodshed, relaying scenes of enslavement by Hollowbreed and the open worship of Hollowbreeds as gods, emperors, and priests, often culminating in human sacrifices and wars to procure prisoners so that they might feed. It is said that God (or the Universe, the Cosmos, etc.) pleaded with Hollowbreeds to feed on its flesh in the place of its enslaved mortal children and the Hollowbreeds kept it in chains to feed on for all eternity. When they found, however, that the divine body could not sate the emptiness in their soul, they returned to Earth to enact massacres and torture as revenge against the perceived trick. In some retellings, it is simply said that he allowed them to roam the Garden of Heaven to feed on the fruit of the divine and sate their hunger, but it always ends in the Divinity being bound by chains.
The Divinity in the tale struggles against the bonds so that it might free the people of Earth from their torment, and in the struggle, their hands are severed from their body. They fall to Earth and reform into two beings, often a man and a woman, called the Left Hand of God and the Right Hand of God. The Divinity asks them to journey from the sea they emerged from around the world and back once more into it so that they might grow strong enough to rejoin him. On their journey, they die multiple times facing the Hollowbreed rulers of men, but they always return to those who believed in them. The mark of faith upon they placed upon the believers was said to resemble the marks upon their own bodies where they parted from the Divinity. This is widely accepted as the origin of the Gemischt, as well as the Schrift (for both the Echt and the Gemischt).
At the mid-point of their journey and the end of their journey, the Hands of God met and bore children with one another. These are said to be the forebearers of the Echt, and the ones the Divinity entrusted with duty of education and protection. Germanic clans of Echt trace their lineage to the first generation born at the mid-point of the journey, and Japanese clans of Echt trace their lineage to the second generation born at the end of the Hands' journey.
When the Hands met once more in the sea of their birth, they ascended to the Divine Realm to slay the Hollowbreed captors of the Divinity and free it from its bonds, whereupon they rejoined and became whole. The Divinity bestowed upon the Echt a gift, the Crosses, and instructed then to protect humanity from the heartless evil and guide the Gemischt. Having established a guard against the Hollowbreed for its beloved mortal children, the Divinity sealed itself away in the Divine Realm in order to prevent another catastrophic invasion.
Where the Germanic branches and the Japanese branches of Echt differ stems from their philosophies on handling Hollowbreeds and the mandate handed down from the Divinity. The Germanic branch believes the Divinity tasked the Quincy race with the complete eradication of Hollowbreed: the core truth among many Germanic families to this day is that the soul of humanity can be extricated from its predator/prey relationship with Hollowbreeds. They seek salvation for humans and the permanent freedom of Earth, remaking the flesh in the image of the Divinity. If they can just elevate humanity to the moral heights that are adequate—and arm themselves well enough to protect those perfect sheep—Hollowbreed will simply die out like any other endangered species. Germanic branches are pioneers of techniques that train and reshape the body, featuring some of the most advanced research on the Schrift and Blut.
Japanese branches, meanwhile, believe that the divine mandate was not to remove Hollowbreeds from the cycle, but to cleanse their presence from the land. They use measures of warding and purification (some of which remain deeply entangled with Shinto traditions) to give themselves more time in their physical training and protect their human charges. Hollowbreeds are an inevitable side effect of the human condition, because the flesh is imperfect and can never be idealized. They will always come crawling out of the mortal heart, and thus, the Divinity has tasked them with guidance and protection of humans—not liberation. It is hubris to believe otherwise, and the Japanese branches are all too quick to remind the Germanic branches that pride is a sin. The Japanese branch created Ginto, the Seele Schneider, and countless other tools (like Quincy Bangles and Gloves) to bolster their methods of fighting the Hollowbreed tide.
Bond of the Quincy
Unfortunately (but understandably), the divine mandate of the Quincy also happens to be one that makes enemies out of a lot of people. If you ask a random soul from any other race, save for maybe your average unaffiliated High-Spec Mortal, they’d describe them as martyrs of a lost cause, self-righteous sycophants to an unfounded ideal, children disruptive to the natural order, or just plain bastards. It can only be said that when your duty involves saving the soul of the world, the threads you pull on start to chafe the hands they’re tied to.
Hollowbreeds regard them as brats and meddlers, but the wisest and the oldest speak with a lilt of fear. They know what the Quincy power can do to them, and they know it’s not as simple as a human jumped up on their own reiatsu. Some Hollowbreeds hunt down Quincy in kind, and some just think they’re more delicious than normal mortal souls.
Shinigami, for once, feel a degree of kinship in the Hollowbreed opinion of Quincy. It goes even deeper than just irritation though: of all the races in the world, both Shinigami and Quincy boast of a divine mission, and with clashing fervor comes animosity. The mandate of the Quincy would disrupt the Balance of the Shinigami if it were to be carried out to the extent they desire, and for Shinigami, it is an unacceptable outcome. The three realms would merge and collide as once warned millennia ago, as once suffered by careless mortal ancestors. Misery would abound and, to the Shinigami, the Quincy are perfectly fine with that. The Quincy insist that the Balance is a Shinigami fiction used to quell uprising on Earth against them, but if not the Balance, what do all the computers and meters and automatons of the 12th take their measurements of if not the Balance of Souls? Neither listen to one another, for fear it would mean their subservience and relinquishment of superiority.
This fear culminated in the worst way possible for the Quincy race: the Quincy Insurrection massacres. Only two such events have occurred according to the records of Shinigami and Quincy history, both resulting in about a 50% decrease in the world-wide Quincy population. The most recent, the Second Quincy Insurrection, started roughly over 100 years ago. The last few “official” killings attributed to Shinigami occurred in the 1970’s. Quincy clans were wiped out entirely, ancient relics spirited away to gather dust in Seireitei labs, and the lore that belonged to elders was scattered amongst the survivors. It fell to a bold few remaining clans and lone survivors, with the new assistance of the increasing High-Spec presence, to piece together what was left.
Although Shinigami have formally ended the most recent declaration of a Quincy Insurrection, many still pursue an unspoken agreement that Quincy are to be killed or captured on-sight. The Quincy clans are only just now starting to regain the glory they held throughout the times long past, to the increasing concern of the Shinigami.
The recovery efforts have yielded two bold leaders, both of which have supporters among the Japanese and Germanic clan branches. One is Lord Vaughn, a Germanic Echt seeking to break the alliance between “turncoat” Hollowbreed and Shinigami by opening his family vault of Quincy wealth and weaponry to High-Specs that swear to ally with only him. The other is Red Kazuko, a bloodstained matriarch who is rumored to be setting up an infiltration of Soul Society to reclaim the stolen artifacts and Quincy test subjects. Her willingness to directly confront Shinigami draws the ire of Vaughn, believing the full might of the Shinigami will be brought upon them for such boldness. Although he still lends those enlisted in his faction to help her, it is as much to spy on her plans as it is to fight.
Still more clans yet grow in the wake of the bloodshed, biding their time until a suitable representative from their bloodline can rise to challenge or join the skirmishing beliefs. Every Quincy child since the Second Insurrection has been raised to believe that a war is coming, whether from the Shinigami seeking to strike the final blow, or the ever-growing flood of Hollowbreeds back into Earthly affairs. It’s only a matter of time before the shots of the new war ring out.
And if those shots must be fired, it is better to be the one that fires first.
"Do you know what it means to be a Quincy? It's about the hunt. The hunt is in your blood, and that blood is the same blood that ran in the veins of the most skilled hunters to ever draw breath or bow. Do you know why they were the greatest?
Because they removed sin from the world without hesitation, regardless of what shape it took."
The Quincy are more than just hunters, despite what they tell themselves when the going gets rough. They are guardians, exorcists, nomads, martyrs, unshakeably human, and above all--what they cannot let themselves forget lest it trivialize the sacrifice of the dead--they are murderers. They have been made to pay for it in advance, even if their hands never end up stained. It has been 400 years since Shinigami enacted a proclamation of genocide against the Quincy in the name of the Balance of Worlds, openly tracking communities of Quincy down and slaying them while they slept. Even today, Hollowbreeds confronting Quincy are often left to rampage just a little too long and a little too late. Quincy fight back the only way they know how: with the gift the heavens gave unto them.
It just happens that the gift is capable of erasing souls from the spiritual tapestry of the realms.
Blood of the Quincy
Quincy are an offshoot of humanity that has existed as far back as the Bronze Age of Earth. They possess a hereditary supernatural gift: the ability to manipulate the reishi outside of their body. The most basic and inherent use is to manifest a Spiritual Weapon composed of reishi. This weapon is often a bow, as a fair share of Quincy still must make do with mortal flesh and bone. They call upon this ability using a focus, known as a Quincy Cross--though not always a cross in shape--and only a dash of their own reiryoku. The "arrows" they fire are not genuine arrows, but condensed reishi. Regardless of who it is aimed at and what it takes the form of, should it kill the target, the soul will never again be reborn.
They use this ability to craft an array of tools that can be used in addition to their Spiritual Weapon. The most notable tools they use are Ginto, a form of Quincy spellcasting activated by incantations and metal tubes of reishi. Gloves and Bangles designed to augment performance are rumored of, but rarely witnessed, as they are often to the detriment of the wearers or kept locked away in clan vaults.
The versatility of their ability is harnessed within their body as well, in the form of Blut, Shadow, and Hirenkyaku. Blut manifests in Quincy as one of two ways: either it allows reishi to reinforce the flesh of the user, thus making them less prone to their enemies (called Blut Vene) or it allows for increased reishi synthesis in the user, fueling stronger attacks (called Blut Arterie). Shadow is a multi-purpose skill that allows Quincy to manipulate the reishi of shadows, allowing them to cloak themselves, their reiatsu, or even transport matter from shadow to shadow. Hirenkyaku is similar to Hoho and Sonido and works by allowing the Quincy to "flow" at high speed on a current of reishi that they create beneath their feet, allowing for a quick dodge or getaway. It was pioneered by the Japanese branch of Quincy, who share the duties of adjudication and leadership of all Quincy with the German branch. Despite their differences, all Quincy are capable of these skills and have access to their technical brilliance.
The ability of reishi manipulation is best used while in areas of high reishi density, or while facing opponents too unskilled (or stupid) to limit their reiatsu output; Quincy were all but made to hunt down their natural enemies, the Hollowbreed. Even the body of a Quincy responds with animosity to the presence of Hollowbreed reiatsu: chills, nausea, vertigo, and in the worst cases, skin corrosion are all common symptoms when confronted with a particularly strong Hollowbreed. If a Quincy were foolish and/or desperate enough to ingest the meat of a Hollowbreed, death would likely soon follow unless extreme measures were taken. So strong is the natural repulsion to Hollowbreed within the Quincy that a Quincy soul cannot even undergo Hollowfication once relieved of its body. The Chain of Fate exists as it does on a mortal soul, but if corroded by Hollowbreed aura, the Quincy soul is eradicated; as eradicated as a Hollowbreed and its masses of souls would be if a Quincy arrow cuts it down.
The Quincy have indeed taken their genetic configuration as a message of destined purpose, leading to a race of highly secretive, highly organized, and highly prideful supernatural hunters. The story of their origin that they pass unto their descendants confirms their lifestyle, as does their Schrift, the blood-borne power that manifests as a letter (or other such marking) upon the skin and imbues their Spiritual Weapon with a unique ability. This ability is always attuned to the personality and beliefs of the individual Quincy; the form of a Spiritual Weapon can be passed down through the Quincy Cross of their parent, but a Schrift cannot (even if they have the same letter or shape of marking). The Spiritual Weapon and the Quincy Cross might look the same, but inside, there is still an individual ready to deviate from tradition.
Meanwhile, a Schrift can look identical to the Schrift of another Quincy, but that power will still be unique: it is from the blood, from within, and although mortal representations of the power are limited to mortal definitions, the true boundaries of their power are not. Nor does the Schrift heed to the limitations of Quincy society, as goes that time-honored tale of a Gemishct and an Echt having the same letter and coming to blows over becoming the paragon associated with that symbol. It remains common folklore that those holding the same visual manifestation of Schrift can find guidance if they look to the stories of those that came before them, functioning as a sort of astrology for the Quincy.
Although a hierarchy does exist and its efficiency can rival that of Seireitei, many Quincy do just that. They long for the life lived by "the sheep"--what born-and-bred Quincy choose to call the ungifted mortals they righteously protect. Their Quincy Cross gathers dust while they go to college and marry someone that will never be so cursed as to see the monsters walking in the distance. Their children are referred to as the Gemischt, the mixed. They are often treated as expendables, foot soldiers, sometimes even breeding stock despite the unfounded belief of their spiritual inferiority.
Gemischt Quincy, regardless of skill, often find themselves passed over within the official hierarchies in favor of an Echt Quincy--a pure-blood, or true, Quincy. An Echt may only come about when two Echt Quincy produce a child, or less favorably, an Echt Quincy and a Gemischt Quincy. The Echt are afforded more in Quincy society, owing to the belief that the ancient power-granting blood is stronger when untainted by human genes and thus, the powers manifested are stronger too. It goes without saying that this is not scientifically proven, nor would it matter; most of the leadership likely doesn't truly believe Echt are inherently superior to Gemischt.
What matters, though, is that it is tradition. It has been passed down from the furthest, oldest iterations of their genetic material. This is how it has always been and will always be. They are the force that endured what was nearly the end of the world, that endured the near-extinction of their kind enacted by the proclaimed Death Gods. They were chosen to shepherd this world and survive, at all costs.
Even if that cost is the Balance between worlds.
Belief of the Quincy
When did you first manifest your Spiritual Weapon? Did you still believe in fairy tales, doing your homework in between your lessons on Hollowbreed weak points? Were you just a confused young adult, blood in your mouth, finding that hidden strength on the edge of death?
It's a trick question, in all honesty. No matter what age they are, when a fledgling Quincy manifests their Spiritual Weapon for the first time, it won't be long before the seniors in the area realize that someone new has answered the Call of the Blood. The ways Quincy use reishi means that their unique reiatsu signature is stamped somewhere in the residue leftover at the scene; young Quincy are particularly guilty of not hiding their signature in their handiwork. From there, it's just a matter of tracking the newborn down. What comes next is the Initiation.
The Initiation is what separates flukes and unbelievers from real Quincy. A senior is sent to sit the fledling Quincy down and relay to them the nature of their powers and what is expected for their future. For children raised in Quincy clans, this is often done by the guardian of the child. The common rule for areas without an established Quincy clan is to send out the eldest of the local brigade, typically a Quincy that can no longer contribute to the effort due to severe injury or old age. This allows for the most learned to relay their knowledge and still contribute to Quincy society. The fear of never being able to do enough and faltering in the hour they're needed is the one ghost the Quincy can't kill, as much as they wish they could.
At the end of it all, the fledgling is told of the Legend of the Hands. Also known as the Origin of the Quincy, the Tale of the Beginning, and by particularly jaded Quincy, the Daydream, the Legend of the Hands is an oral history passed from generation to generation of Quincy. The earliest tellings of the story originated with the Echt clans of old, some of which still occupy their ancestral houses and vie for rulership. Most of the versions passed down to fledglings are similar to one another, with some variations from region to region (notably, between the Japanese and Germanic versions).
Every retelling focuses on a time long ago, often placed by Quincy scholars as starting around 1800-1300 BCE (with the journey described within as unknown, as it is always said to have taken multiple lifetimes and reincarnations). All agree that it was a time of brutality and bloodshed, relaying scenes of enslavement by Hollowbreed and the open worship of Hollowbreeds as gods, emperors, and priests, often culminating in human sacrifices and wars to procure prisoners so that they might feed. It is said that God (or the Universe, the Cosmos, etc.) pleaded with Hollowbreeds to feed on its flesh in the place of its enslaved mortal children and the Hollowbreeds kept it in chains to feed on for all eternity. When they found, however, that the divine body could not sate the emptiness in their soul, they returned to Earth to enact massacres and torture as revenge against the perceived trick. In some retellings, it is simply said that he allowed them to roam the Garden of Heaven to feed on the fruit of the divine and sate their hunger, but it always ends in the Divinity being bound by chains.
The Divinity in the tale struggles against the bonds so that it might free the people of Earth from their torment, and in the struggle, their hands are severed from their body. They fall to Earth and reform into two beings, often a man and a woman, called the Left Hand of God and the Right Hand of God. The Divinity asks them to journey from the sea they emerged from around the world and back once more into it so that they might grow strong enough to rejoin him. On their journey, they die multiple times facing the Hollowbreed rulers of men, but they always return to those who believed in them. The mark of faith upon they placed upon the believers was said to resemble the marks upon their own bodies where they parted from the Divinity. This is widely accepted as the origin of the Gemischt, as well as the Schrift (for both the Echt and the Gemischt).
At the mid-point of their journey and the end of their journey, the Hands of God met and bore children with one another. These are said to be the forebearers of the Echt, and the ones the Divinity entrusted with duty of education and protection. Germanic clans of Echt trace their lineage to the first generation born at the mid-point of the journey, and Japanese clans of Echt trace their lineage to the second generation born at the end of the Hands' journey.
When the Hands met once more in the sea of their birth, they ascended to the Divine Realm to slay the Hollowbreed captors of the Divinity and free it from its bonds, whereupon they rejoined and became whole. The Divinity bestowed upon the Echt a gift, the Crosses, and instructed then to protect humanity from the heartless evil and guide the Gemischt. Having established a guard against the Hollowbreed for its beloved mortal children, the Divinity sealed itself away in the Divine Realm in order to prevent another catastrophic invasion.
Where the Germanic branches and the Japanese branches of Echt differ stems from their philosophies on handling Hollowbreeds and the mandate handed down from the Divinity. The Germanic branch believes the Divinity tasked the Quincy race with the complete eradication of Hollowbreed: the core truth among many Germanic families to this day is that the soul of humanity can be extricated from its predator/prey relationship with Hollowbreeds. They seek salvation for humans and the permanent freedom of Earth, remaking the flesh in the image of the Divinity. If they can just elevate humanity to the moral heights that are adequate—and arm themselves well enough to protect those perfect sheep—Hollowbreed will simply die out like any other endangered species. Germanic branches are pioneers of techniques that train and reshape the body, featuring some of the most advanced research on the Schrift and Blut.
Japanese branches, meanwhile, believe that the divine mandate was not to remove Hollowbreeds from the cycle, but to cleanse their presence from the land. They use measures of warding and purification (some of which remain deeply entangled with Shinto traditions) to give themselves more time in their physical training and protect their human charges. Hollowbreeds are an inevitable side effect of the human condition, because the flesh is imperfect and can never be idealized. They will always come crawling out of the mortal heart, and thus, the Divinity has tasked them with guidance and protection of humans—not liberation. It is hubris to believe otherwise, and the Japanese branches are all too quick to remind the Germanic branches that pride is a sin. The Japanese branch created Ginto, the Seele Schneider, and countless other tools (like Quincy Bangles and Gloves) to bolster their methods of fighting the Hollowbreed tide.
Bond of the Quincy
Unfortunately (but understandably), the divine mandate of the Quincy also happens to be one that makes enemies out of a lot of people. If you ask a random soul from any other race, save for maybe your average unaffiliated High-Spec Mortal, they’d describe them as martyrs of a lost cause, self-righteous sycophants to an unfounded ideal, children disruptive to the natural order, or just plain bastards. It can only be said that when your duty involves saving the soul of the world, the threads you pull on start to chafe the hands they’re tied to.
Hollowbreeds regard them as brats and meddlers, but the wisest and the oldest speak with a lilt of fear. They know what the Quincy power can do to them, and they know it’s not as simple as a human jumped up on their own reiatsu. Some Hollowbreeds hunt down Quincy in kind, and some just think they’re more delicious than normal mortal souls.
Shinigami, for once, feel a degree of kinship in the Hollowbreed opinion of Quincy. It goes even deeper than just irritation though: of all the races in the world, both Shinigami and Quincy boast of a divine mission, and with clashing fervor comes animosity. The mandate of the Quincy would disrupt the Balance of the Shinigami if it were to be carried out to the extent they desire, and for Shinigami, it is an unacceptable outcome. The three realms would merge and collide as once warned millennia ago, as once suffered by careless mortal ancestors. Misery would abound and, to the Shinigami, the Quincy are perfectly fine with that. The Quincy insist that the Balance is a Shinigami fiction used to quell uprising on Earth against them, but if not the Balance, what do all the computers and meters and automatons of the 12th take their measurements of if not the Balance of Souls? Neither listen to one another, for fear it would mean their subservience and relinquishment of superiority.
This fear culminated in the worst way possible for the Quincy race: the Quincy Insurrection massacres. Only two such events have occurred according to the records of Shinigami and Quincy history, both resulting in about a 50% decrease in the world-wide Quincy population. The most recent, the Second Quincy Insurrection, started roughly over 100 years ago. The last few “official” killings attributed to Shinigami occurred in the 1970’s. Quincy clans were wiped out entirely, ancient relics spirited away to gather dust in Seireitei labs, and the lore that belonged to elders was scattered amongst the survivors. It fell to a bold few remaining clans and lone survivors, with the new assistance of the increasing High-Spec presence, to piece together what was left.
Although Shinigami have formally ended the most recent declaration of a Quincy Insurrection, many still pursue an unspoken agreement that Quincy are to be killed or captured on-sight. The Quincy clans are only just now starting to regain the glory they held throughout the times long past, to the increasing concern of the Shinigami.
The recovery efforts have yielded two bold leaders, both of which have supporters among the Japanese and Germanic clan branches. One is Lord Vaughn, a Germanic Echt seeking to break the alliance between “turncoat” Hollowbreed and Shinigami by opening his family vault of Quincy wealth and weaponry to High-Specs that swear to ally with only him. The other is Red Kazuko, a bloodstained matriarch who is rumored to be setting up an infiltration of Soul Society to reclaim the stolen artifacts and Quincy test subjects. Her willingness to directly confront Shinigami draws the ire of Vaughn, believing the full might of the Shinigami will be brought upon them for such boldness. Although he still lends those enlisted in his faction to help her, it is as much to spy on her plans as it is to fight.
Still more clans yet grow in the wake of the bloodshed, biding their time until a suitable representative from their bloodline can rise to challenge or join the skirmishing beliefs. Every Quincy child since the Second Insurrection has been raised to believe that a war is coming, whether from the Shinigami seeking to strike the final blow, or the ever-growing flood of Hollowbreeds back into Earthly affairs. It’s only a matter of time before the shots of the new war ring out.
And if those shots must be fired, it is better to be the one that fires first.