Who are Quincy in Bleach? Who Is The Most Powerful Quincy?

The first time we hear of Quincy is during Ishida Uryu’s introduction. We learn that Quincy is a spiritually aware race of humans who can kill Hollows.

They are said to be opposed to Shinigami and Ishida seems to view them as enemies. They were just a small part of the story at first, but eventually became an integral part of the Bloody Thousand Year War arc.

I will try to explain the origins, powers, abilities and the most notable Quincy we meet in Bleach, to do this properly we will need some help from the manga and so this will contain some spoilers. So be warned!

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Quincies are humans who have a heightened sense of spiritual awareness. They can use reishi and create weapons capable of completely exterminating Hollows. They have an opposite philosophy to Soul Reapers and are considered their antithesis.

1. Who exactly are Quincy?

The Quincy are spiritually aware humans. Throughout history, they have been divided into two types: purebloods or halfbloods.

Quincy can use reishi and combine it with his Reiryoku to create weapons. They generally tend to do well in places with higher Reishi concentrations, such as Soul Society and Hueco Mundo.

As noted by Urahara, Hollows are contagious to Quincy. Unlike Soul Reapers who can merge and form Visoreds, for Quincy Hollows are very deadly. Therefore, these Monks of Destruction hunt them down.

The method used to eliminate Hollows is very different from what we see during Shinigami purification.

Quincies completely wipes out the existence of Hollows, which causes an imbalance in the number of souls and will ultimately lead to the destruction of both worlds. This makes Quincy a natural enemy of balance-seeking Shinigami.

2. Quincy: origin and fall

Yhwach is said to be the father of all the Quincy’s and his blood runs through all of them. While some consider Yhwach to be the first Quincy, this is not true. Quincy was there long before.

Quincy’s father has a unique ability to share his soul with others of his kind and can also take over powers at will.

Yhwach attacks Soul Society 1000 years before the story begins. He fights with Yamamoto and they come to a stalemate.

After this episode, Yhwach is sealed. Shinigami and Quincy could never agree and this caused Quincy to be exterminated 200 years before the start of the series.

A pureblood Quincy escaped extermination by hiding in an alternate dimension with Yhwach. Few pureblood and halfblood Quincy remained on Earth.

Quincy, who was left behind, tried to reconcile with the Shinigami, but the recent war forces the Death Gods to stand down and kill the others as well.

3. Yhwach’s ideology

While Shinigami believes balance should be maintained between the two worlds, Yhwach believes both worlds should remain the same. Life and death should be one, only then people would live without fear.

Yhwach wants to realize his ideology and the first step towards that is to kill the Soul King who maintains the balance between these worlds.

4. Is Yhwach the strongest Quincy?

Yhwach is the strongest Quincy and also their leader. He has many abilities like Flawless Healing, Future Tampering, Empowerment, and Soul Absorption. It was very hard work to defeat him even after an incredible power-up from Ichigo.

It has an immeasurable amount of reiatsu that puts the Espada to shame. He defeated Soul King’s right arm with ease and was able to put several Quincy on his feet just by using his reiatsu.

5. Sternritter: Who are they?

Sternritter is a group of extremely powerful Quincy who were granted a Schrift by Yhwach. Schrift is Yhwach’s way of sharing his power by bestowing a holy letter on Sternritter.

Sternritters are extremely powerful and are at a much higher level than captains. They gave Soul Society an incredibly tough time with their abilities differing based on the Schrift assigned to them.

6. Is Ichigo a Quincy?

Ichigo is a half-blood Quincy, just like his pure-blood mother Masaki married Isshin, who is a Shinigami.

Yhwach is also revealed to be the reason behind Masaki’s death. On the day Grand Fisher arrived, Yhwach took away the powers of all of the Quincy.

Ichigo’s lineage was foreshadowed by Kubo when we see him use Blut Vene unconsciously to stop the bleeding from the wound Kenpachi inflicted during the Soul Society arc.

Ichigo later uses two different Zanpakuto, one with his Shinigami/Hollow power and the other with his Quincy powers.

7. About bleach

Bleach is a Japanese anime television series based on the manga of the same name by Tite Kubo. The anime series adapts Kubo’s manga but also introduces new, original, standalone story arcs.

It is based in Karakura Town on a 15-year-old high school student, Ichigo Kurosaki, who becomes a Soul Reaper substitute when Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper, puts Soul Reaper powers on Ichigo. They barely manage to kill the hollow.

Although initially reluctant to accept the heavy responsibility, he begins to clear other hollows and also discovers that several of his friends and classmates are spiritually aware and have powers of their own.

Originally written by Epic Dope

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