With Bleach making its big return next year, many are anxiously awaiting the debut of the Gotei 13's life-long rivals - The Quincies. Of all the different and unique races seen thus far in Bleach, the Quincies are the most mysterious. So far, the only Quincies that have actually been shown on screen throughout the entirety of the anime are Uuryu Ishida's family. The Quincies were almost mythological in the Bleach universe, always discussed with a hint of some underlying secrecy.
The Quincy play a massive role in the upcoming Thousand-Year Blood War arc, so it's worth getting to know Soul Society's soon-to-be deadliest challengers. Let's take a look at all that's known about the mysterious monks once thought to be wiped from existence.
Quincies are actually human-like mediums that are descendants of the Soul King. This is due to the fact that their king, Ywach, is the Soul King's son. Yhwach's blood runs through every Quincy ever born and his direct relation to the Soul King resulted in some of the omniscient being's powerful body parts becoming Quincies, such as his heart and his left arm. The special power of a Quincy is an ability known as Blut that allows them to absorb reishi energy into their blood vessels, granting them ridiculous amounts of frightening power. Another skill unique to the Quincies is the Shadow technique, which allows them to move undetected and teleport between shadows. Yhwach used this technique to teleport their city, Wandenreich, to an alternate dimension that he had created within the shadows.
This move led the Gotei 13 to believe that the Quincy were extinct when they were actually hidden in a shadow dimension - a clever play. There they waited for the perfect opportunity to exact their revenge on Soul Society - a perfectly justified revenge. It was, after all, the Captain Commander of the Gotei 13, Genryūsai Yamamoto that ordered their merciless slaughter and many of the Quincy did not survive the genocide. However, their way of life continued well after the attempt at its destruction. Battered, depleted and soundly defeated, the bitter and now hateful Quincy King, Yhwach would disappear for 1,000 years.
Quincy society is one where undeniable strength rules and "survival of the fittest" is more reality more than motto. Quincies aren't particularly big on loyalty, except for their collective allegiance to their ruler, Yhwach - which is almost entirely out of fear of their ruthless king. Their "might makes right" lifestyle creates a strange, bipolar environment where their leader claims to loathe violence amongst his children, but willingly uses that worse violence to instill fear as disobedience is punished with gruesome and unsightly death. The Quincies are also very technologically advanced, as they have the ability to steal the Bankai of powerful Gotei 13 Captains.
Another interesting note about Quincy society is that there is a divide between those of pure Quincy blood and those that are mixed with the blood of humans, otherwise known as Mixed Blood. Pure Blood Quincies participate in arranged marriages to keep their bloodlines pure, looking down on the Mixed Bloods as less than. Even Yhwach shares this disdain as he regained his powers by stealing those of impure Quincy, killing them. However, he is willing to ignore this bias to maniacally further his own goals, even stealing the powers and the lives of his Pure Blood following.
Quincies have one glaring weakness, something that they hate and fear even more than Soul Reapers - the Hollow. The soul-devouring spirits from Hueco Mundo are poison to the anatomy of Quincies and can completely destroy them. Quincies must destroy Hollows in order to survive are opposite the Soul Reapers who purify Hollows to maintain the balance of the Human World, Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. Quincies, in order to live, purposely created the imbalance that the Shinigami sought to restore. This ultimately resulted in the mass extermination of their race for the sake of all worlds. This would create a millenia-long rivalry with the Gotei 13.
The bow-wielding Quincies are one of the most unique and unprecedented aspects of the Bleach universe - a proud and powerful society once lost to the shadows. The tragedy and fearsome might of Quincies make the children of Yhwach without a doubt one of Tite Kubo's best additions to Bleach.
