The Balance of Worlds [Plot Information]

[Darake Kitoushi]

Balancers, the original title of the Shinigami which directly describes their purpose, to maintain the balance of souls between worlds. They search for these lost souls in order to guide them on to the next realm where they are eventually reconstructed and sent out once again, a never ending cycle. However despite the best efforts of the Shinigami, some unfortunate souls are not reached in time, becoming twisted into the monstrous creature known as a Hollow. These beasts become enraptured with an instinctual hunger that forces them to devour others in brutal struggle for survival. Not content to watch themselves get eaten, the select few mediums who are able to view spirits developed their own methods for fighting them and thus the holy order of Quincy were formed.

The Quincy are however not balancers, when something is killed by their weaponry, it results in the total elimination of the soul and the cycle is then broken. As souls pile up in one world, without an equal number to balance the other side of the scale, it will cause worlds to spill into each other and collapse under their collective weight. Or at least this is the belief of the Shinigami who desperately attempted to stop the Quincy, resulting in a war that caused an extinction of the order a hundred years ago. Despite this event, some escaped, able to slip through the cracks and avoid the slaughter. It is now that they finally step out of the shadows, revealing a hidden army called the Vandenreich able to oppose even Soul Society in power.

The Vandenreich preaches not of a unbalancing or words created through their methods, but rather a cleansing they have dubbed the Zurückbringen or The Return. This belief is that once the souls of all the demonic hollow are eliminated, it will bring heaven and earth united once again as it once was, as it should be. To bring about this return, the Arrancar were the first to see the terrifying march of the Wandenreich as they tore through Hueco Mundo unopposed by a consolidated effort. This forced the hand of Soul Society, who began the establishment of a grand military outpost of their own in Las Noches desert dubbed the Koudodejiro or Wasteland Branch Castle. An effort primarily overseen by the Thirteenth Division, now every division makes regular rotations of deployment in defense of this radical endeavor.

The Arrancar have not been silent in this affair, now trapped between two overwhelming forces who both seek to wipe them out. In a desperate struggle for survival their various tribes have set aside their grudges to unite under a single banner, not content to sit by while they lose a war on two fronts. The Wandenreich were not content to simply relish in their victory. In this chaos they had sewn with the Arrancar attempting to organize and the Shinigami establishing an outpost, the order took the opportunity to strike a devastating blow directly to the heart of Soul Society in an attempt to steal the legendary artifact known as the Ōin.

In a desperate act to keep the King's Seal and it's power over dimensions out of the Wandenreich control, the Captain Commander of Soul Society sacrificed himself to break it and scatter it's shards to the furthest reaches of every realm. While every fragment is needed to unlock it's full capability, each piece still imbues it's holder with terrifying new abilities. Now not only do these sacred shards lay vital to the survival of all worlds, but they have become the center of a war for individual power.

[Hirose Hiromi]

Ōin (King's Seal)





The Ōin (King's Seal) an ancient artifact created by the Soul King from its very essence, handed down to Soul Society's Royal Families for safeguarding. Its physical form representing itself as an object of the most pure gold covered in numerous inscriptions, which only the most wise and knowledgeable of historians can decipher its secret messages. The Gotei 13 takes an active stance in the protecting and securing of this artifact, most noticeably deploying a substantial number of Kidōshū members to watch over it at any given time and repel any that dare to come within even remote range of the heirloom. Throughout the history of Soul Society it has become tradition for the duty of safeguarding the Ōin to be passed along between the Royal Families every certain number of decades, this tradition is executed by organizing a large mobile ceremony that passes through the spiritual realm. This ceremony, while an ode to the magnificence of the Ōin, is partaken under the extreme supervision of both the servants of the Royal Families as well as the Gotei 13 forces. The artifact is moved from one location to another by the use of escorting it in a convoy of traditional carriages, concealed within the confines of cloud created by the Kidōshū to conceal its location and suppress its spiritual pressure to the outside world. In most cases, when these ceremonies take place, Seireitei will deploy several of Captain ranked Shinigami to secure the premises within and around the ceremony.

Their reason for taking such an active stance in the protection of this holy relic is due to the fact that it possesses capabilities beyond the comprehension of any being, be it spiritual or living. The information known about the Ōin indicates that it harbors the ability to exercise absolute control over dimensions: be it time, energy, space or matter. While no one has ever been allowed to study the Ōin and understand the entire depth of its abilities, it is safely assumed that the limit of its possibilities lie only within the limitations on the user's imagination and creativity. For this reason the Gotei spare no expenses in assuring that none come even within remote distance proximity of the artifact, apart from this reason the Royal Families protect the Ōin to uphold their honor and celebrate the blessing the Soul King willingly bestowed upon them.

In recent events, by the hand of the now deceased Captain Commander, the artifact has been shattered into 6 separate pieces, whilst scattered far and wide, each individual fragments contains a shadow of the power it formerly harbored as a whole. While less powerful than the Ōin as a whole each fragment separately still possess capabilities that can blur the limitations of the universe, making them unimaginable in value, as each fragment possesses a set of individual abilities unique to each seperate piece. Despite these unique qualities the fragments have one aspect they all share amongst one another: each of them, when coming into contact with a sentient being, influences and infects the mind with the compulsive need to obtain the fragment. It seems that the artifact, created by the Soul King, contains such potent spiritual power that has obtain a semblance of intelligence. As such it allures beings into obtaining it and keeping it, inducing a sort of obsessive state, influencing them to seek out more fragments. It may appear as if the fragments of the Ōin are seeking out each other, using sentient beings to bring them together so that they can become whole again. Only the most hardened minds are capable to completely reject its influence, whilst severe concentration is needed for this feat, it appears that the fragments influence each individual differently depending on their state of mind and their need for the Ōin. So far none have successful in determining all their separate functions, nor been able to locate and obtain every fragment. As such all the spiritual races, and their members, now compete to locate and secure these fragments to utilize for their ends.