Yhwach

Age: 1,200+

Height: 200 cm (6’7")

Yhwach appears as a tall man of seeming middle age, with a long face, broad chin, pronounced cheekbones, and reddish-brown eyes topped by thin eyebrows. His long black hair reaches to his lower back and is paired with well-kept mutton chops plus a connected mustache, apart from which he remains clean-shaven. Yhwach's standard attire consists of a white, double-breasted trench coat that has the Wandenreich symbol on the middle, with large buttoned cuffs and lapels, white trousers, and trench boots.[12] Over this he wears a tattered, ankle-length, maroon-black cloak that has a red ribbon near the neck and is fastened to the left with a single large button.

Yhwach (ユーハバッハ, Yūhabahha), called "Your Majesty" (陛下, Heika) by his underlings, is the emperor of the Wandenreich and the progenitor of Quincy, known as the Quincy King (滅却師クインシーの王, Kuinshī no Ō) and Father of Quincy (滅却師クインシーの父, Kuinshī no Chichi).[3][4][5] He is also the son of the Soul King[6] and inherited the latter's signature power, The Almighty,[2] signified by Yhwach bearing the letter A.[1]

Yhwach eventually succeeds in supplanting the Soul King by absorbing his remains in the Soul King Palace, taking in all of his father's power in order to carry out his ultimate goal of reshaping the world in his image, thereby eradicating death itself.[7][8][9][10] However, before Yhwach is able to achieve that goal, he is killed by Ichigo Kurosaki and his allies.[11]

Due to his past, Yhwach is a morally warped and contradictory man whose words often have double meaning. While proclaiming himself a lover of peace who hates conflict, he actually has no issue waging war and just wants battles to be ended as quickly as possible. His true, warmongering nature is perhaps best shown in his respect toward the first generation of the Gotei 13, for they were Shinigami who could strike fear into his heart. He especially admired Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, whom he called a demon for treating his subordinates as expendable ashes. Yhwach despises values like justice and honor, which is why he hates how the Gotei 13 became "weak" during the 1,000 years of his absence. He also dislikes lies, and does not give any falsities to the existence of his subordinates.

Yhwach treats his subordinates and the Quincy very differently. He is very fond of some of them, calling them his sons. He puts great effort into forcibly recruiting them into his empire. Yhwach can show mercy and appreciation, thanking Royd Lloyd for sacrificing himself in a suicidal mission and granting him a quick death via obliteration after the latter lost most of his torso. Yhwach dislikes blind loyalty, and was glad that his Sternritter showed outspoken discontent with his choice of successor.

In front of his subordinates, Yhwach is a man adamant in his disapproval of infighting, though he will not hesitate to stop the conflict using the most brutal methods possible. Yhwach's contempt for Arrancar is apparent, mercilessly wounding and slaying even those who have sworn allegiance to him when he deems them to have fulfilled their use. After his awakening, Yhwach heartlessly robbed "impure" Quincy of their powers, causing many to die. Yamamoto states this same disregard extends to all of his underlings, regardless of species or position, and is an attitude which Yhwach has allegedly always possessed; this is proven when he ultimately uses his Auswählen to fatally steal power from Gerard Valkyrie, who was at one point his father's heart, and Jugram Haschwalth, his trusted second-in-command and other half, after absorbing the power of Ichigo Kurosaki.

Yhwach believes that he and his Sternritter are comrades and that they should be prepared to assist each other whenever necessary, even if it means certain members should be sacrificed for others; he demonstrated this belief by using Auswählen to steal the life force of the Sternritter who had been left behind in order to revive his fallen Schutzstaffel.

Yhwach wants to create a world without fear of death, which is done by collapsing the Human World, Soul Society, and even Hueco Mundo together. Yhwach also cannot stand his father's existence as the Soul King, a sealed and mutilated linchpin made to stabilize the Soul Society and keep the worlds separate. Seeing his father's role as "endless humiliation" that he wishes to cease, Yhwach's desire to end his imposed suffering is so strong it seeps into his subjects and other Quincy who inherited his blood, and they will be forced to slay the Soul King.

Approximately 1,200 years ago, Yhwach was born to an unknown mother[36] as the son of the Soul King.[37] As a baby Yhwach could not see, hear, speak, or even move. Despite this, he was not afraid and would not have cried even if he had the ability to because he knew, despite having no means of survival, that he would continue to live on. The people around him treated Yhwach with great reverence because everyone who touched the child found that they gradually gained something which they lacked. This occurred because Yhwach possessed the power to share out his own soul. Those who touched him received fragments of his soul, and those fragments healed the wounds that their own souls alone could not. At the same time, as their wounds slowly healed, the various qualities of each person (their knowledge, abilities, talents, etc.) were all ingrained into Yhwach's soul fragments that they carried, until those fragments returned to Yhwach at the moment of the carriers' deaths. Even though none who touched Yhwach lived for much longer, the people continued to gather around him. As he regained the fragments of his soul that he had shared out, Yhwach's body began to gain function. In time, when his deaf ears became able to hear, Yhwach realized the people had begun to call him by an unusual name: "YHWACH". He understood this was the name of the God whom these people worshiped, but he chose nonetheless to make that name his own.

Yhwach is credited with being the progenitor of the Quincy, revered by them as their King, and his blood flows in every Quincy.[3] At some point (seemingly in his youth), Yhwach discovered a much more potent way to impart his soul: by engraving a letter, signifying an ability, directly onto the soul of another, he could share out his own soul more deeply and with greater power.[39] Lille Barro was the first Quincy onto whom Yhwach ever bestowed a Schrift.[40][41] At some point, Yhwach assigned himself the letter "A"[1] to designate his ability of The Almighty.[2] He founded an empire of Quincy that he built up over the 200+ years following his birth, called Lichtreich (光の帝国リヒトライヒ, Rihitoraihi; German for "Light Empire", Japanese for "Empire of Light"). This empire conquered the "northern territories" in the Human World where Jugram Haschwalth's and Bazz-B's castle and forest were located, both of which he burned down. Five years later, Yhwach informed Zeidritz that he wished to create a new army. When Zeidritz pointed out how they had conquered all the nearby countries, Yhwach stated they had not yet conquered Soul Society before revealing that he intended to create a unit called "Sternritter" for this purpose

Eventually, Yhwach sent out two of his personal guards, Hubert and Argola, to inform nearby villages in the Lichtreich of the Sternritter's formation. While Bazz-B was confronting Hubert, Yhwach arrived and pinned almost everyone present to the ground with his Reiatsu. Declaring his intention to find a right-hand man, Yhwach selected Haschwalth, whom he recognized as his "other half".[43] Yhwach declared that Haschwalth was to join the Sternritter as his imperial adviser before preparing to leave. However, when Haschwalth claimed that Bazz-B would be a better right-hand man to him, Yhwach noted that this was just as he had foreseen before revealing that Haschwalth, like himself, shared his ability to grant power to others. After explaining how this was the catalyst behind Bazz-B's prodigal powers, Yhwach told Haschwalth that he needed the latter at his side before being defended from Bazz-B's Heilig Pfeil by Haschwalth.

At some point between then and 1,000 years ago, the Royal Guard Commander Ichibē Hyōsube learned of the Lichtreich planning to invade Soul Society and personally traveled to the Human World to negotiate a truce with Yhwach. Ichibē proposed that the Lichtreich be allowed to unify the Quincy race in peace if they agreed to let the Balancers maintain the balance between realms, but Yhwach knew that the world's current state was not its original state and pressed Ichibē for information about the one responsible for leaving all living things with a fear of death, becoming disgusted upon learning that the Soul King arranged it as such. When Yhwach refused the truce due to wanting to disrupt the balance so that he could create a world without death, he attacked Ichibē using The Almighty, but Ichibē revealed that he had taken the Soul King's Left Arm as his own and used its powers to disable The Almighty, though Yhwach claimed the arm in the process. Ichibē thereupon left, proclaiming that Yhwach shall never again be able to use The Almighty until his death, and Yhwach decided that it was for the best since he would not have to see the worlds becoming a gravestone.

About 1,000 years ago, Yhwach and the Lichtreich invaded the Soul Society and battled against the original Gotei 13. Yhwach himself fought Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto,[46] witnessing the capabilities of Yamamoto's Bankai, Zanka no Tachi.[47] As he prepared to battle Yamamoto one-on-one, he was stabbed from behind by Chōjirō Sasakibe, allowing Yamamoto to deliver the finishing blow.[48] Following this decisive battle with Yamamoto, Yhwach supposedly lost his powers. Quincy folklore spoke of him as "The Sealed King": after 900 years of being sealed, he was to regain his pulse; after another 90, he would regain his intellect; and he would absorb the power of every "impure" Quincy to make their abilities his own, regaining his strength after 9 more years. With his Auswählen, Yhwach did so to Kanae Katagiri, killing her, and to Masaki Kurosaki, who died during her fight with Grand Fisher due to the loss of her powers.[3] All "impure" Quincy were killed except for Uryū Ishida.[49] Yhwach later reveals this song to be called Kaiser Gesang (聖帝頌歌カイザー・ゲザング, Kaizā Gezangu; German for "Emperor Song", Japanese for "Praise-Song of the Sacred Emperor"; Viz "King's Hymn") and to have another verse stating the "Sealed King" was to regain the world after 9 days.

When Äs Nödt survived an incident and was hospitalized, Yhwach visited him and granted him power.[51] At some point during the seventeen months after the defeat of Sōsuke Aizen, the Wandenreich conquered Hueco Mundo, and Yhwach personally defeated its ruler, Tier Harribel. Imprisoning her, he claimed the territory of Hueco Mundo for the Wandenreich, regarding it as another foundation stone for the invasion of Soul Society.

Reishi Sword: Using his Quincy Cross, Yhwach can gather both spirit energy and particles and transform them into weapons. Unlike the bows displayed by most other Quincy, his particular weapon manifests in the form of an ornate sword, reminiscent of a Dadao, with a relatively long handle and a cross-guard shaped like a bird.[194] The weapon's name had been erased by Ichibē Hyōsube's Ichimonji, thus Yhwach was unable to speak of it.

Sankt Bogen (大聖弓ザンクト・ボーゲン, Zankuto Bōgen; German for "Saint Bow", Japanese for "Great Holy Bow"): Yhwach manifests an enormous bow anywhere within his general vicinity with proportionally large Heilig Pfeil, which carry enough force to propel him back up to the Soul King Palace with a single shot.

Heilig Pfeil (神聖滅矢ハイリッヒ・プファイル, Hairihhi Pufairu; German for "Holy Arrow", Japanese for "Sacred Destruction Arrows"): By collecting Reishi, Yhwach can form spiritual arrows, but unlike most Quincy, he can generate them without the need of a Spirit Weapon, instead forming and firing them with just an outstretched finger. These arrows appear as simple blasts of Reishi shaped like the Quincy Cross, though they still retain enough force to create deep cavities in the ground.[197] He can fire them in rapid succession as a continuous barrage and with enough power to destroy an adversary as durable as Captain-Commander Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto.

Reishi Broadsword: With a simple, horizontal cutting motion directed at the sky, Yhwach manifests Sankt Bogen in the air above himself, which in turn fires a massive Heilig Pfeil towards the ground in front of him. The length of this Reishi arrow is comparable to Yhwach's own height and, by gripping it near the base of the shaft, he can wield it in a manner similar to a large broadsword. Two protrusions jutting out diagonally on either side form the sword's cross-guard which, alongside the handle, form a shape reminiscent of the Wandenreich insignia. The blade of this Heilig Pfeil can effortlessly bifurcate an opponent, including one as powerful as Yamamoto.