The ongoing “Thousand-year Blood war” arc of Bleach has already wowed fans with only two episodes. We finally get to see Yhwach, our newest villain for the first time in the second episode. In this arc, we will get to see an even more powerful group of enemies than Aizen and his Arrancar army. Studio Pierrot with Bleach and Mappa in Chainsaw Man is really treating Bleach fans with movie-like visuals and they have also used a darker color palette for this season.
But the question is Who is Quincy King Yhwach and where was he until now? Here we have discussed everything about it.
Who is Yhwach?
Yhwach is the Quincy King and leader of the Wandenreich, a group of Quincy who has suddenly shown up to declare war on Soul Society in the newest arc of the Bleach anime. Quincys were thought to have gone extinct a thousand years ago except for the Ishida family. However, now we get to learn that was not true. He is truly a ruthless and cruel king. And this is especially seen in the second episode when he kills the two Arrancars who were desperately loyal to him just because he no longer needed them. As far as we’ve seen in the new anime, Yhwach doesn’t like to talk about his plans. He likes to live in the present and attack along with his subordinates.
Where were the Quincys until now?
For years, Soul society was under the belief that all the Quincy were dead except the Ishida family. Thousand years ago, Yhwach had formed a large Quincy empire called, “The Lichtenreich” or “Empire of Light”. However, it fell and many Quincies were purged by soul reapers. The Quincys and the soul reapers fought because of their differing ideologies.
However, the Quincys who survived kept themselves hidden all this time. The Quincys did not actually die out as a race. They hid in Seireitei, right in the middle of Soul society by manipulating Reishi in the air. As they hid in the shadows, Soul Society thought that all the Quincys were killed.
In hiding, they gathered their strength and waited for the perfect chance to attack. This chance came right after Aizen was defeated, exactly when Soul society was at its weakest. Soul Reapers never even saw the attack coming. This new empire of Quincys is calling themselves “The Wandenreich” and their king is Yhwach. It took them a long time to recover as Yhwach need 999 years to regain the strength of his body and mind.
The Wandenreich:
The hidden empire of Quincys is called “The Wandenreich” which means “Hidden empire” in German. Their society is militaristic with no civilian infrastructure. The Wandenreich’s rank equivalent to a captain in Soul society is ‘Sternritter’ or ‘Star knights’. They each have specific powers and are more in number than the captains in Soul society. All this makes the Wandenreich a very formidable opponent for our heroes in Bleach.
