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11[[WMG:[[center: [- ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' '''[[Characters/{{Bleach}} Main Character Index]]'''\
12[[Characters/BleachIchigoKurosaki Ichigo Kurosaki]] | [[Characters/BleachIchigosCompanions Ichigo's Companions]] | [[Characters/BleachThirteenCourtGuardSquads1To7 Thirteen Court Guard Squads 1 - 7]] | [[Characters/BleachThirteenCourtGuardSquads8To13 Thirteen Court Guard Squads 8 - 13]] | [[Characters/BleachSquadZero Soul King & Squad Zero]] | [[Characters/BleachAizenAndHisCohorts Aizen & His Cohorts]] | [[Characters/BleachVisoredsAndExiledSoulReapers Visoreds & Exiled Soul Reapers]] | [[Characters/BleachHollows Hollows]] | [[Characters/BleachArrancars Arrancars]] ([[Characters/BleachEspadas1To5 Espadas 1 - 5]], [[Characters/BleachEspadas6To10 Espadas 6 - 10]]) | [[Characters/BleachKarakuraTownResidents Karakura Town Residents]] | [[Characters/BleachSoulSocietyDwellers Soul Society Dwellers]] | [[Characters/BleachXcution Xcution]] | '''Vandenreich''' ([[Characters/BleachSternrittersBM Sternritters B-M]], [[Characters/BleachSternrittersNZ Sternritters N-Z]]) | [[Characters/BleachZanpakuto Zanpakuto]] | [[Characters/{{Bleach Anime}} Anime-Only Characters]] | [[Characters/BleachMovieOnly Movie-Only Characters]] | [[Characters/BleachVideoGame Video Game-Only Characters]] | [[Characters/BleachLightNovels Light Novel-Only Characters]] | [[Characters/BurnTheWitch2018 Burn The Witch Characters]]]]-]]]
13Characters that appeared in Tite Kubo's ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. This is the '''[[PuttingOnTheReich Wandenreich]]''', an organization of Quincies at war with [[{{Heaven}} Soul Society]] and [[SeaOfSand Hueco Mundo]].
14
15This page lists named members of the Wandenreich. The [[PraetorianGuard Sternritter]] occupy their own pages.
16----
17!!This page contains massive spoilers, none of which are marked. Tread carefully.
18
19[[foldercontrol]]
20
21!!Emperor (A)
22
23[[folder:Yhwach]]
24!Emperor Yhwach
25[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bbs_yhwach.png]]
26[[caption-width-right:350: [[labelnote:Appearance after absorbing the Soul King]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1551_e2c2aa50_fee3_47a9_825d_b11661c96e9f.png[[/labelnote]]]]
27[-''"Conflict is always such a bitter affair."''-]
28->'''Species:''' Quincy
29->'''Weapon:''' Unnamed sword
30->'''Schrift:''' A - The Almighty
31-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/TakayukiSugo (JP), Creator/RichardEpcar (EN)
32----
33TheEmperor, [[TheHighKing The King]] and progenitor of all Quincies. Born over 1,200 years ago, he came into the world with unusual and seemingly divine gifts, gifts which he eventually used to empower other humans, giving birth to the Quincies from his own blood, and eventually, built his own empire - the Licht Reicht - and proceeded to conqueror much of the living world. Eventually he set his sights upon the Soul Society, but ultimately his reign of conquest would end in failure against Shigekuni Yamamoto and the first generation of the 13 Court Guard Squads, an unscrupulous band of thugs and murderers. Yamamoto, however, failed to land the finishing blow for as yet unrevealed reasons. Resurrecting after 999 years, he has rebuilt his empire - now called the Wandenreich - and has set his sights on finishing what he has started.
34
35An autocrat who is as ruthless and heartless as they come, he commits one atrocity after another in his "crusade." Despite claiming to dislike conflict of any kind, he feeds on war and bloodshed itself and always takes the most violent and efficient method to settling matters, even casually disposing of his own men when they are no longer useful.
36
37Yhwach holds the letter "A" of "The Almighty", serving as the supreme commander of the Wandenreich's military. Under the usage of the Schrift (or script), he personally bestows a letter upon a member of the Wandenreich, meant to correspond to their particular ability.
38
39His Quincy cross -- stylized as a military medal bearing the Wandenreich symbol - manifests in the form of a winged, eagle-themed sword. His power "The Almighty" allows him to give and take power, negate every harmful ability, once he understands it, and finally see and change the future.
40
41----
42* AbnormalAmmo: With a horizontal cutting motion directed at the sky, Yhwach summons a gigantic Spirit Bow which fires a Quincy arrow down to the ground in front of him. The arrow is about as tall as him (and he is ''very'' tall), and by gripping it at the base of the shaft, can use it as a broadsword. There are two protrusions that jet out from the broadswords cross-guard which, along with the handle, resemble the insignia of the Wandenreich. Yhwach uses the broadsword to bifurcate Yamamoto.
43* AchillesHeel: He's got major weaknesses that, when targeted together, help defeat him:
44** Despite Yhwach's phenomenal ability to see and counter any future, he's as vulnerable to Aizen's Kyoka Suigetsu as everyone else. As a result, while he can see futures involving Aizen unfold, he won't be able to tell whether it's Aizen showing him an illusion or not. It's about the only thing that can subvert The Almighty even a little bit and proves instrumental in giving Ichigo and Uryu the chance to get past Yhwach's defences.
45** To kill Quincies, Auswählen involves Yhwach creating a magical substance called Still Silver. This substance clots the victim's blood, creating a silver lump that clogs the Quincy's heart and kills them. However if Yhwach himself comes into contact with that Still Silver, all his powers are completely disabled for a split second. Knowing this weakness, Ryuken collects the Still Silver from his murdered wife's body and secretly forges an arrow from it; he then keeps it secret for nine years, waiting for the day his son Uryu, who is immune to Yhwach's powers, becomes capable of using it.
46* ActuallyADoombot: He uses [[DittoFighter Royd Lloyd]] to scope out Yamamoto's Bankai, while he goes to have a conversation with Aizen. When he returns, the distraction that Royd provided allows Yhwach him to steal Yamamoto's Bankai effortlessly after the ruse is uncovered.
47* AdaptiveAbility: One of the many applications of his Schrift, '[[WindsOfDestinyChange The Almighty]]': Once Yhwach fully "understands" how an ability works, it becomes incapable of harming him. This is shown when Yhwach nullifies Ichibei's strongest attack which is supposed to completely obliterate a soul to the point that not even reincarnation will be possible. The Almighty even allows him to predict what his enemies will do in the future, making him able to adapt to any fight he engages in. This makes it next to impossible to defeat him.
48* AllThereInTheManual: The manga ends with his apparent death and a final confrontation with Ichigo's son Kazui that leaves many questions. The subsequent novels reveal that he became the new lynchpin and that he is not as dead as it seems, still holding an influence over Soul Society.
49* AlasPoorVillain: It cannot be denied that Yhwach is a monster, and one of, if not ''the'', most evil characters in the series. That said, being the lynchpin of existence is said to be a fate of unimaginable agony that even the death-fearing Yhwach considers to be worse than dying. Ultimately, after he is defeated to by Ichigo, Yhwach is forced to suffer the pain and humiliation that his father endured as the new lynchpin. Anybody who witnesses his new state is utterly horrified, including Harribel who Yhwach had usurped and imprisoned.
50* AllYourPowersCombined: He gets the powers, memories, and skills of anybody who dies with a portion of his soul within them.
51* AmbiguousSituation: In the final battle, Yhwach vows to Ichigo that he will one day return at a moment when Ichigo is at his happiest and take it all away. Ichigo is able to kill Yhwach because of three factors: Uryu is capable of temporarily de-powering him without Yhwach being able to anticipate him, Haschwalth manipulated Yhwach's future vision of the moment so that Yhwach would dismiss it as a dream until it was too late, and ten years in the future, his Reiatsu begins to appear in both the Soul Society and human world but is abruptly and mysteriously stopped by Ichigo's future son. The novels reveal that Yhwach possesses so much Reiatsu even after death that he can be used to replace the Soul King as the lynchpin that holds together the world, but the actions of Ichigo's future son will have consequences that affect this situation.
52* AncientEvil: He is the Soul King's son, the progenitor of the Quincies, has fought Yamamoto in the past over 1000 years ago, and was indirectly responsible for the Gotei 13 being what it is in the present day.
53* AntagonistAbilities: To start with, he has the [[AllYourPowersCombined combined strength]] of everyone who's ever held a piece of his soul. However, when his Schrift is revealed, we learn that he ''also'' has a very extreme version of CombatClairvoyance, as well as an AdaptiveAbility which lets him negate any attack after he "understands" it. His ability, "The Almighty", is also revealed to not just be able to ''see'' the future, but [[WindsOfDestinyChange change it]], and any attempt to counter this will result in a "new" future that he can also change. Even if he's ''killed'', his abilities allow him to AutoRevive. Highlighting how [[StoryBreakerPower story-breaking]] his powers are, the Gotei 13, Ichigo and the others don't even overcome his abilities with their own in the end--they have to temporarily ''take away'' his powers with a weapon created from Yhwach himself. The invincibility of "The Almighty" was later confirmed in the light novels, which states that it makes the wielder impervious to death on any permanent scale. The Soul King, who possessed the same ability, had to be put into a comatose state and then completely dismembered to disable his abilities, and even then, Ichibei speculates that the will of The Almighty will eventually create others like Yhwach or Ichigo with the qualifications to inherit the power.
54* AnswersToTheNameOfGod: Yhwach's name is derived from the Tetragrammaton, YHWH (or the more commonly written "Yahweh"), which is one of the names of the Abrahamic God. Nimaiya specifically calls him "Y.H." in reference to Yōd and Hē, the first two letters of the Tetragram as found in the Torah in original Hebrew.
55* ArchEnemy:
56** His enmity with Yamamoto goes back at least a thousand years and Yhwach is the only one who Yamamoto doesn’t call “child”. He also considers Yamamoto weak as Yhwach didn’t choose him as one of his Five Special War powers because he believes that Yamamoto was past his prime. It’s pretty obvious that they really hate each other.
57** He is one to Ichibei as well, the leader of Squad Zero, is said to be at the power level as the Captain-Commander himself. Ichibei tries his best to protect the Soul King no matter what, but Yhwach eventually defeats him thanks to the Almighty.
58** He’s also this to Ichigo, as he’s the one responsible for his mother's death by de-powering her in the middle of a fight with the Grand Fisher. Yhwach also considered Ichigo to be the first and most dangerous of the Five Special War powers. Yhwach also claims to be Ichigo’s "true father" due to him being the progenitor of the Quincy. After their second battle, Yhwach defeats Ichigo and absorbs his Quincy and Hollow powers and before he left Yhwach tells Ichigo to not come after him because if he did, Yhwach will give him and his friends an extravagant death in that one moment when they're at their happiest.
59* TheAssimilator: The very core of his being and how he grows and lives. Yhwach can consume and absorb other beings via physical contact, and impart a fragment of his soul into others as well. He has a piece of his soul inside literally ''everyone'', from Quincies to Shinigami and Visoreds. Once they die, he takes all of their powers and skills, as a way to extend both his life and his power. He even absorbs Mimihagi and the rest of the Soul King as well.
60* AssimilationPlot: The current cosmology consists of three main worlds (one physical, two spiritual) that are kept separated by physical barriers that require special gateways to cross. The lynchpin ensuring this separation and order is the Soul King, a creation of the Soul Reapers to keep the worlds separate and control the reincarnation cycle. Yhwach's goal is to destroy the Soul King, so that the three worlds will merge together and create a single world where life and death are no longer separated, effectively making every single living thing immortal in a world 'without fear of death'.
61* AxCrazy: It is very obvious from the moment we first see him that Yhwach is an immensly dangerous and homicidal individual, with an instinct for killing that is rivaled only by few. For starters, his introductory scene features him blasting off his subordinate's arm just to get his attention. His penchant for wanton brutality is incredibly disturbing, whether it's lobbing limbs across the room or obliterating corpses to make sure they're dead. He will kill even his own men if he can benefit from it, or even just because he can. His [[DissonantSerenity cool, calm smile at the sight of his carnage]] truly compounds that something is ''quite wrong'' with this man. While he keeps it hidden most of the time, this aspect of his personality becomes more evident the closer he comes to his goals.
62* BadassBoast: He clarifies that the ancient folklore about a Sealed King is called the Kaiser Gesang (the Emperor's Song) and is about what he achieves at each stage of his recovery from being sealed. He reveals the final stanza is that, in nine days time, he will reclaim the world.
63* BadBoss: The first time he appears in the series shows him grabbing the attention of his henchmen by blowing off their limbs and clearly enjoying his pain. He will immediately kill off any Sternritter who have failed their tasks, as seen with [=BG9=] and Cang Du. He even kills those who are successful or still fighting [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness if they can no longer directly aid him]]. A lot of his Sternritters seem to follow in his example in being horrible authority figures and Yhwach doesn't seem to be bothered by this in the least. Later on, his behavior is given an explanation: every Quincy in existence literally derives their power from him, and that power returns to him upon their death. This is the only thing that saves him from a FateWorseThanDeath, because he was born without his senses, and the only way he can keep his senses is to give out his power, binding it to an individual's soul, and then have it return to him. The result is that he is a BloodKnight and his army must fight and die for him lest he return to a state of living death.
64* BaitAndSwitch: He sent Royd in as a DittoFighter decoy, tanking Zanka no Tachi while revealing all of Yamamoto's offensive secrets. Once Royd was defeated, Yamamoto deactivated his Bankai...and then the real Yhwach showed up.
65* BarrierMaiden: The light novel ''Literature/BleachWeDoKnotAlwaysLoveYou'' reveals that his corpse has been sealed away and serves now as the lynchpin holding the world together.
66* BatmanGambit: Understanding the conventions of shonen battle gives him considerable insight into how his opponents think:
67** Knowing that Yamamoto's weak spots were his short temper and extreme loyalty to his office, Yhwach goaded him into both UnstoppableRage ''and'' TranquilFury by sending Driscoll to assassinate Sasakibe.
68** Appointing Uryuu as his successor forces Uryu to be constantly scrutinised by the Sternritter who do not trust an unknown, unproven man being promoted so dramatically. The success of this scheme relied on Yhwach knowing just ''how'' paranoid his subordinates actually were.
69** Yhwach knows how the Soul Reapers respond to emergent threats (i.e., how long they'll likely to need to muster and train to be ready to face a new enemy) and times his attacks accordingly, including leading with his strongest fighters as a result of the Soul Reaper reliance on the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil. This meant he actively planned for Royal Guard involvement in Soul Reaper training, including Ichigo's.
70* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: The Quincy are a race of progress and evolution. They care about how the world should be. Yhwach creating a new, perfect world would eventually have led to stagnation and ceased all progress, the very thing the Quincy do not stand for. This is best illustrated by him absorbing Mimihagi, who governs stagnation and sided with the Shinigami, who prefer stagnation over progress, and abandoning the white Quincy color-scheme for the black color of the Shinigami. Fittingly, in the end his defeat was caused by the actions of four Quincies (Ryūken Ishida, Uryū Ishida, Ichigo Kurosaki & Jugram Haschwalth). The anime lampshades this by having Aizen [[PretenderDiss mock the Quincy King]] for "trying to follow in the footsteps of a Shinigami".
71* {{BFS}}: His Spirit Weapon manifests as a Reishi sword, with a cross-guard shaped like the wings of an eagle, almost as long as he is tall (and he's ''very'' tall). He can also create a truly massive Reishi arrow that he can wield as a broadsword powerful enough to bisect the immensly durable Yamamoto in a single swing.
72* BigBad: Yhwach is revealed as the ultimate villain of the story, having a grander impact on the plot than even Aizen and having a far more personal connection to Ichigo than the renegade Soul Reaper. His desire is to [[ImmortalityImmorality escape death]] by killing the Soul King and create a world without death and fear. To do this, he's willing to commit any atrocity he can that will aid him in his quest. He leads a ruthless attack on Soul Society that leaves many Soul Reapers dead and kills [[BigGood Genryusai Yamamoto]]. He creates chaos and bloodshed to feed off souls, which keep him alive and functioning. He even manages to succeed where Aizen failed by destroying the Soul King. He is the most powerful, dangerous. and crulest villain in the series, uniting enemies against him, with Soul Reapers, Quincies, Arrancars, Humans and even [[EnemyMine Aizen himself]] all working together to defeat him.
73* BlindObedience: Yhwach despises blind loyalty, and when the established Sternritter saw Uryu Ishida as his choice of successor, he was glad they showed genuine discontent over that.
74* BloodKnight: Despite claiming to be a lover of peace, the man literally thrives on warfare and violence. When the Soul Reapers end up getting their Bankai back (besides Zanka no Tachi), Yhwach simply... smiles. It quickly turns into a wide, maniacal grin. Not only did he expect them to regain their Bankai, he was looking forward to it. During his second battle with Ichigo, he could've immediately defeated him using The Almighty, but chose not to because he wanted to personally enjoy the fight for as much as he could, seeing it as some twisted form of "father-son bonding time".
75* BlueAndOrangeMorality: When it comes to the Quincy, Yhwach operates under the question of whether they are more useful to him alive or dead, as he gets stronger with every dead Quincy. He expresses no joy, unlike with his slaughtering of the Shinigami, or sadness, but rather sees it as only natural and believes that the Quincy would be grateful for that and how they have to act. When questioned by Liltotto, he calls his sacrificing the lower ranks for the higher ranks an act of camaraderie and comrades helping each other. He is furthermore genuinely grateful for the service of each Quincy under him and is confused, why Ichigo is angry at him for killing his mother and believes that there is no greater joy than to empower him. As he was born with no senses or power, he had to sacrifice those around him just to survive and came to the belief that everything was for his taking and it's only natural that he would sacrifice others, once they stop being useful alive. Being that he also sees himself as the "father" of all Quincy and the son of the Soul King, he doesn't understand why anyone affiliated with either group doesn't agree with him, such as when Mimihagi helps Soul Society.
76* BreakThemByTalking: Yhwach repeats Aizen's ''Deicide'' strategy of claiming that Ichigo's power development has all been for the sake of furthering Yhwach's goals. Yhwach further claims that, because Ichigo shares his blood, Ichigo's will is his own. When Ichigo dismisses his Quincy heritage and claims he'll "stop" Yhwach regardless, Yhwach points out that Ichigo's weakness against him is proven by the fact Ichigo can't even say he'll "kill" his own mother's murderer. By expositing on the true nature of his abilities while effortlessly trouncing both Ichigo and Orihime and negating their every means of attacking him, he succeeds in pushing Ichigo into true despair.
77* CastingAShadow: Yhwach has the ability to teleport to the Soul Society and Schatten Bereich by opening shadow portals. However, he can only be outside of Schatten Bereich for a limited time. He can also use that ability to summon his subordinates. He later absorbs Mimihagi, which has the power to manipulate darkness. Once he absorbs the Soul King into himself, he becomes a horrific dark being capable of wielding powerful black Reiatsu that serves as an extension of his own body. In the final battle of the series, he comes dangerously close to submerging all of Seireitei in his dark Reiatsu.
78* TheChessmaster: Yhwach prioritizes pragmatic strategies to acomplish his goals. He first sends an Arrancar to the Human World in an attempt to confirm if Ichigo's Bankai could be stolen. After invading Hueco Mundo, Yhwach takes the chance to attack the Seireitei once he learns Ichigo has made his way there and engaged Quilge, who is all but guaranteed to delay Ichigo for a substantial amount of time. He sends in an impersonator to confront the Captain-Commander while he goes to have an audience with Aizen and returns to steal the exhausted Yamamoto's Bankai. Haschwalth believes Yhwach named Uryu as his successor in order to preempt any betrayal by him; his reasoning is that Yhwach is using Uryu to sow such discontent among the army that they will then scrutinize Uryu too closely for Uryu to be able to make any move against Yhwach. It's also implied that Uryu's aware of this. Yhwach then counts on Ichigo receiving training in the Royal Realm so that, when he returns, Yhwach will have the chance to invade the Soul King's palace.
79* ColdBloodedTorture: His treatment of Luders (blowing off his limbs and watching him scream in pain) very closely resembles this. It is the first clear sign that Yhwach does not treat his servants kindly.
80* CombatClairvoyance: Yhwach's signature power, "A of The Almighty", lets him see into the future. However, what is unique about his foresight is that the future that he sees is not something set in stone, so other users of The Almighty are prone to confusion if a foreseen future spontaneously changes. However, not only is Yhwach able to see every possible future and follow any alterations, he is also able to bring any outcome he has foreseen immediately into the present reality. He uses this power to literally defeat his opponents instantly. His ability does have a few weaknesses. One is that he can't see or affect the past so, though he destroyed Ichigo's sword, Tsukishima used his ability to alter the past to change things so the sword was never broken. Next, while his his power to show the possible futures is infallible, his own perceptions of reality are not and his senses can be fooled by Aizen's illusion abilities to see false futures. He also cannot see futures that involve beings using the same type of power he has with strength on his level, so when the right hand of the Soul King attacks him, he is surprised because he saw no future involving the attack.
81* CombatPragmatist: The author states that Yhwach (and the Quincy race as a whole) is ''meant'' to symbolize cold, logical pragmatism (like trying to stab Ichigo in the neck in a fight). This is the polar opposite of the Arrancar, who represent [[HotBlooded unrestrained passion and instinct]]. Yhwach takes advantage of every opening the enemy gives him. He told the Shinigami war would begin in five days, but attacks in less than 24 hours simply because Ichigo has gone to Hueco Mundo and cannot come to Soul Society's rescue. He tricks Yamamoto into revealing his Bankai too soon, which allows him to steal Yamamoto's power. He comments that those Sternritter who fight less pragmatically than he'd hoped are fighting naïvely, although even the most "naïve" are willing to attack while the Shinigami are introducing themselves or calling their attacks.
82* CurbStompBattle: Yhwach easily defeats Yamamoto by taking his Bankai, cutting him in half and blowing him to oblivion. He easily downs Ichigo when they first meet, despite Ichigo being in Bankai. He swiftly destroys Ichibei after activating The Almighty and has no trouble defeating Liltotto and Giselle without taking a scratch.
83* DarkIsEvil: The Quincy have a preference towards cladding themselves in all white. Yhwach stands out among his men due to being the only Quincy who wears dark clothing; in particular, a dark maroon cloak which he wears over his white uniform. It makes him look like he's permanently enclosed in shadow. It is also very fitting with his dark, ruthless nature as a being who thrives on violence and death to prolong his own life. He commits a brutal slaughter on Seireitei with many Soul Reapers, including Captain-Commander Yamamoto, losing their lives. He cares for his men not as people, but rather as fuel sources to extend his life when their use inevitably expires. It's strongly implied that the reason the Quincies' war with the Shinigami is solely his doing, rather than it being a natural thing for the two sides to do. After absorbing Mimihagi and the Soul King, his body becomes shrouded in darkness that oozes around him, and he forgoes all of the Quincy's "holy" attacks in favor of mauling his opponents with globs of dark energy, his form resembling a multi-eyed shadow draped over the form of a man. In the final battle of the series, he is bisected by Ichigo, but uses The Almighty to revive himself as a living mass of darkness that attempts to swallow all of Seireitei in dark Reiatsu.
84* DarkMessiah: Yhwach is the prophesied herald of the Quincies and their supposed salvation. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, he is a very, very dark and wicked figure. He was born with strange healing powers that could cure anything, even restore missing limbs. For these miracles, people referred to him as YHWH, one of the names of the Abrahamic God. The price of his healing is a drastically shortened lifespan, as he can recall the power he used from the target's soul at a later date, killing them in the process. When he enters the Royal Palace, he addresses the Soul King as his father. Several of the Sternritter, especially [[ColdSniper Lille Barro]], outright consider him a God.
85* DealWithTheDevil: He thrives on people looking to him to become stronger by curing their problems and granting their wishes. He cures ailments, missing limbs and voids of the soul by inserting a piece of his own soul into them. This drastically reduces the person's lifespan as the soul fragment is designed to obtain a power-up from residing in the victim to strengthen Yhwach when it returns to him.
86* DemiurgeArchetype: Yhwach was worshipped as a god in his youth, even sharing a name with the Abrahamic God. He performed miracles for his worshippers, great acts of healing, and even today is surrounded by followers in a kingdom of his making. He's unstoppable in a fight, nearly immortal, and heavily associated with light. His followers resemble angels, with many of their higher forms being {{Angelic Abomination}}s in appearance. Yhwach's plan to destroy the current world and remake it also mirrors the ideas of the Demiurge being the God of a new world, something he somewhat becomes in the end.
87* DevourTheDragon: Yhwach hits his remaining elite Sternritter, including the devoutly loyal Haschwalth, with an Auswählen immediately after absorbing Ichigo's powers, completely preventing them from eventually killing Ichigo's allies in the process.
88* DidntSeeThatComing:
89** He's quite surprised when Ichigo instinctively uses Blut to protect himself from Yhwach's attacks, and admits it was a mistake on his part to let Ichigo's Quincy powers awaken so soon. He had planned on awakening them later, implying he had wanted complete control over it happening.
90** He was fully aware of Mimihagi's existence, and admits Mimihagi lies beyond his sight. However, he is very surprised by Mimihagi's sudden decision to intervene on behalf of Soul Society and can't understand Mimihagi's motive for doing so.
91** Despite his precognition power, and knowing full well Uryu intended to kill him when first introducing Uryu to the rest of the Sternritter, he is caught completely by surprise when Uryu manages to shoot him from behind with an arrow of Still Silver to briefly take away his power.
92** He's incapable of telling the difference between the visions that The Almighty gives him and Aizen's illusions. As a result, the smallest of slip-ups on his part leaves him vulnerable, which is precisely what happens and leads to his defeat. Needless to say, when he realizes he cut down Aizen instead of Ichigo, he had his first true (and last) OhCrap moment. In an ironic twist of fate, he actually ''did'' see this coming well before it happened - he merely thought it a dream due to a little tampering on Haschwalth's part. In that respect, he also didn't see his most loyal soldier's betrayal coming.
93* DirtyCoward: In the end, he's little more than a scared old man who's so afraid of death, he's willing to commit genocide to achieve immortality for himself, similar to [[Literature/HarryPotter Voldemort]]. Killing his subordinates to extend his own lifespan just cements this. After his defeat, he can only [[InelegantBlubbering pathetically blubber]] about how Ichigo has ruined his dream about creating a world without death and fear.
94* DisabilitySuperpower: He was born blind, deaf, mute, and paralyzed, but with HealingHands that could [[PowersViaPossession place his soul]] into other people with damaged or incomplete souls and bestow a multitude of abilities upon them. Since the piece of his soul returns to him when they die and brings their powers back with it, over time he was able to cure his own disabilities and accrue immense spiritual powers. The schtick is he needs to ''keep'' doing this or he will eventually revert to his blind, deaf, mute and paralyzed state.
95* DisproportionateRetribution: He wants to hear about the present, not the future. When Luders gave his two cents on what the Soul Society would do ''after'' their attack, Yhwach ''blows him up''.
96* DissonantSerenity: No matter what happens, Yhwach ''never'' loses his composure. The only expression he ever has on his face is either a look of indifference, or a calm smile. It heavily contrasts with his thirst for bloodshed and violence, making for quite an unnerving sight when he remain calm even in the face of the atrocities he has caused.
97* TheDreaded: Yhwach inspires either blind loyalty, or immense fear among his men. Even Äs Nödt, a Sternritter whose power revolves around causing fear in others, is utterly terrified of the idea of failing him. Considering how he regularly treats his subbordinates, the fear is completely justified. When he absorbs Mimihagi and the Soul King into himself and achieves a new form as a Transcendent Being, all of his remaining Sternritter except for Haschwalth react in shock and horror.
98* TheEmperor: He is the Emperor of the Wandenreich, and is referred to as 陛下 (heika = "Your Majesty"), the official way of addressing real life Emperor of Japan. He also pulls double-duty as King of the Quincies. He's a hands-on military leader, not the "isolated on the golden throne" type, who is as willing to kill his own troops as his enemies. When he fights, he becomes an AxCrazy BloodKnight. There's an indication that his soul thrives on war to keep functioning. Without the ability to absorb the souls of those he kills, he would be nothing more than a vegetable who can neither move nor has functioning senses. As a result, he incites war and violence wherever he can.
99* TheEndOrIsIt: Mayuri once observes that Reiatsu can only continue to exist if there is a heart that can beat which is why Muken imprisons those who cannot die by normal means. Yhwach appears to be killed by Ichigo, and his lingering Reiatsu appears to be defeated a few years later, but even dead he still possesses enough Reiatsu to function as the Soul King. The Soul King he replaces also had functioning powers even after Yhwach had stabbed him and Ichigo had split him in half. In the post war novels multiple characters, even though they don't know that he became the lynchpin after his death, speculate if Yhwach is responsible for the various plots that are happening. It's open ended as to whether or not Yhwach's threat is truly gone for good.
100* EstablishingCharacterMoment: One of the first things Yhwach is seen doing is killing two subordinates for incredibly minor offenses. His exchange with Luders also foreshadows his Schrift, "A" of "The Almighty". From that point on, it's constantly reiterated that he is a terrible boss who will turn on his own subordinates as fast as he'll turn on his enemies.
101* EvenEvilHasStandards: He's an absolute bastard, but even he's baffled by Ichibē's acts.
102* EvilCannotComprehendGood: He cannot understand why Ichigo would oppose him even after learning of their blood relation and after Ichigo's Quincy instincts caused him to attack the Soul King.
103* EvilCounterpart: To Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, the Head-Captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. He and Yamamoto are both ancient and very powerful beings of their respective race, both are peerless and strict leaders of military organizations devoted to eliminating Hollows and each other, and in the past, both were equally ruthless and amoral. However, Yamamoto found something worth protecting and thus mellowed out, obeys the law, protects his subordinates and maintains the balance of reincarnation, all the while holding a very short fuse, while Yhwach retained his cold, opportunistic pragmatism, and so he marches at his own pace, murders his underlings on the fly and actively disrupts the balance of reincarnation, while maintaining an incredibly passive demeanor through all of it. Yhwach, however, [[NotSoDifferentRemark points out]] they were once similar in terms of their treatment of allies.
104* EvilLaugh: Upon defeating Ichigo while on Wahrwelt, Yhwach steals Ichigo's power and begins to laugh maniacally as Ichigo's power merges with his own. It is the first time he is ever shown laughing.
105* EvilOverlord: Yhwach is TheEmperor of the Wandenreich, a hyper-militant Quincy organization. He is a brutal, intolerant autocrat primarily interested in causing as much discord, conflict, and death as possible for the sake of fueling his life-span with the souls of all who are killed. He's completely willing to encourage his Sternritters to engage in team killing and mistreating their subordinates whenever they feel like it. He himself is also a truly horrifying authority figure whom Yamamoto claims has absolutely no compassion towards those in his service. Yamamoto's claims would later prove to be greatly founded. Yhwach resides within the Schatten Bereich (the Shadow Realm), the location of the Wandenreich (both the city and the organization), but he generally resides within Silbern, an ice palace. As a bonus, when he makes his debut, he'd ''already'' conquered Hueco Mundo on the side. His desire is to kill the Soul King, which serves as the linchpin of the three worlds. Once he kills him, he decides to absorb him into himself, and recreates the Royal Palace into a new realm for the Quincy, which in the center lies a fortress called Wahrelt. He then eventually decides he no longer has any use for his remaining Sternritter and uses Auswählen on them before setting out to bring ruin to existence.
106* TheEvilPrince: The Soul King is ultimately responsible for the balance of souls between worlds and is the linchpin of the three worlds. Yhwach possesses this unusual power to redistribute souls and spiritual power, and claims that nine days after he regains his power, he'll "reclaim" the world. As he stabs the Soul King, he calls the Soul King his father. When Ichigo arrives to stop him, he uses the Quincy blood inside to force Ichigo into killing the Soul King. Yhwach then decides to absorb his father into himself and essentially becomes the new Soul King. Rather ironically, once Yhwach is slain, his corpse is used as the replacement for his father as it still contains enough spiritual power to serve as a suitable linchpin.
107* EvilSoundsDeep: Both of his voice actors give him a very deep, outright demonic voice befitting his status as the final main antagonist of the series.
108* EvilerThanThou: According to Shutara, Aizen may be the personification of evil, but Yhwach is even worse. The author states that the conflict with Aizen was a case of good versus evil, but the conflict against the Wandenreich is one where both sides are morally equal and Yhwach is an enemy, but not a villain; this, along with the events of the sequel novels, strongly implies that Shutara's claim cannot be trusted.
109* ExoticEyeDesigns: While using his Schrift, the number of pupils visible in each of Yhwach's eyes increase. The pupils are capable of independent movement and contribute to his ability to [[TheOmniscient see anything]], including his opponents abilities and the future. The first use of his power increases his pupils from one to two per eye and the second increases them to three per eye. After absorbing the Soul King, pupils spread to every part of his body and even to the shadows that cover him.
110* EyesDoNotBelongThere: Upon completing the absorption of the Soul King, and the Mimihagi the Soul King's Right Hand, his body, and the ground around him, becomes warped by shadow. The top half of his head no longer details either human eyes or even a forehead. Instead, giant malformed eyes of varying sizes cover his face. Eyes also appear across his shoulders and neck. Wherever the shadow touches his body, eyes appear. They even seem to be forming across the ground that is intimately connected to his body via the shadows.
111* FantasticRacism: Yhwach has nothing but contempt for Arrancars and Soul Reapers. He views Arrancars as CannonFodder at best because he can always get more. He despises Soul Reapers because they are the natural enemy of the Quincy, and for turning his father into an abomination. Not even the Quincies themselves are immune from his prejudiced views, as he has a very low view of mixed-blooded Quincies, intentionally wiping them all out in a purge six years before the relatively major events begin. He's a bit confused as to how Uryu survived it.
112* FatalFlaw: His BadBoss tendencies to kill his own subordinates on a whim, either to gain power or because he needed to be in the upper hand. Multiple strong Sternritters, including Schutzstaffel with a StoryBreakerPower, were either executed and their powers re-absorbed - or he kills them with his Auswahlen, leaving multiple foes plenty of opportunities to kill him. In the end, his lack of care at all for his soldiers leads to his defeat when his casual disposing of them gives the heroes the chance to weaken him to the point where he can be killed.
113* FauxAffablyEvil: He can act polite, but has no problem offing his subordinates.
114* FinalBoss: After defeating Ichigo and bringing him to despair, Yhwach absorbs his Quincy and Hollow powers, and performs Auswählen on his remaining Sternritter before setting out to bring ruin to existence, starting with Seireitei. He departs with a warning to Ichigo that he will find him in the moment he is at his happiest and slaughter him and everyone he loves, should he decide to follow him. When Tensa Zangetsu is reforged with the help of Tsukishima, and getting a pep-talk from Renji, Ichigo regains his confidence and sets out to confront Yhwach in the very last battle of the series. Yhwach is so dangerous and powerful, that Ichigo requires the help of both Aizen and Uryu to defeat him.
115* {{Foreshadowing}}:
116** There was a volume spread [[http://i.imgur.com/Fvsyk4A.jpg picture]] that had Ichigo going through all of his opponents throughout the years. At the very top was a long black cloak with something resembling a wad of messy hair at the top, connected to four red and black chains. It looks rather suspiciously like Yhwach.
117** Opie mentions that Yhwach should adjust Blut, which works through a Quincy's blood, for the Wandenreich. Yhwach also refers to Ichigo and Uryu as his "sons". Yhwach is the "First Quincy", the progenitor of all Quincies through whom his blood flows.
118** His physical appearance, including his facial shape, the type of moustache, the long, shaggy hair, the flowing black cloak that wraps his body in shadow, all make him look like Old Man Zangetsu. Old Man Zangetsu turns out to be Yhwach from a thousand years ago and Tensa Zangetsu turns out to be Yhwach from his teenage years because Ichigo has a Quincy's heritage, and therefore Yhwach's blood, running through his veins.
119** When the Quincies leave an area swiftly, they are enveloped by shadows. The first invasion reveals the quincies can enter the Seireitei's barrier because, Yhwach claims, they were already there. When his HourOfPower is over, Yhwach is pulled underground by shadows. When he begins the final battle, shadows envelop the Seireitei, coming from underground. It turns out the Quincies have been hiding in the shadows of Seireitei for a thousand years, and quite literally - they created a dimensional shadow realm right underneath the Soul Reapers' noses.
120** When he enters the Royal Realm, Yhwach dismisses the Soul King's palace as a "rotten grave" and sets up a new castle called Wahrwelt, a name drived from a work by Nietztsche called "How the true world became fiction". The Soul King is the lynchpin that defines the boundaries between the worlds as the characters understand them to be, and he is kept in the Royal Palace behind a barrier. It eventually becomes clear that there's a question mark over whether or not the Soul King is alive at all, and that the boundaries between worlds, including the lynchpin that sustains those boundaries, were deliberately created by the Soul Reapers. This makes Soul Society an artificial world that hides the truth about the real world that came before.
121** He mentions that his sense of time was off when he's about to capture Ichigo and remarks that he should have had more time outside of their shadow dimension. He mentions that Aizen must have had something to do with it. This was a hint that Aizen's illusion powers could affect his senses and it was Aizen's ability to alter Yhwach's perception that was instrumental in his defeat later.
122** Yhwach tells Ichigo at some point that a horrible fate will await him and considers ending his life an act of mercy. Captain Kyoraku also gives soul tickets to Tatsuki, Mizuiro and Keigo, so they can visit him in the future if he's not allowed to ever return to the human world. The novels reveal that the Royal Guard's original plan was to turn Ichigo into the new Soul King, a fate both Kyoraku and Yhwach knew about.
123* ForTheEvulz: Yhwach is a cruel psychopath who will kill for very little reason, or for no reason at all if feels like it. He is introduced blasting the arm off one of his servants just to get his attention. When the servant finishes his report, he kills him for speculating about the future. He admits that he has no reason to praise or critique how his other underling, Ebern, handled his mission, but kills him too regardless. His bloodthirsty behavior is given an explanation: he was born without senses and requires the souls of others to retain his senses and prolong his life, meaning that he has to kill others whether he wants to or not. However, this doesn't change the fact that he's clearly enjoying himself when he commits his ruthless atrocities.
124* FounderOfTheKingdom: Yhwach is the progenitor of the Quincy race and has unlimited power over them. The Quincy tell of a legend about the Sealed King of the Quincy, who will eventually return to conquer the world. He founded the Wandenreich, of which he serves as TheEmperor. His blood flows through the veins of every Quincy and those descended from them and is therefore the source of both their power and organization.
125* FreudianExcuse: The very last chapter reveals that his ultimate motive was to destroy the current life and death cycle and create a new world where people don't have to live in fear of death.
126* GodEmperor: Yhwach is TheEmperor of the [[PuttingOnTheReich Wandenreich]] and later reveals himself as the son of the Soul King, a nigh-omnipotent Transcendent Being who was sealed away to be the lynchpin of existence. Even as as a baby, he possessed God-like power, and was thus given the name of God by the humans around him. He is the King of the Quincy, and the Quincies fanactically worship and praise as a deified figure; calling him the "First Quincy" and the "Father of the Quincies" because his blood flows through the veins of every Quincy. His Schrift is called The Almighty and permits him to see all potential futures, allowing him to plan for any eventuality and negate any power. The kanji used to spell "The Almighty" - ''zenchizennou'' - even means "All-Knowing, All-Powerful". Some Quincies are genuinely loyal through blind obediance or ignorance, but others seek to oppose him whenever they learn of his true nature. The true power of "The Almighty" is to [[WindsOfDestinyChange alter the future]], even being able to revive himself on the slim chance someone manages to deal a killing blow to him. All this makes him almost impossible to defeat or kill.
127* GreaterScopeVillain: Prior to his proper introduction, Yhwach has had an influence on the world, with events going back as far as the earliest parts of the seires being a result of his mere existence. He is the progenitor of the Quincies, the Emperor of the Wandenreich, the creator of the Sternritter; even the creation of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads is implied to be connected to him. Many centuries before the start of the series, a war broke out between the Soul Reapers and the Quincy, in which Yhwach was believed to be killed. In truth, he survived and would return 1,000 years later. He's responsible for the Echt culture that brought Ryuken and Masaki together and killed off both Masaki and Kanae. The Quincy bloodline that he is the progenitor of attracted Aizen's Hollowfication experiment White and provided a means of stabilizing the Visoreds. Neither Ichigo nor Uryu would exist, or even be the kind of people that they are, without Yhwach's influence.
128* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Yhwach has a nightmare of Ichigo cutting him with Getsuga Tensho. When he wakes up, he seems delighted and remarks on how exhilarating it is. In his fight with Aizen and Ichigo, he gets cut in half at the waist by Ichigo, but regenerates thanks to his ability to manipulate the future. He gets cut in half again not long after, this time when his powers have been temporarily negated by an arrow made of Still Sliver.
129* HeroKiller: No other villain in ''Bleach'' has brought forth more death and destruction then Yhwach. He leads a brutal attack on Seireitei, which results in countless Soul Reapers dying. He's the one who personally kills Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, the BigGood of the series. It's also revealed that he's the one responsible for the death of Ichigo's mother Masaki and Uryu's mother Kanae. He later kills Ichibei, the leader of Squad Zero, when he reveals his Schrifft. Though Ichibei is later resurrected, and his [[AmbiguouslyEvil status as "hero" is questionable]] to say the least.
130* TheHighKing: What his role is to the Quincies as a whole alongside with his other title as TheEmperor of the Wandenreich.
131* HopeCrusher: He has a nasty habit of playing around with his opponents for several minutes, then [[DePower de-powering]] and [[CurbStompBattle utterly thrashing]] them in seconds, solely to show that he could have easily done so any time he wanted to.
132* HopeSpot:
133** Once he finishes evaluating Ebern's performance against Ichigo, Yhwach declares him to be "a foundation for peace"... and then beheads him.
134** He praises Royd's achievements and overlooks his subordinate's sense of failure. Just as Royd wells up with joy at Yhwach's benevolence, Yhwach slaughters him and Yamamoto accuses him of being cruel.
135* HourOfPower: Some unspecified weakness limits his time outside his own territory. Energy seems to start bleeding off him when he hits the limit.
136* HumanoidAbomination: From the moment he was born, he could inject pieces of his soul into others, then retrieve it and kill them in the process, though the curing of ailments and bestowed powers led many to view him as divine for this. His Schrift produces ExtraEyes on each eyeball that give him omniscience and omnipotetence, including the power to [[WindsOfDestinyChange "change the future"]] in a manner that is [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm completely incomprehensible]] to anyone who faces it. After he absorbs the Soul King, his proclaimed father which itself is so bizarre that Aizen calls it "that thing", he transcends into a horrific God-like entity capable of bending reality to his will, manipulating dark Reiatsu, and recreating the Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the Human World into one new world where life and death are one. His body has been largely converted to a mass of shadow with even ''more eyes'', visibly terrifying the Schutzstaffel. After dying, his corpse becomes the Soul King's replacement, whereupon he is also spoken of like an unnerving object.
137* {{Hypocrite}}: He claims to hate violence and preaches about peace, but he kills his subordinates without any hesitation and orchestrates a war with the Soul Reapers. This is reflected in how his volume spread picture contains the word "Peace" written in blood.
138* IWantThemAlive: He wants to defeat Ichigo without killing him so that he can force Ichigo into becoming one of his followers. He's apparently not very strict about it, though, since none of his followers see killing Ichigo as something they might regret.
139* ImmortalityImmorality: As long as he keeps reabsorbing souls of dying Quincies, he can keep extending his lifespan. Of course, the easiest way to do this is to organize war after war, guaranteeing as much death as possible to keep him alive longer. When he is finally defeated and slain by Ichigo, he reveals to him that his motivation was to create a world where death doesn't exist so that he would be able to live forever.
140* ImmortalsFearDeath: His one true fear is dying, and his goal is to create a world where death doesn't exist to prevent that from happening.
141* {{Irony}}: He, Soul Society's greatest enemy, is now protected by them and as the lynchpin holding the current world he despises so much together.
142* InformedAttribute: His Auswählen is stated to be always fatal, stealing the powers of any Quincies hit by it and killing them by clotting their blood with Still Silver and stopping their hearts. However, the only Quincy shown being killed by it in that exact manner were Kanae Katagiri -- who died offscreen -- and [[AmbiguousSituation possibly]] Jugram Haschwalth -- who retained his power to trade injuries with his opponents. Robert Accutrone and Gerard Valkyrie were StrippedToTheBone when struck by it; and the other Wandenreich members hit by it only lost their Vollständig powers -- with the manga never explaining why this was the case.
143* InTheBack: The anime adaptation depicts his initial defeat a thousand years ago by not only grossly [[UnderestimatingBadassery underestimating]] the original thirteen captains of the Court Guard, but also overlooking Sasakibe during his confrontation with Yamamoto. This allow Sasakibe to rise from a pile of corpses and stab Yhwach from behind, fazing Yhwach long enough for Yamamoto to unleash his Bankai and annihilate the Quincy emperor.
144* InvincibleVillain: He steamrolls ''everyone'' that goes against him (including Yamamoto, the head of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads who has the ''power of a sun''), manages to get into the Soul King palace, beats his Elite Guards by reviving his own elite guards after they're initially defeated, and manages to take the Soul King's power and merge with it. His Schrifft boils down to being a RealityWarper who can see and manipulate every possible future to his whim, even outright breaking the rules of other powers if he wants. This makes him incredibly difficult to defeat or kill. Aizen himself has to team up with the heroes to take him on, distracting Yhwach long enough for Ichigo to kill him with a powerful Getsuga Tensho. When Yhwach uses his power to bring himself back from the dead, Ishida negates his powers by shooting him with the Still Silver arrow, which gives Ichigo just enough time to kill Yhwach for good.
145* ItsAllAboutMe: Yhwach's entire existence revolves around giving pieces of himself to others, only to take everything they have to offer. He is the progenitor of all Quincies and his blood flows through every one of them. He doesn't take kindly to the idea of mixed breeds or tainted pure bloods. When he wants to rebuild his power, he thinks nothing of taking the power of all of the Quincy that has "tainted" blood in order to fuel his own power, killing them in the process. In fact, the entire war between the Wandenreich and Seireitei is all for the purpose of increasing his life and strength. It is explained that as a child, Yhwach had to rely on imparting fragments of his souls into others and recall them back to him with the lives, memories, and abilities of the person who was imparted with the soul shard. If he doesn't continuously do this, he will revert back to his vegetative state. Being self-centered is literally a survival tactic for him. However, he never once laments or attempt to justify it, and in fact even enjoys it. He tells Ichibei that everything in the world exists for his taking. He cannot fathom why Ichigo would be upset over his mother's death, as Yhwach wholeheartedly believes that empowering him is the greatest honor there is. Even his hunger for a world without death seems like nothing more then a way to escape that fate.
146* JustYouAndMeAndMyGuards: He pulls this when facing off against the Royal Guards. Every time someone has tried to attack Yhwach directly, he quickly reveals that he's still being protected by some unseen minion (or group of minions).
147* KarmicDeath: Yamamoto fell to Yhwach when he lost his powers before being cut in half. Yhwach himself ultimately fell when he lost his powers before being cut in half.
148* KarmicTransformation: The light novel ''Literature/BleachWeDoKnotAlwaysLoveYou'' reveals that his corpse is being used as the new Soul King.
149* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: One of his most commonly used methods of asserting his authority.
150** After destroying Luders' arm (and watching him crawl as he struggles to deal with the pain), he says that it's fine for Luders to give his report while lying on the floor. As soon as Luders shows relief, Yhwach promptly threatens to destroy Luders' legs since he "doesn't need them for sitting."
151** He praised Royd for his role in the invasion, just before blasting him to bits. Yamamoto calls him out on it.
152** Does this almost literally in Yamamoto's case, via stepping on his head and pushing it the ground after killing him.
153* KnightOfCerebus: The moment he takes center stage of the story, things get ''really'' serious whenever he's around. He's primarily the reason the Bleach manga and anime becomes DarkerAndEdgier by the time the Thousand-Year Blood War arc finally happens with ''very'' few jokes here and there.
154* KnightTemplar: Many millennium prior to the start of the series, the Five Noble Houses committed the Original Sin by creating the Soul King which separated life from death. Yhwach's ultimate goal is to end the Soul King, undo the Original Sin of Soul Society and create a deathless, stagnant world without fear and suffering. How does he intend to do this? By destroying the world and causing enough conflict, so that he will be powerful enough to execute his plans. Yhwach cares nothing for those he kills and destroys along the way, also being fanatically devoted to his own divinity while purging Quincies he deems 'impure' in his quest.
155* LackOfEmpathy: According to Yamamoto, he has never had compassion nor mercy for others, not even his own men. Something he tends to demonstrate time and time again. He dismisses the Arrancar who work for him to be nothing more than CannonFodder, even if they have sworn alleigence to him. Six years before the start of the series, when he awakens, he heartlessly robs all of the "impure" Quincies of their power, causing them to die. The sole survivor was Uryu Ishida, who's mother was one of the many who died. Yhwach would converse with Uryu about that event in a casual manner. When Liltotto demands to know what his soldiers were to him, he refers to annihilating his Sternritter as simply their lot in being his 'comrades' with no regard for their anguish. He also genuinely doesn't understand why Ichigo is upset at his mother's death, as Yhwach believes there is no greater honor than empowering him.
156* LargeAndInCharge: He is so tall that when Royd [[ActuallyADoombot copied his appearance]], he {{Neck Lift}}ed the 202 cm (6'7") tall Kenpachi Zaraki. Hinted at during the Soul Society invasion when Zangetsu strolls past Kenpachi and is clearly larger than him. Zangetsu is how Yhwach looked a millennium ago.
157* LaserGuidedKarma: Yhwach has a habit of killing his subordinates when they are no longer useful to him, often by using Auswählen to leave a piece of Still Silver in their hearts while he absorbs their powers and make himself stronger. He also recruited Haschwalth to be his other half, bestowing The Almighty on Haschwalth every night. Ryuken crafts for Uryu an arrow that is made from the Still Silver that killed Kanae that can suspend Yhwach's powers for a brief moment when it touches his blood. Haschwalth feeds a vision of Ichigo killing Yhwach to Yhwach in such a way as to make Yhwach think it's only a dream, and the two events coincide to give Ichigo the moment he needs to cut Yhwach in half.
158* LeaveNoSurvivors: During both the initial invasion of the Seireitei and the follow-up, this was the only order Yhwach gave to the Sternritter. Haschwalth even told Kyoraku up front exactly what they were ordered to do.
159--> '''Haschwalth:''' ''His Majesty is fond of peace. He is fond of battles that are not drawn out, and so we were given only one directive: the instant and immediate extermination of all enemy forces.''
160* LifeDrinker: How he lives and thrives. As an infant, Yhwach wasn't able to see, hear, feel, taste, or smell. He was born with the ability to share pieces of his soul with other people. This would result in the person being healed of all ailments, both physical and spiritual. However, the soul fragment would eventually return to Yhwach, and with it, the life-force of that person along with their abilities and memories. Through this, Yhwach was able to acquire his senses and grow in power. Anyone who comes in contact with his soul are at risk of having their life stolen by him, and this includes all of the Quincies as well as whoever fights them. It's through this Yhwach is able to extend his life-span, and if he doesn't continuously do this, he will revert back to the senseless state he was in as a child.
161* LightIsNotGood: The Quincy uniform is pure white, although he hides that uniform behind a dark maroon colored cape. He wields the power of Light, but every time he brings forth the Light, it's to kill. The most significant use of his Light is used to destroy the Quincies themselves, calling back their power so he can redistribute it among himself and any living Quincies of his choice. During the Wandenreich's second invasion, he briefly swaps his maroon cape with the usual white-colored white cape worn by the Quincy before changing it back when he prepares to invade the Soul King's Palace. When he assimilates Mimihagi and the Soul King, he completely abondons the light-themed colors of the Quincy in favor the powers of darkness he recieved from the Soul King.
162* LogicalWeakness: In spite of his ability to see and choose whatever future he wishes being utterly broken, it's not without limits, which means that characters that have some form of temporal abilities can counter it to some degree.
163** Yhwach can only see and affect the future but not the past. This means that anything he can alter can, in theory, be reversed by Tsukishima's ability to [[RetConjuration change the past]], which allows Tsukishima to reverse Zangetsu's destruction.
164** Also, because his ability is to literally ''see'' the future, it's just as open to Aizen's illusions as mundane sight. Using his illusions to make Yhwach see a false future, Aizen manages to conceal Uryu just long enough for the latter to impale Yhwach with the Still Silver arrow.
165** He also can be negated by Orihime's Shun Shun Rikka abilities, as the crux of her ability is to, in essence, reject a reality that is made. In practice, this allows her to shield against things like Yhwach's physical attacks, which would normally be unblockable because Yhwach has willed the success of the attack into reality, but Orihime's shields reject the possibility of the attack landing. Yhwach only gets around this by having to essentially change the future in such a way Orihime cannot counter in time.
166* MakeAnExampleOfThem: He doesn't like fights. He sees two people bickering. He's told them in the past not to fight. The punishment? [[DisproportionateRetribution Lop off the arm]] of the one who started it just to ram his point home.
167* ManlyFacialHair: Following his reawakening from a thousand years of slumber, Yhwach quickly mounts an army to utterly defeat Soul Society, kill Yamamoto through clever deception; Ichigo's massive attack power only shreds a piece of his sleeve, right before Yhwach slams Ichigo down with relative ease. His mustache was impressive enough in the beginning, but as each subsequent appearance leads to darker events and brings him closer to the Soul King, the mustache [[http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2014/307/b/f/evolution_of_yhwach_s_mustache_by_mdre13-d856ojn.jpg increases in size and thickness]] accordingly.
168* MeaningfulName: Also bordering on NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast, not only does he appropriate the Judeo-Christian God's name, but in German, Yhwach is a portmanteau of YHVH and Vach, which means "God Is Awake" or "The Awaking God", tying to his omniscient Schrift, the Almighty.
169* MercyKill:
170** When Royd is left dying from grievous wounds inflicted by Yamamoto, Yhwach lets him know that he did a good job before ending his life swiftly.
171** Yhwach thinks that killing the Soul King, who has suffered lifelong humiliation at the hands of the Soul Reapers, is the only way to free him.
172** Shortly afterwards he tells Ichigo that is going to kill him, because a horrible fate will await him. Said fate turns out to be being turned into the lynchpin.
173* MotiveDecay: While not explored in-depth, the series implies that his motives were, at least at one time, more noble than they are in the present, even if only slightly. The anime in particular implies his previous invasion came from a combination of wanting to free his father from the FateWorseThanDeath he was in, and to prevent people from dying after experiencing the turmoil mortal lives felt when they died, which due to his nature as TheAssimilator, was something he seems to have felt when people around him died. In the current day, his motives, while not quite changed necessarily, are rooted in selfish desires and cruelty than whatever potentially noble reasons he once may have had.
174* MotiveRant: During his dying moments, Yhwach claims he wanted to create a world where everyone could live without fear of death.
175* MyNameIsInigoMontoya: He proudly declares his name to Ichibei to prove it is no longer erased by Ichibei's powers and that Ichibei no longer has the ability to steal his identity.
176* ANaziByAnyOtherName: He is the Emperor of the [[PuttingOnTheReich Wandenreich]], an empire of Quincies with a German aesthetic. His Sternritter wear uniforms that bear resemblance to the apparel worn by SS personnel. The four Sternritter chosen to serve as his elite guard are called the Schutzstaffel, sharing the name of the paramilitary organization that served under Adolf Hitler. Six years prior to the start of the series, Yhwach enacted a [[ThePurge purge]] on all Quincies of mixed blood, or Quincies he deemed "impure" in order to empower himself. He holds great contempt for Arrancar and Soul Reapers, seeing the former as nothing more than cannon fodder, while taking great joy in slaughtering the latter.
177* NervesOfSteel: He maintains his calm demeanor, no matter what happens. If he's ever surprised or taken aback, it's usually only for a few seconds, then the smile and serenity returns.
178* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Once he's defeated Ichigo and taken his powers, he decides to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness use Auswählen on the remaining Sternritter]]. At the very least, this saved Uryu, who was completely at Haschwalth's mercy and about to be finished off, and would end up assisting in his own defeat by temporarily shutting off his powers. He also relieved the Soul Reapers of having to deal with Gerald, whose StoryBreakerPower had proven impossible for them to overcome even when his powers were supposed to have been frozen, and would have spelled trouble for their society based on his size alone if left to rampage.
179* NightmareFetishist: As if he wasn't disturbing enough, Yhwach seems to delight in having nightmares. As he sleeps, he dreams of Ichigo confronting him while asleep and slashing him in cold blood. Yhwach promptly wakes up, grins, and declares that there is no better dream than a nightmare. However, this ends up being his undoing, as it wasn't actually a nightmare, but in fact, a vision of his death. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't realize this until it is too late to prevent it.
180* NoNonsenseNemesis: Yhwach is a highly pragmatic villain who takes advantage of his opponents' decisions and actions to maximize his own plans. He brings forward the invasion of Soul Society by five days when he learns Ichigo is preoccupied in Hueco Mundo with Quilge. Yhwach prevents Yamamoto from reusing his (improved) Bankai against him by using his medallion to immediately steal it, leaving Yamamoto helpless against his lethal attack. He doesn't just kill Yamamoto, he obliterates the whole body to prevent healers like Orihime from ever reviving him. He knows Uryu only joined the organization simply to avenge his mother's death, so he leapfrogs him over established Sternritter to become Imperial Heir, ensuring Uryu cannot plot against him. He toys with opponents like Ichibei just long enough to understand his powers, and then immediately kills him. When Ichigo activates his true Bankai, Tensa Zangetsu, Yhwach immediately warps the future to destroy it before Ichigo can even use it, let alone move it in its intact form. And when he sees Ichigo again with said Bankai repaired, he tries to break it again, though he only cracks an illusion Aizen created.
181* NotSoDifferentRemark: He claims Yamamoto, in his younger days, was every bit the ruthless, merciless monster that Yamamoto's accusing him of being. Unohana, who was one of the original captains that Yhwach calls "thugs" discusses with Zaraki how people like her are criminals who were captains instead of prisoners because of their strength. Multiple characters point out just how much Ichigo's impact on Soul Society has softened and changed the old man. Yhwach claims that softening is what allows him to kill Yamamoto; after defeating the Quincies a thousand years ago, the Soul Reapers won the peace: peace gave the Soul Reapers something to fear losing, and so Yamamoto began to soften.
182* NotSoStoic: Yhwach, having kept a relaxed demeanor the entire arc, bursts into sadistic laughter after having taken Ichigo's Quincy power.
183* OhCrap: When Uryu hits him from behind with the Still Silver arrow that momentarily saps his powers, Yhwach's actually quite surprised. He rants that it won't make any difference. It does.
184* OmnicidalManiac: Yhwach's plan is to create a world of immortality where death doesn't exist. Unfortunately, for that world to come to be, all of the current world has to cease to exist. To that end, Yhwach orchestrates wars to feed off of the death for the sake of goals that put all of existence at risk. Yhwach bids Ichigo farewell after he absorbs all of his power while promising that he will bring ruin to all of existence, including Soul Society and the Real World, now that he has neither further need for Ichigo nor the Sternritter. His final act before he is finally undone is attempting to plunge the cosmos into darkness, starting with Seireitei.
185* TheOmnipotent: While already a monumentaly powerful being as the Father of the Quincy, Yhwach ascends to nigh-omnipotence when he kills and absorbs his father, Soul King. As the new Soul King, Yhwach is a Godlike being capable of doing virtually anything he wants: reforming the Soul King Palace into a new realm for the Quincy, controlling the Reishi to give his subordinates the upper hand in combat, and even reforming Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the Human World into one new world where death does not exist. Even his Schrift, 'The Almighty' reflects this as it allows him to see into and alter every possible future, an ability that he can even use from beyond the grave to resurrect himself. The only possible way to defeat him was to shoot with an arrow forged from his Still Silver to temporarily render him powerless.
186* OnlyOneName: His name is ''just'' Yhwach and nothing else. Seeing as it's a variation on the name of God, one name is plenty.
187* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: He claims he's the only person strong enough to steal Yamamoto's Bankai without dying. He also invokes this with the other Sternritter, ordering the ones who stole a bankai that they have to finish off their former owners themselves.
188* OrcusOnHisThrone: Played With. During the initial assault on Soul Society, Yhwach leads the charge (well, using Royd Lloyd to lead directly while he goes off to find Aizen) and they inflict massive casualties, including Yamamoto once Yhwach shows up for real to steal his Bankai, and he only leaves when he realizes Aizen messed with his perception of time enough that he couldn't afford to stay out of his realm much longer. When the second major battle begins, however, Yhwach is content to wait in his palace after bringing the Silbern into Soul Society so he doesn't need to worry about his time limit, as he's waiting for Ichigo to return so he can assault the Royal Realm with his Elite Guard.
189* PeoplePuppets: A limited form of it. By infusing his Reiatsu into his sword, it resonates with Ichigo's Quincy blood and takes control of his arm when Ichigo grabs the sword, forcing Ichigo to cut the Soul King in half. Ichigo overcomes it shortly thereafter, but Yhwach only needed it to work for the one attack.
190* PetTheDog: After Royd's mortally wounded by Yamamoto with zero hope of recovery, Yhwach takes a moment to praise his performance and [[MercyKill swiftly ends his suffering]]. He also grants Shaz Domino membership among the Wandenreich after he escapes Gremmy's thrall out of respect for his tenacity. [[HateSink These are just about the nicest things he ever does.]]
191* PhysicalGod: He becomes a Transcendent Being when he absorbs the Soul King. Even before however, Yhwach was worshipped as the "Father of the Quincy" and has the ability to impart pieces of his soul unto others, but he also possesses "The Almighty", a power that allows him to see the future, and "know" and counter any ability he sees. [[BilingualBonus The kanji used to spell "The Almighty"]] - ''zenchizennou'' - even means "All-Knowing, All-Powerful". Then he kills and absorbs the Soul King, which transforms Yhwach into a [[HumanoidAbomination eldritch divine being]], and taking the Soul King's place as the linchpin of all reality. As the new Soul King, he could manipulate and bend all dimensions to his will, or even erase all of them from existence if he desired to do so. It's later revealed that the true power of The Almighty, allows him to [[WindsOfDestinyChange alter every possible future to suit his advantage]], even from beyond the grave. In the final battle, he comes dangerously close to destroying all of existence, and replacing it with a world without death, and is only killed by Ichigo with a well-timed slash from Zangetsu, and only after he is shot from behind with the Still Silver Arrow to disable his powers and prevent Yhwach from resurrecting himself with The Almighty. Even after his death, his corpse contains enough Reiatsu to continue serving as the linchpin of reality.
192* PlayingWithFire: Yamamoto possessed the most powerful fire-type Zanpakuto in history. Yhwach stole the Bankai, Zanka no Tachi, giving him [[ThePoweroftheSun the power of the Sun]]. Even Yamamoto risked destroying the world every time he activated the Bankai, so Yhwach has not rushed to use it and ultimately never does use it even up to his defeat.
193* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He openly uses Arrancar as shock troops, explaining to a subordinate's query that they're disposable and easily replaced. He's only using them because they don't need training to fight, so he really doesn't care how long they last before they die. His racist views on "blood purity" as a Quincy, leads to his willingness to cull any Quincy deemed to have impure blood, whether by birth or by Hollow taint. Masaki, Kanae, and countless others have died in his purge. He also implies it's not the only purge he has conducted.
194* PowerParasite: Yhwach steals Yamamoto's Bankai using his Quincy Medallion. He later strips Ichigo of his Quincy and Hollow powers.
195* PuppetKing: Following his defeat, Yhwach has become the Soul King and theoretically the highest authority in Soul Society, but he is also a sealed away corpse and seemingly unable to act.
196* ThePurge: His use of Auswählen (roughly "Holy Selection") enables him to take the powers from Quincies he decides are "impure" or unnecessary. It kills most and leaves the few survivors completely powerless. As it's used by Yhwach to empower himself or redistribute Quincy power to strategically support his personal goals, he is unrepentant in the use of it. Notable victims over the years include Masaki, Kanae, Uryu, Bazz-B, Liltotto, and Giselle. Much to Yhwach's confusion and interest, Uryu is the only Quincy in history to have survived the purge with both his life and power intact.
197* RankScalesWithAsskicking: He's the Emperor of the Wandenreich ''and'' the most powerful fighter within his organization. Even his ephitet is titled 'The Almighty', and it is well worthy of it as well.
198* RealityWarper: Yhwach is able to manipulate Reishi to create anything he wants, even stairs in the middle of the air. Once he absorbs the Soul King, this ability powers up to give him complete control over the Soul King's realm. He is able to dismantle Seireitei itself, using its Reishi to reshape the Royal Realm into a city that's in the shape of a giant Quincy Cross, and placing his new palace at the center. He also alters the density and consistency of the atmospheric Reishi; the Soul Reapers find it impossible to use FlashStep because they cannot manipulate this altered Reishi to create footholds in the air. The ultimate ability of The Almighty is to transform the future, enabling him to set traps and destroy Ichigo's new Bankai the moment he activates it and without moving, and bypass Orihime's shield to attack Ichigo.
199* ReligiousHorror: Yhwach is heavily inspired by Jesus and the Abrahamic God. As such, many of his more horrifying and monstrous actions are direct references or inspired by the likewise horrifying actions Jesus and God performed in Revelation.
200* Really700YearsOld: Although he looks like someone in his forties or fifties, he was alive a thousand years ago, where he looked like a man in his thirties. His exact age is unknown, but he is known to be at least twelve hundred years old (given he was more than two hundred years old before the initial invasion of Soul Society a millennium ago).
201* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: He delivers a rather poignant one to Yamamoto right before obliterating his corpse, by accusing Yamamoto himself as well as the entire first generation of the Gotei 13 to be little more than murderous sociopaths - ''just like Yhwach himself''. He then adds that the Gotei 13 softened up over the next 1000 years as a result of the peace that followed his first defeat, leaving them [[WeHaveBecomeComplacent too weak]] to fight him in the present.
202* ResurrectiveImmortality: Yhwach can alter ''any'' future he foresees into one he desires, including a future in which he has already been killed. However, it does not work for events that have already transpired. ''Can't Fear Your Own World'' also implies that any holder of The Almighty is technically immune from death on any permanent scale unless ''very'' specific steps are taken to make any form of revival effectively impossible.
203* RuleOfSymbolism: Yhwach named himself after the Hebrew and Christian God, based on what humans were calling him when he was miraculously healing the incurable as a baby. To empower the Sternritter, he makes them drink his blood from a cup, which is very strong Hebrew and Christian symbolism.
204* {{Sadist}}: While he conceals it ''pretty'' well usually, Yhwach is an utterly ruthless and sadistic being who absolutely delights in the pain of others, freely slaughtering enemy and ally alike just to further his own goals, and even looks down upon the concepts of mercy and compassion. His first appearance in the series shows him torturing Luders by blasting his arm off and mockingly permitting him that he can rest on the floor, but says he will blast Luders' legs off as well because he doesn't need them to sit. He then kills both Luders and Ebern simply because he can. After he kills Yamamoto, he gives a taunting speech to him about how "weak" he has gotten and obliterates Yamamoto's corpse even though he was already dead. He also enjoys playing cruel mental games with his victims, as during his second battle with Ichigo, he could've used 'The Almighty' to immediately defeat Ichigo on the spot, but instead chose to drag the fight on to [[BloodKnight enjoy it]], and to give Ichigo the hope that he could win. When he reveals his future manipulation power, he breaks Ichigo's new Bankai, thoroughly beats him down, severely injures Orihime with the tip of the broken Tensa Zangetsu, and by the end starts indulging in hysterical [[EvilLaugh evil laughter]] at Ichigo's emotional pain.
205* SealedEvilInACan: According to ancient Quincy folklore, the Sealed King would regain his heartbeat after 900 years. He would then regain his intellect after 90 years. From that, he would then regain his power after 9 years. The final, more secret, stanza is that he would then regain the world after 9 days. The Final Arc is based on those last nine days and concludes with his corpse being resealed -- as the new Soul King.
206* {{Seers}}: His Schrift, The Almighty, allows him to not only see the future but, as he explains it, to see ''every'' possible future. He describes this as every possible future being one granule in a dust cloud. Even if you prevent the granule which embodies a future currently on course, the future merely jumps to another granule, but Yhwach can see that one, too. There are some things though, that are immune to Yhwach's precognitive abilities, such as Mimihagi, the right arm of the Soul King.
207* ShroudedInMyth: There's ancient folklore among the Quincy about a Sealed King. He's the origin of that folklore, although whether his legend is that of a hero or villain remains unknown.
208* SignificantDoubleCasting: He has the same voice actor as Old Man Zangetsu, since Zangetsu's physical appearance is based on a younger Yhwach.
209* SingleTear: As Yhwach rants to Ichigo about his defeat, and how death will no longer cease to exist, he sheds a single tear as his dream of a world without fear will never become reality.
210* SlasherSmile: He flashes a somewhat sedate version when saying farewell to Yamamoto. However, with Ichigo, he doesn't hold back the smile.
211* TheSociopath: Yhwach is an incredibly ruthless and brutal psychopath who Yamamoto states has no compassion for anyone, not even his own men. Yhwach will not let anyone stand in his way and will cross as many lines as he feels is necessary to accomplish his goals without hesitation. Six years prior to the start of the series, Yhwach strengthens himself by using Auswählen, taking the powers of any Quincies he deemed "impure" or "unnecessary", including children, resulting in their deaths, showing no remorse for this act. Yhwach is also quite prone to violence, lopping off the arm of an Arrancar just to get his attention, and kills several Soul Reapers, Arrancar and Quincies alike in a calm and serene manner. When performing Auswählen for a second time on the Sternritter he left behind in Seireitei to revive the Schutzstaffel, Liltotto demands to know what the Sternritter were to him, and Yhwach replies that they are comrades helping him. Yhwach sees nothing wrong with sacrificing his own soldiers to empower himself, and expresses confusion at Ichigo's anger at the death of his mother, who was a victim of the first Auswählen, because in Yhwach's point of view, there is no greater honor than empowering him. He's also quite self-centered, outright stating that everything in the world exists for his taking, and can be pretty sadistic at times.
212* SpeakIllOfTheDead: A defining characteristic of Yhwach is that oftentimes, he deliberately insults and belittles dead enemies ([[BadBoss or allies]]) to the proverbial faces of their corpses. Then, there's the time he killed Yamamoto whom he truly hated... he then proceeded to deliver a poignant TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and proceeded to desecrate his corpse by hacking off his one remaining arm, stomping on his head, and completely incinerating the rest.
213* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The name is officially "Yhwach", but before that was confirmed many wondered just how you were supposed to spell his name as the Katakana for his name spelled out "ユーハバッハ/Yu-ha-ba-ha" which could be translated a number of ways. Unofficial translations initially used the katakana to produce "Juhabach", or "Juha Bach" to give him a first and last name. The official spelling was confirmed with the character bios section of Volume 58 in Japan, with "YHWACH" spelled out in English. However ''that'' led to near-decade long debate of just ''how'' Yhwach is pronounced. Many went with the German-sounding "Yu-Ha-Vahk" while others went for the literal "Yu-Wach" or "Yu-Watch", and some just decided to stick with "Juhabach". A definitive answer wasn't reached until the arc was finally adapted in anime form nearly ten years later, which confirmed...it was really just "Yu-ha-ba-ha".
214** But now the international dubs of ''Thousand Year Blood War'' makes this all the more confusing. The English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese dubs settle on the same "Yu-ha-ba-ha" pronunciation, but the Italian dub for some reason goes for "Yah-Vach" and The German dub goes for the even stranger "Ee-Wach".
215* SuperEmpowering: Unlike the rest of the Quincies, who can collect Reishi from their surroundings and make it theirs, he was born with the ability to ''give'' parts of his soul to others, and as time went on, he found a more efficient technique by carving initials of a letter inside them, which possibly hints at how the Sternritter were created. He can also use the Auswählen to distribute the power of Quincy he deems "unnecessary" to Quincy he deems "essential", causing them to become ever stronger and be reborn even if they had suffered fatal wounds.
216* TheStoic: While he does smile from time to time, Yhwach is for the most part, a pereptually calm man that always remains collected and reserved no matter what. Even when something happens that does shock or surprise him, he regains his composure quickly afterwards. Towards the end of the series however, he starts to express more emotion, being more openly sadistic and AxCrazy, and by the time that he is finally close to death, his stoic act [[VillainousBreakdown shatters completely]].
217* StoryBreakerPower: As the Quincy progenitor, Yhwach possesses all Quincy powers, as well as the ability to give people power by lending them pieces of his soul. He can call back the soul shards at will, depriving the recipient of their power and life, to increase his strength. In battle, Quincies unknowingly infect their opponents with his soul shards, allowing Yhwach to steal life and power from both Quincies and their enemies. He can use this power recall to resurrect fallen Quincies, literally choosing who lives and dies at any moment. Once he understands someone's power, his Schrift ability kicks in, allowing him to see into that person's future, letting him to develop counters to their techniques before they have even been used. It's not for nothing that his Sternritter title is "The Almighty". Yhwach regards the future as malleable and susceptible to change. "The Almighty" allows him to see all possible futures and to transform any or all of them to ensure the future he wants will come to pass. What Yhwach is capable of doing has basically already been done. His ability removes causality by instantly ensuring the effect occurs. Once Yhwach absorbs the Soul King, there are no limits on what he can do; he can even rewrite his own death, making him impossible to kill while the ability remains active.
218* StrongAndSkilled: Yhwach has an extreme amount of spiritual energy so vast, that even after his death he had enough power to serve as a replacement to the Soul King. He also has the skill, knowledge, talent and any other ability of anyone who possesses a fragment of his soul when they die as well as their Spiritual Power. In addition he has a good number of broken abilities in the form of Schrift which he can flawlessly use.
219* SuperpowerLottery: He has the ability to insert pieces of his soul into anyone, whereupon that piece will soak up the abilities and power level of the victim. When Yhwach recalls the shards, he is empowered at the expense of the victim's life. He can therefore switch and distribute his power around people as he sees fit and kill people just by willing it to happen. As a result, if his power is reduced, he can simply absorb it back from the environment or people around him. His Schrift allows him to understand the future of what he can see in front of him and therefore counter abilities he is confronted by, and he can manipulate the future to cause events he "sees" to occur in the present. His name comes from the Tetragrammaton; humans interpreted his "miracles" as an act of God, and he plays along with it.
220* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The story has long established that the only way to be certain that a being of spiritual power is dead is by decapitating them. However, most characters do not account for this when they kill. Yhwach decapitates as a ''default'' method of death, as both Luders and Ebern discover. When he wants to make a point, he doesn't just kill Royd, he obliterates Royd's entire torso. To kill Yamamoto, he cleaves him in half, chops off his arm and then obliterates the entire body. Subverted with Ichibei: although he dismembers Ichibei, he does not obliterate the body, allowing Ichibei to later return to life.
221* TheUnfettered: One of Yhwach's defining character traits is his complete and utter ruthlessness and his almost unemotional determination to overcome any obstactle that gets in his way, both physical and moral. In the state of being very weak? Just conduct ThePurge and regain power and extend your lifespan, of "unnecessary" and "impure" Quincy, regardless of age. Team Killing from his soldiers? It doesn't matter. Power ups from the heroes? It doesn't matter. Barriers keeping you from walking further? It doesn't matter. Squad Zero itself meeting up with you head-on? ''Fuck off''. All four of your Schutzstaffel Elites falling to one guy? Conduct ThePurge on your own soldiers so you can simultaneously revive and strengthen the elites. Destroying the world? A necessary sacrifice. No single thing can and will keep him from undoing the original sin by recreating a world without death, and there's not a single thing he will not do to further his goal of creating said perfect world.
222* VillainBall: During their fight on Wahrwalt, he completely defeats Ichigo and drives him to true despair with the full scope of [[WindsOfDestinyChange The Almighty]] before stealing [[TheAssimilator Ichigo's power]]. Instead of killing Ichigo (and to a lesser extent Orihime), Yhwach lets him live solely for the purpose of doing it again in the Seireitei which results in Aizen and Uryu having the opportunity to help Ichigo defeat Yhwach. Aizen's illusions buy Uryuu the time to obtain a power-nullifying arrow from Ryuken and arrive in time to use it on Yhwach while also allowing Ichigo to set up the perfect strike. The defeat resonates ten years into the future to ensure the final factor in the destruction of Yhwach is Ichigo's own son. Had Yhwach simply killed Ichigo, none of this -- including Ichigo's future son -- would have been possible.
223* VillainousBreakdown: During his final fight with Ichigo, Yhwach starts to lose his calm composure, showing signs of stress and rage as he begins to experience unexpected events that he had not foreseen. Never having been able to understand Uryu's abilities, he begins to scream when Uryu's arrow temporarily disables his powers. It goes into full-swing when he realizes Haschwalth had disguised one of his future visions as a nightmare, ensuring that the one vision Yhwach did receive was ignored as a dream.
224* VillainHasAPoint: As detailed in NotSoDifferentRemark, Yhwach's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to a dying Yamamoto indicates that Yamamoto was once every bit as brutal as him, and there's little in the story to disprove this, particularly given what the anime depicts their [[CurbStompBattle first war]] as.
225** He also criticizes Ichibei Hyosube's ExactWords tendencies during their failed non-aggression pact talks a millennium ago, which is what he does with Ichigo in the present day.
226** He also points out that while separating realms helped create an orderly universe, it still introduced the concept of death and suffering to the souls, especially when he can feel them when he re-absorbs the souls of the Quincies at their death.
227* VillainsNeverLie: Despite being ruthless and brutal, Yhwach has a reputation for honesty and is stated to hate lies. He tells Ichigo without hesitation that he destroyed Soul Society. He tells Uryu that his "Holy Selection" genocide of the Gemischt nine years ago was supposed to kill Uryu, too. However, he is a master [[ExactWords word-smith]], being able to obscure context and consequences without lying. By telling the Wandenreich that Uryu was the "last survivor", he hides the existence of Ryuken (an Echt Quincy). Telling the Sternritter their job is to fight and die for him fails to reveal that this means they're fair game for his "Holy Selection" the moment they become useless to him.
228* VillainTakesAnInterest:
229** He's very interested in the "Five Special War Powers", combatants he feels can change the tide of the entire war. He extended an offer for Ichigo to join the Wandenreich (whether he wanted to or not), and a large part of his first attack against the Seireitei was an attempt to bust out and recruit Aizen (he refused, but Yhwach expected this). As for Kenpachi, Urahara and Ichibei, they are what he would consider kill-on-sight targets. Having them around gives the Soul Society an advantage that's a little too close for comfort for him.
230** No Quincy in history has ever survived ThePurge with both their power and life intact. Most die, and the few who don't are left completely powerless. When Yhwach performs Auswählen against all impure World of the Living Quincies to regain his power, Uryu makes history by being the sole Quincy to ever survive without losing his life and power. Yhwach is so fascinated by this that he recruits Uryu, makes him his UnexpectedSuccessor, and claims Uryu is capable of surpassing even him. Haschwalth believes Yhwach is keeping Uryu as close to him as possible precisely because Uryu has every reason in the world to kill him.
231* VillainTeamUp: Subverted. He claims to have approached Aizen as a way to recruit the former Arrancar leader into the Wandenreich, but Aizen refused. Yhwach didn't seem to mind it, however.
232* VirtueIsWeakness: Yhwach completely hates values, such as [[ForGreatJustice justice]] and [[HonorBeforeReason honor]]. This is why he hates how the Gotei 13 became weak during the 1,000 years of his absence.
233* VisionaryVillain: Yhwach hates lies, so he plans to destroy the biggest lie in existence: Soul Society, creating the true original world without death and fear in the process.
234* WeaponOfMassDestruction: During the first invasion of Soul Society, he captures Yamamoto's Bankai (and kills him afterwards), which has flames as hot as the Sun and could destroy the world if left activated for too long. However, he's content to let his soldiers do the fighting for him.
235* WeHaveReserves: When asked why he keeps killing his Arrancar soldiers, he replies that he can always get new ones.
236* WindsOfDestinyChange: Each of the Sternritter have something called a Schrift, an ability that is unique to them. As Sternritter 'A', Yhwach's Schrift is 'The Almighty'. The Almighty grants Yhwach access to a multitude of abilities such as negating the effects of any attack he has a full understanding of, and to be able to see into the future. As he explains during his second battle with Ichigo, the future is full of infinite possibilities, with each choice one makes spawning a new future. He compares it to how there are countless grains of sand scatter about. Yhwach can see every single one of them, so even if Ichigo decides to do something that defies the future, Yhwach can predict it anyway. As the fight progresses, Yhwach reveals to Ichigo that The Almighty isn't just the power to see the future, it's the power to change it. He proves this by destroying Tensa Zangetsu and taking Ichigo's Hollow horn. The Almighty is so powerful, that Yhwach can even use it from beyond the grave to resurrect himself. This effectively makes him immortal and nigh-impossible to defeat or kill unless ''very'' specific circumstances are met.
237* WorfHadTheFlu: It's revealed that at the time the Lichtreich attacked Soul Society 1000 years in the past Yhwach had been unable to [[spoiler:use the Almighty due to Ichibē sealing it using Pernida Parnkgjas and cursing Yhwach to be unable to regain its use until the day he dies. Had this not been the case, the Lichtreich's war would likely have gone very differently]].
238* WorldsStrongestMan: He’s not only the strongest Quincy in the world, but without question, the most powerful character in the entire series. As the progenitor of the Quincies, Yhwach has access to every one of their natural powers and abilities, and can use them to a greater extent. During his fight with Yamamoto, he steals his Bankai, which happens to be the most powerful one of them all. It's revealed that every time someone comes in contact with his soul, that person will eventually die, and their soul will be absorbed into him, and he will gain their memories and abilities. Each of the Sternritter have a Schrift, an ability that is unique to them, and as Sternritter 'A', Yhwach's Schrift is 'The Almighty' which allows him to not only see into the future, but change it to his advantage. He eventually absorbs both Mimihagi and the Soul King into himself which makes him powerful enough to reform Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the Human World into one new world. In the end, it took the combined effort of Aizen's Shikai, Uryu shooting the Still Silver arrow at him from behind, and a well timed slash from Zangetsu to ultimately take him down. Even after his death, his corpse contains enough Reiatsu to serve as a suitable replacement to the Soul King.
239* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: His "Holy Selection" wiped out the entire Gemischt ("mixed-blood") Quincy population with the exception of a single individual. Holy Selection is not an automatic process; Yhwach personally selects every single Quincy that he intends to steal power from and every single Quincy he will redistribute that power to. Nine years ago, he destroyed the Gemischt to restore his own power. During the invasion of the Royal Realm, he redistributes power from multiple Sternritters to revive his elite Schutzstaffel; although he only steals the Vollständig from, it instantly kills Robert and he informs his victims that they should be grateful to be aiding their comrades.
240* WouldHurtAChild: The Holy Selection occurred when Uryu was eight years old, and Uryu was the only survivor. Yes, Yhwach tried to kill an eight year old boy just for ''existing''. Not only did Yhwach kill, then take the powers and life force of an unspecified number of Echt and Gesmicht Quincy, which consisted of adolescents and adults, but Quincy children as well, except one. This proves that regardless of how old or young his victims are, and what their hardships are, Yhwach will remorselessly harm and kill them all.
241* XanatosGambit: Everything plays out in his favour. As his soul spreads to both his soldiers and those they fight, it doesn't matter who wins or loses, he grows stronger anyway. Aizen prevents him immediately recruiting Ichigo, resulting in Ichigo training in the Royal Realm. Ichigo's return leaves the gateway open just long enough for Yhwach to invade. When his elite Sternritter are defeated, he revives them to fight again. Although Uryu has the ability to surpass Yhwach, Haschwalth believes that Yhwach has put Uryu in a position where he's so politically and spiritually bound to Yhwach that he can't betray him even if he wanted to.
242* XanatosSpeedChess: However when Ukitake summoned Mimihagi and ruined Yhwach's plan, he was quickly able to recover from the setback and create a new plan that put him in an advantageous position.
243* YouHaveFailedMe: Even though they survived, he's far from happy that Cang Du and [=BG9=] only survived from the lucky timing of their Vollständig activation. He therefore orders Haschwalth to punish them.
244* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Yhwach only has limited use for anyone, even his most elite Sternritter. He kills Ebern for no good reason after Ebern tested how easy it would be to steal Ichigo's Bankai. He abandons most of the Sternritter once they've sacked Seireitei, stealing the powers of the ones left in Seireitei to empower the elite few he's taken to the Royal Realm. When he eventually defeats Ichigo, he steals the power from the last few Sternritter, including Haschwalth. Younger Sternritters are shocked whenever Yhwach turns on them, but older Quincies like Robert, who dies when Yhwach steals his power, have seen it happen before.
245* YourSoulIsMine: Yhwach must absorb the souls of his fallen minions and those who have come in contact with them in order to stay functionally alive. This adds up to a very large portion of the cast, including the Soul Reapers, as the first Wandenreich invasion was meant to [[XanatosGambit build up this plan]]. He can also use his Auswählen to do it at will, which he uses against most of his Sternritters to revive his Schutzstaffel elites.
246[[/folder]]
247[[folder:Uryu Ishida (Ṧ)]]
248-> See his folder [[Characters/BleachIchigosCompanions here]].
249[[/folder]]
250
251!!The Sternritter
252
253[[folder:In General]]
254[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/684812.jpg]]
255 [[caption-width-right:350:The Sternritter]]
256
257* AdaptationExpansion: The anime adaptation of the ''Thousand-Year Blood War'' fills in a few gaps that were left unexplained in the original manga regarding the backstory of the Quincies. Two hundred years after his birth, Yhwach formed his own empire - the ''Licht Reich'' (German for "Empire of Light") that proceeded to conquer much of the Eurasian continent. In his endeavor to conquer the Soul Society next, he created a ''second'' army - the Stern Ritter, which acted as his new vanguard. The invasion failed and Yhwach was gravely wounded while both the Licht Reich and the old guard Stern Ritter vanished, with much of their history and existence completely wiped out from the books. Eight hundred years later, Yamamoto would carry out a ''second'' genocide of the surviving Quincy clans. Only two hundred years after that would Yhwach regain his heartbeat and rebuild his empire in secret.
258* AerithAndBob: The variety of names is all over the place. For every Bambietta, Liltotto, Meninas and [=NaNaNa=] you have a Robert, Pepe, Gerard and Jerome.
259* AmbiguouslyHuman: Quincies may or may not be human. There are four soul-races, Humans, Soul Reapers, Hollows, and Quincies. Humans and Hollows are opposites, and Soul Reapers and Quincies are opposites. Hollows are opposites to Quincies and possibly Humans and Soul Reapers, but the relationship between Humans and Quincies is unstated, especially as Quincies appear capable of [[Really700YearsOld living as long]] as Soul Reapers. The Quincies are initially described by the Soul Reapers as spiritually-aware humans who train their abilities to fight Hollows. However, when Ryuken later mentions the concept of "human power", he puts Ginjo (Substitute Soul Reaper and Fullbringer), Sado (Fullbringer) and Orihime under that umbrella. While he includes his mixed-blood Quincy son, Uryu, he excludes himself (a pure-blood Quincy) and admits he's stretching the definition of "human power" to include Uryu at all. He doesn't explain that comment, not even to explain what the definition is. Furthermore, a flashback shows that Bazz-B and Haschwalth were children before the first Wandenreich was fully formed, and they identify each other as a Quincy, not human. Ichibei also derisively calls Yhwach a human during their fight, despite the latter proclaiming to be the Soul King’s son. Complicating matters further are the existence of Quincy who cannot be described as human by any definition of the word because they have somehow been created from parts of the Soul King's body.
260* AnachronismStew: The Licht Reich - predecessors to the Wandenreich - are shown to have much of the same weapons technology as the modern-day Wandenreich. In addition to swords and the more traditional bows, their Quincy crosses can manifest as pistols and automatic rifles...''nearly a '''thousand years''' before they'll be invented.'' Though it ''could'' be somewhat justified in that since Yhwach possesses the Almighty, he could have reasonably glimpsed at the various new weapons and tech that will be invented over the course of several centuries, granting his Sternritter this knowledge along with their powers.
261* BadassCrew: While the overall army is extremely powerful in general, the Sternritter are this by default considering how much sheer damage they inflict during their first blitz on the Soul Society. Even once the Soul Reapers are better prepared and equipped, they don't go down easily. This applies especially to the Schutzstaffel, who are so powerful that some of them are not even considered mortal, forcing the heroes to go through some extreme lengths to land definitive blows. All four required the Soul Society to bring their absolute best. Two of them fell because they were up against Urahara and Mayuri separately, two of the smartest characters in the entire story, one of them put the new Captain-Commander Kyoraku on the ropes and required a special weapon for divine beings to bring down to a more vulnerable state, and one of them only died because Yhwach decided he no longer needed them. The fifth Schutzstaffel, Uryū Ishida, was a major factor in Yhwach's defeat and death.
262* ColorCodedCharacters: In the colored manga all of their attacks and Quincy: Vollstandig are the typical light blue Quincy color (with the exception of the Schutzstaffel). While their attacks in the anime are of that same color in their base form, each one develops a different reishi color when they enter in their Vollstandig mode. Of the Sternritters we saw using Vollstandig, the color they got was:
263** Quilge: Light blue.
264** Robert: Dark green. [[note]]It was initially depicted as light blue in the TV broadcast, but changed to aquamarine in the Blu-ray version of the first season and later to dark green in the second season, which became his default color.[[/note]]
265** Bambietta: Red. [[note]]''Videogame/BleachBraveSouls'' depicts her Vollstandig as pale pink.[[/note]]
266** Candice: Green. [[note]]In ''Videogame/BleachBraveSouls'' her Vollstandig is of a lime green color.[[/note]]
267** Giselle: Dark blue.
268** Mask de Masculine: Crimson.
269** Äs Nödt: Dark purple.
270** Meninas: Pink.
271** Liltotto: Golden.
272** Bazz-B: Red.
273** [=NaNaNa=]: Orange.
274** Pepe: Dark magenta.
275** Pernida: Yellow.
276** Lille: Green. [[note]]Depicted as yellow in the colored manga scans.[[/note]]
277** Askin: Lavender.
278** Gerard: Red. [[note]]Depicted as yellow in the colored manga scans.[[/note]]
279* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The Sternritter are fanatically loyal towards Yhwach and most of them are ready to give up their lives for his cause. Even when Yhwach decides to kill them himself, they at most only argue that it would be a waste of resources. After coming back from the dead, several Sternritter killed by Yhwach, are still loyal to him and have instead grudges against other people. The Sternritter likewise are afraid of death so much, that the idea of becoming a zombie is seen as more favorable. They only voice objection against the sadistic tendencies of the zombie makers. It is eventually revealed that the entire Soul Reaper-Quincy conflict is based on conflicting ideologies. The Quincy care about how the world should be and prefer a perfect world without death, fear and suffering. The Soul Reapers care about how the world is and want a world with death, suffering and fear that allows enlightenment. The Quincy are based on western, christian ideals, whereas the Shinigami are based on eastern, buddhist ideals. While the manga ultimately sides with the Soul Reapers, it and the novels that follow after it, point out that neither side is truly wrong or right. The conflict between Soul Reaper and Quincy is highlighted by the Soul King's left arm of progress joining the Quincy and his right arm of stagnation joining the Soul Reapers.
280* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: While the entire army wears spiffy uniforms, the Sternritter are apparently allowed endless personalization options for their outfits - some, like Pepe and Askin, almost entirely ignore the conventional uniform designs, while others like Robert and Haschwalth bear few differences from the standard soldier uniforms.
281* EqualOpportunityEvil: The Wandenreich is mostly made up of Quincy, but both Hollows and Soul Reapers are offered the opportunity to join their ranks - with mixed results. As long one is strong enough, the Wandenreich doesn't care about race. The Sternritter themselves are a very heterogeneous army, having members of varying nationality, skin color, ideology, gender, age or sexual orientation. Even genetic deformities or not being human at all isn't an issue. Surprising for an organization with Nazi motifs.
282* EvilCounterpart: Like the Espada, the Sternritter are this to the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, With the Thirteen Court Guard Squads leading an organized company of soldiers, while the Sternritter have an extra pull on a simply otherwise standardized army.
283* GoodColorsEvilColors: In addition to wearing white uniforms to contrast the black clothes of the Soul Reapers, in the anime the stolen Bankai adopt a different color while in possession of a Sternritter, [[PurpleIsPowerful with purplish colors being favored]]. Out of the Bankai shown used by the Quincy, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi goes from pink to dark pink, Koko Gonryo Rikyu goes from golden to dark purple, and Daiguren Hyorinmaru goes from icy blue to lavender.
284* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: Even the more good-natured Quincy have no problems to slaughter Soul Reapers and don't question the war once. Various comments made by present and past Quincy state that they believe that either they win the war against the Soul Reapers or face extinction. Indeed, the Soul Reapers tried and failed to wipe them out twice in the past. The post-war novels heavily imply that Haschwalth had to change the cruel future he saw - which lead to his and Yhwach's deaths - in order to prevent the total extinction of the Quincy race.
285* InconsistentSpelling: Zig-zagged in the English localization. The organization is given the more German-accurate name of "'''W'''andenreich", however the English dub incorrectly pronounced it with a hard W sound (as in "white/world/wait") instead of the more German accurate hard V sound (as in "weiss"). This was quickly corrected and from the third episode of ''Thousand-Year Blood War'' onwards they use the correct pronunciation.
286* KryptoniteFactor: Quincy are said to hunt Hollows with a passion out of hatred passed down through generations, but a discussion between Kisuke and Mayuri indicates this to be a justification hiding the actual reason: fear of being wiped out. Hollow essence is pure poison to a Quincy's soul, and it can't even undergo Hollowfication like Soul Reapers to avoid breaking down completely. Kisuke exploits this weakness by creating special tablets that can Hollowfy Bankai, preventing the Sternritter from stealing them.
287* LightIsNotGood: The Sternritter’s and the other Quincy in the Wandenreich all wear white uniforms, while Soul Reapers wear black uniforms. In addition their powers are also light-based.
288* MoralityKitchenSink: When asked in a tweet, Kubo reveals that the Sternritter are not villains, but enemies. Their goal is to bring back the original perfect world, where humanity can live their immortal lives without fear. The Sternritter will execute the orders of Yhwach without question, but as individuals occupy the entire spectrum of morality, from the mostly good natured Gerard, to the ruthless, but overall compassionate Liltotto, the neutral Cang Du to monsters like Quilge and Driscoll. [[spoiler: Several of them are even willing to help their enemies get back at Yhwach once their loyalty is repaid by him sacrificing them for his own ends, since some value their comrades and loyalty more than anything]].
289* OnlyMostlyDead: The Quincy are a race in constant conflict with "death". Fittingly, many of them have found ways to escape what would have been certain death. Be it through their abilities, sheer tenacity, luck or other characters bringing them back as zombies, it seldom happens that a Sternritter stays down, when initially believed to be killed. By the end of the war, several Sternritter are still around or in a state where they either cannot be classified as dead or can be reanimated.
290* OurAngelsAreDifferent: Quincies are a race of powerful humans descended from the son of a God. They used to have an ability called Quincy: Letzt Stil, which amplifed their powers and abilities and gave them a wing of Reishi at their side. However, using the ability would drain a Quincy of all of their Reiyoku. In order to overcome this drawback, the modernized Quincies developed the ability's successor, Quincy: Vollstandig, which essentially transforms any Quincy who uses it into an angel.
291* PersonOfMassDestruction: The Sternritters are extraordinarily powerful individuals, capable of curb-stomping even captains without having to stretch themselves into using the full might of their own power. As Quincies, they've been at war with the Soul Reapers for a thousand years, but have become particularly aggressive since the Soul Reapers instigated ThePurge against them 200 years ago. In less than ten minutes, 16 Sternritters cause just under 3,000 casualties in the 6,000 strong Gotei 13, steal five bankais, obliterate Seireitei, and lose only five Sternritter in the process.
292* PowerGivesYouWings: Going with their [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angel motif]], Sternritters develop wings of reishi when they enter into their Quincy: Vollstandig mode. The wings vary depending on the user and their Schrift, with some of them using them as an extension of their power (such as Bambietta or Candice) and others even developing non-conventional wings (like Mask de Masculine’s wrestling cape or the crowns of thorns from Äs Nödt).
293* PuttingOnTheReich: Like the Nazis, the Wandenreich modernises the Quincies' [[UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights Teutonic Knight]]-themed history by switching the priest-themed tunics to military uniforms, changing the style of their crosses from Latin to Iron, and expanding the German-chanted powers they wield. The Jagdarmee (Hunting Unit) is sent to conquer the Hollows and control them via ethnic cleansing, and The Emperor regularly culls "impure" Quincies from his ranks, retaining only those he deems "pure" or "useful". The elite unit of Sternritters is called the "Schutzstaffel". Despite this, the Quincy still retain their original ideology and as the final arc goes on, their religious allusions grow stronger, making their overall motif a better parallel to clerical fascism[[note]] A notable example is the National Catholicism espoused by UsefulNotes/TheFrancoRegime [[/note]] than to Nazism.
294* UndyingLoyalty: One of the most common traits of the Sternritter is the near fanatical loyalty they express towards their monarch, either out of unimaginable fear or admiration bordering on worship - usually some combination of both. The few exceptions are Haschwalth, who betrays him in his last moments but still remains loyal, Giselle, Liltotto and Bazz-B who never were that loyal in the first place and betrayed him because ''[[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he betrayed them]]'', Gremmy whose insane power (and insanity) simply doesn't factor in any sort of loyalty (he damn near could have ''killed'' Yhwach, and without any care).
295[[/folder]]
296
297[[folder: Sternritters B-Z]]
298* [[Characters/BleachSternrittersBM B-M]]
299* [[Characters/BleachSternrittersNZ N-Z]]
300[[/folder]]
301
302[[folder:Σ - Shaz Domino]]
303!!Shaz Domino
304[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shazd.png]]
305[-''"Yes, the great Shaz Domino will do the Hogyoku a favor and make good use of it."''-]
306->'''Species:''' Quincy
307->'''Weapon:''' Unnamed knives
308->'''Vollständig:''' Unknown
309->'''Schrift:''' V - The Viability / Σ - The Sigma
310--> '''Voiced by:''' Shinya Takahashi (JP)
311----
312When Akon's team attempts to open the Garganta to save Ichigo from an invisible room, Domino locates the room and defeats the team quickly with throwing daggers. He is defeated by Ichigo before he can reveal anything other than his name. A short story in the ''13 Blades'' fanbook; ''Beginning of the Revive of Tomorrow'' expands upon his character:
313
314Sternritter "Σ", Shaz Domino is a figment of Gremmy Thoumeaux's imagination just like Guenael. He is V, "The Viability", which allows him to absorb reishi into himself to regenerate his body. Able to regenerate into a real person, he escapes Gremmy's control. Made an honorary Sternritter by Yhwach, he receives the Greek letter Sigma, "The Viability" being renamed into "Stigma" (Holy Scar).
315
316Grateful towards Yhwach, he attacks the SRDI together with Pepe. During the Second Invasion, he enters the Central 46 Library in order to find information on the Hogyoku to become even more powerful. He is defeated by Kira and remains stuck, sinking further and further underground.
317
318His Quincy cross manifests as throwing daggers.
319----
320* AllThereInTheManual: The majority of information on him including his power, true identity, and motivation is only presented in the short story, Beginning of the Revive of Tomorrow.
321* ActuallyADoombot: According to Ryohgo Narita's short story ''Beginning of the Revive of Tomorrow'', he, like Guenael, is an illusion created by Gremmy. However it is subverted in the fact he becomes a ''real being'' with his powers, signifying that he was able to escape Gremmy's control.
322* BackFromTheDead: His HealingFactor is potent enough to resurrect him should he be killed, enabling him to come back from being blasted by Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshō.
323* BecomeARealBoy: Part of Shaz' motivation is to become a real Sternritter and not just a imaginary one. He wants to prove that he is a real person and not just a creation of Gremmy. It helps that his ability allows him to become real.
324* ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy: Subverted. Ichigo blasts him with a Getsuga Tensho right as he's about to explain his abilities (and presumably his letter/epithet).
325* FacialMarkings: Has leopard markings on the right side of his face and outfit.
326* FateWorseThanDeath: After being struck by Wabisuke, he continuously sinks further and further underground as he's absorbing reishi by breaking up the ground. Kira notes he might be able to escape if he can destroy and regenerate his whole body instead of just the same parts.
327* FromASingleCell: His Schrift allows him to absorb reishi to regenerate parts of himself. It's so advanced, he's even able to regenerate a ''real'' body as opposed to the fake body that was created by Gremmy.
328* InconsistentSpelling: Translations have called him "Jaz" or "Shaz". Shaz is the correct spelling.
329* InTheBack: He throws three daggers at 3rd Seat Akon while the latter was busy trying to bring Ichigo through the Garganta.
330* KilledMidSentence: Ichigo throws a Getsuga blast at him before he finishes speaking. It results in an explosion and Shaz is never again seen in the manga. This is a subverted trope because novels that wrap up the manga story reveal that he actually survived Ichigo's attacks thanks to his regenerative abilities.
331* MeaningfulName: His Schrift is called 'The Viability'. This describes the ability of a thing (a living organism, an artificial system, an idea, etc.) to maintain itself or recover its potentialities. Like a brain being able to live without the rest of his body, as Gremmy is, for example-
332* NighInvulnerability: His ability allows him to regenerate any lost limb or wound, which Kira notes as him never being able to die.
333* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Subverted to hell and back. He's not given the chance to chat about his powers before he's defeated.
334* TransNature: The plot of the short story "The Beginning of the Revive of Tomorrow" starts with Shaz trying to find information of the creation of the Hogyoku. His goal is to create one himself, so that he can turn from a Quincy to a Hollow/Quincy hybrid. He assumes that his regeneration ability should prevent the resulting soul suicide.
335[[/folder]]
336
337!!Arrancar Wandenreich members
338
339[[folder:In General]]
340* ColdBloodedTorture: Part of their recruitment process, as Quilge specifically looks for the braver, more rebellious Arrancar, then orders his men to "punish them just enough that [they] don't kill them". The way Ebern reacts [[BerserkButton less-than-favorably]] to Ichigo calling him an Arrancar possibly hints at [[BrainwashedAndCrazy the extent]] to which the Wandenreich goes to make sure their Arrancar soldiers remain obedient.
341* SlaveMooks: All of them were enslaved by the Wandenreich following Harribel's defeat. Their zanpakuto were confiscated, they're possibly kept under control by extensive torture/brainwashing, and they're considered even more expendable than the low-ranking Soldat.
342[[/folder]]
343
344[[folder:Asguiaro Ebern]]
345!!Asguiaro Ebern
346[[quoteright:275:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ebern_59001.png]]
347->'''Species:''' Arrancar
348->'''Zanpakuto:''' Unknown
349->'''Weapon:''' Unnamed cannon battery
350--> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/WataruKomada (JP), Andreas Beckett (EN)
351----
352An Arrancar affiliated with the Wandenreich, appearing suddenly in Ichigo's room to introduce himself. He attempted to steal Ichigo's Bankai, before returning to the Emperor to confess his failure.
353
354His Quincy cross manifest as a huge cannon battery.
355----
356* BadassLongcoat: He has a long, white, double-breasted trench coat with shoulder straps, tied using a black belt at its waist, which is adorned with a decorative buckle.
357* BerserkButton: He's gravely insulted when Ichigo asks if he's an Arrancar come to avenge Aizen, angrily snapping that he's ''not'' an Arrancar before pulling out his Quincy cross and attacking.
358* {{BFG}}: He pulled out a gargantuan [[SpikesOfVillainy spiked bow]] to fight Ichigo.
359* BoomerangBigot: A way to interpret his BlatantLies about not being an Arrancar, and his anger at being called one, is that he rejected his nature and species after being integrated within the Wandenreich and granted Quincy powers.
360* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: A bit flighty; he refuses to get off Ichigo's bed, lies about being a blatantly obvious Arrancar, and accuses him of being uncivilized when he finally kicks him out of his room.
361* EyepatchOfPower: His mask covers his left eye, with three holes on it.
362%%Zero-Context Example * FascinatingEyebrow: Which apparently always looks like that.
363* FaceFramedInShadow: When he made his debut, by hiding in an alleyway.
364* InconsistentSpelling: His name was first translated as "Ivan Azgiaro". Volume 55 of the manga gave the official spelling, "Asguiaro Ebern".
365* MookMaker: He was the one who baited those Hollows into attacking Shino and Yuki.
366* OffWithHisHead: Yhwach kills him after deciding that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he's done all he's worth keeping around for]], with a panel showing a large splash of blood. Later, his body is seen on the ground, with his head clearly separated from it.
367* OhCrap: When Lüdaas gets killed, Ebern looks both shocked and alarmed as the blood sprays all over his face.
368* SacrificialLamb: He's the first of the Wandenreich we meet and he attacks Ichigo very quickly into the arc. [[BadBoss Then we learn how harsh his master is]].
369* SlasherSmile: Ebern sports a nightmarish grin in the anime when he goads Ichigo into using his Bankai, intending to steal it.
370* SoLastSeason: He and Lüdaas are both killed off early on to demonstrate how much worse the new villains are from the Arrancar in the previous arcs.
371* VocalDissonance: Asguiaro's dub voice sounds like an old, gravelly grandpa, in spite of the fact that he's a relatively ''young'' Arrancar in the story. It's averted in the original Japanese, however.
372* VolleyingInsults: Apparently has this type of relationship with Lüdaas.
373* WeHardlyKnewYe: He is killed by his boss almost immediately after Lüdaas is.
374
375[[/folder]]
376
377[[folder:Lüdaas Friegen]]
378!!Lüdaas Friegen
379[[quoteright:275:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/luudas_friegen.png]]
380->'''Species:''' Arrancar
381->'''Zanpakuto:''' Unknown
382->'''Weapon:''' Unknown
383--> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/DaikiHamano (JP), Mick Lauer (EN)
384----
385Another Arrancar under the service of the Wandenreich. One of seven masked "ambassadors" sent to Yamamoto's office, he delivered a declaration of war to Captain-Commander Yamamoto. Apparently he is TheRival to Ebern, but nothing significant ever comes of it.
386----
387* BreakTheHaughty: His boss clearly doesn't approve of his cocky behavior, which led to Lüdaas' utter humiliation.
388* EvilSoundsDeep: He has an impressively deep voice that rivals Aizen's in sheer timbre, and gloats to Yamamoto's face about the war to come.
389* FacialMarkings: Circular piercings appear all over his face. Considering that he is an Arrancar, they are most likely the remains of his Hollow mask, similar to Szayelaporro's glasses and Zommari's head spikes, ear rings, and/or necklace.
390* InconsistentSpelling: The manga spells his name Lüdaas, while the anime's subtitles initially omitted the umlaut.
391* LiteralDisarming: Yhwach cuts off his arm for daring to bicker with Ebern in front of him.
392* MakeWayForTheNewVillains: Killed off by his Emperor to show off the Wandenreich are a lot worse than Aizen's old Arrancar lackeys.
393* MouthOfSauron: He was the spokesman for the MalevolentMaskedMen, though his master is quickly revealed, subverting the trope.
394* OhCrap: When Lüdaas loses his arm, he begins to realize just how little he means to Yhwach and just how much Yhwach is toying with him.
395* SacrificialLamb: He really seemed like TheDragon of the Wandenreich, but he's quickly killed for veering off-tangent by speculating about the future instead of focusing on the present.
396* SmugSnake: He tried to egg Ebern into a fight in front of his boss. Was not worth it.
397* VolleyingInsults: Apparently has this type of relationship with Ebern. He tried to instigate it in front of Yhwach. [[AnArmAndALeg It was a bad decision.]]
398* WeHardlyKnewYe: Is killed off very quickly after he's introduced.
399* YourHeadAsplode: Yhwach quite literally turns his head into a pool of blood.
400[[/folder]]
401
402!!Others
403
404[[folder:Haschwalth's Aide]]
405!!Haschwalth's Aide
406[[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_0492.jpeg]]
407
408An unnamed woman who serves Jugram Haschwalth.
409----
410* AdaptedOut: Her only scene in the Manga is omitted from the anime adaptation.
411* AllThereInTheManual: While she only appears in a few panels of the manga, ''Literature/BleachCantFearYourOwnWorld'' gives more information about her relationship with Haschwalth, and reveals that she saved several Quincy (including Liltotto and Giselle) after the war on his orders to preserve their kind.
412* AlmightyJanitor: The novels mentions that her basic Quincy abilities surpass some of the actual Sternritter, but she never received a Schrift as she was satisfied under Haschwalth's service.
413* BlackEyesOfEvil: Her completely black eyes are noted as a unique trait, though she's far from the most malicious Quincy in the Wandenreich.
414* NoNameGiven: She is simply known as Haschwalth's aide.
415* WithDueRespect: While not as openly frustrated as the Sternritter, she admits to Haschwalth that she's not too pleased with Uryu being named Yhwach's successor right after joining the Wandenreich, leading to Haschwalth's explanation that Uryu was simply KickedUpstairs to keep him under harsh scrutiny.
416* UndyingLoyalty: She is strongly dedicated to Haschwalth, with the light novels implying that she could receive a Schrift but chooses not to so she can stay directly under his service.
417[[/folder]]
418
419[[folder:Original Schutzstaffel]]
420!!In General
421[[quoteright:858:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/original_schutzstaffel.PNG]]
422 [[caption-width-right:858:Left to right: Hubert, the unnamed female Quincy, Seydlitz and Argola.]]
423
424Yhwach's original Royal Guard during his time as the Emperor of the Lichtreich about 1000 years ago.
425----
426* PosthumousCharacter: Seydlitz, Hubert and Argola were all killed by Yamamoto during the Quincy blood war of 1000 years ago, as shown by the fact their corpses appear in the South technique of Zanka no Tachi, with the anime showing their fiery death at the hands of the Captain Commander in the brief flashback of episode 7.
427* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Unlike with the modern Schutzstaffel, there was a female Quincy in the Royal Guard of the Lichtreich times.
428
429!!Seydlitz
430[[quoteright:535:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/seydlitz_0.PNG]]
431
432Yhwach's second in command during the war against the Soul Reapers 1000 years ago. An old soldier with an eyepatch covering his left eye, way more cautious than his leader.
433----
434* TheDragon: Was apparently Yhwach’s second in command 1000 years ago, as he’s the first Quincy to know about his idea to form the new combat unit known as the Sternritters.
435* EveryoneHasStandards: He’s surprised when Yhwach announces to him that he’s going to form a new combat unit to conquer Soul Society despite the fact the conquest of the Lichtreich is finally finished, arguing there was no further need to keep expanding their territory.
436* EyepatchOfPower: Wears an elegant white eyepatch in his left eye that combined with his older appearance gives him the image of a seasoned soldier.
437* InconsistentSpelling: His name has been translated into “Zeidritz”, Seidlitz” and “Seydlitz”. The official subtitles for the anime go with “Seydlitz”.
438!!Hubert
439[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hubert.PNG]]
440
441Former vice-captain of the Sternritters. Appears proffessional at first, but can be quite confrontational and arrogant.
442----
443* BitchInSheepsClothing: Initially appears as a professional soldier, politely telling Bazz-B to keep with his training so he can get chosen as a Sternritter in the future. However, when Bazz-B insists on challenging him to prove his power, Hubert’s expression changes to a sadistic smile, revealing himself as a petty man willing to use lethal force on a foolish teenager.
444* EvenEvilHasStandards:
445** While he’s a bonafide asshole, he’s fiercely loyal to Yhwach and would never dare to question his decisions. When Yhwach decides to take Haschwalth with him and turn him into his right hand man, Hubert obeys without any complaint despite his former antagonism towards him.
446** Later, when Haschwalth becomes the captain of the Sternritters, he begrudgingly obeys his command of not fighting Bazz-B under punishment by death even if he really wanted to beat the redhead Quincy.
447* HateAtFirstSight: Even since his first encounter with Bazz-B he’s shown to really hate his guts, to the point he still remembers him when he’s freshly recruited into the Sternritters and still wants to teach him a lesson for his insolence.
448* {{Jerkass}}: He’s shown to be quite condescending and mocking to those he deems inferior. He gets into a fight with Bazz-B to teach him a lesson after he challenged him despite being older than him with a gleeful expression.
449* SlasherSmile: He displays a wide grin as he’s about to fight Bazz-B during his first encounter with him, hinting a sadistic side.
450
451!!Argola
452[[quoteright:279:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/argola.PNG]]
453
454High ranking officer from the Lichtreich. A big man with a scar in his forehead. Unlike Hubert, he's more subdued and calm.
455----
456* NobleDemon: Despite serving a tyrant like Yhwach, he appears to care for his comrades, as he immediately shields them from the reishi bullets Ichibei redirects at them, using his own body no less.
457* TheQuietOne: Unlike Hubert he’s not very talkative and simply observes the ruckus caused by Bazz-B.
458* SuperToughness: He appears to have an extremely durable body, as he doesn’t take any damage from the bullets of his female comrade that Ichibei shoots back at her.
459* RuggedScar: He has a prominent scar on his forehead, showing he's a veteran soldier.
460* TakingTheBullet: He shields his comrades with his big body during the conference of Yhwach and Ichibei when the latter redirects the Heilig Pfeil bullets the female Quincy shot at him. Unlike other examples, he not only survives, but doesn’t look injured at all from the bullets.
461
462!!Unnamed Female Member
463[[quoteright:587:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/schutzstaffel_female_member.PNG]]
464
465The only female member of Yhwach's original Schutzstaffel. She holds the honor of being the first known member to manifest her Quincy bow as a gun.
466----
467* AnachronismStew: She has an assault rifle '''one thousand years''' [[SchizoTech before they were invented]].
468* CanonForeigner: An anime-exclusive character who only appears in a flashback at the beginning of Episode 24 of the TYBW anime.
469* LetsGetDangerous: She's the shortest and youngest member of the original Schutzstaffel, but when Yhwach and Ichibei are about to clash, she instantly manifests her Quincy gun and opens fire at Ichibei.
470* MoreDakka: This girl whips out a goddamn assault rifle and unleashes a barrage of bullets at Ichibei.
471* NotSoStoic: She's surprised and confused when Ichibei uses a shield to block her bullets.
472%%* PeekABangs: Her hair covers her left eye, almost like an eyepatch.
473* TheQuietOne: She has not spoken in any of her appearances thus far, not even a grunt or confused noise.
474* TheSmurfettePrinciple: She's the only female member of the original Schutzstaffel, the only woman who has ever joined the Schutzstaffel at all, and the only known female Quincy of the Licht Reich.
475* TomboyishPonytail: She's the only female Quincy to have a ponytail and she's definitely not one to back down from a fight, even when it's against one of the most powerful Soul Reapers in existence.
476* UncertainDoom: What happened with her is unknown, as her corpse is not seen with the ones of the other three in Zanka no Tachi’s Kaka Jūmanokushi Daisōjin and she doesn’t seem to be part of the modern Wandenreich either, so if she survived or died in other circumstances is ambiguous.
477
478[[/folder]]

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