Like for example Quincies using their spiritual power to manipulate reishi in the environment, what stops a soul reaper/ soul from doing the same thing ?
Like for example Quincies using their spiritual power to manipulate reishi in the environment, what stops a soul reaper/ soul from doing the same thing ?
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Quincy powers are genetic, and being a Soul Reaper requires you to die. Now, both could certainly happen as they did with a certain someone but given the conflict between the two groups its unlikely that they would knowingly commingle. But your average Soul Reaper is not able to use Reishi the way a Quincy does even if they understand the theory due to the bloodline limitation, and the fact that the effect Quincy powers have on Hollows is antithetical to the whole mission of the Soul Reapers (purifying the soul vs. Destroying it like the Quincy).
The way it works is that:
Shinigami draw reiatsu from themselves. Their power comes from within and they train to commune better with their inner power.
Hollows consume reiatsu from others and add it to their own.
Quincy absorb reiatsu from the environment and draw internal power from Yhwach’s essence within them.
Fullbringers channel their inner reiatsu through objects and manipulate the object’s reiatsu.
There are similarities. Shinigami and Fullbringers can both imprint their reiatsu into objects to draw their inner power. However, Shinigami can only do this on an asauchi to turn it into a zanpakuto.
Fullbringers can do it on any object as long as the object has spiritual energy and significance to them. Funny thing is that they do this by manipulating the object’s spiritual energy in a similar way to Quincies.
Quincies absorb reiatsu from the environment, and Hollows consume it from others. Both have reiatsu of their own but need an external source to be stronger. Incidentally, Quincies can also absorb reiatsu from others like a Hollow but need special tools to do so and there is a special technique only Ywatch can use.
Hollows can have their own personal abilities but their reiatsu is based on how many souls they consume. They can draw power from their inner self like a Shinigami only if they become an Arrancar.
So, long story short. They all have their own way to manipulate reiatsu. But it’s not like there is no connections and in fact there is a reason why they tend to have similar techniques like how Shinigami, Hollow and Quincy all have a variation of that superspeed move they all pull.
Well first let’s acknowledge that there is a lot of overlap in power between races. Everyone has their own version of “flash step” for example and everyone can walk on air or travel between worlds.
Second the simplest answer is that while yes, everybody’s using the same power not all the races are the same biologically, culturally or technologically.
I think the best metaphor might be Operating systems on computers. They all use the same electricity and all access relatively the same Internet but can differ in machinery, search engines, and software.
As far as I understand:
First, all human souls, independent of the race, have some inate unique powers, it seems, the difference is how these manifest.
Shinimagi generally manifested by storing pieces of their reiatsu inside a zanpakuto – although some could do so without, like yama and hitsugaya can, but the result is minimal and the dificulty imense. They fuel this with their own reiatsu
They also have magical spells that can do specific stuff, but it is unknown how they work, only that each spell only does the same thing, and can’t be altered.
Fullbringers use some sort of physical item along with a piece of the Soul King inside their souls to manifest theirs. They fuel this with the reiatsu inside the objects themselves.
Hollows are generally too mindless to do anything out besides the basics, but once reaching higher level may manifest their powers. If they manage to become arrancar, they fashion some sort of item with their own body to store their soul power and create a makeshift zanpakuto. They fuel this using the reiatsu within themselves like the shinigami, with the caveat that “themselves” is actually A LOT of eaten other people.
Quincy are a special case. While they also have unique powers (generally use yhwach’s blood to manifest it), they also get extra green lantern-like powers from being descended from yhwach that the other races don’t get at all. They fuel this using reiatsu from what is around them.
So, to answer your question, other races more or less do copy each other, but in your specific example, they can’t copy the reishi manipulation because what gives the quincy that is the “genetic” link to yhwach.
Most are inherent to the race, there only a small subset of people in the series who can do stuff multiple “races” can, you have to be born to it.
Shinigami draw their power from their soul, it’s their only “fuel source” so to speak, while it can be increased with training, generally most Shinigami have a limit on how much Reiatsu they can gain (Generally once they achieve Bankai, they’ve pretty much peaked, unless their Zanpakuto is “hiding” a portion.)
For Quincy it’s the opposite, they can, as you said, draw Reishi from around themselves, none of their power is really self determined, it HAS to come from an outside source, while some Shinigami can duplicate the abilities artificially, such as Mayuri, with his Hirenkyaku boots, but he couldn’t use the technique on his own.
Hollows are sort of a middle ground, their initial power draws from their soul, but they can gain power by consuming Reishi in the from of souls, Hollows can absorb reishi from around themselves, but in general it’s not enough to really “feed” them, unless they are tiny and weak, like the Hollow Lizard Ichigo spots. They can gain great power by consuming souls, but, the also have limitations (most Hollows seem to have an evolutionary point where they stop growing, with only a few becoming more powerful, such as Grimmjow, by CFYOW attaining “Vasto Lorde” status.)
One of the things that makes Ichigo so special to people is the fact that he is a born hybrid of practically every canon spiritual powered species.
He got Shinigami powers from his dad, who’s captain class, he got Quincy powers from his mum, along with Hollow powers from White, and because of that unique situation, he was also a Fullbringer.
So Ichigo not only draws power from himself, but also unconsciously from ambient Reishi from his surroundings, which is why his Reiatsu is so powerful and seems to go without limit.
Given his Hollow powers, it’s possible he could gain power from absorbing souls, but I doubt he’d put that into practice, and with his Fullbringer powers, he can manipulate the “souls” of things, again, a power he tends not to use, because he never really trained much in them outside of the Fullbringer story.
It should be noted shinigamis are NOT actually a distinct race, their just souls who focus their power threw a zanpakto, in theory anything not involving the zanpakto(such as kido) should be something any human with high spiritual power can learn and we see non shinigamis souls use similar spells