Bleach Realms
From Anime Indepth
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The story Bleach develops in many different realms, each one having its own properties and its own faction.
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Kurakara City
Kurakara city seems to be a "normal" city somewhere in Japan. It is where the story begins and where Ichigo, family and friends, live. The city seems to have some kind of rare properties that make the travel between dimentions (Soul Society, Hueco Mundo). It also seems that, according to Urahara Kisuke, that Kurakara city will be the battlefield of the battle between the forces of Aizen Souske and Soul Society.
Soul Society
Soul Society is the heaven of our earth; it is the place where the deceased travel to at the end of their journey. Soul society is where all the souls of the afterlife reside; the life of the past, and the life of the Shinigamis. Soul Society is divided into 2 parts, Seireitei, and Rukongai. Soul Society's land is a gargantuan circle. In the middle of the circle, is where Seireitei lies; this is where the upper class, or the Shinigamis live. On the outside of the circle, is Rukongai, where the lives of the deceased all come to; these people are more like peasants. On all sides of the circle, there are 4 gates, each gate leading into Seireitei. These four gates are guarded by 4 elites of the shinigamis and they will stop anybody who wishes to enter Seireitei without permission. In addition to having a wall to block off intruders and 4 elites, there is a spiritual barrier covering all around Seireitei, like a sphere. The barrier blocks of all spiritual energy that can break through the barrier, it will stop any soul slayer or person with a spiritual energy from entering. This barrier applies to underground and overhead. Soul society is a very large place therefore it is extremely hard to find the people you once loved when you were alive. That is why you make new families with the people you become friends with.
Everybody in Rukongai remembers his or her past. They remembered their families, but they cannot find them, only a few people will reunite. They know when they died, and they can probably remember it. Since the soul takes on the image of the person who once lived, they do not age. They will always stay looking like how they died. Some people can look like a 4 year old, but they could have still been there for duration of 500 years. Of this reason, they do not need to eat, but they do need to drink. Those with spiritual powers, though need food. If you have high spiritual powers, then you will need more to eat. When you're in Soul society, you have no fears; they have created an atmosphere where most people can enjoy the place. You feel light, and you cannot die, because you're already dead. There are no real bad people, because all of them has either been bound to earth, or turned into a hollow. The ones that have a pure heart will ascend to Soul Society. Those who are cleansed by a soul slayer will be sent to the gates of hell.
Although the normal Bleach world is practically symmetrical to our world, Soul Society does not have the technology that our world does. Soul Society most resembles the feudal era of Japan. There are swords, for weapons, kimonos for clothes, and feudal houses rather than modern houses.
Soul Society's government and their way of running things are not so different from ours though. It has rules that you are not supposed to break, a general rank system, and seats for every rank. In Soul Society, there are 4 noble houses. With every Rank, There are different dress clothes.For the general shinigamis, they wear a black Haori, which is a thigh length kimono. The Haori can either be short sleeved or long sleeved. They also wear a black Hakama, which is a long pleated skirt. These are worn together, and are tied by a white belt. In addition to this, they have a white under clothing. For some shinigami, they can have an open underarm Hakama. For the captains they have, in addition to the general shinigami wear, a white overcoat, which states their position of the Gotei 13 in the back of the coat. The white overcoat covers from the shoulders down to the length of the Hakama; it can be a long sleeve, or a short sleeve coat.
People of earth will always need to die, or else the population of souls will be unequal, causing the dimensions of the two worlds to collapse. It was shown as an example of a sand timer, if one end has too much sand, then the equality will be unbalanced, If more souls are added when one is full, then the world will break, or "overflow."
