TYBW — Which Sternritter Abilities Remain Unknown?

The Thousand-Year Blood War arc of BLEACH features the return of the Quincies, who were thought to have been driven to extinction by the Shinigami over 200 years prior to the events of the series. Returning far stronger and dangerous after hiding in the shadows of Soul Society, the Wandenreich became a powerful force with countless Quincies involved in realizing the vision of the Quincy King Yhwach, who uses his rare ability to dole out pieces of his soul to assign special powers based on the letters of the alphabet he carves into the very souls of his most powerful underlings, the Sternritter.

Given that there are 26 letters of the alphabet, the assumption is that there are at least 26 Sternritter, each with their own ability manifested by Yhwach’s assignment of a “Schrift” unto them, but that is not quite true, not to mention the fact that there are many Sternritter whose abilities are never really identified or even seen by the end of the Quincy Blood War. So, which Sternritter Schrifts remain unknown at the end of BLEACH?

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The Unknown Schrifts Aren’t All Based on Roman Script

Sternritters K, N and Two Others Are Elusive

In total, of the 27 Sternritter that we are introduced to in the final arc, three of them have Schrifts the identities of which we still don’t know and won’t know by the end of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, while one, Uryū Ishida, has the designation of his Schrift A revealed towards the end of the series. Of these four, one of them, Shaz Domino, is in a situation where he either bears the same letter as another individual, like the twins Royd and Lloyd Loyd; or he simply does not have a Roman letter assigned to him. The robotic BG-9, who fought against Soi-Fon during BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2 – The Separation was introduced as Sternritter K, while the elderly gunslinger who fought against Shunsui Kyoraku and lost his mind in a fit of despair when Yhwach activated the Auswählen, Robert Accutrone, bears the Schrift N.

Fans have tried to figure out what the designations of both BG-9 and Robert are based on their brief appearances and behaviour in combat, with a theory being that the robotic Quincy is designated K – The Knowledge, because after skewering the 2nd Squad Captain with its needle-like extensions, it came to understand much about her abilities, and could analyze the Reiatsu of О̄maeda’s sister Marechiyo accurately enough after skewering her to be able to ascertain that she and the 2nd Squad Lieutenant are family. For Robert Accutrone, fans on Reddit have theorized that it may have something to do with being extremely quick, as he is seen disappearing and reappearing behind Kyо̄raku multiple times during their encounter, which is no small feat considering the fact that Kyо̄raku is one of the most talented combatants the Soul Society has ever seen.

The Most Unique Schrift

The Eternal Wound

Shaz Domino, who is only briefly seen attacking Akon and other members of the 12th Squad before being instantaneously beaten down by Ichigo, is revealed in the BLEACH novels to have been a figment of Gremmy’s imagination given the Schrift Ϛ, Stigma – The Scar, due to his initial ability V– The Viability turning him into a real person through his assimilation of real Reishi each time he suffered injury. The Schrift is a ligature, a combination of two separate glyphs, of the Greek letters sigma (Σ) and tau (Τ), and is also used to represent the number 6, which represents man in Christianity due to the creation myth in which God (YHWH) created “man” on the 6th day, which fits into Shaz’s history as an imagined, thus created man.

Interestingly, the sickle-shaped ligature looks similar to lamed (ל), the first glyph in the Hebrew transcription of the name “Raphael”; a glyth that looks like it could’ve been an upside-down stigma. Even more interestingly, lamed is representative of the number 12, thus, like stigma, is one number short of a massively significant concept: 7 represents perfection as it is on the 7th day that God rested in Christian myth, and in various superstitions, primarily Norse myth, the number 13 represents misfortune. It is thought that the Stigma is a reference to “stigmata”, the representation of the wounds suffered by Jesus Christ, with Yhwach granting him the unique Schrift because of the idea that his inability to die (hence “viability”) makes him a holy scar upon this world as a Quincy that can never be erased. This would also explain the leopard-like markings (stigma) incorporated into his design.

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Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War