Post by Galihan on Feb 25, 2008 19:09:57 GMT -4
Arrancar
Name:
Galihan Umbra (Umbra - Latin for the darkest part of a shadow.)
Gender:
Male
Age:
517
Ranking:
Former Espada, Rogue
Number:
104
Base Type:
Vasto Lorde
Physical Description:
In his original form, Umbra stood tall at 6'2", often making him taller than others around him. He is of a slim and lean build, has dark blue eyes, and a dark blue horizontal line on his face, running from ear-to-ear at the same level as his eyes. His fingernails are also dark blue, as are his tongue, and even his skin is a ghostly pale with a tint of blue. Wrapping up his blue color scheme is his short, raven-black hair which has a blue highlights in it. His former uniform was for the most part typical-arrancar style: white hakama, black sash, and a white large, robe-like jacket overtop of his bare chest. His hole is located in the center of his stomach. The remains of his mask form a headband covering his forehead decorated with four short curved horns each about two inches long. In between his shoulder blades on his back, is a dark scar of where he used to have a tattoo signifying him as the Cautro Espada.
During the process of Umbra defecting from the Espada and escaping Hueco Mundo, he received serious injuries which left in him a weakened state, which downgraded his body to accommodate his decrease in power. Galihan's new body is that of a much younger, child version of himself. While retaining most of his distinguishing features, the horns on his mask remnants now have been rounded off and are more like cartoonish nubs than actual horns., and also a large crack in his mask is visible. He is also now only half of his normal hight at a very short 3'1”, and rather scrawny looking but still retains a considerable amount of reiatsu which could rank him below the Espada but still higher than most other arrancar, only able to fight on par with the Diez or Nueve Espada if he gave it his all in his child body while they held back. In his weakened form, Galihan usually inhabits a gigai to fit in among the humans. This gigai obviously lacks most of his arrancar characteristics, his skin is normal of a normal flesh tone without any blue fingernails or tongue or blue line on his face, he doesn't have any form of mask remnants, or a hole, but his hair is still a dark raven-black and his eyes retain their blue color. He the white robes of a Quincy.
Personality
Umbra is by nature a pacifist. He is a person who does not enjoy fighting in the least despite the fact he is very powerful. He sees fighting as useless and looks down on people who seek power for selfish reasons, only making exceptions to those who seek the power to protect their own beliefs, or who fight to defend honor. He only chooses to fight when he feels his opponent serves as a threat to Las Noches and to his fellow arrancar. He dreams of a future where the arrancar and shinigami can coexist without constant warfare.
When he does decide to fight, he is a fierce warrior who performs every action with precision, and makes a point out of avoiding any chance for error, as error leads to things being dragged out and making the battle longer than needed. Even in battle he is rarely one to show emotion, except for the occasional glimpse of anger or irritation. Hovever, he rarely does fight to kill, but does train everyday. He mainly sleep/mediates most of the time unless he has pressing matters to tend to.
Out of battle he is a person who shows little emotion at first glance, but his dull attitude is only a deception to those who don't know him. He is one of few, if the only, hollow who will gladly show both his tears and true compassion with his subordinates as he feels that those who feel they need to hide their tears are insecure fools. He is very sentimental and compassionate towards people who are honest with their emotions. He sees emotion, especially happiness and compassion, to be the most beautiful and wonderful things in the world. Being accused of being emotionless and cold are the only things that can truly anger him often will lead to a battle, despite his usual attitude towards fighting.
Now as a child, Galihan's attitude has also become semi-child-like in nature, allowing his emotions to come to the surface much easier than before, becoming easily intimidated, embarrassed or jealous over trivial matters while often trying (and failing) to act calm and collected. An interesting point is that the new, younger Galihan is very obsessed with his pride as if he was a quincy like he was in life before becoming a hollow, often regarding himself as a quincy instead of an arrancar, while this may just be him acting, he sometimes even fools himself regarding his nature. While this makes sense when he his disguised inside of a gigai, this even continues when not in his gigai, when he it is obvious that he is an arrancar. As a child, he sometimes seems to be very attached to Torre and Jessica protective of them as if they were his mother and sister, but this doesn't show very often unless someone tries to provoke them, even if very few could actually pose a threat to any of the three.
History:
In the late spring of year 1592, abandoned on the doorsteps of a temple was a baby, who was taken in by a priest who sensed that this child was somehow special. He sent the baby to a monastery where he was raised as a member of the temple. For the most of the boy's childhood, he was under the impression that the temple was a simple order of monks, philosophers and scholars whose role in the greater society outside the monastery's walls was nonexistent, and he was anxious to become something more.
At the age of 7, this problem was fixed when he learned that it was all a ruse. This old temple was in reality a secret recruitment center for an old society of spirit-hunters known as The Brotherhood who battled these evil spirits known as hollows. The boy with no name was finally given one, Shitsumei (ironically, meaning "name unknown",) and began his training as a member of the Brotherhood at the age of 10. He was told that he has the blood of the Quincy in him, which allowed him to be especially sensitive to the presence of spirit energy and allowed him to manipulate loose energy in order to battle and destroy hollows. He trained with an actual bow with real arrows as well as with a bo staff, and even with a blade as he got older in the months he trained. He also spent his nights meditating and channeling his spiritual energy and the energy around him in order to prepare himself for when he'd move on from training with basic weapons to using weapons made by the Quincy.
At the age of 12, he was a very talented student who was thought to be able to be one of the Brotherhood's finest hollow-hunters once he completed his training. Unfortunately he was somewhat too talented, and when he was 15, he was sent out on a mission to exterminate some hollows that were terrorizing the countryside. He killed most of the hollows on his own, but the last few were especially powerful and in order to defeat them he needed to absorb and redirect the loose energy of the hollows he slew into his bow. He attained great strength in doing so but he also corrupted himself with the energies of the hollow, and he left the Brotherhood in fear that he'd be slain in they discovered him as he was.
Months flew by and Shitsumei's soul was slowly was becoming more and more of a hollow while at the same time remaining a living human. By the time he was 17, he had became a living being whose soul was entirely hollow, something the world had never seen the likes of before. His mind was still his human self, and he was able to mask his presence as a hollow, but eventually he lost partial control over himself and went on a rampage, killing many people who contained any trace of significant reiatsu. When he came to, he knew his crimes would be inexcusable so he decided to turn himself into the Brotherhood.
Before he could return to the monastery, he was surrounded by a team of black-robed warriors called shinigami. They were led by a middle aged man in a white coat who said that he wanted to study him and could cure him, but Shitsume was not only a quincy by also a hollow. It was in his blood and soul to despise these shinigami, even if he didn't ever have any past experience with these warriors in black, his very nature forced him to refuse the offer presented, and so he embraced his hollow powers and opened a portal to Hueco Mundo, escaping without resorting to violence. He vowed on his quincy pride that never again would he kill unless he had a just reason, and that overpowered his hollow desire for blood and carnage.
He spend decades in the Menos Forest, fending off savage hollow and mindless gillian for what seemed nonstop. After half a century in the underground world under the white desert, his body had completely been transformed into a hollow, named Shadowshade, and he began to feed on other hollows in order to survive when the spirit-rich air wouldn't support him anymore. Hundreds of thousands of hollow feasted upon, each one more sickening to his pride than the last. He had become a vasto lorde, the pinnacle of supremacy for a hollow and he loathed himself. He got so sick of himself, he desired to clean himself of his sinful existence and then when he had enough of it, he discarded his mask and transformed yet again, into something even greater.
He became an arrancar, a hollow who by removing his mask obtains the powers of a shinigami. This wasn't much of an improvement in his mind, now he was no longer a vile, monsterous hollow like he had spend centuries prior. Unable to recall what his name was prior to being a hollow, he refused to be acnowledged as the hollow Shadowshade, so he took on the name of Galihan Umbra, and he spend his days in solitude from that point, until he learned of Las Noches, a grand palace atop the sand where the other arrancar resided. Maybe, he thought to himself, maybe he'd be able to find refuge there. He was wrong, and was quickly ridiculed as a weakling who refused to fight. However he was recognizable for his impressive power, rivaling that of the weakest of the Espada at the time, who had just recently been slain by the Brotherhood in the world of the living and was yet to be replaced. He was told that if he could prove his power over the late Diez by killing he Quincy who were responsible for vacating the Diez position, he could have it.
It sickened him greatly, but he had no choice. He had to belong somewhere and he knew that being who he was now, this was the only option. He left Hueco Mundo and looked at the sun for the first time in over a few centuries. It was beautiful, but he knew what he had to do, even if he would regret it later. He swallowed what was left of his pride and assaulted the monastery where he was raised. Most of it's dwellers had long since died, only a few quincy his age were now elders, still alive only through the use of ransōtengai, but still none would be able to recognize him it had been so long ago since he was a human and a member of this order.
He killed as many people within the sanctuary as he could as quickly as he could, using a modified version of bala he developed on the spot in order to prevent the battle from dragging on. The majority of the enemies he fought were all easy to kill, much to his relief as he did not want to have to fight them for long. When he battled the older, more experienced quincy, he was unable to defeat them as long as they used ransōtengai, because he refused to destroy their bodies entirely using cero. Instead, he used the power that he possessed with the aid of him once being quincy himself.
He drew his zanpakuto, and used it's blade to draw in and absorb the spirit particles that were being used to hold his enemies bodies together, he blade cut the strings they used to keep themselves able to fight, and they all quickly died without any more effort afterwards. Not even the eldest and most powerful member of the Brotherhood and leader of this temple stood much of a change against Umbra once he used his evil blade to cut away at the fabrics that kept the old man able to stay alive. It was done, nearly every single member of the Brotherhood was now dead by his blade. He let the youngest of the order live, as they had nothing to do with him proving his superiority over the former Diez. Umbra returned to Heuco Mundo, in hopes that Las Noches would now accept him as the new Diez Espada, and also in hopes that those he spared would live and grow strong enough to someday avenge their fallen brethren and put an end to his own horrid existence.
Upon returning to Las Noches, he became the fraccion of the Tres Espada, Torre, whom Umbra saw a the most powerful of the bunch not only for her ability to fight, but also for her heart, her happiness and lack of sadistic-malevolent insanity that other Espada very abundant in. He trained under her for a few years and eventually became quite powerful himself, powerful enough to become he new Cuatro Espada just below her, which he has held the rank of for a few decades, eventually taking in a trio of rouge arrancar as his own loyal fraccion that tried to infiltrate the white fortress so they would finally have a home themselves without forcing them to commit such acts of violence he had to become admitted.
Eventually, there was the sudden disappearance of Desperado, the Hollow King of the Espada and ruler of Las Noches, immediately after he ordered Torre to abduct a trio of young shinigami from Soul Society. With the king of the Arrancar having disappeared off the face of Hueco Mundo the royal crown of Las Noches was passed onto his sister, Calixta. She was an incompetent, vain ruler who lacked the leadership qualities, or the raw, unsurpassed power of her brother, to control the Espada. As she took the throne, Soul Society launched a retaliatory campaign and invaded Hueco Mundo to rescue the three young shinigami and to defeat as many Arrancar as possible.
At the same time Soul Society had launched it's war against Las Noches, Calixta tried to weed out any Espada who weren't loyal to her and thus weakened Las Noches from within when it needed the Espada at its strongest the most. Torre with the help of Umbra and another arrancar by the name of Jessica rescued the three shinigami prisoners and handed them over to Soul Society, but in the process of doing so Umbra had to fight mysterious assassins working for enigmatic faction that would call themselves the Horror Vaccui, as well as the incredibly powerful Dos Espada Zetsumei in a bloody battle, and while he was able to fend off the minions easily, against an Espada two ranks above himself, he lost badly. He was saved by Torre who defeated Zetsumei before he could finish off the beaten Umbra, but his injuries were so severe that in order to survive his body had to revert to that of a child to conserve reiatsu and his hollow powers were sealed away for now. He has at that point, along with his three Fraccion, escaped along with Torre from Hueco Mundo to start anew.
Abilities (pre resurrecction ):
Balazo: Meaning "shot" in spanish. A specialized version of Bala invented by Umbra which fires multiple bullets of energy from each of his fingertips simultaneously. Each individual bullet is only half the strength of a regular bala but also at least 1.5-2x faster and still quite a formidable attack when properly used in battle. In his child body, he uses this ability in imitation of Quincy arrows.
Sombracorte: Meaning "shadow" (sombra) and "blade" (corte) in Spanish. Causes Umbra's zanpakuto to glow a dark aura, which absorbs many spirit particles that contact the blade's sharp, adding to his own power temporarily as well as causing whatever he cut to suffer short-term damage meaning that they cannot repair themselves naturally for a short period of time, meaning any form of healing, regeneration, or self-repairing that occur within 2 posts after getting cut will be dramatically less significant. The blade also reduces the effectiveness of abilities like ransōtengai and others that require collected spirit particles.
Additional Info:
Umbra is incapable of using his Sombracorte ability for extended periods or releasing his zanpakuto at all while stuck as a child, and will remain a child for plot-reasons until the story progresses to the point that he can properly heal and return to his full-grown form. As a child, he refers to himself by Galihan, his first name as opposed to Umbra, his last name, as he did when he was an adult. Galihan can still draw the blade and does so much more frequently than he would as his adult form, perhaps because his decrease in power makes him unable to hold back like he used to. He carries what appears to be a Quincy-cross, which can create a bow, but instead of actually firing arrows from loose spirit energy, it conceals his hollow energy and allows him to shoot small bala attacks from his finger that resemble arrows.
General:
Appearance:
Hechicería's sealed form is different than other zanpakuto, as it appears to be bo staff, and Umbra fights with it as such. In reality it actually is a sword as long as he is tall, and is usually never drawn from it's sheath. When he does choose to draw the blade, the entire scabbard simply disintegrates into a cloud of white sand leaving only the sword in Umbra's hands. He used to only draw the sword when he fought to kill, but as a child he draws the blade more frequently as if it were the shikai of a regular zanpakuto.
Resurrecctión
"Drain, Hechicería! (Spanish for "sorcery")
Armor/ Appearance:
Umbra's arms would become encased inside of white armor and his hands gain a set of long claws on each of his fingers which can be used as weapons. His shoulders become large and armored, each shoulder covered in many blade-like spines. His mask grows down his face and his horns grow much longer, his hair grows twice as long, and his skin turns a dark blueish-black. He also loses his robe-like jacket and in it's place gets a large cape draping down his back. Until he can heal and return to his adult form, he will be incapable of releasing Hechicería.
Abilities:
Anticlaro: "Claro" - Spanish for "light", therefor meaning "anti-light"):
An ability that occurs naturally when Hechicería is released, Umbra forcibly absorbs lose spirit particles around him, similar to a quincy's final release or a bount's ability to regenerate. This ability does not have as far of a range as the quincy or bount particles absorption abilities so it tends to absorb so many particles in the air directly around Umbra that it actually even absorbs light itself casting a growing darkness around him. The longer he remains in his released form, the darker it gets. After about 10 posts, the area around Umbra is in complete darkness. After Umbra uses his Sombracero attack, any and all absorbed light gets released back into the area surrounding him.
Sombracero:
A second part to Umbra's Anticlaro ability, his ability is a version of cero that starts a clear greyish-blue but the longer Anticlaro draws in energy, the larger more powerful, and closer to a pitch black-blue it becomes. At the peak of it's power, when Anticlaro has absorbed the most spirit and light particles from around Umbra, Sombracero's strength surpasses Gran Rey Cero and is darker than a cloudy midnight on the new moon, but after Sombracero is fired it releases all the light back into the air and weakens sombracero to it's weakest form. However, it Umbra were to fight while in a dark area, like in the eternal night that is Hueco Mundo's desert, the Menos Forest, or even in the dark hallways of Las Noches where it's artificial sky-lit chambers don't shine, then Sombracero could always be more powerful than when Umbra fights in the light.
Gorrión: Spanish for "Sparrow":
A more basic attack than Sombracero, Gorrión launches dozens of small arrow-like projectiles from his shoulders which can buzz around and slice anything they fly into. Looks similar to the arrows fired by quincy bows, but inflict damage by cutting targets to pieces by swarming around from all angles.
Bala : A high-speed energy blast fired from Umbra's fist, is weaker than cero but twenty times faster.
Cero: A high-powered red energy blast fired from Umbra's open palm. A much more blue powerful version called Gran Rey Cero can be used by the Espada by mixing their own blood with their own cero.
Garganta: Literally tearing open the dimensional fabric separating the worlds, it reveals a tunnel of whirling, torrential energy that must be focused and solidified to create a discernible pathway between Hueco Mundo and the living world or Soul Society
Hierro: By compressing spirit particles in his skin, Umbra is able to deflect released zanpakuto bare-handed without receiving much noticeable damage and most sealed zanpakuto without recieveing close to any damage at all
Negacion: Creates a large barrier-like tracor beam which allows Umbra to return to Hueco Mundo along with other hollow should a hasty retreat be called for
Pesquisa: Uses sonar-like pulses of reiatsu in order to detect and track spiritual bodies
Sonido: A hollowfied version of flash step, allowing Umbra to travel short distances in the blink of an eye
Other Characters:
Takeshi, Shinigami Academy Student
Azuka Tsunō, 2nd Squad Vice-Captain
Chiyo Iko, 7th Squad Vice-Captain
Daichi Minoru, 12th Squad Captain
Daniel Conrad, New World Order Battle Operative
Roleplay Sample:
Outside the massive fortress, the howl of countless numbers of lesser hollow echoed throughout the night sky as the elite vanguard of shinigami hacked and slashed their way closer and closer to the enemy base of operations. It was child's for the captain and vice-captain class members of the assault and the lower-ranked members also seemed to be having no problems as expected as these men were handpicked among the very best Squad 11 had to offer by their youthful Captain Matano Nekomi who was leading the attack along with Squad 10's Captain Saigotsuchuu Yun and Squad 12's Captain Minoru Daichi. It was Minoru who had chosen the destination to raise the senkaimon gate for Squads 2 and 9's Captains Kyuettaro Kisho and Hitotsu, respectively, to arrive with reinforcements and bring about pain and carnage unlike the kind seen for what must have been hundreds of years. It was way too long since Minoru has had the chance to prove that just because he's in charge of a majority of Soul Society's scientific development (save whatever Yun had going on with his squad such as the impressive contraption that got them over here in the first place,) that he was unable to also be a powerful warrior worthy of being ranked as a Captain in the Gotei 13.
"These hollows seem rather hungry, too bad they chose the wrong people to eat today!" he called out, his sealed zanpakuto easily dispatching one of the evil spirits among many who tried to stop them. "I'm guessing there's no chance we can do this secretly, is there?" He joked as he killed another hollow effortlessly as they kept coming at them. Even though the group as a whole was most definitely detected within Las Noches, Minoru himself was concealed by the vest he wore under his coat, which hid him for now until they'd get closer to the fortress itself.
So far nothing that had attacked them was really worth the effort of such a powerful team from Soul Society, but this wasn't just a measly hollow-extermination patrol in the real world, this was a maximum-priority rescue operation to retrieve Dante, Namida, and Takeshi, three young shinigami-in-training who were kidnapped in a field-exam gone horribly wrong. Minoru knew that it was their absolute duty to get the trio back safely before any more harm came their way than what may have actually happened to them, but he was certain that they'd succeed and that it would only be a matter of time before they meet some arrancar, and then the Espada thereafter. After all it was a member of the Espada who performed the kidnapping, so surely the Espada try to prevent the rescue. What the 12th Squad Captain didn't know was that the very same Espada who had kidnapped the trio was also making an effort to rescue them.
Yes, within the halls of Las Noches, there was disorder unlike anything before. The Tres Espada, Torre, the very woman who had taken them from their training mission was helping them escape. Takeshi did not understand the full situation going on in the titanic fortress or outside it, but he knew that he had to trust these arrancar women who were determined in freeing him and his senior classmates. They ran and they ran for quite a while, usually having to catch up to Torre who was incredibly fast compared to them. It wasn't too tiring to him, but he seemed very uneasy as if there was something trailing them. He looked down at the cat hollow and behind him only to see nothing but white hallways. Suddenly Torre lunched and punched at him, or actually above him, utterly and completely crushing and shattering the mask of a third arrancar that was in fact pursuing them. An assassin trying to kill him? No, an assassin trying to kill Torre? It wasn't important, he was clearly dead now, but suddenly a dozen more were emerging from the shadows and coming at them with the intent to kill. Without arguing, he did as he was told and proceeded in following Jessica's lead after Dante and Namida. He wanted to stay back and fight but it pained him to admit he was too weak to combat the assassins. Knowing that Soul Society was now making it's attack, were the other arrancar becoming desperate to keep them hostage, more importantly, would Torre and Jessica have to fight the shinigami who were here to also rescue them? Takeshi was pretty sure he was the eldest and most powerful of the three, despite only being in his first year at the academy where they were both in their 5th years, and he felt compelled to make sure no harm came out of his peers.
As they ran through the dark passages, his eyes were slowly becoming adjusted to the lack of light around them and was able to actually see his surroundings with relative ease compared to hen he first plunged into these shadowy hallways. After not to long he felt what appeared to five more of the assassins ahead as well as one figure directly behind him. He instinctively drew his zanpakuto and spun around in one fluid motion, but the blade of his weapon merely bounced off what appeared to be a staff of some sort, sending a shock of backlash back at him which toppled him over.
Damnit! he thought, realizing his recklessness might just be his death as this being didn't even budge an inch. He looked up at the tall figure, a tall arrancar with pale blue skin and a long bo staff for a weapon instead of a sword. This man didn't look like the identical assailants who were also attacking, his mask forming a small crown-like headband on his forehead instead of a grim, demonic skull. This being raised his hand above Takeshi, pointing each of his fingers at one of the assassins, and in a flash of blue energy they all found themselves a nice cozy place to lay down in pools of their own blood. He lowered his hand and looked down at Takeshi with an emotionless stare.
"Put that thing away, kid. You'll threaten yourself if you go swinging blindly at everybody around you," said Galihan Umbra, the Cuatro Espada. The tall blue arranacar looked at Jessica, the young arrancar who often was found tagging around with Torre-sama lately, confirming for him that his former master Torre-sama had more than simply not attending a stupid and pointless meeting to get the Exequias after her. He would also help Torre-sama in rescuing these children even if at the cost of his own life. He proceeded in moving past the children and approached Jessica, and bent over as not to loom over her so they could see more eye-to-eye.
"Jessica-chan, please allow me to lead the way, I am very familiar with these dark passages and our top priority is not letting Torre-sama down."
He would be able to show the fastest ways out of Las Noches through the maze-like canals under the fortress, and would protect the group until Torre-sama could catch up. He had no intention of staying here much longer anyways, but was reluctant to escape at the same time as Torre-sama was carrying out the rescue, the two Espada together would be impossible to hide and he had no intention of having to confront Amsodeus or Zatsumei for now.
General Info
Name:
Galihan Umbra (Umbra - Latin for the darkest part of a shadow.)
Gender:
Male
Age:
517
Ranking:
Former Espada, Rogue
Number:
104
Base Type:
Vasto Lorde
Physical Description:
In his original form, Umbra stood tall at 6'2", often making him taller than others around him. He is of a slim and lean build, has dark blue eyes, and a dark blue horizontal line on his face, running from ear-to-ear at the same level as his eyes. His fingernails are also dark blue, as are his tongue, and even his skin is a ghostly pale with a tint of blue. Wrapping up his blue color scheme is his short, raven-black hair which has a blue highlights in it. His former uniform was for the most part typical-arrancar style: white hakama, black sash, and a white large, robe-like jacket overtop of his bare chest. His hole is located in the center of his stomach. The remains of his mask form a headband covering his forehead decorated with four short curved horns each about two inches long. In between his shoulder blades on his back, is a dark scar of where he used to have a tattoo signifying him as the Cautro Espada.
During the process of Umbra defecting from the Espada and escaping Hueco Mundo, he received serious injuries which left in him a weakened state, which downgraded his body to accommodate his decrease in power. Galihan's new body is that of a much younger, child version of himself. While retaining most of his distinguishing features, the horns on his mask remnants now have been rounded off and are more like cartoonish nubs than actual horns., and also a large crack in his mask is visible. He is also now only half of his normal hight at a very short 3'1”, and rather scrawny looking but still retains a considerable amount of reiatsu which could rank him below the Espada but still higher than most other arrancar, only able to fight on par with the Diez or Nueve Espada if he gave it his all in his child body while they held back. In his weakened form, Galihan usually inhabits a gigai to fit in among the humans. This gigai obviously lacks most of his arrancar characteristics, his skin is normal of a normal flesh tone without any blue fingernails or tongue or blue line on his face, he doesn't have any form of mask remnants, or a hole, but his hair is still a dark raven-black and his eyes retain their blue color. He the white robes of a Quincy.
Personality
Umbra is by nature a pacifist. He is a person who does not enjoy fighting in the least despite the fact he is very powerful. He sees fighting as useless and looks down on people who seek power for selfish reasons, only making exceptions to those who seek the power to protect their own beliefs, or who fight to defend honor. He only chooses to fight when he feels his opponent serves as a threat to Las Noches and to his fellow arrancar. He dreams of a future where the arrancar and shinigami can coexist without constant warfare.
When he does decide to fight, he is a fierce warrior who performs every action with precision, and makes a point out of avoiding any chance for error, as error leads to things being dragged out and making the battle longer than needed. Even in battle he is rarely one to show emotion, except for the occasional glimpse of anger or irritation. Hovever, he rarely does fight to kill, but does train everyday. He mainly sleep/mediates most of the time unless he has pressing matters to tend to.
Out of battle he is a person who shows little emotion at first glance, but his dull attitude is only a deception to those who don't know him. He is one of few, if the only, hollow who will gladly show both his tears and true compassion with his subordinates as he feels that those who feel they need to hide their tears are insecure fools. He is very sentimental and compassionate towards people who are honest with their emotions. He sees emotion, especially happiness and compassion, to be the most beautiful and wonderful things in the world. Being accused of being emotionless and cold are the only things that can truly anger him often will lead to a battle, despite his usual attitude towards fighting.
Now as a child, Galihan's attitude has also become semi-child-like in nature, allowing his emotions to come to the surface much easier than before, becoming easily intimidated, embarrassed or jealous over trivial matters while often trying (and failing) to act calm and collected. An interesting point is that the new, younger Galihan is very obsessed with his pride as if he was a quincy like he was in life before becoming a hollow, often regarding himself as a quincy instead of an arrancar, while this may just be him acting, he sometimes even fools himself regarding his nature. While this makes sense when he his disguised inside of a gigai, this even continues when not in his gigai, when he it is obvious that he is an arrancar. As a child, he sometimes seems to be very attached to Torre and Jessica protective of them as if they were his mother and sister, but this doesn't show very often unless someone tries to provoke them, even if very few could actually pose a threat to any of the three.
History:
In the late spring of year 1592, abandoned on the doorsteps of a temple was a baby, who was taken in by a priest who sensed that this child was somehow special. He sent the baby to a monastery where he was raised as a member of the temple. For the most of the boy's childhood, he was under the impression that the temple was a simple order of monks, philosophers and scholars whose role in the greater society outside the monastery's walls was nonexistent, and he was anxious to become something more.
At the age of 7, this problem was fixed when he learned that it was all a ruse. This old temple was in reality a secret recruitment center for an old society of spirit-hunters known as The Brotherhood who battled these evil spirits known as hollows. The boy with no name was finally given one, Shitsumei (ironically, meaning "name unknown",) and began his training as a member of the Brotherhood at the age of 10. He was told that he has the blood of the Quincy in him, which allowed him to be especially sensitive to the presence of spirit energy and allowed him to manipulate loose energy in order to battle and destroy hollows. He trained with an actual bow with real arrows as well as with a bo staff, and even with a blade as he got older in the months he trained. He also spent his nights meditating and channeling his spiritual energy and the energy around him in order to prepare himself for when he'd move on from training with basic weapons to using weapons made by the Quincy.
At the age of 12, he was a very talented student who was thought to be able to be one of the Brotherhood's finest hollow-hunters once he completed his training. Unfortunately he was somewhat too talented, and when he was 15, he was sent out on a mission to exterminate some hollows that were terrorizing the countryside. He killed most of the hollows on his own, but the last few were especially powerful and in order to defeat them he needed to absorb and redirect the loose energy of the hollows he slew into his bow. He attained great strength in doing so but he also corrupted himself with the energies of the hollow, and he left the Brotherhood in fear that he'd be slain in they discovered him as he was.
Months flew by and Shitsumei's soul was slowly was becoming more and more of a hollow while at the same time remaining a living human. By the time he was 17, he had became a living being whose soul was entirely hollow, something the world had never seen the likes of before. His mind was still his human self, and he was able to mask his presence as a hollow, but eventually he lost partial control over himself and went on a rampage, killing many people who contained any trace of significant reiatsu. When he came to, he knew his crimes would be inexcusable so he decided to turn himself into the Brotherhood.
Before he could return to the monastery, he was surrounded by a team of black-robed warriors called shinigami. They were led by a middle aged man in a white coat who said that he wanted to study him and could cure him, but Shitsume was not only a quincy by also a hollow. It was in his blood and soul to despise these shinigami, even if he didn't ever have any past experience with these warriors in black, his very nature forced him to refuse the offer presented, and so he embraced his hollow powers and opened a portal to Hueco Mundo, escaping without resorting to violence. He vowed on his quincy pride that never again would he kill unless he had a just reason, and that overpowered his hollow desire for blood and carnage.
He spend decades in the Menos Forest, fending off savage hollow and mindless gillian for what seemed nonstop. After half a century in the underground world under the white desert, his body had completely been transformed into a hollow, named Shadowshade, and he began to feed on other hollows in order to survive when the spirit-rich air wouldn't support him anymore. Hundreds of thousands of hollow feasted upon, each one more sickening to his pride than the last. He had become a vasto lorde, the pinnacle of supremacy for a hollow and he loathed himself. He got so sick of himself, he desired to clean himself of his sinful existence and then when he had enough of it, he discarded his mask and transformed yet again, into something even greater.
He became an arrancar, a hollow who by removing his mask obtains the powers of a shinigami. This wasn't much of an improvement in his mind, now he was no longer a vile, monsterous hollow like he had spend centuries prior. Unable to recall what his name was prior to being a hollow, he refused to be acnowledged as the hollow Shadowshade, so he took on the name of Galihan Umbra, and he spend his days in solitude from that point, until he learned of Las Noches, a grand palace atop the sand where the other arrancar resided. Maybe, he thought to himself, maybe he'd be able to find refuge there. He was wrong, and was quickly ridiculed as a weakling who refused to fight. However he was recognizable for his impressive power, rivaling that of the weakest of the Espada at the time, who had just recently been slain by the Brotherhood in the world of the living and was yet to be replaced. He was told that if he could prove his power over the late Diez by killing he Quincy who were responsible for vacating the Diez position, he could have it.
It sickened him greatly, but he had no choice. He had to belong somewhere and he knew that being who he was now, this was the only option. He left Hueco Mundo and looked at the sun for the first time in over a few centuries. It was beautiful, but he knew what he had to do, even if he would regret it later. He swallowed what was left of his pride and assaulted the monastery where he was raised. Most of it's dwellers had long since died, only a few quincy his age were now elders, still alive only through the use of ransōtengai, but still none would be able to recognize him it had been so long ago since he was a human and a member of this order.
He killed as many people within the sanctuary as he could as quickly as he could, using a modified version of bala he developed on the spot in order to prevent the battle from dragging on. The majority of the enemies he fought were all easy to kill, much to his relief as he did not want to have to fight them for long. When he battled the older, more experienced quincy, he was unable to defeat them as long as they used ransōtengai, because he refused to destroy their bodies entirely using cero. Instead, he used the power that he possessed with the aid of him once being quincy himself.
He drew his zanpakuto, and used it's blade to draw in and absorb the spirit particles that were being used to hold his enemies bodies together, he blade cut the strings they used to keep themselves able to fight, and they all quickly died without any more effort afterwards. Not even the eldest and most powerful member of the Brotherhood and leader of this temple stood much of a change against Umbra once he used his evil blade to cut away at the fabrics that kept the old man able to stay alive. It was done, nearly every single member of the Brotherhood was now dead by his blade. He let the youngest of the order live, as they had nothing to do with him proving his superiority over the former Diez. Umbra returned to Heuco Mundo, in hopes that Las Noches would now accept him as the new Diez Espada, and also in hopes that those he spared would live and grow strong enough to someday avenge their fallen brethren and put an end to his own horrid existence.
Upon returning to Las Noches, he became the fraccion of the Tres Espada, Torre, whom Umbra saw a the most powerful of the bunch not only for her ability to fight, but also for her heart, her happiness and lack of sadistic-malevolent insanity that other Espada very abundant in. He trained under her for a few years and eventually became quite powerful himself, powerful enough to become he new Cuatro Espada just below her, which he has held the rank of for a few decades, eventually taking in a trio of rouge arrancar as his own loyal fraccion that tried to infiltrate the white fortress so they would finally have a home themselves without forcing them to commit such acts of violence he had to become admitted.
Eventually, there was the sudden disappearance of Desperado, the Hollow King of the Espada and ruler of Las Noches, immediately after he ordered Torre to abduct a trio of young shinigami from Soul Society. With the king of the Arrancar having disappeared off the face of Hueco Mundo the royal crown of Las Noches was passed onto his sister, Calixta. She was an incompetent, vain ruler who lacked the leadership qualities, or the raw, unsurpassed power of her brother, to control the Espada. As she took the throne, Soul Society launched a retaliatory campaign and invaded Hueco Mundo to rescue the three young shinigami and to defeat as many Arrancar as possible.
At the same time Soul Society had launched it's war against Las Noches, Calixta tried to weed out any Espada who weren't loyal to her and thus weakened Las Noches from within when it needed the Espada at its strongest the most. Torre with the help of Umbra and another arrancar by the name of Jessica rescued the three shinigami prisoners and handed them over to Soul Society, but in the process of doing so Umbra had to fight mysterious assassins working for enigmatic faction that would call themselves the Horror Vaccui, as well as the incredibly powerful Dos Espada Zetsumei in a bloody battle, and while he was able to fend off the minions easily, against an Espada two ranks above himself, he lost badly. He was saved by Torre who defeated Zetsumei before he could finish off the beaten Umbra, but his injuries were so severe that in order to survive his body had to revert to that of a child to conserve reiatsu and his hollow powers were sealed away for now. He has at that point, along with his three Fraccion, escaped along with Torre from Hueco Mundo to start anew.
Abilities (pre resurrecction ):
Balazo: Meaning "shot" in spanish. A specialized version of Bala invented by Umbra which fires multiple bullets of energy from each of his fingertips simultaneously. Each individual bullet is only half the strength of a regular bala but also at least 1.5-2x faster and still quite a formidable attack when properly used in battle. In his child body, he uses this ability in imitation of Quincy arrows.
Sombracorte: Meaning "shadow" (sombra) and "blade" (corte) in Spanish. Causes Umbra's zanpakuto to glow a dark aura, which absorbs many spirit particles that contact the blade's sharp, adding to his own power temporarily as well as causing whatever he cut to suffer short-term damage meaning that they cannot repair themselves naturally for a short period of time, meaning any form of healing, regeneration, or self-repairing that occur within 2 posts after getting cut will be dramatically less significant. The blade also reduces the effectiveness of abilities like ransōtengai and others that require collected spirit particles.
Additional Info:
Umbra is incapable of using his Sombracorte ability for extended periods or releasing his zanpakuto at all while stuck as a child, and will remain a child for plot-reasons until the story progresses to the point that he can properly heal and return to his full-grown form. As a child, he refers to himself by Galihan, his first name as opposed to Umbra, his last name, as he did when he was an adult. Galihan can still draw the blade and does so much more frequently than he would as his adult form, perhaps because his decrease in power makes him unable to hold back like he used to. He carries what appears to be a Quincy-cross, which can create a bow, but instead of actually firing arrows from loose spirit energy, it conceals his hollow energy and allows him to shoot small bala attacks from his finger that resemble arrows.
Zanpakuto
General:
Appearance:
Hechicería's sealed form is different than other zanpakuto, as it appears to be bo staff, and Umbra fights with it as such. In reality it actually is a sword as long as he is tall, and is usually never drawn from it's sheath. When he does choose to draw the blade, the entire scabbard simply disintegrates into a cloud of white sand leaving only the sword in Umbra's hands. He used to only draw the sword when he fought to kill, but as a child he draws the blade more frequently as if it were the shikai of a regular zanpakuto.
Resurrecctión
"Drain, Hechicería! (Spanish for "sorcery")
Armor/ Appearance:
Umbra's arms would become encased inside of white armor and his hands gain a set of long claws on each of his fingers which can be used as weapons. His shoulders become large and armored, each shoulder covered in many blade-like spines. His mask grows down his face and his horns grow much longer, his hair grows twice as long, and his skin turns a dark blueish-black. He also loses his robe-like jacket and in it's place gets a large cape draping down his back. Until he can heal and return to his adult form, he will be incapable of releasing Hechicería.
Abilities:
Anticlaro: "Claro" - Spanish for "light", therefor meaning "anti-light"):
An ability that occurs naturally when Hechicería is released, Umbra forcibly absorbs lose spirit particles around him, similar to a quincy's final release or a bount's ability to regenerate. This ability does not have as far of a range as the quincy or bount particles absorption abilities so it tends to absorb so many particles in the air directly around Umbra that it actually even absorbs light itself casting a growing darkness around him. The longer he remains in his released form, the darker it gets. After about 10 posts, the area around Umbra is in complete darkness. After Umbra uses his Sombracero attack, any and all absorbed light gets released back into the area surrounding him.
Sombracero:
A second part to Umbra's Anticlaro ability, his ability is a version of cero that starts a clear greyish-blue but the longer Anticlaro draws in energy, the larger more powerful, and closer to a pitch black-blue it becomes. At the peak of it's power, when Anticlaro has absorbed the most spirit and light particles from around Umbra, Sombracero's strength surpasses Gran Rey Cero and is darker than a cloudy midnight on the new moon, but after Sombracero is fired it releases all the light back into the air and weakens sombracero to it's weakest form. However, it Umbra were to fight while in a dark area, like in the eternal night that is Hueco Mundo's desert, the Menos Forest, or even in the dark hallways of Las Noches where it's artificial sky-lit chambers don't shine, then Sombracero could always be more powerful than when Umbra fights in the light.
Gorrión: Spanish for "Sparrow":
A more basic attack than Sombracero, Gorrión launches dozens of small arrow-like projectiles from his shoulders which can buzz around and slice anything they fly into. Looks similar to the arrows fired by quincy bows, but inflict damage by cutting targets to pieces by swarming around from all angles.
Hollow Techniques
Bala : A high-speed energy blast fired from Umbra's fist, is weaker than cero but twenty times faster.
Cero: A high-powered red energy blast fired from Umbra's open palm. A much more blue powerful version called Gran Rey Cero can be used by the Espada by mixing their own blood with their own cero.
Garganta: Literally tearing open the dimensional fabric separating the worlds, it reveals a tunnel of whirling, torrential energy that must be focused and solidified to create a discernible pathway between Hueco Mundo and the living world or Soul Society
Hierro: By compressing spirit particles in his skin, Umbra is able to deflect released zanpakuto bare-handed without receiving much noticeable damage and most sealed zanpakuto without recieveing close to any damage at all
Negacion: Creates a large barrier-like tracor beam which allows Umbra to return to Hueco Mundo along with other hollow should a hasty retreat be called for
Pesquisa: Uses sonar-like pulses of reiatsu in order to detect and track spiritual bodies
Sonido: A hollowfied version of flash step, allowing Umbra to travel short distances in the blink of an eye
Additional
Other Characters:
Takeshi, Shinigami Academy Student
Azuka Tsunō, 2nd Squad Vice-Captain
Chiyo Iko, 7th Squad Vice-Captain
Daichi Minoru, 12th Squad Captain
Daniel Conrad, New World Order Battle Operative
Roleplay Sample:
Outside the massive fortress, the howl of countless numbers of lesser hollow echoed throughout the night sky as the elite vanguard of shinigami hacked and slashed their way closer and closer to the enemy base of operations. It was child's for the captain and vice-captain class members of the assault and the lower-ranked members also seemed to be having no problems as expected as these men were handpicked among the very best Squad 11 had to offer by their youthful Captain Matano Nekomi who was leading the attack along with Squad 10's Captain Saigotsuchuu Yun and Squad 12's Captain Minoru Daichi. It was Minoru who had chosen the destination to raise the senkaimon gate for Squads 2 and 9's Captains Kyuettaro Kisho and Hitotsu, respectively, to arrive with reinforcements and bring about pain and carnage unlike the kind seen for what must have been hundreds of years. It was way too long since Minoru has had the chance to prove that just because he's in charge of a majority of Soul Society's scientific development (save whatever Yun had going on with his squad such as the impressive contraption that got them over here in the first place,) that he was unable to also be a powerful warrior worthy of being ranked as a Captain in the Gotei 13.
"These hollows seem rather hungry, too bad they chose the wrong people to eat today!" he called out, his sealed zanpakuto easily dispatching one of the evil spirits among many who tried to stop them. "I'm guessing there's no chance we can do this secretly, is there?" He joked as he killed another hollow effortlessly as they kept coming at them. Even though the group as a whole was most definitely detected within Las Noches, Minoru himself was concealed by the vest he wore under his coat, which hid him for now until they'd get closer to the fortress itself.
So far nothing that had attacked them was really worth the effort of such a powerful team from Soul Society, but this wasn't just a measly hollow-extermination patrol in the real world, this was a maximum-priority rescue operation to retrieve Dante, Namida, and Takeshi, three young shinigami-in-training who were kidnapped in a field-exam gone horribly wrong. Minoru knew that it was their absolute duty to get the trio back safely before any more harm came their way than what may have actually happened to them, but he was certain that they'd succeed and that it would only be a matter of time before they meet some arrancar, and then the Espada thereafter. After all it was a member of the Espada who performed the kidnapping, so surely the Espada try to prevent the rescue. What the 12th Squad Captain didn't know was that the very same Espada who had kidnapped the trio was also making an effort to rescue them.
Yes, within the halls of Las Noches, there was disorder unlike anything before. The Tres Espada, Torre, the very woman who had taken them from their training mission was helping them escape. Takeshi did not understand the full situation going on in the titanic fortress or outside it, but he knew that he had to trust these arrancar women who were determined in freeing him and his senior classmates. They ran and they ran for quite a while, usually having to catch up to Torre who was incredibly fast compared to them. It wasn't too tiring to him, but he seemed very uneasy as if there was something trailing them. He looked down at the cat hollow and behind him only to see nothing but white hallways. Suddenly Torre lunched and punched at him, or actually above him, utterly and completely crushing and shattering the mask of a third arrancar that was in fact pursuing them. An assassin trying to kill him? No, an assassin trying to kill Torre? It wasn't important, he was clearly dead now, but suddenly a dozen more were emerging from the shadows and coming at them with the intent to kill. Without arguing, he did as he was told and proceeded in following Jessica's lead after Dante and Namida. He wanted to stay back and fight but it pained him to admit he was too weak to combat the assassins. Knowing that Soul Society was now making it's attack, were the other arrancar becoming desperate to keep them hostage, more importantly, would Torre and Jessica have to fight the shinigami who were here to also rescue them? Takeshi was pretty sure he was the eldest and most powerful of the three, despite only being in his first year at the academy where they were both in their 5th years, and he felt compelled to make sure no harm came out of his peers.
As they ran through the dark passages, his eyes were slowly becoming adjusted to the lack of light around them and was able to actually see his surroundings with relative ease compared to hen he first plunged into these shadowy hallways. After not to long he felt what appeared to five more of the assassins ahead as well as one figure directly behind him. He instinctively drew his zanpakuto and spun around in one fluid motion, but the blade of his weapon merely bounced off what appeared to be a staff of some sort, sending a shock of backlash back at him which toppled him over.
Damnit! he thought, realizing his recklessness might just be his death as this being didn't even budge an inch. He looked up at the tall figure, a tall arrancar with pale blue skin and a long bo staff for a weapon instead of a sword. This man didn't look like the identical assailants who were also attacking, his mask forming a small crown-like headband on his forehead instead of a grim, demonic skull. This being raised his hand above Takeshi, pointing each of his fingers at one of the assassins, and in a flash of blue energy they all found themselves a nice cozy place to lay down in pools of their own blood. He lowered his hand and looked down at Takeshi with an emotionless stare.
"Put that thing away, kid. You'll threaten yourself if you go swinging blindly at everybody around you," said Galihan Umbra, the Cuatro Espada. The tall blue arranacar looked at Jessica, the young arrancar who often was found tagging around with Torre-sama lately, confirming for him that his former master Torre-sama had more than simply not attending a stupid and pointless meeting to get the Exequias after her. He would also help Torre-sama in rescuing these children even if at the cost of his own life. He proceeded in moving past the children and approached Jessica, and bent over as not to loom over her so they could see more eye-to-eye.
"Jessica-chan, please allow me to lead the way, I am very familiar with these dark passages and our top priority is not letting Torre-sama down."
He would be able to show the fastest ways out of Las Noches through the maze-like canals under the fortress, and would protect the group until Torre-sama could catch up. He had no intention of staying here much longer anyways, but was reluctant to escape at the same time as Torre-sama was carrying out the rescue, the two Espada together would be impossible to hide and he had no intention of having to confront Amsodeus or Zatsumei for now.
