The Origins of Soul Society

Well, there has been som discussion in random topics, but i dont think there has been a thread dedicated to this duscission yet.

Anyway, in ep 55 we hear Yama-ji (the first captain) say that he started the academy where all the shinigami train. So obviously tehre wasn't ALWAYS a SS (im refering to the SS we know, but the ordinary souls that live outside the noble area) or shinigami.

Now, given how slowly the SS residents age, and the age of the first captain, i'd say that he established the academy 1000+ years ago. Im assumming that Soul Society itself has been around since the begining of time or something, but does that mean the shinigami have been around that long as well? or was Yama-ji the first one?

Heres how i see it:

Case 1: Shinigami have been around forever, and yama-ji just organized them and created the academy.

Case 2: Shinigami came into existence when the academy was created 1000 some odd years ago. In this case, the hollows must have come into existence just prior to the creation of the acedemy, thus forcing SS to do something about them. Here, im assuming some cosmic disbalance or something resulted in the creation of the first hollows. Before that, everyone was just a soul.

Case 3: Hollows have been around forever, and there have always been people fighting them (just random people, but not shinigami). Yama-ji created the academy to organize an army/militia of sorts, and thus the shinigami were born.

Lets hear what you guys think about it all. Discuss away!

i'd modify case 3 a little bit and say that hollows and shinigami have always been there but yama-ji was the one who created the academy to formally train those with spirit power to fight hollows more effectively. this case would feed into (my) natural explanation as to what's happening in the manga right now but alas, this is a spoiler-free thread [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

I'm for case 3. It makes the most sense. Though your Case 1 also seems possible...

pfft, we all know the only reason Yamamoto created the Shinigami Academy was so there could be epic ammounts of ass kicking across all the known lands(and some unknown).

Number 3 looks good, but I would think the academy was created because the inbalance of souls was greatly visable and Yamamoto could realize that after he kicked so much arse in the real world, that it was time to kick arse in soul society.

Othe theories lead me to believe that SS could of once been overruned with Hallows, and the residents of SS (the ones who had most power) drove them to hell?

Shinigamis and Hollows have always been at war. So far, shinigami have turned out to be the winners cause they are more organised cause of soul society and Yama Jil. Hollows need someone to organize them

I think its Number 3 =P. But modified the same way as Honoko said.

You guys dont seem to get it....those 3 cases are just what i personally think. You dont have to choose the one you like best. This topic is for everyone to post thier own crackpot theories [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

I don't care enough to crack my own pot. You seemed to have come up with some good explanations, so I'll just rely on those thankyouverymuch.

Lol, I was wondering when people would actually start figuring out that they don't just need to fall in line with one of the proposed theories. We're men, not sheep...

My theory: There have always been Hollows, as it seems to be the final form of human sin and decay of the soul, a trait that has been present ever since humans were created.

However, I often wonder when the Shinigami came to be, as it does not seem that humans dedicated to fighting the Hollows would be a natural creation. It is plausible that some people, after death, wanted nothing more than to destroy the evil Hollows and dedicated their after lives in order to sharpen their skills.

These humans were aided by another kind of spirit, which would become their weapons against the Hollows. I am speaking about Zanpaktaous/Soul Slayers, which all seem to have existences of their own and are notably NOT human.

As for the actual origin of Soul Society, the human world and Hueco Mundo I believe they were created as separate systems in order to preserve the balance of souls. Hollows had to be confined to Hueco Mundo or they would probably bring great disaster to the living, perhaps even destroy all life. Soul Society was created as a place for the deceased souls to go, rather than have them all milling around the human world, which would also be quite a disturbance... The ultimate goal of the creation of these separate realms was to facilitate the human world, which is the crux and actual center of "life". While souls may go to SS or Hueco Mundo, there needs to be a place for new life to be created and raised, and this is the human world.