After the Eternal Summer, an era of unseen peace and prosperity for the Soul Society at large, the untimely and mysterious death of many high-ranking Central Forty-Six elders sent the Seireitei into disarray, and from the chaos arose a new order under auspices of the Tsunayashiro and the Shihōin. With many of the Kuchiki Great Noblility’s ranking members slain, and the Shiba weakened by their long and losing economic battle with the other nobles, the Tsunayashiro and the Shihōin took control of the Seireitei, left unopposed to do as they wished. The Central Forty-Six, predominantly composed of these two powerful Noble Houses, decreed to falsely try and imprison the acting Commander of the Gotei 13, Kin Yamasaki; her crime: the massacre of Central Forty-Six; her sentence: execution upon Sokyoku Hill. This infamous event forced the once mighty and thriving Soul Society into a downward spiral, and thus began The Great Degradation.
The year 1878 marked a drastic change in the Gotei 13’s outlook on the Soul Society, as the majority of the seats of Central Forty-Six were held by the privileged who cared little for the welfare of those who lived far behind the tall white walls of the Seireitei. A once thriving and symbiotic relationship between the two societies was flipped on its head, the effects of the Seireitei’s abandonment of the Rukongai felt immediately. Where once the exchange of goods and services fell under the prosperous channel of well-maintained networks of supply and trade, they were removed from the reach of those not of the highest Nobility and their retainers. To make matters worse, the Third Division’s Patrol units were downsized, the manpower instead used to serve those who lived within the Seireitei. In the eyes of the elite, it was as if the Rukongai and its denizens didn't exist.
A darkness befell the wandering city, starting from the outskirts in the farthest Districts, slowly spreading throughout like a contagious plague. With dwindling resources and negligence on the part of the Shinigami, crime rose, death becoming even more common than it already was. A severing distrust scarred the minds and hearts of the Soul Society, the short-sighted decision by those who ruled ensuring that a once relatively contained corruption grew like cancer. After a century, the innermost Districts, historically prosperous and nearly as safe as the Seireitei itself, also succumbed; once powerful Noble houses were reduced to beggars, stripped of dignity and honor, their high-potential children sold off to the highest bidders. A great unrest brewed for decades, criminal factions rising to strengths not seen for half a millenia, and garnering the people’s support, for the downtrodden grasped at even the faintest of hopes for a better life.
And within the Seireitei, an even thicker turmoil grew, a palpable disturbance within the Divisions of a once united military force. The recent mysterious murders of three Captains of the Gotei 13, Captain of the Third Division Ken Kure, Captain of the Seventh Division Minori Hara, and Captain of the Tenth Division Masaro Yasui, fueled an already raging fire, the tension rising to levels that eroded an already tenuous relationship between Squads. The untimely death of three Captains within the span of three months raised many concerns, none more pertinent than the question of who, or what, would be capable of killing not one, but three Captain-class Shinigami? Rumors of treason spread like wildfire, accusations against the Captain of the Eleventh, Kenpachi Murakami and his Division of blood-thirsty ghouls made at every corner of the gloomy Seireitei. No Captain went verbally unscathed, each and every one garnering some degree of suspicion, some even from within their own Divisions. And strangely, no traces were left at the scenes of the crimes, no bread crumbs to follow, the Operatives of the Stealth Force yet unable to sniff out the culprits.
The Central Forty-Six, and by extension, the First Division, continue to keep the Seireitei from imploding, and the inevitable at bay, but for how long? The pressure is at a fever-pitch, the tidings of disaster written all over the white walls of the Seireitei…
The year 1878 marked a drastic change in the Gotei 13’s outlook on the Soul Society, as the majority of the seats of Central Forty-Six were held by the privileged who cared little for the welfare of those who lived far behind the tall white walls of the Seireitei. A once thriving and symbiotic relationship between the two societies was flipped on its head, the effects of the Seireitei’s abandonment of the Rukongai felt immediately. Where once the exchange of goods and services fell under the prosperous channel of well-maintained networks of supply and trade, they were removed from the reach of those not of the highest Nobility and their retainers. To make matters worse, the Third Division’s Patrol units were downsized, the manpower instead used to serve those who lived within the Seireitei. In the eyes of the elite, it was as if the Rukongai and its denizens didn't exist.
A darkness befell the wandering city, starting from the outskirts in the farthest Districts, slowly spreading throughout like a contagious plague. With dwindling resources and negligence on the part of the Shinigami, crime rose, death becoming even more common than it already was. A severing distrust scarred the minds and hearts of the Soul Society, the short-sighted decision by those who ruled ensuring that a once relatively contained corruption grew like cancer. After a century, the innermost Districts, historically prosperous and nearly as safe as the Seireitei itself, also succumbed; once powerful Noble houses were reduced to beggars, stripped of dignity and honor, their high-potential children sold off to the highest bidders. A great unrest brewed for decades, criminal factions rising to strengths not seen for half a millenia, and garnering the people’s support, for the downtrodden grasped at even the faintest of hopes for a better life.
And within the Seireitei, an even thicker turmoil grew, a palpable disturbance within the Divisions of a once united military force. The recent mysterious murders of three Captains of the Gotei 13, Captain of the Third Division Ken Kure, Captain of the Seventh Division Minori Hara, and Captain of the Tenth Division Masaro Yasui, fueled an already raging fire, the tension rising to levels that eroded an already tenuous relationship between Squads. The untimely death of three Captains within the span of three months raised many concerns, none more pertinent than the question of who, or what, would be capable of killing not one, but three Captain-class Shinigami? Rumors of treason spread like wildfire, accusations against the Captain of the Eleventh, Kenpachi Murakami and his Division of blood-thirsty ghouls made at every corner of the gloomy Seireitei. No Captain went verbally unscathed, each and every one garnering some degree of suspicion, some even from within their own Divisions. And strangely, no traces were left at the scenes of the crimes, no bread crumbs to follow, the Operatives of the Stealth Force yet unable to sniff out the culprits.
The Central Forty-Six, and by extension, the First Division, continue to keep the Seireitei from imploding, and the inevitable at bay, but for how long? The pressure is at a fever-pitch, the tidings of disaster written all over the white walls of the Seireitei…
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