"Without the Soul King, Soul Society would fall apart. The "Soul King" is the "linchpin". Without the linchpin, the entire structure would crumble. That is simply the way of this world." — Kisuke Urahara in "GOD IS DEAD"

Adnyeus (アドナイェウス, Adonayeusu),^[3] more commonly known by his title of Soul King (霊王, Reiō), is the supposed ruler of Soul Society, who resides in the Soul King Palace and is protected by the Royal Guard.^[4] Adnyeus is also the father of Yhwach.^[5]

In reality, Adnyeus is a mere figurehead — a vegetative godlike entity that has been sealed away by the Shinigami eons ago^[6] and whose existence is tied to the cosmic balance of the Three Worlds, serving as the linchpin (楔, kusabi) that keeps the realms from merging back into the original world.^[7][8][9]

Appearance

Adnyeus is humanoid in physique, with slicked-back dark hair, oval eyes without eyebrows. His eyes are very unusual, each having four black irises.^[10][11] As the Soul King, he currently has no arms or legs^[12][13] and is sealed within an unusual blue crystal that is suspended by four wires in a large, elegant room.^[10] The crystal turns red when damaged.^[14]

Personality

The Soul King is a mysterious and enigmatic figure whose exact motivations remain uncertain. Though he is said to carry out orders to the Royal Guard,^[15] he has never been recorded speaking or displaying any emotion, making it difficult to accurately describe his character. What is known is that he seemingly cares about the inhabitants of the Soul Society, as he ordered the Royal Guard to rebuild the Gotei 13 following the Wandenreich's initial attack on the Seireitei,^[16] and his right arm actively tried to prevent the Quincy from destroying the Three Worlds.^[17] The Soul King greatly respects those who have made significant contributions to Soul Society, offering them a position among the Royal Guard^[18] before implanting the Ōken into their bones^[19] and giving them their own city in the Soul King Palace.^[20] According to Tenjirō Kirinji, the Soul King has taken a liking to Ichigo Kurosaki.^[21]

The Soul King's feelings towards his son Yhwach remain unclear; what is known is that Yhwach resents his own father for allowing the Quincy to be persecuted by the Shinigami.^[3] Senjumaru Shutara also claims that the Soul King has forsaken the Quincy.^[22] However, after enduring millennia of imprisonment by the Shinigami that Yhwach called "endless humiliation", the Soul King made no attempt to stop the latter from killing him, possibly out of foresight of his own death according to Yhwach.^[23]

Purpose and Duties

The Soul King is not involved in governing Soul Society and never interferes. Most Shinigami have never seen him. To them, he is revered and symbolic, but not present in their lives.^[4]

The Soul King's sole purpose is to regulate the flow of souls into and out of Soul Society and keep the flow stable. Without the Soul King, the balance is lost and Soul Society, as well as Hueco Mundo and the Human World, will all collapse into one.^[24] According to Yhwach, this results in the unification of life and death and the creation of a world without the fear of death.^[9]

History

Eons ago when Soul Society, the Human World, and Hueco Mundo were one single world, Adnyeus appeared and repelled a "darkness" that threatened said world. Afterwards, approximately one million years ago,^[1][2] Adnyeus separated what was the primordial realm into the Three Worlds, thereby separating "life" and "death", all the while his son, Yhwach, looked on with tears.^[3] According to Ichibe'e Hyōsube, the Soul King would at some point bestow upon him the title of "Monk Who Calls the Real Name".^[25]

On January 19, following an unknown length of time following the worlds' separation, Adnyeus's body would become dismembered by the Shinigami and separated into different parts;^[26] an act for which Ichibe'e Hyōsube was present for.^[27] After that, as the Soul King, he was sealed up inside a crystal and had restraints placed on his powers by the Shinigami.^[28] Said crystal was made to require the powers of Humans, Shinigami, Quincy, Fullbringers, and Hollows to fully break, though it would eventually be shattered by Yhwach and his Sternritter after being bisected by Ichigo Kurosaki.^[3][29] According to Yhwach, Soul King Adnyeus had foreseen all the events that would occur in the Three Worlds after his sealing, including the Quincy genocides and the Quincy Blood War.^[3]

Plot

The Thousand-Year Blood War arc

Shortly after the Royal Guard travel to the Seireitei and retrieve Ichigo Kurosaki and his Shinigami friends so they can heal and train in the Soul King Palace, the Soul King is approached by Ichibe'e, who watches over the Soul King and inquires if he has awoken when the Soul King opens his eyes.^[10] A few days later, Yhwach, his son, arrives at the Soul King Palace and, after defeating the Royal Guard, proceeds to slaughter many of the Soul King's vassals and subjects before arriving in the Soul King's room and stabbing him through the chest.^[30][31]

Soon afterward, Ichigo and his friends arrive in the room, where Yhwach reveals the Soul King's situation to them before claiming they are too late to do anything. When Ichigo attempts to help the king by pulling out Yhwach's sword, Blut Vene veins spread over his right side and force him to slash the Soul King across the torso. Yhwach explains Ichigo's actions by revealing that Quincy blood cannot tolerate the Soul King's existence.^[32]

As the lower half of the Soul King's body and crystal seal fall to the ground, Yhwach explains to Ichigo how he forced Ichigo to attack him by giving the Reiatsu still present in his sword to him, which his blood reacted to.^[33] When Orihime attempts to revive the Soul King, her Sōten Kisshun shatters, prompting Yhwach to proclaim that the Soul King will never rise again.^[34]

However, in the Seireitei below, Jūshirō Ukitake, who was once saved by Mimihagi, the right hand of the Soul King, initiates Kamikake to save the Soul King's life at the cost of his own.^[35] Upon doing so, a large black hand bursts out of his orifices and ascends toward the palace, where it grabs the upper half of the Soul King's body. Shocked by this, Yhwach notes that Mimihagi is the one thing that his eyes cannot predict and demands to know if the Soul King is beginning to feel sentimental toward Soul Society after protecting it for all this time as the eye of Mimihagi begins to close.^[36]

Yhwach attempts to destroy both the Soul King and Mimihagi, but Ichigo stops him by grabbing his arm and dispelling his attack, allowing Yoruichi to leap past them and create a Kidō barrier around the Soul King with several seals. Yoruichi notes that Mimihagi has stabilized the king before proclaiming that they will have to replace him.^[37] However, when Yoruichi momentarily loses her concentration due to Uryū Ishida shooting her in the shoulder, the barrier shatters,^[38] and Yhwach attacks Mimihagi, who tries to hold him at bay.^[29] After eventually overpowering and ripping off Mimihagi, Yhwach destroys the Soul King's crystal in its entirety and then completely absorbs the Soul King.^[39][29]

Powers & Abilities

Immeasurable Spiritual Power: The Soul King has an incomparably immense amount of spiritual power. When Yhwach, who possesses vast amounts of Reiryoku himself, absorbs the Soul King, the Quincy Emperor collapses from the sheer strain, needing time for his body to fully acclimate to it. During this period, the Soul King's Reiatsu pours out of Yhwach to such a degree that it manifests as a torrent of countless "one-eyed shadow creatures" that threatened to destroy the Seireitei.^[40] After Yhwach completes the absorption, he then proclaims he now knows what it feels like to be overflowing with power.^[41] A further testament to the Soul King's power is that even two of his severed body parts, his left arm and his heart, retain enough Reiryoku for Yhwach to acknowledge them as members of his personal guard, the Schutzstaffel,^[42][43] while his right arm was able to hold Yhwach at bay for a considerable amount of time.^[29]

Ōken Bestowment: The Soul King's power is used to modify the bones of the Royal Guard into the Ōken, which allows one to enter the Soul King Palace.^[44]

Clairvoyance: According to Yhwach, The Soul King's discerning eyes could see everything that happens in the Three Worlds, including the persecution of the Quincy.^[3]

• Precognition: Like his son, Yhwach, the Soul King also has the ability to see into the future.^[5] Yhwach believes that the Soul King had already foreseen his own death, even a thousand years before it happened.^[23]

Precognitive Immunity: According to Yhwach, the Soul King and any of his body parts, such as Mimihagi, are immune to the precognitive abilities of The Almighty, which keeps them from appearing in any of Yhwach's visions, even when they are in the same room in the future.^[45] The Soul King can also seal The Almighty, as demonstrated with his left arm.^[27]

World Splitting: Through an unknown ritual involving an unusual ceremonial sword, the Soul King was able to separate the Primordial Sea into the Three Worlds, and in the process create the very concepts of "life" (生, sei) and "death" (死, shi).^[3]

Weaknesses

• Power Restraints: The Soul King has restraints placed upon him by the Shinigami,^[28] which prevents him from moving.^[6]
• Irreversible Death: Should the Soul King suffer a fatal hit, he cannot be revived by any means, even if said ability can accomplish it with any other being.^[46]

Sentient Body Parts

Various parts of the Soul King have been separated from the main body and attained sentience. They each have their own names, personalities, and abilities.

Soul King's Body Parts
Body Part	Name	Unique Ability	Appearance
Right Arm[47]	Mimihagi	The right arm governs stagnation and stillness: the stopping of development, growth, progress, and change. It could prevent anything that tries to change or develop from happening.[48]
Left Arm[42]	Pernida Parnkgjas	The left arm governs progression and advancement: the enhancement of oneself and others via accelerated evolution.[48] Yhwach names this ability The Compulsory.[49]
Heart[43]	Gerard Valkyrie	The heart manifests "miracles" by giving form to the thoughts, feelings, and desires of the user and those around him.[50] Yhwach names this ability The Miracle.[49]

Trivia

• Adonai (Hebrew: אֲדֹנָי, ăḏōnāy; lit. "my Lord[s]") is one of God's names in the Abrahamic religions, and specifically one of God's seven holy names in Judaism; another such name is YHWH.
  • Additionally, Adoneus (Ancient Greek: Ἀδωναῖος, Adōnaîos) is the name of one of the seven archons in Gnosticism.

• In his first appearance in Chapter 519, the Soul King's silhouette appears to have arms and legs. In all subsequent appearances, his arms and legs are removed.
• The Soul King, his body parts, and his son all have unusual eyes and many of them share an eye motif.
• Pernida and Gerard both identify as Quincy.^[51] When Mayuri Kurotsuchi confronts Pernida about this, the left arm asserts it has always been a Quincy.^[52]
• Despite being the supposed ruler of Soul Society, according to Jugram Haschwalth, the Soul King's true enemy is none other than the Shinigami, who had sealed him. This is supported when the Torrent of the Soul King's Power attacks the Shinigami and ignores the nearby Quincy.^[28] Yhwach is perplexed by Mimihagi, who aids the Shinigami, and concludes that the Soul King's "will" is no longer in the right arm.^[53]
  • The "Keyword" eyecatcher of Episode 397 offers several in-universe theories on why the Soul King's essence attacks the Seireitei when Yhwach absorbs him: it is a manifestation of an unconscious resentment towards the fact that the Soul King was sealed away by the Shinigami, the Soul King's true identity is a Quincy and he has harbored a grudge against Shinigami, or Yhwach's own will is mixed in with the torrent.^[29]
• Sousuke Aizen refers to the Soul King as "that thing" (あんなもの, anna mono).^[54]
• In the manga, the Soul King's crystal has a yellow-golden color, while in the anime it has a light-blue color.^[55] Likewise, in the anime the crystal turns dark red once the Soul King is stabbed by Yhwach.^[56]
• The Soul King's true name, Adnyeus, is part of the incantation for Yhwach to initiate the Auswählen.^[57]

Klub Outside Trivia

• According to Q&A #483 by Tite Kubo on his fansite "Klub Outside", the Soul King has a name outside of his title, and said name might be revealed in the anime.^[26] This was confirmed to be true in episode 394, which has Yhwach casually unveil his name as "Adnyeus", though it was secretly revealed even earlier in episode 372, where it is scrawled in Sōken Ishida's journal within the section about the history of the Quincy.
• According to Q&A #935 by Tite Kubo on his fansite "Klub Outside", Adnyeus had his left arm (Pernida) separated from his body on January 19.^[26]

Appearances in Other Media

Novel Appearances
Letters From The Other Side	The Honey Dish Rhapsody	Spirits Are Forever With You	The Death Save The Strawberry	WE DO knot ALWAYS LOVE YOU	Can't Fear Your Own World

• In Ryōgo Narita's novel Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World, the Soul King's nature and backstory were expanded upon for the first time and play a major role in the motivations of the story's main antagonist, Tokinada Tsunayashiro. Read more...
  • The novel notably contradicts the anime's version of the Soul King's history; in the novel the Soul King was betrayed by the Five Noble Ancestors, then sealed away and mutilated, and then the worlds were separated when the ancestors forcibly used the Soul King's powers.^[58] In the anime, the Soul King separated the worlds by himself and was then dismembered, without anyone aside from Ichibe'e Hyōsube being present.^[3]

References

Navigation

Soul King
Soul King	Adnyeus • Heart • Left Arm • Right Arm
Soul King Palace	Soul King Palace • Gatonden • Hōōden • Kirinden • Irazu Sandō
Royal Guard	Kirio Hikifune • Ichibe'e Hyōsube • Senjumaru Shutara • Tenjirō Kirinji • Ōetsu Nimaiya
Related Articles	Ōken • Yhwach • Soul King Palace Residents • Primordial Sea • Torrent of the Soul King's Power
Appearances in Other Media
Soul King Hosts	Jūshirō Ukitake • Hikone Ubuginu • Aura Michibane • Rangiku Matsumoto • Fullbringers
Related Articles	Ōin • The Almighty