They are sealed into an enclave in Seireitei called Seijōtōkyorin (清浄塔居林) which no one else may enter, regardless of their military or civilian status. They are made up of 40 wise men and 6 judges, selected from all of Soul Society. The lower noble houses all serve one of the four each.Ĭentral 46 (中央四十六, Chūō Shijūroku): The Central 46 serve the Shinigami royalty. According to Rangiku Matsumoto, no Shinigami has ever seen the king.Īnother part of the government are the Noble Houses (Noble Families in the English version), especially the four Great Noble Houses, which are considered to be the highest of them all. The location of this Royal Key is passed down verbally from one Gotei 13 Captain-Commander to the next, the former holder being Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto. The dimension can only be opened with a tri-pronged golden key fittingly named the Royal Key (王鍵, ōken). The King does have a specific system of "specialty duties" which are actively carried out but the exact nature of these duties is unknown. The Soul King lives in the Royal Palace in a separate dimension in the very core of Soul Society, which is protected by the Royal Guard. Soul Society is ruled by the Soul King, who commonly leaves the running of Soul Society to the Central 46 Chambers and Nobles. Humans can also use such a gate through the use of Reishihenkanki (霊子変換機, spirit exchangers), which convert solid matter into Reishi's.įinally, Hollows can also directly rip a hole to Soul Society from Hueco Mundo, or in the case of Arrancar, using a Garganta. This allows spiritual beings, such as Ichigo in his Shinigami form, to enter without permission. Intruders can pass through the Senkaimon in the same manner, but only in soul form. Spirits can be born in Soul Society as much as in the living world, with the Shinigami acting to balance the souls. When people die, they are assigned a number to a part of Soul Society according to when they died.
Pluses, on the other hand, enter Soul Society through the ritual of Soul Burial. Shinigami enter and leave Soul Society by unlocking the Senkaimon and using a Jigokuchō. A soul that dies in Soul Society is reincarnated on Earth as a new Human with no past memories. People can also be killed as regular Humans are, though they are capable of surviving wounds that would normally be considered fatal. Children can be born as they are in the Human World. One never gets hungry (if she or he doesn't have spiritual powers) and aging is slowed to a great extent, with lifespans of 2000 or more years not being unheard of, though such ages are limited to Shinigami or other Soul Society dwellers with high spiritual power. People live nestled together like a family of strangers. Families separated by death are rarely reunited in the Soul Society unless they arrive in Soul Society together. The Human World and Soul Society are parallel to each other and are two sides of the same coin. The mode of life here closely resembles that of feudal Japan. Soul Society consists of the Rukongai (流魂街, wandering soul city Viz: Rukon District), where souls live when they arrive in Soul Society, and Seireitei (瀞霊廷, court of pure souls), which is at the center of Soul Society. In fact, aside from the slowed aging and aforementioned lack of hunger, life there is much like that in the living world. While Rukia Kuchiki initially describes Soul Society as something of a paradise, where nine out of ten times it is better than the living world and hunger is never a problem, Soul Society is far from sublime.