Race Guide - Hollows

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What is a Hollow?
Hollow are a race of spirit creatures which are born from Human souls who, for various reasons, do not cross over to Soul Society after their death and stay in the Human World for too long. They are corrupt spirits with supernatural powers that devour the souls of both living and deceased Humans. The term 'Hollow' is used to describe any of the various levels and species of a 'damned' soul that has mutated into a new, evil, form or has been consumed by another Hollow to make another of its species. A Hollow derives its name from the hole they have where their heart used to be, an empty space for a heart that marks the species very distinctly. They also have another very distinctive feature, the Hollow Mask, which is formed from their discarded heart. The mask has a very unique appearance that varies between Hollows, as do their bodies and practically every other feature about them, the species having the greatest variety between members.

How A Hollow is Formed
A Hollow is created in three ways, though the first two are clearly the most common and the third one occurs only in one species and is exceptionally rare. The most common way is the evolution of a Plus (a human soul) that lingers too long on earth and slowly loses their humanity through this, their tether to this world slowly dissolving away until they are left with nothing. This chain is not metaphorical, it is quite literal and is a short segmented chain directly attached to the heart of all souls that no longer have a body to return to. This chain dissolves over time and if it destroys itself completely, or is forced to dissolve faster by outside forces, the soul of the Plus explodes violently in a burst of spiritual energy before their scattered energy reforms into their new Hollow body. They gain great strength, supernatural abilities, and enhanced natural abilities but all at the cost of their humanity and rationality.

The second method is when a Hollow attacks and consumes another Plus, this destroys their chain (called a Chain of Fate) as well as their soul, similar to when the chain dissolves naturally, but quicker and the secondary reason for the extermination of Hollows, so they don't create more. This causes the soul to reconfigure into a new Hollow. This method functions in making Hollows almost impossible to ever truly eradicate since their numbers increase exponentially due to this feature of there being, a powerful Hollow can leave hundreds of new Hollows in its wake from one feeding.

The final method is caused when a Vizard fails to bring their Inner Hollow under control, the Hollow then takes over the Shinigami's body and creates a fresh, new, Hollow, and even worse, one with immense power due to the previous presence of a Shinigami. These Hollows often find it easier to become Arrancar due their familiarity with that family of power though this is an unverified claim since no Vizards have been conclusively studied that have become Hollows and then Arrancar due to the likely-hood of occurrence being so small.

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Special Abilities

Hollow Abilities
All Hollows, from the moment of their creation or birth, have very unique abilities that are gained through the destruction of their heart. These abilities have a very wide variation between each other and are just as varied as human abilities, though they typically revolve around the physical abilities of the Hollow's body and rarely take the form of other kinds of ability. A Hollow with porcupine quills would likely be able to fire these off, but the same Hollow would not likely be able to manipulate air currents or something of the like since these are not physical abilities.

Cero
One ability that all Hollows have in common is their ability to use Cero, which vary in strength, size, and color between the user. This is the Shinigami equivalent of Kido, concentrating spiritual energy to the degree that it is capable of devastating damage to targets if hit with the condensed spiritual energy.

Travel Capabilities
Hollows are naturally residents of the Human World, since this is the primary location in which they are formed by either natural creation or consumption, but Hollows also have the ability to move elsewhere easily through the use of Garganta (a technique that literally tears about dimensions to allow travel through a black void.) This allows them to freely travel between the world of the living and their unique realm, Heuco Mundo, without any time delay in their travel due to the ease of this kind of travel.

Hollows are incapable of traveling to or from Soul Society without the aid of another being, this protects Soul Society from attack as well as ensuring that Shinigami can pin the travel capabilities of their main enemy. However, due to the speed and ease with which the Hollows can go to and from the Human World they are very difficult to track down their exact location.

Hollow Player Notes
The most difficult part in playing a Hollow character is that they have a very limited intellect at the beginning, as in, they are mostly predatory animals that are incapable of much rational thought until they have consumed a number of human souls to gain enough strength to regain their intellect. Even then, Hollows are, at base, very close minded and wish only to consume other souls to sate their constant hunger, and until they achieve a higher level of evolution they are capable of little else.

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Creation Details
(Link to hollow section of the Creation guide)

Evolution

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Hollow
The basic tier of Hollow evolution, the stage at which the species first originates. This is the lowest level of evolution but it is also one of the easiest to develop in, since the Hollow is able to eat at their leisure without any true hindrance beyond the insatiable hunger that all Hollows have. The Hollows at this stage are larger than most humans and Shinigami, towering at twice their height in most cases, and even the smaller Hollows are still slightly larger than the typical spirit. Hollows can grow in power by consuming other spirits, but in order to advance beyond their current state they must eventually begin eating other Hollows.

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Menos [Gillian]
The evolution of a basic Hollow, the enormous Gillian is a towering beast that is typically mindless. Gillians (or Menos Grande as they may be known) take the form of towering black cloaked figures with identical masks and clawed hands along with curled boots beneath their cloaks. These beasts are formed by the conglomerate mass of Hollow souls that a single Hollow consumes during their course of evolution, serving as identical foot-soldiers for the Menos Hollows. In some cases, one particularly powerful Hollow (often the one that consumed the other Hollows) is able to retain control of the newly created body and these special Gillian are far from mindless beings, making them very dangerous to encounter. These Gillian are able to advance further by further consumption of souls, often other Hollows or even other Gillian.

A Gillian is in a unique position since if it is ever consumed itself, it can never achieve evolution because its main soul will become blended in with the others and revert to a mindless state, thus these kinds of Gillian are extra cautious about safe-guarding their own lives as that is their only chance for greater strength.

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Menos [Adjuchas]
Adjuchas are the next level of evolution in the Menos stage beyond that of a Gillian. Though it might seem illogical, the Adjuchas are actually much smaller than the Gillian, taking a size equivalent to standard Hollows rather their previous enormous size, but this is due to the condensing of their powers, similar to how Shinigami purposefully condense their Zanpakuto so they are not ridiculously large. The size varies as much as typical Hollows, but the unique feature about Adjuchas is that they are animal-like in their shape. In fact, it is easy to tell an Adjucha's age and evolutionary prowess by human-like it looks, because the closer it comes to human size and shape, the closer it is to becoming a Vasto Lorde. The Adjuchas form is the most common form at which Arrancar are made so many of their Resurreccion emulate this form, giving them animal-like and bestial releases which would be considered 'barbaric' to some Vasto Lorde.

Adjuchas are also exceptionally powerful, able to make short work of Soul Reapers to the extent that they are capable of actively hunting them if they so choose though many choose to hunt down other Adjuchas in their home world. Unlike Gillian, all Adjuchas have human-like intellect and emotions so that they are no longer bound by their hunger.

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Menos [Vasto Lorde]
The final stage of evolution for a Menos Hollow, the Vasto Lorde is a very humanoid Hollow, to the extent that it is very difficult to tell them apart from Arrancar except for unusual colors or the absence of a Zanpakuto. They are the top tier of Hollow and boast power that eclipses even the Arrancar created from lesser stages of Menos, their numbers have never been known to even break into double-digits due to the difficulty of reaching this stage of evolution. The Vasto Lorde are powerful enough that they can easily dispatch many Captain level Shinigami and trained Quincy, they are the top of the chain and often lead other Hollows in organized groups. These are the only Hollows with enough power, and small enough numbers, to be able to organize other Hollows since they respect little else besides power.

Due to their age and experience, they also tend to be very intelligent and wise, so that their immense power is coupled with a dangerous intellect that few other spiritual beings can mirror. Vasto Lordes would be equivalent to the kings of the realm of Heuco Mundo, were it not for the Arrancar's presence.

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Arrancar
An Arrancar is the exact opposite of a Vizard, the very top tier of potentially evolution for a Hollow, though it may be inaccurate to consider it as such since this is actually making them a different species than Hollow (though they usually consider themselves Hollows regardless.) An Arrancar can be artificially created through specific methods that are known only to the created Arrancar and their creator, but there are a very small few who are able to split their own powers through their immense strength and change their form into that of an Arrancar. This can only occur with the consumption of at least one Shinigami so that the body of the Hollow knows what to shift itself into, but beyond that its simply a matter of time and patience until the Hollow achieves such great power that it decides to split itself apart. This is done by ripping off their own Hollow mask and causing their bodies to undergo another change into a more human form, their former body becoming parts of their new body that are called 'Mask Remnants'. They then gain a Zanpakuto that stores their former powers and gain a human body with their distinctive fragments, colored markings are also common after this transformation.

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Note: These requirements represent the hardships of the Hollow life-style, and while you can consume NPCs for evolutionary purposes, these must be legitimate souls and Admin approval must be given for their consumption to count. You can't walk into a topic, say you eat ten souls, and then leave and expect to gain a rank out of it, we expect to see real fights or struggles to capture the prey you use to rank up. Only powerful souls will aid your evolution after-all.

Hollow
Requirements: -
Max Level: 10

Advanced Hollow
Requirements: Level 10, Consumed One Soul (PC or NPC)
Max Level: 30

Gillian
Requirements: Level 25+, Consumed Three Souls (PC or NPC, one of which must be a Hollow)
Max Level: 35

Arrancar (Gillian):

Adjuchas
Requirements: Level 30+, Consumed Five Souls (PC or NPC, one of which must be a Gillian)
Max Level: 40

Arrancar (Adjuchas):

Vasto Lorde
Requirements: Level 37+, Consumed Ten Souls (of these ten, up to seven may be NPCs, one of these souls must be of an Adjuchas or higher Hollow)
Max Level: 50

Arrancar (Vasto Lorde):

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An Arrancar is created when a Menos level Hollow gains access to Shinigami powers. This is done through tearing of their own masks, the distinctive part that makes them a Hollow. This is not a known thing in the Hollow community as Arrancar typically hide how they obtained their powers to prevent competition, though a few have revealed it to their subordinates specifically. Thus the most common way that an Arrancar is created is through damage to the mask that would normally shatter it, prompting the Hollow to become aware that the absence of their mask's portions actually makes them more powerful, not weaker. After this revelation some of the more insane or adventurous Hollows will attempt to tear their own mask off completely, thus achieving the rank of Arrancar.

While this may sound like a simple task with large benefits, there is a very complex emotional issue involved in all. A Hollow's mask is how it hides its “shame”, because once a Hollow reaches a level of sentience it begins to realize that what it’s doing is morally wrong, being base human souls they have a very fine sense of morality the same as any other spirit. Even the most violent Hollows are aware of their actions and the key factor in their ability to cope is their mask, which hides their face and gives them a sense of anonymity that makes them more comfortable in their actions. Tearing their masks off would mean that they would reveal themselves as a Hollow feeling defenseless and thus, weaker, in a way. This is the primary reason that Hollows do not immediately rip their masks off all the time.

A second reason is what was just hinted at, Arrancar have an associated stigma against them because many Hollows are fearful of them for their power, envious of them for having powers they do not, or spiteful towards them for obtaining Shinigami powers when they are very clearly Hollows. This can lead to isolation from their former groups or tribes and due to the nature of Hollows, sometimes they have no problem with this and become solitary hunters, but many times losing the aid of their group leaves them vulnerable. Even if they have gained more powers, they were just born with them, they have no experience with them and a fresh Arrancar is often easy prey for a powerful Hollow.

Finally, pulling off one's mask is not pleasant, in fact it causes quite a bit of pain since they're literally ripping off a part of their body, so even if they think more power might come from it, their resolve is tested in trying to pry it off of themselves. Even the most stern and powerful Hollows scream while their masks are being removed, some may even have others do it for them so that they have no option to back out of it, because the pain is unimaginable. Some Hollows just can't handle the pain or are fearful of it.

So while it may seem simply from an OOC stand-point to rip ones mask off and become an Arrancar, keep in mind that there are many factors that come into play in the Hollow society for the character. Hollows are killing machines but when they are at the stage that they are able to become an Arrancar, they have a consciousness and emotions the same as any other species and simply assuming they would do something as rash as that for power is not likely to be accepted unless it is a very powerful character trait.

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Distinctive Traits

Mask Fragment
A Hollow's mask is a trait that defines them, but when it is removed by an Arrancar it does not disappear completely, instead the mask takes the form of a specific marking on the Arrancar's body made of the same material. This can be anywhere on the body and take any shape, though it is commonly on the face. The mask fragment's appearance is unique to the Arrancar, but it is always the same white color as their original mask despite its location or form, and has the same texture as a Hollow mask.

Ex. Grimmjow's jaw-bone, Syazel's glasses, Nnoitra's eye patch (below the black one), etc.

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Facial Markings
While it is not present in all Arrancar, many of them have colored facial markings in various shapes that form for reasons presently unknown. They can take any shape, size, or color but they are limited to the face unlike the Mask Fragment which can be located in many other places on the body beyond the face.

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White
Despite being humanoid and having the capacity to dress themselves as they please, Arrancar frequently use white in their clothing choices as it is associated with their previous Hollow forms. This is often subconsciously done and is not a defining Arrancar trait since Shinigami, humans, and Quincy can all wear white as well (in fact it is also the Quincy's primary color) so it is more of an interesting note than a defining trait. However, the defining color of a Shinigami is black, thus, as direct opposition, white dresses them.

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Zanpakuto
An Arrancar's Zanpakuto is not a thing like a Shinigami's, though they both are able to cut spiritual beings and that is about their own similarity. An Arrancar's Zanpakuto is not a separate being formed out of their spiritual energy, in fact it limits their power by dividing it from their main body in the form of a weapon. The Arrrancar's base form is more powerful than they were in their Hollow form but they also store more power in their blade, the strength of their original Hollow form being stored in their Zanpakuto until they release it. Their Zanpakuto cannot perform a konso or cleanse Hollows, and it has a much wider range of available forms in its sealed state. A sealed Arrancar Zanpakuto is more than a match for a Shinigami's Shikai release and can even continue fighting when they release into Bankai blade-for-blade in the case of a powerful Arrancar.

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Resurreccion
The release of an Arrancar's Zanpakuto, while it is known to have two levels similar to a Shinigami's, only the first is achieved by most Arrancar. This is known as Resurreccion and it withdraws the latent Hollow powers stored in their Zanpakuto vessel, releasing their power to their true form and granting them a more Hollow-like appearance. An Arrancar's release is not like a Shinigami's Bankai, its equivalent, because it changes the user's body, and rarely takes an external effect. It also enhances the Arrancar's abilities far more than a Shinigami's, their incredible power eclipsing many when they are released into their true, most powerful, form.

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