Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Blizzard or Bleach. No money will be made and I shall continue to be poor
Prologue:
Where do Zanpakuto spirits come from? Many in the past have tried to answer this very simple question but none have succeeded. The accepted theory amongst the scholars and learned of Soul Society is that the Zanpakuto, spirit and all, come directly from a Shinigami's soul. On the surface this makes sense, after all the strength of any Soul Reaper is of the soul. Every power a Shinigami uses involves channeling their soul's energy for a variety of effects. So it stands to reason that the Zanpakuto, a weapon so intrinsically tied into the power of any Shinigami, must therefore originate from the wielder's soul.
After much observation and testing I have come to the conclusion that this is an incorrect assumption. It is true that a Zanpakuto is given form by its wielder's Spiritual Energy, however that is it. A Shinigami's reiryoku only provides the physical manifestation of the blade, that is, it only creates the vessel in which a Soul Reaper's powers are stored. This explains why the size of the blade, if left unchecked, increases with the strength wielder, more Spirit Energy means a bigger vessel is able to be made. However a Zanpakuto is much more than just sword made of reiryoku, which is, in actuality, the least important part of the weapon.
The truly important question I seek to answer is from where do the Spirits of Zanpakuto, the source of the weapon's special abilities, originate? The Spirit of a Zanpakuto does not come from the user's soul. It is just not possible given what we know of them. They are their own consciousness, separate and independent of the wielder. Yes their personalities and beliefs do mesh and resonate with one another but they are still separate. This lead me to believe that maybe a Zanpakuto Spirit was merely a soul, caught in the cycle of reincarnation in some way. But the more I think about it, the less this theory makes sense.
The reason for this is due to the simple fact that not all Zanpakuto Spirits are human. Sure a great many are human in appearance, a great deal more however are more or less humanoid beings, with no creatures in any of the realms, Living or Dead, exhibiting the same characteristics. Faced with these facts I was stumped, these spirits do not originate from a Shinigami's soul and they are not from any of the realms we know of, so where could they come from?
As I pondered this problem it suddenly hit me. If these beings do not come from here, why can they not come from elsewhere? What if there was an entirely different plane of existence, outside of this world we know of, that contained the Spirits that come to reside in our Zanpakutos? Maybe when a Shinigami is first awakening their power their soul sends out a signal, a beacon if you will, to this other existence, calling for the Spirit that would best be in harmony them and integrate them into their soul. If this is true then this means that there could be an infinite number of possible Spirits in this other plane, each with its own powers and strength! It makes me wonder if in the future, at least if this theory comes to be true, we could consciously seek out a strong spirit on our own to become our Zanpakuto, instead of leaving it up to chance. Further study and research is required before any of that can happen though.
~~Excerpt of A Treatise Upon the Nature and Originations of Zanpakutos and their Spirits~~
Written by Urahara Kisuke
Author's Note:
OK so this was a story idea born of intense boredom, insomnia, and lack of many crossovers involving Bleach and Warcraft universes. There are especially few that even use the Lich King to any kind of effect. Seriously I feel like a story about the Lich King/Death Knights and Shinigami are a match made in heaven! Or you know... Hell or something. Point is I feel these two type of characters NEED their own story.
Now I've started a few fanfics before and stopped fairly early in their creation before. So no promises on me fully seeing this story through. I'm sorry but life and school are just killer at the moment. However if I do continue on with this story updates will be fairly infrequent. Chapters will be written whenever I have time. After I develop the overall story a bit more and I decide to stop maybe I'll let someone adopt. I'll be very picky about who does though! I feel this story has great potential and deserves to be told right !
Anyway though I hope you all enjoyed this little teaser and keep an eye out for the true beginning to this story! If anyone has any speculations just from this chapter feel free to ask away! I may even answer if you're close or not ;)
Signing Out
Feara