Post by Lucas Lightner on Sept 30, 2016 14:11:20 GMT -5
LIGHTNER, LUCAS
QUINCY
Knight, Order of the Quincy
Personnel File
Name: Lucas Lightner
Age: 28
Sex: Male
Birthday: September 19th, 1988
Nationality: American
Loyalities: The Quincy
Physical Specifications
Height and Weight: Tall, even for American men, the medium-framed and well-toned Lucas stands at 191 centimeters. Being raised a Quincy by a limit-pushing father, Lucas has endured more than his fair share of battles against Hollows and life-threatening Quincy training regimens, resulting in a well-built body that weighs in at 91 kilograms. This history has translated well to the image the man gives off, one perfectly befit the militaristic Quincy society.
Eyes: His dark brown eyes match that of most Americans, differing only in just how dark they actually are. At a distance, his eyes sometimes seem like they're entirely black.
Hair: Growing up, Lucas was required to keep his hair to a certain, painfully short length of only a couple centimeters. This was to prevent it being caught up during physical training, grabbed by an opponent, or anything else of the sort. After becoming an adult, however, he let it grow out naturally, unstyled, until it hung just above his eyes and ears. He's kept it at that length since.
Spiritual Traits: Despite Lucas' military-esque uniformity in many of his Quincy aspects, there are a few things that are unique about him.
While the most obvious might be the fact that his Spirit Weapon manifests as gloves, the biggest difference is how his particular usage of his weapon has affected the world around him: Whenever his temper spirals out of control, spiritual particles around him have a tendency to spontaneously explode.
Nearly two decades of using his Spirit Weapon to concentrate spiritual particles and detonate them, converting them straight to spiritual energy in the process, has burned this into his soul. It can happen without his consent, similar to muscle memory kicking in whether the person in question wants it to or not. This first started to manifest in Lucas' late teens, resulting in his father insisting on demanding emotional-control exercises and meditation, in order to protect both Lucas himself and those around him.
Other than that, Lucas' Spiritual Pressure itself is also somewhat unique. While many people are able to share a sense of what it's like to be them, and what's in their heart, when they're close to someone they're in combat with, Lucas is very difficult to get an emotional read on. Years and years of training have normalized combat to him, reduced it to an exact science, that he gives off no more feeling than if he were doing laundry.
General Appearance:
Unlike the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, the Quincy of Earth never completely centralized their military's structure. Both of the other sides, Shinigami and Hollow alike, even managed to institute dress codes and uniforms that their people followed. Quincy, however, were never so well organized.
Instead, Lucas adorns himself in the official outfit of his family and all of the other, associated, minor Quincy Clans that work with them on the East Coast of the United States. The outfits mostly consist of a royal blue jacket, trimmed in white, over top of a white undershirt. All of the buttons and other decorations of the uniform, however, stand out as a bright gold, including buttons and rank stars.
As the most powerful Quincy in the Lightner Clan, Lucas' outfit is adored with three stars over both shoulders. This signifies that he is the second in command of the East Coast Quincy organization and the one set to succeed the current Commander.
Everything else about Lucas, from his marching gait to his perfectly upright posture, betrays the very strict upbringing he experienced. Having been born into a world with giant, invisible monsters and ages-old, black-clad warriors fighting them, this was considered necessary for his survival and the survival of his family, who consistently inherit spiritual awareness and the powers of the Quincy.
Psychological Profile
Positive Traits
General Behavior
Unlike the Shinigami and Hollows, who literally live in their own worlds, Lucas lives on modern-day Earth, with everything that entails. He, until recently, even had a career. He dated women on and off, sometimes Quincy and sometimes not. In general, he seemed like a normal young man rising modestly through the world despite the minor wealth of his family and the success of his father. Not a disappointment, not a prodigy.
None of this fit with how he acted around others. Naturally charming, though he rarely admitted that it was actually a learned skill, and very dead-set on getting things done, everyone growing up expected more of the outgoing young man. Some saw a big future with the government, in business, or as an entrepreneur. Law, finance, any of the "big" industries where "great" people went were open to him, given the expectations of his teachers and his peers. This was the kind of young man he was, and this continued even into his adult years.
But that never happened, even though Lucas only continued to grow further into himself. His discipline, his personality, all of it could combine to make him a force to be recokned with in the modern world, but none of that ever materialized. If anything, he always seemed like he was coasting. In truth, that's exactly what he did. Around other, mundane humans, he was simply Lucas Lightner, former mid-level manager for a company whose name he now claims to not even remember.
In actuality, he was Lucas Lighther, son of Edward Lightner and heir to the lead family of the East Coast Quincy groups. Among their little, unofficial military, he had risen to the rank of Commander, right beneath the rank of Supreme Commander as held by his father. And it's only around other Quincy that he allows himself to really cut loose, to be exactly who he is without reservation. The success that all of his mundane, human peers expected of him, had already been realized in the world of the Quincy.
A world that he never forgets that he's from. Everything about him was by design, to help make him a successful man in a world much more dangerous than the one that regular humans lived in. He had to contend with giant monsters and magic-sword-wielding warriors from another world that were none too fond of Quincy, and his confidence, concentration, commitment, and even his hunger for revenge in the face of wrong-doing all came about to make him a man perfectly fit to exist in that world.
All of this is something he's very proud of, and he lives every day by being himself, who has become, shamelessly.
Goals and Achievements
Lucas has two, primary things he wants to accomplish.
1. Proving Quincy superiority to Shinigami and Hollow Breeds alike.
2. Outting the idea of "the balance of souls" as a hoax and stopping Shinigami interference in the world of the living.
However, to this end, he only has one notable achievement among the Quincy: the development of a Kirchengebet divination spell that, when combined with his custom-built soul-silver compass, is capable of directing him to any Quincy in the world.
Monk of Destruction
Quincy Cross
Two primary variants on the Quincy cross exist: The standard, Catholic cross and the five-pointed star specific to the Quincy. Either object is a common choice for a Quincy to use as the focal point of their Spirit Weapon, but Lucas prefers the latter. While the former is mostly recognized as a religious symbol, he finds the five-pointed star to be a distinctly Quincy icon.
Unlike man, he doesn't allow his to dangle around on a chain. Instead, the silver star is strapped tightly to each wrist with a silver bracelet. He always keeps the star itself on the underside and out of view for most people, as to not draw too many questions about what it is and why he wears two of them.
Spirit Weapon
Among the Quincy, a Spirit Weapon can be any physical manifestation of Spiritual Particles that is capable of firing projectiles. Some Quincy even have swords of their own, sometimes because they're truly swordsmen themselves or sometimes because they like to make a mockery of the weapons of Shinigami and Arrancar alike.
Unlike any of them, Lucas' Spirit Weapon does not take the form of any traditional weapon. Instead, it manifests as a bright, blue gloves that cover both of his hands. They don't go any farther than the wrist, and have no innate dangers or abilities beyond firing the projectiles that Quincy are known for, along with Lucas' personal variations.
This weapon is also the same one that his father uses. The idea, as his father described it, was that all Quincy put their lives on the line when using their powers. This particular choice of Spirit Weapon extends that: If a Quincy who wears their weapon ever loses control of it, and the spiritual particles escape their grasp in a violent explosion, it'll take some part of the Quincy with them. In exchange for their strength, and the privileges it brings, a Quincy must constantly be reminded of the weight and risk that come along with this.
Perhaps the biggest departure from other Spirit Weapons, however, is that Lucas' preferred projectile isn't a standard, physical arrow of some description. Instead, he isolates a particular particle at his target destination and suddenly pulls in many, many more, along with immense amounts of spiritual energy. A moment later and Lucas lets it all go, igniting a sizable explosion. He usually triggers this with a simple snap of his fingers, mostly because he thinks it looks awesome.
Schrift
B — "The Balance"
Every Quincy, whether they're aware of it or not, possess a Schrift, an idea that describes their unique abilities to others in a letter and a word. For Lucas, this is "B — The Balance".
This Schrift describes that innate nature of Lucas' powers, which are to create a balance between what Quincy are capable of, and what the two Spiritual Races can do: Shinigami and Hollows. All of his powers follow this theme, for it is a description of that which lies deep in his heart. Lucas himself wants nothing more than to prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that Quincy are not just as capable of taking care of the world as Shinigami, but better at it. Of course, this includes proving Quincy superiority to Hollows, who have demonstrated tremendous power of their own in recent years.
The irony, one that even Lucas recognizes, is that much of this power stems from his firmly-held belief that The Balance doesn't actually exist, and is instead a hoax perpetrated by the Shinigami.
First Manifestation
Lucas' first manifestation of this Schrift is the unique properties that his spiritual particles have taken on: They're able to slip between the threads in the fabric of reality and forcibly open portals into the Garganta, the Void Between Worlds. Unlike Arrancar, who use their spiritual energy, Lucas' portals do not open cleanly. They are instead pried open as a circular gap in world, with a shimmering ring of bright blue as an edge.
Documented History
Snapshots
Origin Story
On the East Coast of the United States live a smattering of, usually, small Quincy families. Among them, and frequently in charge of the small, military-esque organization they've developed for themselves, is the Lightner family.
The Lightners stretch all the way back to Germany, where they were known as the Leitners before the move to America and their name being anglicized. Even back then, they had a long history as a Quincy family, with roots in distinct, military traditions and conservative values.
These things continued even to the birth of Lucas to a man near his forties, Edward Lightner, and an unknown mother.
Although cared for and doted over, Lucas' training as a Quincy began from the moment that he started to draw the attention of Pluses, Hollows, and even Shinigami, with his spiritual pressure. Almost from the day he could talk, Lucas was being taught the fundamentals of spiritual particle and energy manipulation, as any member of one of these Quincy families would. Given his parentage, it was assumed from an early age that Lucas would inevitably be the one to succeed Edward and head the entirety of the allied East Coast Quincy families.
An expectation that never seemed to burden the young boy as he made his way from childhood to adolescence. Instead, he seemed to excel in his training and fighting, no matter how strict it would get. His father would, for instance, leave him alone in the woods after shattering Hollow Bait. Given the distant nature of the location, the Hollows that gathered would be many, but not particularly powerful, giving the young Quincy boy a chance to either fight his way through or, if nothing else, escape.
These sorts of events were used as a means of pointing out the dangerous life they lived. Most humans were not threatened by Hollows in any way, and certainly did not have the interest of Shinigami. Quincy, for all of their superhuman power, also had to deal with the superior dangers of the spiritual world. For this reason, he had to be every bit the perfect man it would take to exist in this sort of world, but not because that's what it would take to merely survive.
Because that's what it would take to protect those he cared about and the other Quincy families that would, in time, look up to him. Protecting yourself was easy enough, his father would always say, but the real challenge was being able to make a difference in the lives of others, and it was difficult enough that he could afford give himself no slack.
Rise to Power
By the time he turned eighteen, Lucas had taken these lessons to heart. He had grown into a respectable young man and, more importantly, a respectable young Quincy. His hand-to-hand combat skills in particular were at a surprising level, given that his skills with his proper Spirit Weapon didn't lag far behind. Already he had managed to stand out as a unique Quincy, just as the other families had expected of the son of Edward.
It was then that he was inducted into their Quincy organization, being examined by a General and Major General from other families. As expected, he stood up even to outside scrutiny and was immediately awarded a coveted position as an Officer. It was among the lesser Quincy, however, that Lucas ran into some of his first struggles in integrating with the other Quincy families that he had not spent much time around in the past.
Whereas he had been raised to fully understand and respect the danger posed to Quincy by the rest of the spiritual world, many of the other soldiers did not. They lived a life that was more human than it was anything else, seeing their work as Quincy as an easy way to avoid the drudgery of a mundane job and coast along with the wealth of their combined organization. Others looked at it as an obligation they'd rather not have to fulfill, longing for a regular life away from all of this and cursing their misfortune to be born with spiritual awareness and the risks associated.
Seeing this, Lucas began to learn about the current state of the Quincy, as opposed to the history that his father had already taught him. What he found bothered him at a fundamental level: The Quincy were scattered, disorganized, led by an ineffectual King by the name of Hohenfel and largely ignored by the Shinigami, who had once viewed them as something at least worth their attention. And as he watched the regular, rank-and-file soldiers around him, he realized that they were the reason why.
The Quincy, after all of these years, had last their sense of pride. Most didn't care, and the few that did were unique and from conservative families who kept the pride of the Quincy alive within a small minority. In fact, entire families had abandoned the Quincy traditions and life entirely, ignoring it for a few generations until the first children from them were born without any spiritual awareness at all, reduced back to mundane humans.
Call to Action
In mid-2015, Lucas' focus had changed from his hand-to-hand and Spirit Weapon training to the mystical arts of Kirchengebet. His father, now in his late sixties, was never much of a Quincy "mage" whatsoever, leaving Lucas to pursue this new path on his own. His plan: to create a device capable of divining the location of Quincy across the world.
Creating the device itself was easy enough for Lucas. It was small, about the size of a pocket watch, with a thick, soul-glass covering and a soul-silver frame. In it, appeared nothing at all except the cardinal directions—a compass without a needle. It was during that year, however, that Lucas completed the other part of the device, the one that had caused him to dive into magic: A Kirchengebet spell capable of divining the location of any Quincy.
By combining the spell with the compass, countless spiritual particles trapped beneath the glass would light up and align themselves with a cardinal direction. The larger the individual particles, the more powerful the Quincy they had found. The more numerous the particles then, predictably, the more numerous the Quincy.
Shortly after his 28th birthday, and much testing of this new device and divination spell, Lucas spoke with his father to report his results. Amazed that his son was able to so thoroughly immerse himself in an entirely new field, Edward's pride in his son swelled and he, too, saw the potential of his son's work.
Despite the life that Lucas had built, Edward encouraged him to leave it all behind and to seek out the Quincy of the world. He felt that this latest achievement proved that Lucas really was ready, and really had grown into the man that Edward always wished he himself could be. If anyone out there was capable of bringing the fragmented and lost Quincy back together, as a single unit, it would be Lucas.
Inspired by his father's faith in him, and eager to restore the pride of the Quincy, Lucas agreed. Shortly after their conversation, Lucas sold his modest home, left his job in mid-management, and got ready to choose his first destination.
QUINCY
Knight, Order of the Quincy
Personnel File
Name: Lucas Lightner
Age: 28
Sex: Male
Birthday: September 19th, 1988
Nationality: American
Loyalities: The Quincy
Physical Specifications
Height and Weight: Tall, even for American men, the medium-framed and well-toned Lucas stands at 191 centimeters. Being raised a Quincy by a limit-pushing father, Lucas has endured more than his fair share of battles against Hollows and life-threatening Quincy training regimens, resulting in a well-built body that weighs in at 91 kilograms. This history has translated well to the image the man gives off, one perfectly befit the militaristic Quincy society.
Eyes: His dark brown eyes match that of most Americans, differing only in just how dark they actually are. At a distance, his eyes sometimes seem like they're entirely black.
Hair: Growing up, Lucas was required to keep his hair to a certain, painfully short length of only a couple centimeters. This was to prevent it being caught up during physical training, grabbed by an opponent, or anything else of the sort. After becoming an adult, however, he let it grow out naturally, unstyled, until it hung just above his eyes and ears. He's kept it at that length since.
Spiritual Traits: Despite Lucas' military-esque uniformity in many of his Quincy aspects, there are a few things that are unique about him.
While the most obvious might be the fact that his Spirit Weapon manifests as gloves, the biggest difference is how his particular usage of his weapon has affected the world around him: Whenever his temper spirals out of control, spiritual particles around him have a tendency to spontaneously explode.
Nearly two decades of using his Spirit Weapon to concentrate spiritual particles and detonate them, converting them straight to spiritual energy in the process, has burned this into his soul. It can happen without his consent, similar to muscle memory kicking in whether the person in question wants it to or not. This first started to manifest in Lucas' late teens, resulting in his father insisting on demanding emotional-control exercises and meditation, in order to protect both Lucas himself and those around him.
Other than that, Lucas' Spiritual Pressure itself is also somewhat unique. While many people are able to share a sense of what it's like to be them, and what's in their heart, when they're close to someone they're in combat with, Lucas is very difficult to get an emotional read on. Years and years of training have normalized combat to him, reduced it to an exact science, that he gives off no more feeling than if he were doing laundry.
General Appearance:
Unlike the Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, the Quincy of Earth never completely centralized their military's structure. Both of the other sides, Shinigami and Hollow alike, even managed to institute dress codes and uniforms that their people followed. Quincy, however, were never so well organized.
Instead, Lucas adorns himself in the official outfit of his family and all of the other, associated, minor Quincy Clans that work with them on the East Coast of the United States. The outfits mostly consist of a royal blue jacket, trimmed in white, over top of a white undershirt. All of the buttons and other decorations of the uniform, however, stand out as a bright gold, including buttons and rank stars.
As the most powerful Quincy in the Lightner Clan, Lucas' outfit is adored with three stars over both shoulders. This signifies that he is the second in command of the East Coast Quincy organization and the one set to succeed the current Commander.
Everything else about Lucas, from his marching gait to his perfectly upright posture, betrays the very strict upbringing he experienced. Having been born into a world with giant, invisible monsters and ages-old, black-clad warriors fighting them, this was considered necessary for his survival and the survival of his family, who consistently inherit spiritual awareness and the powers of the Quincy.
Psychological Profile
Positive Traits
- Charming because of his training, if not the natural magnetism of his personality. Like much the rest of the man, this aspect of him was built, not simply inherited or picked up passively.
- Focused on whatever it is he truly sets his mind too. THis one, although deliberately pursued, was much more a side-effect of his father's strict tutelage and everything that came along with it. He learned at a young age to commit, follow through, and deliver on the results he wanted to achieve for himself and others.
- Uplifting to all of those around him, whether they're family or friends. Unlike the image that many have when they imagine a strict father in a military family, Lucas was taught—and happily learned—to raise up those around him instead of putting them down. While he's always maintained high standards, he believes firmly that you can only rarely achieve great things by telling others that they're not worth it.
- Conservative values and traditions define much of his day-to-day lifestyle. This goes from the idea of settling down and eventually having a family of his own, to treating women with the utmost of chivalrous respect, to holding doors open for your elders, to 'yes, ma'am' and 'no, sir', and to the duty of Quincy to protect each other and their fellow humans.
- Methodical once he has set his eyes on something. Not only is he able to pursue it with diligence and dedication, but he goes about it in a very direct way. His thoughts are always how to achieve his goals as effectively as possible, and he rarely wastes any time or effort on anything else while in the pursuit of them.
- Vindictive whenever he, or someone he's come to care for, has been crossed. To Lucas, a simple evening of the scales isn't enough. The person must pay a greater price than what they took, otherwise, what's the point? He believes, and wholeheartedly enjoys, making others suffer for the pain and anguish they hoist onto those close to him. Only then, he believes, will they have enough deterrent to never try something like that agian.
- Misguided in his ideas, to a fault. Lucas is unshakably convinced that Quincy simply do not need Shinigami, nor do they need to be shy about killing Hollows, because he does not think that the infamous "balance" even exists. He sees it as a lie created by the Shinigami to justify the genocide of the Quincy and their continued state of disrespect.
- Willful, sometimes to a fault. Not only does he believe in things that are simply untrue, but he pushes them relentlessly. It's never through argument or shouting matches, of course. Lucas parades his ideas through action instead of words, and to hell with everyone else around him.
- Impulsive the moment he thinks he has a good idea. Sometimes, he doesn't even begin to give them the additional thought they might require, nor does he consider the consequences of his actions. Once a thought or a plan passes a certain level of excitement or promise, he springs it into action and allows the chips to fall where they may.
- Argumentative just because he likes it. It's not a common thing to see him do, but when he does engage in a verbal match as opposed to a physical one, he revels in it. He enjoys nothing more than taking things to the mat and having it out, with nothing but your natural wit and knowledge to carry you forward to victory.
General Behavior
Unlike the Shinigami and Hollows, who literally live in their own worlds, Lucas lives on modern-day Earth, with everything that entails. He, until recently, even had a career. He dated women on and off, sometimes Quincy and sometimes not. In general, he seemed like a normal young man rising modestly through the world despite the minor wealth of his family and the success of his father. Not a disappointment, not a prodigy.
None of this fit with how he acted around others. Naturally charming, though he rarely admitted that it was actually a learned skill, and very dead-set on getting things done, everyone growing up expected more of the outgoing young man. Some saw a big future with the government, in business, or as an entrepreneur. Law, finance, any of the "big" industries where "great" people went were open to him, given the expectations of his teachers and his peers. This was the kind of young man he was, and this continued even into his adult years.
But that never happened, even though Lucas only continued to grow further into himself. His discipline, his personality, all of it could combine to make him a force to be recokned with in the modern world, but none of that ever materialized. If anything, he always seemed like he was coasting. In truth, that's exactly what he did. Around other, mundane humans, he was simply Lucas Lightner, former mid-level manager for a company whose name he now claims to not even remember.
In actuality, he was Lucas Lighther, son of Edward Lightner and heir to the lead family of the East Coast Quincy groups. Among their little, unofficial military, he had risen to the rank of Commander, right beneath the rank of Supreme Commander as held by his father. And it's only around other Quincy that he allows himself to really cut loose, to be exactly who he is without reservation. The success that all of his mundane, human peers expected of him, had already been realized in the world of the Quincy.
A world that he never forgets that he's from. Everything about him was by design, to help make him a successful man in a world much more dangerous than the one that regular humans lived in. He had to contend with giant monsters and magic-sword-wielding warriors from another world that were none too fond of Quincy, and his confidence, concentration, commitment, and even his hunger for revenge in the face of wrong-doing all came about to make him a man perfectly fit to exist in that world.
All of this is something he's very proud of, and he lives every day by being himself, who has become, shamelessly.
Goals and Achievements
Lucas has two, primary things he wants to accomplish.
1. Proving Quincy superiority to Shinigami and Hollow Breeds alike.
2. Outting the idea of "the balance of souls" as a hoax and stopping Shinigami interference in the world of the living.
However, to this end, he only has one notable achievement among the Quincy: the development of a Kirchengebet divination spell that, when combined with his custom-built soul-silver compass, is capable of directing him to any Quincy in the world.
Monk of Destruction
Quincy Cross
Two primary variants on the Quincy cross exist: The standard, Catholic cross and the five-pointed star specific to the Quincy. Either object is a common choice for a Quincy to use as the focal point of their Spirit Weapon, but Lucas prefers the latter. While the former is mostly recognized as a religious symbol, he finds the five-pointed star to be a distinctly Quincy icon.
Unlike man, he doesn't allow his to dangle around on a chain. Instead, the silver star is strapped tightly to each wrist with a silver bracelet. He always keeps the star itself on the underside and out of view for most people, as to not draw too many questions about what it is and why he wears two of them.
Spirit Weapon
Among the Quincy, a Spirit Weapon can be any physical manifestation of Spiritual Particles that is capable of firing projectiles. Some Quincy even have swords of their own, sometimes because they're truly swordsmen themselves or sometimes because they like to make a mockery of the weapons of Shinigami and Arrancar alike.
Unlike any of them, Lucas' Spirit Weapon does not take the form of any traditional weapon. Instead, it manifests as a bright, blue gloves that cover both of his hands. They don't go any farther than the wrist, and have no innate dangers or abilities beyond firing the projectiles that Quincy are known for, along with Lucas' personal variations.
This weapon is also the same one that his father uses. The idea, as his father described it, was that all Quincy put their lives on the line when using their powers. This particular choice of Spirit Weapon extends that: If a Quincy who wears their weapon ever loses control of it, and the spiritual particles escape their grasp in a violent explosion, it'll take some part of the Quincy with them. In exchange for their strength, and the privileges it brings, a Quincy must constantly be reminded of the weight and risk that come along with this.
Perhaps the biggest departure from other Spirit Weapons, however, is that Lucas' preferred projectile isn't a standard, physical arrow of some description. Instead, he isolates a particular particle at his target destination and suddenly pulls in many, many more, along with immense amounts of spiritual energy. A moment later and Lucas lets it all go, igniting a sizable explosion. He usually triggers this with a simple snap of his fingers, mostly because he thinks it looks awesome.
Schrift
B — "The Balance"
Every Quincy, whether they're aware of it or not, possess a Schrift, an idea that describes their unique abilities to others in a letter and a word. For Lucas, this is "B — The Balance".
This Schrift describes that innate nature of Lucas' powers, which are to create a balance between what Quincy are capable of, and what the two Spiritual Races can do: Shinigami and Hollows. All of his powers follow this theme, for it is a description of that which lies deep in his heart. Lucas himself wants nothing more than to prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that Quincy are not just as capable of taking care of the world as Shinigami, but better at it. Of course, this includes proving Quincy superiority to Hollows, who have demonstrated tremendous power of their own in recent years.
The irony, one that even Lucas recognizes, is that much of this power stems from his firmly-held belief that The Balance doesn't actually exist, and is instead a hoax perpetrated by the Shinigami.
First Manifestation
Lucas' first manifestation of this Schrift is the unique properties that his spiritual particles have taken on: They're able to slip between the threads in the fabric of reality and forcibly open portals into the Garganta, the Void Between Worlds. Unlike Arrancar, who use their spiritual energy, Lucas' portals do not open cleanly. They are instead pried open as a circular gap in world, with a shimmering ring of bright blue as an edge.
Documented History
Snapshots
- Quincy training begins at Age 5, in the year 1993.
- By the time Lucas is 13 years old, in 2001, he has clearly embraced the challenging lifestyle as a Lightner Quincy.
- At the age of 16, Lucas endures a particularly challenging exercise where he is left alone in the woods after Hollow Bait is broken open, and expected to fend for himself. This teaches him how important his training is, given how dangerous the spiritual world can be.
- Upon turning 18 in 2006, Lucas is examined by a General and Major General of the East Coast Quincy from other families, and immediately awarded a rank as an Officer.
- Through his early twenties as an Officer, Lucas witnesses the apathy of his fellow Quincy and, inspired by this, learns about the pathetic state of the Quincy around the world and how far they had fallen under Hohenfel.
- At the age of 27, in 2015, Lucas develops a Kirchengebet Divination spell capable of enchanting a soul-silver compass to point in the direction of nearby Quincy.
- Shortly after his 28th birthday in 2016, Lucas speaks with his father and resolves to meet the Quincy of the world and end their fragmentation.
- Immediately thereafter, Lucas abandons his regular job and home to embark on his travels across the world.
Origin Story
On the East Coast of the United States live a smattering of, usually, small Quincy families. Among them, and frequently in charge of the small, military-esque organization they've developed for themselves, is the Lightner family.
The Lightners stretch all the way back to Germany, where they were known as the Leitners before the move to America and their name being anglicized. Even back then, they had a long history as a Quincy family, with roots in distinct, military traditions and conservative values.
These things continued even to the birth of Lucas to a man near his forties, Edward Lightner, and an unknown mother.
Although cared for and doted over, Lucas' training as a Quincy began from the moment that he started to draw the attention of Pluses, Hollows, and even Shinigami, with his spiritual pressure. Almost from the day he could talk, Lucas was being taught the fundamentals of spiritual particle and energy manipulation, as any member of one of these Quincy families would. Given his parentage, it was assumed from an early age that Lucas would inevitably be the one to succeed Edward and head the entirety of the allied East Coast Quincy families.
An expectation that never seemed to burden the young boy as he made his way from childhood to adolescence. Instead, he seemed to excel in his training and fighting, no matter how strict it would get. His father would, for instance, leave him alone in the woods after shattering Hollow Bait. Given the distant nature of the location, the Hollows that gathered would be many, but not particularly powerful, giving the young Quincy boy a chance to either fight his way through or, if nothing else, escape.
These sorts of events were used as a means of pointing out the dangerous life they lived. Most humans were not threatened by Hollows in any way, and certainly did not have the interest of Shinigami. Quincy, for all of their superhuman power, also had to deal with the superior dangers of the spiritual world. For this reason, he had to be every bit the perfect man it would take to exist in this sort of world, but not because that's what it would take to merely survive.
Because that's what it would take to protect those he cared about and the other Quincy families that would, in time, look up to him. Protecting yourself was easy enough, his father would always say, but the real challenge was being able to make a difference in the lives of others, and it was difficult enough that he could afford give himself no slack.
Rise to Power
By the time he turned eighteen, Lucas had taken these lessons to heart. He had grown into a respectable young man and, more importantly, a respectable young Quincy. His hand-to-hand combat skills in particular were at a surprising level, given that his skills with his proper Spirit Weapon didn't lag far behind. Already he had managed to stand out as a unique Quincy, just as the other families had expected of the son of Edward.
It was then that he was inducted into their Quincy organization, being examined by a General and Major General from other families. As expected, he stood up even to outside scrutiny and was immediately awarded a coveted position as an Officer. It was among the lesser Quincy, however, that Lucas ran into some of his first struggles in integrating with the other Quincy families that he had not spent much time around in the past.
Whereas he had been raised to fully understand and respect the danger posed to Quincy by the rest of the spiritual world, many of the other soldiers did not. They lived a life that was more human than it was anything else, seeing their work as Quincy as an easy way to avoid the drudgery of a mundane job and coast along with the wealth of their combined organization. Others looked at it as an obligation they'd rather not have to fulfill, longing for a regular life away from all of this and cursing their misfortune to be born with spiritual awareness and the risks associated.
Seeing this, Lucas began to learn about the current state of the Quincy, as opposed to the history that his father had already taught him. What he found bothered him at a fundamental level: The Quincy were scattered, disorganized, led by an ineffectual King by the name of Hohenfel and largely ignored by the Shinigami, who had once viewed them as something at least worth their attention. And as he watched the regular, rank-and-file soldiers around him, he realized that they were the reason why.
The Quincy, after all of these years, had last their sense of pride. Most didn't care, and the few that did were unique and from conservative families who kept the pride of the Quincy alive within a small minority. In fact, entire families had abandoned the Quincy traditions and life entirely, ignoring it for a few generations until the first children from them were born without any spiritual awareness at all, reduced back to mundane humans.
Call to Action
In mid-2015, Lucas' focus had changed from his hand-to-hand and Spirit Weapon training to the mystical arts of Kirchengebet. His father, now in his late sixties, was never much of a Quincy "mage" whatsoever, leaving Lucas to pursue this new path on his own. His plan: to create a device capable of divining the location of Quincy across the world.
Creating the device itself was easy enough for Lucas. It was small, about the size of a pocket watch, with a thick, soul-glass covering and a soul-silver frame. In it, appeared nothing at all except the cardinal directions—a compass without a needle. It was during that year, however, that Lucas completed the other part of the device, the one that had caused him to dive into magic: A Kirchengebet spell capable of divining the location of any Quincy.
By combining the spell with the compass, countless spiritual particles trapped beneath the glass would light up and align themselves with a cardinal direction. The larger the individual particles, the more powerful the Quincy they had found. The more numerous the particles then, predictably, the more numerous the Quincy.
Shortly after his 28th birthday, and much testing of this new device and divination spell, Lucas spoke with his father to report his results. Amazed that his son was able to so thoroughly immerse himself in an entirely new field, Edward's pride in his son swelled and he, too, saw the potential of his son's work.
Despite the life that Lucas had built, Edward encouraged him to leave it all behind and to seek out the Quincy of the world. He felt that this latest achievement proved that Lucas really was ready, and really had grown into the man that Edward always wished he himself could be. If anyone out there was capable of bringing the fragmented and lost Quincy back together, as a single unit, it would be Lucas.
Inspired by his father's faith in him, and eager to restore the pride of the Quincy, Lucas agreed. Shortly after their conversation, Lucas sold his modest home, left his job in mid-management, and got ready to choose his first destination.