Soul Society is the setting for much of Bleach, being the home to the shinigami, after all. It's a place those who have watched the anime or read the manga know a good bit about, but there's so much beneath the surface. It's more than just the home to the shinigami and the Gotei 13, it's an entire society, as the name indicates.
Many of these items were mentioned in the series in passing or via a dreaded lore dump. Here are some facts you may not have known about Soul Society.
10 They Have A West Branch
This is never revealed in the Bleach manga, Soul Society seemingly being it's own singularly entity for the duration of the series. Kubo's one-shot and soon to be serialized series, Burn The Witch reveals that the Soul Society in Japan is the east branch of the organization, while the west branch is settled in Reverse London. It's a pretty big shock to think about considering it didn't seem like Yamamoto took orders from anyone else. It's also strange that reinforcements couldn't be called during the Quincy invasion, but regardless, it seems like both branches work with complete freedom from one another.
9 They Get Reincarnated In The Human World
When a soul dies in Soul Society, they get reincarnated into the human world without any memory of their past life. Knowing this helps make it a bit more palatable to stomach all the deaths both Aizen and the Quincies brought about. It's nice knowing that Unohana and even Yamamoto will find a way to be reborn in new bodies. What's interesting about this is while they don't keep their memories, do they keep the same personality type? Would Yamamoto still be a gruff, old wizened type, even as a baby? Or are they given a completely blank slate since they have no past experience to build off of? Sadly, it's something Kubo never delved into since it isn't important to the story in the least.
8 Spiritual Pressure Affects Age
Everyone knows that age is slowed significantly in Soul Society, Yamamoto being a clear example of that. The man is thousands of years old, having lived during the initial war with the Quincies and lived long enough to see the second, before being cut down by his rival Ywach. He looks every bit of it as well, given how many wrinkles are over his face.
What some may not know is that spiritual pressure plays a role in that. Not everyone in Soul Society can extend their lives to such ridiculous levels. Only shinigami and the rare Rukongai dweller with high spiritual pressure can achieve the lengths Yamamoto did. Most live between 400-500 years old.
7 Noble Families
Everyone knows about the Kuchiki's, both Rukia and Byakuya being primary secondary characters in the series who get plenty of big character moments via fights and development alike. Few know that there are three other noble houses, all of them in charge of handling a certain facet of Soul Society. For the Kuchiki's it's collecting and preserving the history of Soul Society. The only other named family was the Shihoin clan, most notably known as Yourichi's family. They are the caretakers of the Bugu and Hogo tools granted to them by the gods themselves.
6 Central 46 Are Like The Senate
While Yamamoto held a lot of power in his position, just as Shunsui does now, it isn't unlimited. Just as with the President in real life, they can't do whatever they want. They have to meet with the Central 46 to get the okay on things, as shown with Shunsui negotiating Aizen's release during the invasion of the Wandenreich. While the Central 46 are nameless peons as far as characters are concerned, they hold quite a bit of sway in the hierarchy of Soul Society. It shows how there was always a check and balance in Soul Society.
5 There Are A lot of Laws To Follow
Many of these are what you'd expect, such as no murder, no attacking a captain, and no forging documents. Where things get interesting is the more fine print details, such as no overextended visits to the human world or the law that Rukia broke, giving her spiritual energy to Ichigo.
The most interesting is that their one rule above all is that they must maintain balance. That helps give insight into the world of the Shinigami, making it not all that dissimilar to Jedi from Star Wars. Both are meant to keep order in the world, never swaying things too far to either side.
4 Barbaric Forms Of Execution
Both of Soul Society's form of execution make blowing someone's brains out with a pistol seem humane. First of which is the one that was nearly used on Rukia, the Sokyoku. This was a giant halberd that had the destructive power of over a million Zanpakuto's, able to completely destroy a soul on contact. This was destroyed in the series by both Shunsui and Ukitake, thankfully.
The second was even worse, having already been outlawed. The prisoner would be placed in a pit walled with sekki sekki rock, a type of stone that absorbs spiritual energy, leaving the prisoner powerless. Once they are, hollows are unleashed into the pit until the prisoner is eventually torn apart.
3 The Kido Corps Are The Most Secretive In Soul Society
Surprisingly, it isn't the Onmitsukido that takes this spot, considering they are Soul Society's information gatherers and assassins. That's not a knock on them either, very little is known about them, but even less is known about the Kido corps. It's even mentioned by Ukitake how rare it is to even see them, as they only make appearances during executions. They are, after all, the ones who release the seal on the Sokyoku. There's no telling who their captain even was upon Tessai and Hachigen's exile to the human world.
2 Technology Being Hidden
At first glance, you'd think Soul Society was feudal Japan, with the majority of its populace living just like that. They have very little in the way of technology, living in a low fantasy-style world. Yet, the shinigami research institute has free use of devices that we own today and some that even surpass what we have. They have handheld devices that allow for face to face conversations from the human world to soul society. Why isn't that type of technology open to everyone? Why do only the Gotei 13 seem to have access to it? Our best guess is to cut down on the risk of an uprising and maintain the balance.
1 It's Not A Utopia
When Rukia first starts talking about it, she makes it seem like it's this perfect society where you don't have to worry about food or anything. This far from the truth, in the inner rings, sure, you may love your time there, but every city has its slums. In this case, it's any district above the number 50, getting into ghetto territory when you hit 90+. You can see a good glimpse of that when you see Kenpachi's flashbacks, with area practically being the wild west with how often people were being killed. Hell, shinigami have permission to kill civilians if they feel it necessary to, even the souls in Soul Society and the human world.