In the world of Bleach, hero Ichigo Kurosaki visits a number of important and fascinating locations, many of them hostile. That includes the fortress of Las Noches.
Ichigo was expecting a jungle or swamp when he visited Hueco Mundo with Chad and Uryu, but instead, he stepped onto a bone-white desert under a moonlit night sky, and in the distance loomed an impossibly huge fortress. That was Las Noches, the fortress and palace of Sosuke Aizen and the Espadas.
Las Noches: Locations And Layout
Las Noches is one of the few, if not only, major structures in all of Hueco Mundo, and it functions like a very thinly populated city. It is a building of enormous size, likely being as large as the Seireitei if not bigger, and its inside is large enough to house many other moderate-sized structures. Las Noches is more like a city enclosure than a regular building, and it is often much further away than it looks. Getting there is best done by Garganta or by flying, as running there on foot is impractical, given the distances.
The main interior of Las Noches features an enchanted ceiling that mimics the daytime sky, complete with clouds and a yellow sun, and Sosuke Aizen uses that feature to monitor the entire facility. Las Noches also contains a large swath of desert dunes on the inside, thus mimicking the outside desert -- except featuring sunlight instead of moonlight. This facility also has a number of towers on its outside and five smaller towers on its roof.
Each of the ten Espadas has his or her own palace inside Las Noches, generally resembling a tower or a fortress. Aaroniero's palace is a tall tower with a square base, and Aaroniero likes to stay inside it so he can avoid the sun (since it disrupts his powers). His palace even includes comfortable cushions for sitting on. Zommari Rureaux's palace contains a number of white blocks inside it, and Zommari is usually found meditating alone there. Perhaps most fascinating of all is Szayelaporro Grantz's palace, which includes a number of trapdoors and chutes for capturing specimens who wander inside. This palace likely includes Szayelaporro's laboratories and equipment as well, though his most important specimen room is underground, buried under the desert inside Las Noches.
In addition, Las Noches features the palace of the Espadas, where all ten Espadas may gather in a conference room, as shown in the anime. This part of Las Noches also includes two different throne rooms that Aizen uses, and this palace includes the prison tower where Orihime Inoue was kept. Finally, Kaname Tosen and Gin Ichimaru each have a high-tech control room in Las Noches' palace of the Espadas.
Las Noches In The Story
The concept of Hueco Mundo was introduced early on in Bleach but Las Noches wasn't shown until much later when Ulquiorra and Yammy reported back to Aizen after their first clash with Ichigo. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Las Noches once belonged to Barragan Luisenbarn, the Vasto Lorde king of Hueco Mundo. It had towers, but no walls or ceiling, since Hueco Mundo's very sky was considered the ceiling. Once Aizen dethroned Barragan and took over, he built up Las Noches further and used it as his base of operations (along with the Espada).
When Orihime Inoue was captured, she was taken to the prisoner tower in Las Noches, in a room furnished only with a rug and a large couch. There she remained as bait for Ichigo and his team. Ichigo, Uryu, Renji, Rukia and Nel arrived sometime later and found themselves in a vast, torchlit room with multiple doors, so they split up. Deeper in Las Noches, Ichigo and his allies met many powerful Arrancars, from the Privaron Espada to Rukia's battle with Aaroniero in his tower, while Renji and Uryu faced Szayelaporro Grantz in his. Chad clashed briefly with Nnoitora in Las Noches' open desert, and Ichigo's final battle with Grimmjow also took place in Las Noches' main desert area.
Ichigo's final battle with Ulquiorra began inside Las Noches, but when Ulquiorra decided to release his zanpakuto, Murcielago, he broke through the roof and stood atop Las Noches to perform his release without destroying the palace. Ichigo's and Ulquiorra's final duel concluded atop Las Noches, dealing substantial damage to it.
Las Noches made few appearances after that, but its ruins were seen during the Wandenreich's occupation of Hueco Mundo. At least half the palace had been reduced to rubble, and the Jagdarmee Quincy set up a camp there.