Espada (Gravity Force)

The Espada (十刃, (エスパーダ), Esupāda; Spanish for "sword", Japanese for "ten blades") were once the top-ranked Arrancar in Aizen's army of hollow-shinigami hybrids, they are now the most powerful Shinigami-Hollow hybrids under G's command. They are still the main rivals of the Gotei 13.

Outline
The Espada are regarded as the most powerful Shinigami-Hollow hybrids in the spiritual world. At any given time, the Espada, like it's predecessor, has a nominal composition of ten members, all hand-picked and branded by Ulquiorra Cifer, their arrancar leader. At the time of the group's introduction, the Espada consists of eight males and two female. Each Espada member is chosen for their superior combat ability, and then assigned a number from 0 to 9 (0 presumably being the strongest) that indicates their rank and relative power level, which is tattooed somewhere on their body.

The Espada are given free control over the lower less complete arrancar in Hueco Mundo and may choose as many of them as they like to become their Fracción, just like with Aizen's Espada. Similar to the power gap between captains and lieutenants in the Gotei 13, the strength of the Espada far surpasses that of the average Fracción.

Their immense amount of power and leadership status among the ranks also grants each Espada the authority to exert command over most other hollows or arrancar within their territory. Unlike their former Gotei 13 comrades, there seems to be a sort of hierarchy among the Espada; a higher-ranked member apparently can give orders to lower-ranked members. Various missions usually involve one or more Espada operating together, with the most senior member exercising command over the others; typical, non-combat missions, such as searching for the zanpakuto Muramasa and gathering pre-invasion data in the Soul Society, and the human world, include a senior Espada and a lower-ranked one being sent out in pairs. While the lower-ranked members usually have little restraint in taking their own initiative (thus exceeding their orders), higher-ranked members usually stick to the mission, and are often the first to bail the others out of trouble, because, they wish to "prevent the Espada from losing one of their own".

History
While it is not specified when the Espada were first brought together as a group, it is implied that the original Espada were already in existence sometime before Aizen's defection from Soul Society and acquisition of the Hōgyoku. Since then, the composition of the Espada has changed, both in membership and position. As far as what kind of species have joined their ranks, only three members of the current Espada were Captain-class Shinigami, the others being Lieutenant or lower, so Espada of the past have more prominently ascended from hollows and arrancar. After Aizen was brought down, the Espada were recreated by his apprentice. After even they failed, the arrancar that remained arranged their ranks and led Hueco Mundo on their own until the current Espada replaced them begrudgingly.

Current Espada
These Espada are only relevant to DarkNight's stories and story arcs.

Previous Espada Groups

 * Aizen's Espada
 * Aizen's Apprentice's Espada