User blog comment:Njalm2/Nanja's Point of View: Shinigami Edition/@comment-24384232-20150504221239/@comment-18812574-20150505184226

I think they're all on the same plane, to tell you the truth. Sort of like the human world only much, much, MUCH bigger, and obviously not subject to the same physical phenomena that would occur if our world was that, uh, large.

Not sure if this would match, but I sort of pictured the Soul Society as lying on a land mass that sort of resembles Japan. Like a pattern or a ghost version or something, only again, much much bigger. The planes or land masses located in this realm could be separated by something, like a sea and mist or something, so you'd have to go far, far, far indeed before you got to the "end" of the sea and found another land/afterlife. Would probably take years just to get from one to the other. Conversely, I pictured Yuanrang as being somewhat closer to the Soul Society somehow, or perhaps there are currents or links inbetween these lands to allow for faster travel or something. Maybe beings can leak into the wrong realm somehow. Is an idea anyway.

Not sure on the Soul King part, but obviously when he died in manga it affected the human world, even if it was just one part. Maybe there are several soul kings, sort of like they pin down the four directions of the compass only in a spiritual cycle sort of sense. So even though the soul king might not be the soul KING, if he's out of the picture that would create an imbalance, and in that case you'd still have a major problem on your hands.

Oh, actually I had another theory, where the Dangai is basically the end all to end all realm. The interstitial fluid in between worlds. So going for more of a high-fantasy concept here, each world is separate and yet connected by the dangai. (Garganta is also just part of the dangai, a huge blank, dark space.) So the SS is actually a completely different world than the Human World, but over the years gradually became so connected to the human world that now their two fates are tied intrinsically, same going with Hueco Mundo, which I consider to be more of a "pocket dimension" somewhere in the dangai. In this case, Yuanrang or Heaven or Mictlan or Elysium or Hell are all their own worlds, separate yet connected via the dimension of the dangai. This concept probably is mostly based off the first Bleach movie, although I couldn't remember why or how or tell you why or how this should all work. But another idea to throw out there.

(And to think this all came about via a discussion on clothing, heh).