Order of the Seijin

The Order of the Seijin (聖人の体制, Seijin no Taisei; literally, Seijin Order) is the organization that replaced the Royal Special Task Force completely after the fall of Datara Kawahiru. Unlike the war-like Gotei 13, the Order of the Seijin were a peacekeeping group of Shinigami aimed at protecting Soul Society, the Spirit King, and the Human world, unlike it's parent organization which simply focused on protection of the Spirit King. The Order is led by the Seijin Council which decides all the moves that the order makes. The order's arch enemies are the Arrancar Five in Hueco Mundo.

Outline
The Order of the Seijin was originally founded by Kamui and Seireitou Kawahiru after the fall of their clan's founder, Datara Kawahiru; both of whom are now the Grandmasters of the Order. Unlike it's parent organization which was split into division's called Rings and the Gotei 13 whom have thirteen different divisions, the Order is unified, though certain ranks have different responsibilities from another. It made the most radical change of any organization in Soul Society's history, in that it is completely on it's own. It is not under the authority of the Spirit King, the Central 46, the Gotei 13, or the Grand Sovereign Council. The symbol of the Order of the Seijin is the kanji for "sage".

General operation
The Order of the Seijin, in stark contrast to the Gotei 13 which leaves the divisions operation up to the individual Captains, operates totally as one unit. Their primary job is to be the protectors of the Spirit King, all of Soul Society (the Gotei 13 generally protects only the Seireitei and occasionally the Rukongai), and the Human World. They are also to keep the peace between all of the worlds, including Hueco Mundo, which usually means resolving threats before they get out of hand. Renge Yamato, a Master in the Order, commented that if the Order had existed during the early days of Aizen's plotting, he would've been defeated long before he could've created such a mess. Occasionally, graduates from the Order will join the Gotei 13, though most prefer to stay within the Order and it's many jobs.

They often are called upon to solve disputes between the Gotei's divisions, as in the Gotei 13, unless specifically ordered by the Captain-Commander, captains can choose whether or not to attend meetings (at their own risk) or not even involve themselves in the daily situations of the Soul Society. Captains are not allowed, without permission, to carry out activities outside of their normal jurisdiction or their division. The captain of one division cannot punish the subordinates of another captain. So disputes between the divisions come up regularly. It is the job of the Order members to solve the dispute peacefully if possible and with force if necessary.

Size and Recruitment
The Order is much smaller than it's Gotei 13 counterpart. At any given time, it has about a maximum of 2,000 members. This is because Shinigami cannot "join" the Order per say, rather they are found at a young age and trained in the order, with the only exceptions being the group of "Chosen masters" which were chosen by Seireitou and Kamui to lead the order upon it's founding. Young trainees do not go to the Shinō Academy, but rather are trained by the masters of the Order themselves.

Political organization
Upon the founding of the Order, it created a central political entity called the Seijin Council. The council was made up of of Masters (that acted as a primary governing body for the organization, as well as an advisory council to the Central 46 and the Gotei 13. At anytime, there could be up to thirteen members of the Seijin Council consisting of three lifetime members, six who sat on the council as long as they wanted and then stepped down when they felt the need, and four that change regularly.

Grandmaster
A Grandmaster (大師範, Daishihan) is the leader of the entire Order of Seijin. Under Seireitou and Kamui, there is currently two grandmasters of the Order, however, it is generally excepted that one will lead the Order at a time, after Seireitou and Kamui no longer hold the position.

Those that hold the title of Grandmaster are reknowned as the strongest and wisest among all Shinigami. When a Grandmaster is addressed, they are likely to be called Master instead of Grandmaster.

Master
A Master (師匠, Shishō) is the Order's equivalent to the Gotei 13's captain rank. It is the second highest rank in the Order and is the rank generally required to achieve a seat in the Council, if one is vacant. Unlike in the Gotei, where particular skill was needed to achieve the high rank of Captain (such as obtaining Bankai, defeating another Captain, etc), one gained the rank of Master by showing their devotion to peace and justice throughout the worlds as well as complete harmony with their zanpakutō. Though it is not required that a Shinigami know Bankai before gaining this rank, most Masters know their Bankai.

During times of war, Masters sometimes gained a secondary rank to go with thier positions in the war. Lessen known masters, who excelled in the art of battle, were given the rank of Master-General (総師匠m Sōshishō). These Generals would free-lance during wars, and often take command of Gotei 13 or Royal Guard platoons within the divisions or Rings during a time of war or military crisis.

The other subdivision of Masters are the Master Shadows (影師匠, Hikage shishō). These Masters were given the task to seek out and destroy any sign of threats to the peace of the Soul Society and Human World, before said threats actually became known threats. This particular subdivision of Seijin Masters would be required to have immense knowledge of hollow and demonic powers, often being trained in Hueco Mundo in order to learn how their enemy would fight. The Shadows were tasked with infiltrating groups and cults that contained or were suspected to be threatening to peace, and to expose them to justice.

The rank is formally acquired through three methods;
 * 1) If a Shinigami within the Order has found a student and managed to make that student a Graduate (see "Graduate" below).
 * 2) If a Shinigami among the ranks of the Order becomes tremendously powerful, wise, or both, the Council will grant special permissions that promote the said Shinigami to Master.
 * 3) If a Shinigami has immense knowledge of Hollow and demonic powers and complete a Council assigned training regiment in Hueco Mundo, they are immediately given the rank Master and the sub-rank, Master Shadows.

Graduate
A Graduate (院生, Insei; literally "Graduate student") is the Order's equivalent to the Gotei 13's lieutenant. They are Shinigami in the Order, who held the rank of Apprentice (see below) who've completed their training under that of a Master. This training, from the time that a Shinigami becomes an apprentice, usually takes about twelve years. Graduates are the backbone of the Order, as they are the majority. Shinigami who hold this rank in the Order are sent on the majority of standard Seijin missions.

To become a graduate, an Apprentice-level Shinigami must have completed the following;
 * Completed their Master's training regiment, which could take up to 12 years.
 * Achieved the Shikai of their zanpakutō.

Apprentice
An Apprentice (弟子, Deshi) are still learners at this point, but have been officially accepted by a Master as that Master's learner. The Initiate who proved to possess special or unique powers, beyond those of his peers, would usually be selected by a Seijin Master to become their sole pupil. The Apprentice would then begin advanced training under said Master, until such time that the former would deem the Apprentice worthy of becoming a Graduate, or would be placed in a position in the Gotei 13; the latter of the two indicates that the Master would decide that the Appentice would not have the makings of a Graduate, and have failed to reach said expectations.

Another drastic difference between an Apprentice and an Initiate is that an Apprentice has manifested their zanpakutō, thought they do not yet know it's Shikai or Bankai.

Initiate
An Initiate (新入り, Shiniri) is a spiritually aware being that is selected at a very young age, usually an infant, to join the Seijin Order. In order to affirm Initaite status, an elected Shinigami was required to be chosen by a Master or went before a board of Seijin who would accept/decline the candidate. If a youngling was not chosen to be a Apprentice by the completion of their lessons in the Initiate academy, the youngling was placed into another, lesser role in the Seireitei's Gotei 13 as they would go about the normal duties of most Shinigami.

Uniforms
Up until a Seijin becomes a master, they were the standard Shinigami uniform, called Shihakushō (死覇装, Garment of Dead Souls) - a white shitagi, a black kosode, a black hakama, a white hakama-himo, white tabi, and waraji. Masters generally wear brown robes or a haori with this standard Shinigami uniform on underneath it.