Shōji Beastman Clan

The Shōji Beastman Clan (障子獣人一族, Shōji Kemonohito Ichizoku) is an obscure clan living at the outskirts of Soul Society where they do their best to live in the wilderness and what it has to offer them whilst exterminating Hollows and the like to both protect themselves and Soul Society. They're a clan who are empathized on their brutality in combat and fierce loyalty towards others. Their current leader is Kinzō Shōji.

General Appearance
The general appearance of those living in the Shōji Clan is that of beastmen. Half-men/Half-beasts and Half-women/Half-beasts that are incredibly strong and/or agile depending on what sort of Beastman they are. If one is a Cheetah Beastman for example, that Beastman would be incredibly quick and hard to follow. The  Shōji Beastmen often dress themselves with sashes and tribal clothes consisting of baggy pants and nothing on their upper bodies to show off their might. To wear a shirt for the Beastmen is a disgrace because they want to show that they do not fear an enemy who will strike at their body. Alterations of these tribal clothes may occur now and then but it is not too common since they have so much pride in their ancestral traditions.

Day of the Beast
The "Day of the Beast" (獣の日, Kemono no Hi) is often described by the Beastmen as the day that the very first Beastman was born. No one knows his true name or purpose, but they do know that he was an oddity in the world of the dead, for he was neither Shinigami nor Hollow. He had the spiritual energy of a Shinigami, yet the ferocity and need to kill and consume like a Hollow, but did not have either the Shinigami's human features or the Hollow's corruptive influence. He was deemed as a Beastman due to his appearance, and was shunned by Shinigami and hunted by Hollows. But he survived and endured, building himself a whole village in the outskirts of Soul Society in hopes of one day raising a whole family, and then a family after that one. But when no Beastmen would come, the First would grow desperate and turn to more spiritual ways of conjuring more of his kin. Mixing a lot of his blood with the soil around him he would sit down and meditate for days to come, not budging an inch from the place he sat on even as the weather and nature would tear at him. Finally, after exactly 200 years of waiting, strange blood-red trees would grow from the ground.

These trees were short and had blood-red bark and wood in them, and the sap dripping from them was actually blood. By this time the First was long-since dead, his body being a mere husk of its former self as it would turn to dust when the trees were ripe and ready, covering their roots as the dust spread in the wind. Then, the trees would burst to life and shatter in bark and blood, and out of these trees came more Beastmen. They already had a village around them, thanks to the First, and thanks to the First's ashes they would have a vague memory of what this place was and what they had been granted. The gift of life. A gift that was rarely given by anyone and which they would cherish for days to come.

Life of the Beastmen
The life of the Beastmen was a simple and uncomplicated life consisting of foraging for food, caring for their village and their neighbors.... and of course, battle. They were a species thriving for combat and strong opponents, and when no strong Hollow was around for them to fight together they would fight and spar among themselves in hopes of becoming stronger and harder. The Beastmen of the  Shōji Clan in particular thrived in combat the most, actually honoring it to the point of being a graceful way of dying. Whilst other clans turned to more spiritual and peaceful terms and conditions of living, the  Shōji Clan kept on the brutal, yet necessary and primal ways of combat and bloodshed and cherished it with all their heart, body and soul.

Arrival of the Shinigami
The  Shōji Clan would one day be visited by an unlikely person that many of them thought would never want to associate with them. This man was none other than Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, the current Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13. He had been observing the Beastmen from afar, the  Shōji Clan in particular due to their fierce brutality in combat and how they did not spare a single Hollow that fell within their gaze. He first wanted to congratulate them and their current leader  Kinzō Shōji for a job well done in securing Soul Society's exterior from becoming tainted, and then he would extend a hand of allegiance. Kinzō would initially refuse and speak that their clan had done perfectly fine without the interference of the Shinigami so far and that they did not need their aid, which Yamamoto expressed depression over.

He felt that their forces would be admirable allies in exterminating Hollows and any other enemy alike. But if they wished to refuse he warned them with that they could expect the Shinigami to never aid them in the future, even if they so begged at their knees. This infuriated  Kinzō and made him strike at the Captain-Commander to which Yamamoto merely sighed and called him an 'impulsive brat' and responded by merely using his staff to gouge out  Kinzō's left eye. Ever since then, the Beastmen have been looked down upon by the Shinigami and believing them to be uncultivated animals, whilst the Beastmen - strangely enough - does not harbor this hatred for the Shinigami, or even a sliver of dislike. Many of the  Shōji Beastmen realized that their leader was a bit extreme in his methods, and as a result many of them did not share his hatred for the Shinigami or their Captain-Commander.

Weapons & Equipment
The weapons of the Shōji Beastman Clan vary greatly from clansmember to clansmember, as some prefer wielding melee combat weapons such as axes, swords and maces whilst some prefer the long-range comfort of bows and arrows. Their weapons are very tribal-like when it comes to design and material, often made out of simple metal and wood, and sometimes even bones of their enemies. But there are some weapons and equipments that they all share.
 * Blowguns: Very skilled Beastmen of the  Shōji Clan that have dedicated themselves to become hunters usually carry around foot-long blowguns with them that they have strapped to their backs. The darts they use for these blowguns are usually dipped in poison and can be lethal if they hit someone, but often the poisons are just for  hallucinogenic effects.
 * Bolas: Hunters and warriors both like to equip themselves with bolas when they fight or try and knock down prey. Their bolas consist of three rocks tied together by a strong cord, but there are some hunters that have been rumored to be skilled enough to manipulate their own spiritual energy into forming bolas out of spirit energy out of thin air. These 'spirit bolas' often have a sort of paralyzing  Kidō imbued within them to ensure the capture of a victim.
 * Spirit Fog Dart (精神霧ダート, Seishin Kiri Dāto): A special dart that is shaped like a short arrow with a bulbous bottom and a hollow pipe embedded in the sharp tip. The wielder of a Spirit Fog Dart can pierce a target with the sharp tip, and once in their body the hollow pipe will start to absorb miniscule amounts of the target's spiritual energy and gather it up inside the bulb-shaped bottom of the dart. There it will be concentrated into a fog-like essense which will then steam out of the bottom of the dart and both create a fog-like stream wherever the target walks and fill the air with a scent of the Beastman's prey. If someone would try and remove the dart they'll realize that the dart is filled with a very large amount of barbs along the sharp tip, making removal of it not impossible, but excruciatingly painful.

Sign of Birth
Whenever a new  Shōji clanmember is born they are given a sign that they are born under by the village's shaman or ritualist. This sign will either be a very good or a very bad one, depending on either what day, what season or even what year the child is born into. This sign will either affect their life immediately, such as giving them a defect at birth or bringing their whole family great fortune and pride, or it will give them good or ill things later on in life when they've reached a certain age. However if one's willpower is said to be strong enough they can break the sign's omen.

Combat of Completion
The Combat of Completion is a ceremony that all  Shōji Beastmen must compete in upon reaching proper age and maturity. The ceremony is a test of strength, wits and survival instincts as two  Shōji Beastmen are pitted against each other in a ring of combat where they are to fight to the death. Whoever wins their trial will be deemed to have fully grown into a matured clansmember and is free to do with their life as they wish.