Gerard Valkyrie

Standing well over seven feet, Gerard is a broad slab of muscle. Shoulder-length hair of pale blonde falls around a face whose eyes lack any pupils. A winged helmet crowns him, and a buttoned white cloak bearing a dark red Hagal rune covers a red cape pinned at both shoulders. Gauntlets sheathe his arms, an X-shaped belt crosses his black trousers, and discs cap his knee guards. Beneath the helm, black sideways M-shaped markings run along each side of his face, with a thin black braid circling his scalp.

Belligerent and supremely sure of himself, Gerard hurls himself at foes the instant battle offers itself, and he considers a one-on-one duel beneath him, insisting instead that a whole crowd of captains rush him together. He crowns himself the greatest and mightiest of all Quincy, yet he cheers on any opponent who genuinely impresses him. His devotion to Yhwach is total, and unlike many of his fellow Sternritter he treats his comrades with a rough kindness, catching Pernida Parnkgjas after a fall and openly praising Uryū Ishida, though he warned Askin Nakk Le Vaar that lagging behind would cost him his life. Cruelty for its own sake earns his contempt, as he made plain when he resolved to draw his blade on the bloodthirsty Kenpachi Zaraki.

One of Yhwach's elite Schutzstaffel and, in secret, the Heart of the Soul King, Gerard carries spiritual power that eclipses most captain-class Shinigami, boosted still further when Yhwach's Auswählen funneled strength from discarded Sternritter into the guard. As a Quincy he gathers Reishi to shape weapons, and being a fragment of the Soul King leaves him unseen in Yhwach's future-sight while granting his heart a durability that shrugged off Senjumaru Shutara's blade.

His designation, The Miracle, is a power he was born with rather than one handed to him. It bends probability so that against near-impossible odds he prevails anyway, and it converts the wounds he takes into gains in size and might: sever a limb and it regrows stronger, split him in two and he stitches himself back together with light, and grievous harm swells him into a building-dwarfing giant. He can also pour the hopes of the masses into his sword, Hoffnung, so that any damage dealt to the blade rebounds onto the attacker. When Zaraki bisected him, he rose again through his Quincy: Vollständig, Aschtonig, sprouting wings and leveling city blocks with blasts from his sword and his Heilig Bogen.

For all his resilience, Gerard's regeneration met its limits. Byakuya Kuchiki's Ikka Senjinka shattered his head, and though he reformed into a starker second body, the combined pressure of Byakuya, Tōshirō Hitsugaya, and Zaraki kept him contained until Yhwach's own Auswählen struck him down, stripping him to the bone and ending his life.