at the top we have central 46, the governing body of soul society, dictating it's laws and actions it should take in the world.
equal to them are the noble houses, they do not make laws or dictate like central, but they are very influential.
next we have the gotei 13, steal and punishment division, kido corps, and the research and development bureau.
the gotei 13 is made up of 13 squads, each squad has 20 seats, the top two being called lieutenant and captain, and some low seats may be shared by multiple people. each squad has about 200- shinigami within. and some squads have special duties.
squads are often influenced by their captain, for example. squad 12 used to be a standard squad, but about four thousand years ago, it's captain, who was a scientist at heart, turned it into the research and development bureau. ever since then, even with two changes in captains, this squad has kept it's speciality.
squad 4 was turned into the medical and relief division, comprising some of the apparentlt weakest shinigami, it specialises in healing people in battle, and doing the jobs no one else wants to, such as sewer duty.
squad 11, one thousand years ago a man took control who was a true brute, he changed the squad into the fiercest fighting force in soul society, but they have almost removed any kido based zanpakuto, due to the captains hatred of such blades. he does not only view them as weak and cowardly, he sees them as a direct violation of war.
the stealth and punishment division are the spies and assassins of soul society, they are separate to the gotei, but due to the captain of this division also managing to become the captain of a squad in the gotei, they have had a rudimentary link ever since then. this link only emerged one hundred years prior, and while the two are linked, it does not mean that members of squad 2 are assassins, or that the stealth force is good in direct battle, they are still separate.
the kido corps are in charge of opening and closing the senkaimon, and are all kido specialists. they are separate from the gotei, and don't take direct parts in wars too often. as of yet no chance linkage has occured between this facet of the shinigami and the gotei.
in total there are around three thousand shinigami.
