[quote=@Loki Odinson]
Ooh, a Bleach RP! Haven't seen one of those for a long time.
Quick question though [@Artymis] if Shikai is our limit, and given that no detailing of the shikai's abilities mean they've only achieved it a while ago, would our characters be Academy students (freshman to preparing to graduate) or unseated/low seated Shinigami (like 20th or 19th seat) within the division?
Also, I assume the Gotei 13's taicho, fuku-taicho and sou-taicho are all going to remain canon?
[/quote]

Aight, to answer two of your questions

1. I'll allow you to detail your Shikai's abilities, but what your character will currently have will just be a premature shikai state(Think Yumichika's Fujikujaku. This'll mean that your characters can either be freshly graduated soul reapers or people who've been there for a little bit. Most I'll allow a current character to be will be around 6th seat currently(but given that the characters are going to progress at a decent speed people shouldn't really rush to have the most strong character. 
2. I'm torn a bit here. I've not kept up with the manga well enough in order to assume canon-esque nor would I want to roleplay a premade character, so what I'm going to do is use character's that I've created for these positions and introduce them slowly as was done in the show so that I'm not overwhelmed with having to create over 40 different characters. Also, for the sake of convenience I'll have everyone start in the same squad and separate as their circumstances, abilities and skillets become more polished into the the squads they specialise in or the squads that they can easily obtain a promotion in.