The Espada (十刃（エスパーダ）, Esupāda, Japanese for "ten blades," Spanish for "sword") are the ten strongest arrancar in Sōsuke Aizen's army, and each of them represents an aspect of death. They are ranked in order of their strength and have their respective number tattooed somewhere on their body as proof of their superiority. While originally thought to be 1 through 10, with 1 the strongest and 10 the weakest, the ranks are later revealed to be 0 through 9. The Espada are also allowed to choose any ordinary arrancar and have them appointed as their direct subordinates, referred to as fracción (従属官(フラシオン), furashion, Japanese for "subordinate official," Spanish for "fraction"). The members are listed according to their rank.