The Rulers (지배자들) are an ancient race of angelic warriors created by the Absolute Being and the arch-enemies of the Monarchs.
History
The endless war between Light and Darkness
At the dawn of time, when light and darkness was all that existed, the Absolute Being split the light to create the Rulers and split the darkness to create the Monarchs. As the Monarchs were born to destroy the world and the Rulers were born to protect it, it wasn't long before they engaged in a devastating war with each other.
The Rulers rebel
After eons of endless war with no victory in sight, the Rulers asked the Absolute Being to give them the strength to extinguish the Monarchs for good and put an end to the constant bloodshed. However, the Absolute Being did not reply to their request and it was at that moment that the Rulers finally realized that their war with the Monarchs was mere entertainment to him, and that the Absolute Being did not want the war to end.
This fact along with the realization that the war would never end as long as the Absolute Being was alive led seven of the eight Rulers to rebel against their god. Ashborn, the last and strongest Ruler, was the only one who remained loyal and tried his best to stop them, but they easily defeated him and left him for dead. Although Ashborn was able to heal himself by transforming into the Shadow Monarch, by the time he got back to the battlefront, it was already too late, as the rebellion was over and the Absolute Being was already dead.
The Rulers take over as the New Gods
With the Absolute Being no longer alive, the Rulers used tools containing fragments of his power to hunt down the Monarchs and were able to capture the Monarch Legia alive, tipping the tide of the war in their favor and causing Ashborn to change sides. However, after Ashborn killed Baran, the Rulers descended before him and asked him for his forgiveness. Although Ashborn initially refused to accept their gesture of peace and furiously demanded that they kill him so that they could finally win the war, the Rulers persisted in their plea and Ashborn was so emotionally overwhelmed that he couldn’t give them an answer. Deciding to seek revenge against the Monarchs who betrayed him instead, Ashborn left the battlefield and went into hiding to rebuild his shadow army, allowing the Rulers to finally defeat the Monarchs and force them all to escape to the cracks between worlds.
The Rulers descend in front of Ashborn
Centuries later, the Rulers discovered that the Monarchs were trying to vanquish the human world in order to rebuild their armies and attempted to stop them in order to save the human race from certain extinction. When they failed, the Rulers used a tool created by the Absolute Being called the Cup of Reincarnation, which had the power to turn back time 10 years, in order to give them a second chance. Unfortunately, this only prolonged what seemed to be inevitable, as the human world would always be destroyed regardless of which side won the war and regardless of how many times the Rulers turned back time. Even worse, despite the fact that the Cup of Reincarnation was created by God himself, its power was not infinite and as a result, the Rulers eventually realized that it was starting to wear out.
The Rulers grant their powers to Sung Il-Hwan
Ten years before the events of the main storyline, the Rulers turned to their last resort by spawning gates and exposing mankind to the existence of magic beasts, causing enormous amounts of mana to pass into the human world and slowly saturate it with enough magic to withstand the brunt of their war with the Monarchs. At the same time, they also bestowed their powers to seven human vessels, who would go on to become the strongest hunters in the world. However, as they still did not know whether Ashborn was on their side, the Rulers decided not to take chances and tasked Sung Il-Hwan, one of their seven vessels, with the mission of killing the new Shadow Monarch, who was soon to be born.
D-Rank Dungeon Arc
Ten years after the seven Rulers initiated their ploy to prepare the human world for their war with the Monarchs, Ashborn chose a human named Sung Jinwoo as his host and began to slowly breed him into a vessel strong enough to fully absorb his powers through the System. Shortly afterwards, the Rulers allowed Il-Hwan to return back home to the human world in order to complete his mission.
Double Dungeon Arc
When Jinwoo reached level 100, Kandiaru invited him back to the Double Dungeon so that Ashborn could take control of him as his vessel. However, unfortunately for Kandiaru, Ashborn no longer had any intention of taking control of Jinwoo as his vessel at that point in time and wished to transfer his powers to him instead so that Jinwoo could succeed him as the next Shadow Monarch. As a result, he chose to betray Kandiaru by locking him out of the System and granting Jinwoo his black heart. This would enable Jinwoo to later regain control of his body and kill Kandiaru after the latter realized that Ashborn sold him out and changed sides to the Rulers.
Japan Crisis Arc
Il-Hwan learns that the new Shadow Monarch is his own son
Several months after the events of the Jeju Island Raid, the Rulers gave Legia a way out by spawning a S-Rank Gate in Tokyo and placed Il-Hwan in Japan so that he could take out Ashborn's human vessel once the latter showed up. However, much to his horror, Il-Hwan discovered that Jinwoo was the new Shadow Monarch and could not bring himself to kill his own son.
Christopher Reed is killed by the Monarchs
Fortunately, the Rulers started to have a change of heart and came to accept Jinwoo as their ally, especially after they witnessed him kill Legia. As a result, they eventually gave Il-Hwan the new mission of protecting Jinwoo from the Monarchs, which he was more than happy to accept. Unfortunately, at the same time, the Monarchs initiated their hunt for the Rulers in the human world and killed Christopher Reed, one of the two strongest hunters in America and one of the seven Rulers' vessels.
International Guild Conference Arc
Several days before the International Guild Conference was scheduled to take place in America, the Monarchs abducted and murdered Jonas, the strongest hunter in Brazil and another Rulers' vessel.
Monarchs War Arc
Thomas Andre faces off against Rakan
On the last day of the conference, Sillad killed Go Gunhee, the second strongest hunter in Korea at the time and another Rulers' vessel, but not without discovering that the Shadow Monarch had found his human vessel and turned against them. This eventually led three of the Monarchs, Rakan, Querehsha, and Sillad, to invade Seoul in order to lure Jinwoo out and kill him before he fully absorbed Ashborn's powers.
Jinwoo is reborn as the second Shadow Monarch
Although they were able to defeat Thomas Andre and seemingly kill Jinwoo, they failed to make sure that he was truly dead and thanks to Il-Hwan's intervention, they were also unable to stop him from ascending and gaining the true powers of the Shadow Monarch. As a result, they failed to accomplish their mission and were all effortlessly slaughtered by Jinwoo. However, at the same time, due to having exerted far more power than his body could withstand, Il-Hwan died shortly afterwards, with his son unable to do anything to save him.
Final Battle Arc
The Rulers kill Antares, ending the war
After Antares, the strongest Monarch, and his surviving subordinates invaded the human world, Jinwoo made contact with the Rulers through two of their remaining vessels, Thomas Andre and Liu Zhigang, and informed them of his plan to defeat the Monarchs once and for all. Due to the fact that Antares didn't know that the Shadow Monarch was already in league with the Rulers before he launched his assault on humanity, he failed to realize in time that Jinwoo was just using their battle to distort the space around them in order to summon his allies for help. As a result, the Rulers were able to descend into the human world in their raw forms without Antares anticipating their arrival and rush him with their spears from all directions, killing him and ending the war with their victory.
The Rulers use the Cup of Reincarnation one last time
However, despite the fact that he had defeated the Monarchs and won the war, Jinwoo felt that he had lost too many people in his battles against them. As a result, he asked the Rulers to use the Cup of Reincarnation once more so that he could bring them all back. Realizing that Jinwoo intended on carrying on everything by himself, the Rulers accepted his request, wished him the best of luck, and used the Cup of Reincarnation one last time, completely exhausting its power and sending them all ten years back into the past.[1]
Epilogue
After Jinwoo finally killed Antares and returned home after 27 years of fighting them on his own, the Rulers sent a human envoy to greet him as a way of showing their gratitude for wiping out the Monarchs for good and ensuring that the disastrous events of the previous timelines that they erased using the Cup of Reincarnation were not repeated.[2]
Ragnarok
Several decades later in the revised timeline, the Rulers assisted Jinwoo in his battle with the Itarim, a race of gods who wanted to conquer the human world for their own ends. Due to how powerful this new enemy was, they were unable to send any reinforcements to the human world, which led Jinwoo to eventually release the seal on his son Suho so that mankind would have a fighting chance against the Itarim if they ever managed to invade the human world.[3]
Weaknesses
The Rulers are spiritual creatures and lack organic form, meaning that they cannot descend into the human world without suitable human vessels. Unlike the Monarchs, the Rulers borrow their vessels for their bodies and allow them to retain complete control. While this technique allows the Rulers to remain alive even if their vessels die, it prevents them from being able to exert their full power in the human world. Although this problem could be resolved if they were to create human vessels who were strong enough to withstand their powers, just like Ashborn did with Jinwoo through the System, the Rulers were not aware of this and as a result, four of their vessels died in battle against the Monarchs before Jinwoo was able to annihilate the enemy all on his own.
Vessels
- Sung Jinwoo
- Thomas Andre
- Liu Zhigang
- Christopher Reed
- Siddharth Bachchan
- Sung Il-Hwan
- Go Gunhee
- Jonas
Rulers
- Ashborn: The Greatest Fragment of Brilliant Light
- The Brightest Fragment of Brilliant Light
- Six unnamed Rulers
| Rulers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Greatest Fragment of Brilliant Light (Ashborn) | The Brightest Fragment of Brilliant Light | Unnamed Ruler | Unnamed Ruler | |
| Unnamed Ruler | Unnamed Ruler | Unnamed Ruler | Unnamed Ruler | |
References
- ↑ Solo Leveling Webtoon: Chapter 177
- ↑ Solo Leveling Webtoon: Chapter 179
- ↑ Ragnarok: Prologue