Who Are The Itarim? Outer Gods Explained

The Solo Leveling Manhwa never really gave us a good idea about the Absolute Beings or the Itarim race. All we knew was that an Itarim God created Rulers and Monarchs and made them fight an endless war for their entertainment. Realizing that they were being used as puppets, the Rulers stood against their God and killed the Absolute Being. After that, the entire Solo Leveling manhwa focused on Jinwoo’s journey to become the Shadow Monarch and killing all the other Monarchs.

However, the sequel manhwa series, Solo Leveling Ragnarok, gave us a great deal of information about the Itarim race. These Outer Gods are power-hungry beings who care for nothing except for their entertainment. The Rulers may have killed one of the Outer Gods, but they certainly can’t handle every other God who is still alive and looking for a way to conquer Earth.

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WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS for the Solo Leveling and the Solo Leveling Ragnarok manhwa.

The Itarim Gods Are Cosmic Beings Capable Of Crafting Entire Worlds

They Have Existed Before The Dawn Of Time

In the Solo Leveling universe, the Itarim race existed before time, and they created countless universes comprised of different powerful species. They are cosmic beings who can shape entire worlds to their liking, so they have every right to be called Gods. However, too much power often leads to boredom, and well, that’s exactly what happened with Absolute Beings. Apparently, they grew bored and tired of simply creating and destroying the universes. It was like an absolutely easy and meaningless chess game where they could predict every single move no matter how many times they played the game.

After a while, the Outer Gods decided to spice things up by making their own creations fight themselves. Every Itarim created their respective universes and manipulated their powerful creations into fighting an endless war. They never had any intention of letting any one faction win or see an end to the war. If one faction ever gets close to defeating the other, the Itarim Being simply replenishes the forces of the losing side.

The Itarim God who created Earth was no different, as he made the Rulers fight the Monarchs for eternity. The endless war was nothing but a means of entertainment for him, and that is why he never actually wanted the Rulers to win and end the war.

Unfortunately for the Outer God who created Earth, the Rulers discovered his true intentions. Of course, these Gods are immortal beings who don’t die of age, but they can be killed through external means. The rulers likely realized this, so they rebelled. They used the element of surprise to actually kill their Absolute Being. This was the very event that laid the foundation for Jinwoo to one day become the Shadow Monarch.

The Entire Itarim Race Wants To Conquer Earth In Solo Leveling Ragnarok

They Want To Conquer Earth For Its Unlimited Mana

Absolute Beings’s death leads to a chain of events in the Solo Leveling universe. Ashborn becomes the Shadow Monarch and chooses Jinwoo as his successor, who eventually ends the ongoing war by killing every living Monarch. But while all this was happening, other Outer Gods realized that one of their kind had been killed by his creation. However, instead of uniting to avenge their fallen brother, the Itarim started drooling over Earth’s unlimited mana that was left out in the open to be claimed by anyone. So, every Itarim starts sending their servants, Apostles, to capture the Earth, with the intention of claiming this masterless universe for themselves.

The greed of Itarim didn’t go unnoticed, and they saw their Apostles getting annihilated by the Rulers. The Apostles were mere servants, though, and the Outer Gods could create as many Apostles as they liked. The Rulers, on the other hand, couldn’t replenish their forces, so they were bound to get overwhelmed by the forces of the Itarim.

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Fortunately for the Rulers, Jinwoo decided to join the fight to save the universe he considers home. And, well, Jinwoo and his Shadow army became the only force strong enough to prevent the Apostles and the Outer Gods from conquering Earth. Of course, some Apostles do find their way to Earth through the portals of the Gates, but while Jinwoo can’t leave the fight at hand, his son, Sung Suho, has been training to be strong enough to defend the planet from this threat.

Jinwoo has become a godly entity in the Solo Leveling universe, but he hasn’t fought anyone like Absolute Being before. It took the powers of all Rulers and the element of surprise to kill one Absolute Being. So, killing more than one Outer God in a direct fight would be a mammoth task, even for Jinwoo. It would be a bloody yet interesting fight, but it’s yet to be seen how Jinwoo would fare against these Godly entities and what role Sung Suho would play in all this.

Solo Leveling

Release Date

January 7, 2024

Directors

Shunsuke Nakashige

Writers

Noboru Kimura

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  Taito Ban

  Shun Mizushino (voice)

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  Genta Nakamura

  Kenta Morobishi (voice)