The Solo Leveling Villains Who Are Even Stronger Than Jinwoo Were Originally Too Dark for the Story

For a series built around constant power escalation, Solo Leveling seemed to have found its ceiling when Sung Jinwoo finally became the Shadow Monarch and confronted Antares, the strongest of the Monarchs. After the timeline was reset, Jinwoo spent 27 years hunting down the remaining Monarchs, seemingly bringing the ancient war to its definitive end.

Then Solo Leveling: Ragnarok opened the door to something far worse. The Itarim, also called the Outer Gods, are beings from other universes who created worlds of their own. When the Absolute Being of Jinwoo’s universe died, his creation was left without a master, turning it into an attractive prize for these distant gods. Their introduction completely reframes the narrative, proving that the universe holds terrifying entities whose scope and grim nature make them vastly stronger and far more disturbing than anything Jinwoo faced before.

The Itarim Were Too Dark for Solo Leveling’s Original Story

The original Solo Leveling was already built around a colossal conflict between the Monarchs and the Rulers. Monarchs wanted humanity destroyed, while the Rulers fought to preserve the world, giving Jinwoo clear antagonists he could overcome through determination, leveling, and sheer combat prowess. The Itarim, however, introduce a sense of Lovecraftian cosmic horror that was quite bleak for the tone of the original narrative.

As seen in Ragnarok, the Itarim are not simply another army waiting behind Antares. They are creator gods who exist across different universes and dimensions. The premise is chillingly transactional: after one of their own dies, the other Itarim see his abandoned creation as an opportunity to seize its enormous remaining power.

Jinwoo’s original enemies wanted to conquer or destroy his world, but the Itarim corrupt and distort the fabric of reality. They inflict grotesque mutations, body horror, and psychological despair on mortal populations through their Apostles, treating entire realities as territory to be harvested. Undoubtedly, their very being reduces humanity’s grandest struggles to trivial cosmic events.

Who Are the Itarim? Everything We Know About Solo Leveling’s Outer Gods

The Itarim are introduced as supreme beings who have existed since ancient times and created numerous universes. They are also known as the Outer Gods. Most importantly, the Absolute Being from the original series is revealed to have been one of them. His death is what creates the central crisis.

After the Rulers and their rebellion ultimately brought down the Absolute Being, his universe was left without its creator. The surviving Itarim noticed the vacant creation and the enormous mana within it, prompting the conflict known as the War of the Outer Gods. Their Apostles were sent into the universe to pursue that power and establish their masters’ claims.

The Itarim are associated with creation itself, life creation, dimensional awareness, and immense authority within the universes they create. However, calling them literally omnipotent would go beyond what the story establishes. Ragnarok itself emphasizes that even beings of this level have limits: the Absolute Being was ultimately killed by his own creations.

There is also an important distinction between the Itarim themselves and their Apostles. The latter are created servants, and Ragnarok explains that different Itarim distribute their power differently. Some created far more Apostles than the Absolute Being created Monarchs and Rulers, meaning individual Apostles can be weaker while existing in vastly greater numbers.

The sequel began as Daul’s web novel in 2023, while its Webtoon adaptation launched on August 1, 2024, with JIN of REDICE Studio taking over the art. The story shifts the spotlight to Jinwoo’s son, Sung Suho, while expanding the mythology far beyond the original Monarch-Ruler conflict.

Why Even Jinwoo Struggles Against Solo Leveling’s Outer Gods

In the original story, Jinwoo could spend 27 years systematically eliminating the remaining Monarchs. Against the Itarim, however, the Rulers themselves are struggling to provide enough support. Ragnarok establishes that the new war is so demanding that reinforcements cannot simply be sent to Earth whenever necessary.

That is why Jinwoo makes a decision that would have been almost unthinkable at the end of the original series: he removes the seal placed on Suho and sends Beru back to Earth. The goal is not merely to give his son a power-up. It is to make sure humanity has someone capable of standing against the Apostles if the invasion reaches Earth.

Later novel events push that escalation even further. In the Dimension-1 conflict, Suho ultimately confronts an Itarim creator, and the weapon Ragnarok is used in a battle where its destructive law can destroy the laws protecting a god. The Itarim is defeated, while its created universe begins collapsing. Crucially, this is a novel event, not something readers should mistake for material already adapted into the current Webtoon.

So, even with Jinwoo’s god-like status, Ragnarok reveals that the Shadow Monarch would be small potatoes compared to the Outer Gods.

Think Jinwoo has already reached his limit? Comment below.

Read official English versions of Solo Leveling: Ragnarok on Tappytoon (manhwa comic), Tapas (comic), or Wuxiaworld (original light/web novel).