Rulers are an immensely powerful group of entities. After death of the Absolute Being, they became the new gods. There are 8 Rulers, but only two Rulers’ names are revealed in the manhwa: Ashborn, the Greatest Fragment of Brilliant Light, and the Brightest Fragment of Brilliant Light. The rest of the six Rulers are unnamed.
Although later Ashborn left the Rulers side and joined the Monarchs side after the death of the Absolute Being, the Rulers always fought as a group; they never fought individually in the series.
Origin
Rulers are one of the first creations of the Absolute Being. In the beginning, the Absolute Being created two groups of entities: Monarchs and Rulers, using light and darkness. The Absolute Being created Rulers to protect the world and Monarchs to destroy it. Because of their opposite reasons for creation, they fought century after century.
But when they found out the Absolute Being created them for his entertainment, they rebelled against their own god who created them. However, one of the Rulers, Ashborn, was deeply loyal to his god. Ashborn, the greatest light of brilliant fragments, is the most powerful among them. He didn’t agree with the other Rulers’ decision. He tried to stop them, but they defeated him and left him for dead.
When Ashborn was near death, he found within him a power given by the Absolute Being. He quickly recovered himself and, with his new power, went to the Absolute Being’s throne room to stop them. But it was too late; he found the Absolute Being already killed by the Rulers.
After this, the Rulers captured Legia, who is one of the Monarchs. When Ashborn found out Legia was captured, the power balance between Monarchs and Rulers became unstable. He thought if he didn’t interfere in this fight, the Monarchs would lose the war. He joined the Monarchs and became a Shadow Monarch. After this, the power balance became stable between them.
Centuries later, the Rulers discovered the Monarchs’ plan to destroy the human world to rebuild their forces. The Rulers attempted to stop them but failed. They then used the Cup of Reincarnation, a tool created by the Absolute Being, to turn back time by ten years. However, this only delayed the inevitable destruction of the human world. Moreover, the Cup of Reincarnation began to lose its power.
Ten years before the main storyline, the Rulers opened gates, introducing magic beasts into the world and saturating it with mana (magic energy) to strengthen it against the war with the Monarchs. They also transferred their powers to seven chosen humans, making them the strongest hunters. To ensure Ashborn’s loyalty, Sung Il-Hwan, one of the seven chosen humans, was given the mission to kill the upcoming new Shadow Monarch.
At Last
Even though they killed their own god, they are not evil beings; they just wanted to end the war and protect humans. In the end, Jinwoo killed Antares and ended this war with the help of the Rulers.
