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| “ | "Arise" | „ |
| ~ The famous command word for Shadow Extraction |
Shadows are supporting characters in the dark fantasy action light novel, manhwa, and anime series Solo leveling. They are undead monsters whose souls were extracted and revived from the corpses of variety of (mainly) magical beasts or any other living beings with a soul, via the power of the Shadow Monarch. They have the natural will and loyalty to serve and fight their leader for the rest of their eternal life. Shadows are extracted from organisms with the skill "Shadow Extraction". Those with this skill are the original and late Shadow Monarch Ashborn, his successor and current Shadow Monarch Sung Jinwoo, and Jinwoo's son and the next Dragon Monarch Sung Suho, as of now. The user of Shadow Extraction will have to chose a word of command to activate the skill, all coincidentally using the word "Arise".
Despite being seemingly mindless beings at first, outside of battles, Shadows are shown to have empathy and loyal not only to their leader, but also others in needs. At the end of the series, Jinwoo creates the World of Eternal Slumber for all his shadows to reside. Approximately over 10 million shadows are said to be part of Jinwoo's army currently.
Appearance[]
Most Shadows emit a dark aura with glowing parts around their body, most varying by colors. Althought it is unclear, how or why the colors of Shadows change from time to time. For example, the Shadows Knights first recruited by Jinwoo were initially blue in Job Change Quest Dungeon. Later, against Kargalgan, Jinwoo used Monarch's Domain to enhance his shadows, turning everyone purple. Shadow High Orcs have a distinct red appearance. It can be speculated that some Shadows have different color either due to some monsters being part of species that are ruled by other Monarchs, such as High Orcs are ruled by the Iron Body Monarch, the leader of Monstruous Humanoids.
Personalities[]
Shadows all possess a natural unwavering loyalty and will to fight for their leader. Although, higher grade Shadows have stronger personalities and were even able to talk, this is later shown to be due to the restriction given by the System. Therefore, after the System was ultimately deleted by Jinwoo, these restriction were removed, allowing all Shadows to talk freely and display more personalities. In the new timeline, Shadows also show willingness to protect Jinwoo and his family, and friends. Even earlier on in the series, low-class a knight Shadow was able to show sympathy for Jinho who was worried that he would not get a portion of the mana crystals in a mine.
Often, the original personalities of the original creatures are erased and replaced by the new personality of the shadow. For example Hwang Dongsoo, who was a sadistic and murderous man has been turned into a humble and quiet shadow, the complete opposite of his human counterpart. Shadows are also shown to have a sense of humor and like to entertain amongst themselves. Shadows love also show their support and joy for Jinwoo and Cha Hae-In's relationship, such as when they were cheering on Jinwoo and Hae-In sharing a kiss for their first time.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Nigh-Regeneration: All shadows can regenerate as much as they want by the end of the series, due to Jinwoo's boundless pool of mana. Previously, Jinwoo only had limited amount of mana that would gradually run out whenever Shadows are killed and regenerated, each costing a certain amount of mana. Unfortunately, the strongest enemy so far to ever been able to permanently "erase" shadows out of existence was the Monarch of Destruction Antares, as suggested by his name, whose Breath of Destruction was destructive enough to "kill" or erase shadows from existence, forever.
- Telepathy with the Leader: The user of Shadow Extraction can communicate with their Shadows by mind, not just verbally. This is shown many times and presumably when Jinwoo communicated with Igris their plan to kill Kim Chul, without actually being shown to the audience. Furthermore, in the new timeline, telepathy of Jinwoo became apparent as he communicated with Bellion and Beru by thoughts.
Jinwoo undersanding how Shadow Exchange works.
| “ | Exchange | „ |
| ~ The word used to activate Shadow Exchange. |
- Shadow Exchange: The owner can swap his position with any of shadows from essentially any location, even from other dimensions. Jinwoo first gained this skill when he defeated the Baran clone, which allowed him to swap place with one of his patrol shadow that he placed around his home back in the original world, which teleported him from the Demon Castle back to his home. Jinwoo, later in the Jeju Island Arc, uses Shadow Exchange by switching place with one of his shadow who was casted in a shadow of one of the Korean Jeju Island Team hunters. The hunter was able to stop an ant from attacking one of the Korean hunters, which allowed Jinwoo to switch place with that soldier and teleport him that very location and save his fellow hunters against the ants.
Monarch's Domain: The owner can activate this skill to buff all his shadows.
Monarch's Domain in action
Members[]
Sung Jinwoo's Army[]
- Shadow Angels (from Ashborn's army)
- Bellion (Grand Marshal Grade) is the strongest shadow in existence and possible the first to exist as well. Centuries ago, Bellion was original the massive World Tree whose branches covered a great portion of the sky. Ashborn made him into his shadow and has been ever since his most loyal and powerful subordinate until Jinwoo became the new Shadow Monarch.
- Shadow Ants
- Shadow Knights
- Igris (Marshal Grade) is the first named shadow Jinwoo recruited from the body of the boss of the Job Chest Dungeon. However, in practice, Igris was also part of Ashborn's army. Ashborn made Igris challenge Jinwoo by putting him in that dungeon to test Jinwoo's powers whether he is worth as the new Monarch of Shadows.
- Iron (Elite Knight Grade; now part of Suho's army) was the shadow of Kim Chul, an A-Rank hunter who died inside a red gate where Jinwoo had use Iron to defeat Baruka, the boss of that dungeon.
- Shadow High Orcs
- Kaisel is the mount of the clone of Baran from the Demon Castle.
- Shadow Nagas
- Jima
- Shadow Ice Bears
- Tank
- Kamish (temporarily)
- Min Byung-Gyu (temporarily)
- Shadow Giants
- Shadow Twin-Headed Ogres
- Shadow Mages
- Shadow Assassins
- Shadow Archers
- Shadow Titans
- Shadow Dragons (from Antares' Army)
Sung Suho's Army[]
- Quay
- Mino
- Tau
- Kira
- Harmakan
- Gordon
- Sita
- Shika
- Iron
- Greed
- Brocky (Temporarily)
- Arachne (Temporarily)
- Kasaka (Temporarily)
- Shadow Goblins (Temporarily)
Ashborn's Army (merged with Jinwoo's army)[]
Failed Extractions[]
History[]
Job Change Quest[]
Jinwoo first acquires his skill Shadow Extraction by completing the quest for the Job Change Quest Dungeon. He chooses the word "Arise" as the commandment to use the skill. He revives the shadows, including Blood-Red Commander Igris, renaming him as Igris
Red Gate Arc[]
Jinwoo sends his knights to kill the Ice Bears, leaving Igris to kill their leader. The leader of the Ice Bears is also revived, renamed to Tank. He then uses Igris to kill Kim Chul and revive him as Iron to defeat Baruka. However, to his disappointment, he failed to extract him after the three given attempts. It is unclear as to why Jinwoo never or ever revived the rest of Baruka's army.
Demon Castle Arc[]
Jinwoo sends all his soldiers to kill the demons. However, he finds out that demons cannot be extracted due to not being actual living beings but rather artificially created from the System and that their souls are corrupted.
Hunters Guild Arc[]
Jinwoo and his shadows kill the High Orcs inside the Hunters Guild Dungeon and their leader Kargalgan, who is revived as the shadow Tusk.
Jeju Island Arc[]
Jinwoo and his Shadows' arrival at Jeju Island
| “ | What is this black knight?! | „ |
| ~ Baek in shock seeing the shadow knights suddenly appearing before them to stop the ants. |
Jinwoo places several Shadow Knights inside the hunters of the team of the Korean Jeju Island Team to keep an eye on them from Seoul. The knights later appeared at the last moments to fend off the ants from reaching the Korean hunters and notify Jinwoo back in Seoul, prompting him to chant "Exchange" to use his Shadow Exchange skill to swap with one of the soldier and teleport to the island to rescue his comrades.
Upon their arrival, Igris kills an ant that was about to reach the camera man who is part of the Korean Clue. Jinwoo then orders Iron to use his stun skill, allowing him to kill a good portion of the ants present in the cave. Meanwhile, Tusk stays in front of the Korean Team for their safety as they watch in shock of what is happening before their eyes. Igris, Tank, and Iron join the battle against the ants and Jinwoo revives his first ants who began to eat their living counterparts.
Monarch's War Arc[]
Solo Leveling: Ragnarok[]
Gallery of all Known Shadows[]
World of Eternal Slumber[]
the World of Eternal Slumber
Jinwoo made a magical world forged from his power where most of his shadows reside outside of battles. The world is essentially a nation with countless of buildings like in the human world. This is also where Jinwoo trained Suho against his Shadows, being also the first humans for now being to enter.
Soldiers Training Zone of Bellion[]
Demon Castle[]
Player Advance Area[]
Battle zone of Ashborn[]
Manufacture Zone of Dwarves[]
Mines[]
Ant Colony[]
The home of Beru and his subordinates. This is also a honorous place for the Jeju Island.
Igris' School[]
A Shadow High Orc protects Jinah and her friend during the Orcs attack at her high school.
Igris is shown to be working as a teacher at a school for lower class shadow knights, who prefere spending their time napping in class.
Heroic Acts[]
- The Shadow Knights that were placed by Jinwoo inside the shadows of the hunters of the Korean Jeju Island team appeared at the last second to protect them from the ants and notify Jinwoo back to Seoul for him to use his Shadow Exchange skill to rescue his fellow hunters.
- Shadow High Orcs have protected Jinah and a few other students against the Orcs before Jinwoo's arrival.
- Fought against countless of magic beasts throughout the series for the sake of the world, especially in the Monarch War.
- Igris saved a child from a magic from a magic beast at some point.
- Beru healed Thomas Andre's injuries during the War of Monarchs.
- Shadow Ming healed Hae-In after the 4th Jeju Island Raid.
- Fought alongside Ashborn centuries ago against various threats, including the Monarchs.
Trivia[]
- All users of Shadow Extraction seem to employ the same word "Arise" to use the skill so far.
- In total, Jinwoo has turned 4 humans into his shadows: Kim Chul into Iron, Hwang Dongsoo into Greed, Min Byung-Gyu, and an unnamed girl who died in a crime in the epilogue of the manhwa.
- Furthermore, as almost all shadows of Jinwoo are male, that unnamed girl may have been the only female being who was turned into a shadow by Jinwoo.
External Links[]
- The Shadows on the Solo Leveling Wiki
- The Army of Shadows on the Solo Leveling ARISE Wiki
See Also[]
- Shadow Preservation on the Solo Leveling Wiki
- Shadow Extraction on the Solo Leveling Wiki
- Shadow Exchange on the Solo Leveling Wiki
- Monarch's Domain on the Solo Leveling Wiki
- The World of Eternal Slumber on the Solo Leveling Wiki
[]
 Heroes
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Shadow Soldiers Korean Hunters Association Double Dungeon Raiding Team Nationa Level Hunters Hunters Guild White Tiger Guild Ahjin Guild Jeju Island Squad Others Sung Suho's Team Hunter Origin Series | ||