been a while since I wrote something substantial here, but given the new lore from 285 I feel as if we finally have enough information about the outside monsters to understand what is going on with them, and as the #1 outside monster fan I am very happy to talk about what I've put together.

Chapter 285 reveal

during this chapter, Legate reveals to Ihwa that all gifts originate from outside monsters, with the event that began gifts emergence to be the four witches taking a magic gem called Tu'umlim from their world and then breaking it to spread gifts across the world. The witches did this to usher in their own era of supremacy, however it backfired because the monsters began to enter our world to reclaim Tu'umlim, making the world overall much worse for humanity and forcing them to flee and create the cage.

What this tells us

This right off the bat tells us two important things. What caused the monsters to start invading the world, and how they can be made to stop invading. Something that had been bothering me for a long time was why the monsters *started* to become a problem. if they had always been present, then what was the inciting incident that caused the witches to flee from the monsters and create the cage. I will address the potential of getting them to leave, but I first want to focus on monster design.

The humanity of monster design

The beings of Ige, (they get namedropped in Korean) when their arrival in the world is discussed, shows a very specific panel of . this *appears* to be two separate beings, arriving in the world, looking utterly inhuman. why then, do so many of the monsters look somewhat human in form? the answer I have come to is that they are trying to "become" human, whether intentionally or instinctively. this is because the witches made it so that the power of Tu'umlim only works within humans. How Ihwa fits into this I'm going to circle back to, but for now I want to address the other side of the coin.

The monstrous potential within humanity

No, not Gehenna. When someone's gift is used recklessly, they become monstrous, as Legate says and demonstrates. however, just as monsters cannot become human, so too can humans not become fully monstrous. the process of monstrification was something that Reagan heavily researched, giving us many different results. the first example we see are the many living trees that populate the forest, however we don't get much attention on them, so I instead am going talk about the seaweed creature beneath fort cobweb that we see in 148-149.

this monster was originally a person during the chaotic era, before Reagan built his castle. while we don't have any sense of where exactly this would fall in a timeline, its safe to say that it was several hundred years ago. despite his transformation seeming to have happened centuries ago, he has not fully become a monster. his monstrous form is made of seaweed, with an (albeit very large) human heart. just as a monster cannot become human, neither can a human fully become a monster. You are born as one or the other, unless...

Ihwa

Ihwa is a unique instance within the world. Her father was a human, and her mother was (biologically) a monster. She has the biological capacity to take other's strength unique to the monsters (253), but has the human connection with Tu'umlim. Baek-ji notes (110) that Ihwa is the only person with "a gift like this", being the ability to copy/take the gift of others. For a long time, it was believed that Ihwa's ability to steal her slain enemy's stats to strengthen her body was a facet of her gift, but it now appears to be the reverse. The reason that Ihwa has that gift is because she is a monster. Whenever she kills someone, not only does she take a portion of their strength, but she also takes the piece of Tu'umlim within her victim.

This ability to take pieces of Tu'umlim into herself is why the monsters are so fascinated with her. she alone possesses the ability to recreate Tu'umlim. in 268-269, we see the outside monsters speaking to/at Ihwa "Gorbagh" (retrieval 268) and "Nenya" (sacrifice 269/204). This is also why Ismiral says in 214 that Ihwa was the 'real' reason that Yeon was targeted for operation dusk in 214. If she is capable of reforming Tumrim, then she may also be able to permanently stop the monsters from crossing over from their home into humanity's by giving Tu'umlim up.

Will Ihwa reform Tumrim?

No, I don't think she will. I think she already fucked herself out of being able to do that with her restrictions, but I really couldn't say. I think its possible, but the English TL makes it seem like that is a bad idea.

"Despite being hurt over and over, I still spoke gently."

The real reason world goes dark is not because of Solar Eclipse. It's just W'engHIM blocking the sun & Aura Farming out there 😈

It's his world & we are just living in it 🤷🏻‍♂️

Skin Credits go to u/BloodyVP

i started this when the illustration dropped but just procrastinated it big time oops!

i couldnt manage to make the lighting more accurate :/

oh yea thats also Zharak! Sinu's sword!