Summary
The manhwa medium has no shortage ofextremely strong and powerful characters, as they are as much as they are different from one manhwa to another. These characters also have a similarity to them, which is that the degree of their power can be directly linked to the amount of time they have lived.
However, this is only sometimes the case for powerful or all characters, but this stereotype is a common trope used in most manhwa.The appearance of these charactersoften belies their actual ages, usually leaving readers in disbelief and awe. Therefore, below are some of the oldest manhwa characters known, some of which are over a thousand years old.
9Kim Kibong - Limit Breaker
Age: 3,020
The protagonist of theLimit Breakermanhwa series, Kim Kibong, is initially just a regular twenty-year-old part-timer who hates his living conditions and whose only joy is his family. However, Kim Kibong’s tribulations intensify by an extreme margin when dungeons and monsters suddenly appear, and all hell breaks loose. White trying to save himself, Kim Kibong is sucked into an awakening dimension, where he is trapped for three thousand years.
Unable to get past the evaluation stage due to a bug in the system, Kim Kibong is caused to die and resurrect an infinite number of times in the span of three thousand years while simultaneously maxing out his level. While only ten years have passed in real time, Kim Kibong finally returns with a singular thought: to find and protect his family from the monsters that have invaded the world.
8Moyong Yul-Cheon - The Legend Of The Northern Blade
Age: Unknown (Immortal)
The primary and final villainof theLegend of the Northern Blademanhwa series, Moyong Yul-Cheon, is singlehandedly responsible for every antagonizing force established in the series. From the Central Alliance, the Silent Night, and Twin-Headed Asura. Moyong Yul-Cheon directly embodies the stereotype that the extent of a character’s powers can be directly linked to their age. Alongside the leader of the Silent Night’s leader, Deung Yoo-Myeung, Moyong is the oldest character in the series, as he and his brother had existed long before the appearance of the Central Plains.
Bored of a world where nothing could challenge, Moyong yearned for total control and domination, and to pursue his obsession, he merged the Central Plains to create the Central Heavenly Alliance. To complete his plans, he also established the Silent Night. These incidents are incidental to the creation of the series' opposing forces. His current age is unknown, but he is considered immortal after successfully absolving the Moyong family’s martial arts and surpassing the limits of a human.
7Ashborn - Solo Leveling
Age: Unknown (Two Eons)
The most powerful monarchand ruler, second only to Antares, Ashborn is the King of the Dead and an essential supporting character in theSolo Levelingseries. Known as the Greatest Fragment of Brilliant, Ashborn was an integral part of the war between the Rulers and the Monarchs at the behest of The Absolute Being, to whom Ashborn swore his unwavering loyalty.
In the context of time and age, the war took place, according to the series Eons ago, which implies that Ashborn and every other ruler and monarch have aged well beyond thousands of years and have remained alive only because they are spiritual beings without physical bodies. Due to his tiredness from war, anguish, and strife, Ashborn hatches a plan of succession with the Architect, ultimately resulting in Sung Jin-Woo, the series' protagonist, succeeding Ashborn as the new Shadow Monarch.
6Lee Ja In- Existence
Age: 4.543 billion years
As the protagonist of theExistenceseries, Lee Ja In is no more than a typical teenager at first sight. However, Ja In is much more than a mere human; he has lived thousands of lives, having reincarnated infinitely as different species and organisms. Ja In has lived more than a few thousand years as an existence of consciousness,with each reincarnationending with an even bigger hatred for humanity than his previous life.
Finally, reincarnating as a human, Ja In is convinced that the purpose of his existence is simply for the eradication of humans. His purpose, however, gets filled with holes of doubt after living and discovering human emotions, specifically from his mother and another central character, Ah Leesu. Burdened with feelings of hope and life, Ja In decides to rethink his existence once more.
5Cadis Etrama Di Raizel- Noblesse
Age: 2000
The titular protagonist of theNoblesseseries, Raizel, is considered a noble among even the vampire nobles of Lukedonia. Raizel is part ofan ancient race of vampireswhose territory and presence have been concealed from the ordinary world since time immemorial until a war that led to Raizel’s slumber for eight hundred and twenty years. Before his slumber, Raizel had lived a little above two thousand years.
As the Noblesse, Raizel is on par with the Lord of the Vampires, and while the Lord possesses the powers and authority to rule over the nobles of Lukedonia, Raizel, as the Noblesse, is their judge, jury, and executioner, who can kill the at will if he so determines that their actions. Now awakened to modern society, Raizel reunites with his loyal servant, Frankenstein, and finds adjusting to society as it is confusing. However, he chooses to protect his newfound life involving the friends he makes at Ye Ran High School and will do what it takes to keep that life of his.
4Jin Mori / Sun Wukong / Jecheondaeseong- God Of Highschool
Age: Over 3000 years
One ofmanhwa’s more popular protagonists, Jin Mori, is a central character in the famousGod Of High Schoolmanhwa series. As a regular teenager, Mori is an exceptionally powerful martial artist, as his grandfather was the strongest martial artist to have lived. Only after enrolling in the God Of Highschool competition alongside his friends, Han Daewi and Yoo Mira is it revealed that Mori is Sun Wukong, the Monkey King and one of the Nine Demon Kings. As the Monkey King, Mori existed even before the First Heavenly War, which happened more than two thousand years before the series' main events.
After recovering his memories as Jin Mori, he embarks on another journey against all odds to defeat Park Mubong, who instigated Ragnarok. A battle that ultimately led to both Mori and Mubong becoming Supreme Deities like Matreiya and Tathagata, eventually leading to the erasing of the Earth and the creation of a new one. Upon completing the series, Mori is inerrably older than a few millennia.
3Lucas Traumen - The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years
Age: 4,880+
Once the greatest mage in history, Lucas Traumen had only one care in the world— to defeat the demigods. However, his quest ends in an utter and agonizing defeat as he and all his allies are defeated, and he is imprisoned by the Lord, the leader of the demigods in the Abyss, for four thousand years. Lucas is another example that exemplifies age as a direct link to how much power a character can have.
Having lived for almost a millennia due to his transcendence of human limits, Lucas Traumen defeated aging, and even when imprisoned in the Abyss, he couldn’t die. The events of the series kick start when Lucas reawakens in Frey Blake’s body after the boy kills himself due to the constant bullying he faces. The duo strike a deal that sees Lucas promise to right the wrongs against Frey in return for granting him his body, and what follows is the beginning of the inevitable clash against the demigods.
2Jaehwan- The World After The Fall
Age: 10,000,000,000+
Summoned among the multitude to the Tower Of Nightmares, Jaehwan is the protagonist of the manhwa,The World After The Fall.Incredibly obstinate and headstrong, as shown by his preferred attack method, the Stab, Jaehwan is fixated on climbing the Tower and saving humanity. Even when the Tower grants himself and the other Walkers the opportunity to return to their lives using a Stone of Regression, Jaehwan pushes through regardless to see the end. So, he becomes the only one remaining, losing all his allies.
Finally reaching the end of the Tower, Jaehwan soon realizes that there is indeed no end, and the passage of time is meaningless, and he chooses to continue moving forward regardless. Focused on reaching whoever is responsible for the creation of the Towers, he continues his journey of loneliness and persistence, eventually gathering other allies willing to see the end he desperately tries to reach.
1Lord - The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years
Age: Unknown
The absolute leader of the demigods, Lord, also known as Micheal, is the main antagonist ofThe Great Mage Returns After 4000 Yearsmanhwa series and the demigod who trapped Lucas Traumen in the Abyss. Once the most favored by God and one of the Three Great Beings, Lord was formerly the Archangel Micheal and the ruler of the Celestial World before it met its destruction.
As the first to gain consciousness away from God, Lord was the first of many demigods to fall from God’s rule, and due to how powerful he was, his leadership of the demigods was unquestionable and perfect. As a demigod, Lord existed long before the dawn of time and before the creation of the mortal world. However, due to his defiance of God and obsession with creating the perfect world for his fellow demigods, Lord decides to rule over all three realms to the advantage of demigods only, resulting in the central events of the series' story.
