Mortal Kombat 11: the whole story of the series so far

Although the games consist mainly of beating other players and bringing them out with bloody and brutal fatalities, the Mortal Kombat series is rich in tradition. Ten games, its story is quite complicated – there are different kingdoms, different gods, a bunch of character backstories and intrigues filled with wizards, spells, zombies and even time travel.

As Mortal Kombat 11 approaches, we have searched Mortal Kombat's history to tell you everything you need to know and, honestly, things you do not know. It's all about Raiden trying to save the Earth and stop the end of all reality, and long-time villain Shao Kahn ignores it. But there are a lot of evil players, and they will all likely be relevant again in Mortal Kombat 11, which promises more quirks.

Here's the story of the Mortal Kombat series, thanks in large part to the Mortal Kombat Fandom wiki and some helpful YouTube videos from the first release in 1992 at age 27.

Before the games

Above all, it is important to understand how the world of Mortal Kombat is presented. There are powerful and special Elder gods, who preside over multiple distinct dimensions known as kingdoms, and a group of minor gods that hang around these various realms, with their own agendas – usually to protect the places and scary people from other peoples. kingdoms.

The main kingdoms are Earthrealm (the Earth as we know it more or less), Outworld (a barbaric desert to the happiness of conquest), Edenia (a magical paradise) and the Kingdom of the Snow (hell). There are more, but their size and importance vary, but if they exist, Outworld wants to dominate them. In Mortal Kombat, it does not simply mean sending the occupants to another dimension to replace them. when one kingdom is conquered by another, they literally blend to blend their landscapes.

The Old Gods thought that they should regulate one way or another all those nonsense that merge domains. They created the Mortal Kombat tournament, in which they once faced champions from different realms. If a realm beats another realm 10 times in a row, the winner wins the right to take back the loser.

Outworld was not only at war with other kingdoms; it was to create an empire. For centuries, Outworld has been ruled by Onaga, obsessed with conquering as many kingdoms as possible. Onaga was particularly frightening because he could raise the dead, making his army invincible. He and his followers were also looking for ways to make him invincible.

Onaga was finally betrayed by his lieutenant, Shao Kahn, with the support of the Old Gods. Shao Kahn took over the role of ruler and protector of Outworld, but like Onaga, his thirst for power has triumphed over him. Shao Kahn undertook his own conquest campaign, with the help of Shang Tsung, his sorcerer servant. His main target: Edenia.

Meanwhile, on Earth

The events unfolding on Earth were separated from all that was scary in the outside world. One of the elder gods, Shinnok, decided to take control of the Earthrealm, to make sure that everyone worshiped him and was all-powerful. Shinnok was much more than an ordinary god thanks to his special amulet, which was tied to his powers and allowed him to travel between the kingdoms without the ancient gods being able to stop him.

Fortunately, the Earth possessed Raiden, the god of thunder, who was not an elder god, but nevertheless powerful. He fought Shinnok in an intense war that lasted millennia, caused the extinction of dinosaurs and overthrown civilizations, and even tore holes between realities. A race of people descended from dinosaurs (eg, Reptile) passed through these tears and, although most were wiped out by extinction, some went to the Zaterra Kingdom.

Raiden eventually defeated Shinnok, grabbed his magical amulet and imprisoned him in the kingdom of darkness for all eternity. For centuries, Shinnok was tortured and stuck in hell, which was a very good result for Raiden.

Shao Kahn comes for the earth

When Shao Kahn took Edenia, he then turned his attention to Earthrealm, who is apparently the best. At Edenia, he killed the king of the kingdom and took his queen, Sindel, for his. At Sindel's request, Kahn spares Princess Kitana; instead of killing her, he elevated her to the rank of assassin and member of her guard.

Sindel may have been conquered, but she has not finished fighting. She committed suicide to create a magic pavilion on Earth, preventing Shao Kahn from entering the kingdom, which made it much harder to conquer.

Shao Kahn sent Shang Tsung to launch the Mortal Kombat tournament on Earth. However, Raiden was there prepared and had created a command of Shaolin monks dedicated to finding the best fighters on Earth each generation to participate in the tournament. Grand Kung Lao won the tournament and Earthrealm was safe.

Shang Tsung had a turn this time, though. He brought the four-armed Goro as champion of the Outworld, and the monstrous fighter immediately kicked the Big Kung Lao's ass and killed him. The plan worked perfectly and despite the best efforts of Raiden and Earthrealm, Outworld won the next eight tournaments. One more, and they could invade and merge Earthrealm with Outworld.

Shinnok is not done

But wait! Shinnok is always a thing. After being tortured in the Kingdom of the Netherlands for a quarter of an hour, Shinnok met Quan Chi, a wizard wandering in the kingdom. The two men entered into a deal: Quan Chi would help Shinnok in exchange for being his right arm and getting the power to govern with him. They teamed up and finally took over the kingdom of darkness. But even if being king of hell is nil, because of hell, Shinnok and Quan Chi started working to go out and come back to Earth.

On Earth, Quan Chi hired Lin Kuei to find a map that would eventually lead to the place where Raiden had hidden Shinnok's amulet, which is described in Mythologies of Mortal Kombat: Sub-Zero. Quan Chi also engaged Lin Kuei's rivals Shirai Ryu for the same job, to increase his chances of success. Sub-Zero, the ninja sent by Lin Kuei, manages to find the map and kills Shirai Ryu's Scorpion. Quan Chi repaid the Lin Kuei by eliminating the Shirai Ryu and, when Sub-Zero found the amulet, Quan Chi stole it and brought it back to the realm of darkness. It was then that Raiden decided to tell Sub-Zero what was going on and the ninja went to the Kingdom of the Netherlands to repair the mess he had created .

Sub-Zero defeated Quan Chi and recovered the amulet before Shinnok could use it to escape the realm of darkness. He returned the amulet to Raiden, and then authorized Shang Tsung to hire him for the fight at the next Mortal Kombat tournament, although he received the secret order from Lin Kuei for the first time. murder the sorcerer.

Finally, the original games of Mortal Kombat

That brings us (oh my god, finally) to the original Mortal Kombat. Shang Tsung had orchestrated the tournament once again, Outworld was one win away on the Earth and Goro was ready to shake all the challengers. But Shang Tsung did not count on Raiden and his new group of champions, including Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage and Liu Kang (or on Sub-Zero, sent to kill Shang Tsung, or Scorpion, resurrected by Quan Chi and vindictive. sub-Zero). Liu Kang then defeated Goro and Shang Tsung to win the tournament. Meanwhile, Scorpio killed Sub-Zero, whose soul went into the realm of darkness and became Noob Saibot.

In Mortal Kombat II, Shang Tsung tried to repent for his failure. He and Shao Kahn sent forces led by Baraka to attack the Shaolin monks, leading the fighters of the Earth to go to Outworld for another tournament to circumvent the usual rules of the Mortal Kombat. The idea was that if Earth won the Outworld tournament, Outworld would stop bothering them – but if Outworld won, it would count as the tenth win and allow Outworld to take control of Earthrealm. It was a stupid bet, but the fighters of the Earth were all upset, so they decided to give it a go.

Fortunately, Liu Kang defeated Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn to win the tournament again. He and Kung Lao went to the new Shaolin monk who would be ready to defend Earthrealm. Meanwhile, Sub-Zero's brother (who now bears the name Sub-Zero) went to the tournament with his bud Smoke in order to find out what had happened to the first Sub-Zero. They also fled Lin Kuei, who had begun to turn their clan men into cyborg ninjas, namely Sektor and Cyrax. Sub-Zero and Smoke were apparently in focus for conversion and put on the clan instead, which is tantamount to betrayal, which is why both cyborgs started chasing them. Sub-Zero escaped, but Smoke was captured and received the robot's treatment.

Oh, and Kitana changed sides, realizing that Shao Kahn was a shoulder bag and that her sister, Mileena, was not her sister at all, but a monster clone created by Shang Tsung.

In Mortal Kombat III, the other shadow priests of Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn were able to resurrect Sindel and washed her of the brain so that she became devilish and loyal to Shao Kahn. This broke the hall over Earthrealm and also gave Shao Kahn the opportunity to cross the kingdom to take it to Sindel for some reason. Apparently, it's an important loophole that has allowed him to not participate in a bunch of stupid tournaments and just invade Earthrealm.

Raiden has assembled a group of Earth heroes to fight Shao Kahn over and over, Liu Kang has beaten him, releasing Edenia this time by saving Earthrealm. Kitana managed to save Sindel, Johnny Cage was killed by Motaro, Kung Lao nearly killed Baraka but not, and then killed by Shao Kahn. Whatever it is, the Earth has been saved.

Another invasion well

On Mortal Kombat 4. After the defeat of Shao Kahn, Quan Chi and Shinnok were ready to execute their plan and attack Earthrealm and the heavens, where the ancient gods live. With the help of Noob Saibot and the traitor Edenia Tanya, Shinnok fled to Edenia to wage war there, kidnapping Sindel and Kitana. Above all, Shinnok was very angry that everyone let him rot in hell for a million years and was avenging everyone, but especially Raiden. His ultimate plan was to bribe the Jinsei, the kind of life force of Earthrealm, to get even more power.

As usual, no one planned to join Liu Kang, who beat Shinnok and sent him back to the realm of darkness. Meanwhile, Quan Chi turned out to be the guy who orchestrated all the Mortal Kombat Mythologies events and killed Scorpio's clan and family just as he was trying to ban Scorpion back into the realm. from the darkness. Enraged, Scorpio grabbed Quan Chi and brought him back to hell with him, thus closing things for all who were not Scorpio.

But most importantly, we learned that when Quan Chi took Shinnok's amulet in Sub-Zero, in Mortal Kombat mythologies, he traded it for a fake. It meant that the one Raiden had reported to Earthrealm was, in fact, the copy. Quan Chi always had the truth.

Quan Chi and Shang Tsung team up

Mortal Kombat's deadly alliance: Deadly Alliance is an alliance between Quan Chi and Shang Tsung. Quan Chi used Shinnok's amulet to flee the kingdom of darkness and discovered the existence of the unbeatable mummified army of Onaga. He approached Shang Tsung so that he would fill those souls – that Shang Tsung regularly flies to people, so to speak is his business – so that they can use them to conquer all kingdoms. They started to adopt their plan by eliminating the main opponents. They headed to Outworld and shot down Shao Kahn, then went to Earthrealm and killed Liu Kang. (In fact, Shao Kahn simulated his own death, hoping to see how things went awry while he was working to regain the throne of the outside world.)

Despite all his efforts to rally many heroes to his cause, Raiden was not able to defeat his teammates. In Mortal Kombat: Deception, we discovered that Raiden and a group of prominent fighters, including Kung Lao, Sub-Zero, Sonya, Jax, and Kitana, challenged Quan Chi and Shang Tsung at Shang Tsung Palace, but eventually been defeated, with all mortals being killed (except Sub-Zero, who found himself elsewhere). Raiden tried to end the murderous alliance by himself but could not stand it. In the last moments, Quan Chi and Shang Tsung mutually opposed each other to control Shinnok's amulet, while Quan Chi emerged victorious. But remember this thought for a second …

Deception in Mortal Kombat: deception

Mortal Kombat's Konquest mode: Deception organizes the events of this game, which dates back to 41 years before the battle between Raiden, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. A warrior named Shujinko was visited by Damashi, who claimed to be an emissary of the Old Gods. Damashi puts Shujinko in search of collecting special artifacts, the Kamidogu, in each of the kingdoms and collecting them. Shujinko, however, was deceived – decades later, when he finished his task, he discovered that Damashi was actually an Onaga, the Kamidogu allowing him to be reborn in the world.

Onaga's plan: take Shinnok's amulet; control everything. Then Onaga was introduced to the palace of Shang Tsung to recover the amulet and his invincible army at the beginning of Mortal Kombat: the main story of Deception. Quan Chi briefly teamed up with Shang Tsung and Raiden against their common enemy, but they were beaten. Raiden tried to sacrifice herself by using all her divine powers to blow up the whole house, but Onaga came out almost unscathed. Onaga claimed the amulet and Raiden eventually recovered, but came back as a naughty version with red eyes, corrupt and evil.

Onaga resurrected the other Earthrealm warriors to defend him. Mileena is disguised as Kitana (again, she is deceived!) To lead the Edenia forces against Onaga, and the Ancient Gods saved Scorpio, whom Shang Tsung and Quan Chi had apparently destroyed in their "Soulnado" ( yes, it's a tornado of souls), to be their champion. The ghost of Liu Kang and the Ermac telekinesis ninja also managed to free all the resurrected Earthrealm warriors, who also stood against Onaga.

In the end, it was Shujinko who arrested Onaga. He did one thing where he summoned all the power of the other warriors and used it to destroy Onaga's Kamidogu. This weakened Onaga, which allowed Nightwolf to do a magic trick to throw him into the realm of darkness.

Mortal Kombat causes the end of the worlds

Now, it's Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The rise of Onaga has dragged all the bad guys everywhere and grouped them under one banner. All the warriors on the right side were converging to defeat them.

This is actually part of a prophecy made centuries earlier by Delia, the wife of the patron god of Arguenia, Argus, according to the Mortal Kombat Fandom wiki. It foresaw a battle in which all the mighty warriors of Mortal Kombat would have fought until they destroyed all the kingdoms with their power. To stop her, she and Argus have adopted a plan: zap the powers of the warriors. They created Blaze, a fire elemental that would draw all warriors to the right place, because whoever beats him would get an insane power. They then put their two sons, Daegon and Tavin, into immobility, with the idea that, when the battle of armageddon is imminent, they would wake up and leave in search of Blaze's defeat, his power, and to kill all the warriors or by magic. withdraw their powers. Shinnok ruined everything, waking his son Daegon centuries too soon. He became super evil and spent years preparing to kill his brother, Taven, to be able to get the power of Blaze, who would turn one of the two brothers into a god.

Taven woke up and finished his quest, then managed to defeat Daegon. But Taven failed to stop the warriors and defeat Blaze, as he was supposed to do to ward off Armageddon. Instead, it was the worst possible person who ended up with Blaze's power: Shao Kahn. All other warriors were killed in the process and by Shao Kahn. In fact, the apocalypse had not been canceled and the kingdoms would now be dominated by an unstoppable Shao Kahn.

Except that, for one last thing. Raiden, defeated and dying, used a kind of magic amulet to send a message through time to his young self in an attempt to prevent the apocalypse. The young Raiden realized that he had to prevent the future, but he had only one clue with which to work. It was the last words of old Raiden: "He must win!"

Mortal Kombat: The day of the marmot

So we're back to the beginning (sort of), but it's the Mortal Kombat 2011 (or Mortal Kombat 9), which used the time travel to reset the timeline of the series and covers a new version of the events of Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat III. Raiden knew that something bad was going to happen, but did not have much information. Not knowing what the message meant, Raiden assumed that it was Liu Kang defeating Shang Tsung in the first tournament.

The events in Mortal Kombat were mostly the same as in the first timeline, but Raiden tried to make some positive changes. He convinced Scorpion not to kill Sub-Zero, for example, but Quan Chi came forward during their fight and manipulated Scorpion to assassinate Sub-Zero anyway, creating Noob Saibot . Raiden prevented things from going badly wrong, as when he had dissuaded Cyrax from killing Johnny Cage, and finally, Liu Kang had won the Mortal Kombat tournament for the first time. But Raiden's magic amulet, the one he used to send the message back in time, was a bit cracked – telling him that Raiden had not prevented the bad future from happening.

Then, the events of Mortal Kombat II, which saw the heroes go to Outland for the Shao Kahn tournament. Raiden tried again to change some things, guessing that "He must win" meant Kung Lao in the second tournament, rather than the always winner Liu Kang. But Shao Kahn ended up killing Kung Lao, and Liu Kang won anyway. When Raiden tried to prevent Smoke from becoming a cyborg ninja, the Lin Kuei captured and converted the youngest Sub-Zero instead. More cracks in the amulet.

Mortal Kombat III then came with Shao Kahn to launch his invasion of Earthrealm. Once again, Raiden tried to make some changes to change the future, but continued to be nil. He saved the life of Johnny Cage and Sub-Zero was reprogrammed by the Earthhrealm fighters to restore his free will. But Shao Kahn killed Shang Tsung and used her power to reinforce Sindel, who was brainwashed – and in turn, she killed a group of the best fighters of humanity.

Desperate, Raiden went to the Kingdom of the Netherlands to seek the help of Quan Chi – but was refused. But his conversation with Quan Chi finally helped Raiden understand what "He must win" meant, which has probably been obvious from the beginning. "He" in this case is Shao Kahn. Liu Kang constantly beat Shao Kahn in the original timeline, but was never able to kill him, which allowed Shao Kahn to continue to drag on until he finally set up the armageddon. If Earthrealm was lost and Outworld merged with it, the old gods would be forced to intervene.

And they intervened. Shao Kahn won his invasion but broke the rules of Mortal Kombat. The Old Gods propelled Raiden and he fought against Shao Kahn, defeating him and blowing him up once and for all. Everyone was saved except Liu Kang – Raiden had accidentally killed him when he had disapproved of the plan to let Shao Kahn take it away.

In the end, all of this was part of the Quan Chi and Shinnok plan. It may not make sense, but it was simply a matter of bringing Shinnok back to the next generation. Thanks to Raiden in time travel, most of the best fighters on the good side were now dead and Shinnok would be able to handle much more easily.

Shinnok returns

Finally, we arrive at Mortal Kombat X. Shinnok and Quan Chi created their game, with the support of non-dead versions of the dead warriors in Mortal Kombat 9. However, it turned out that Johnny Cage, who was replacing Liu Kang, was the one of the Earth. best fighter, was part of a long line of warriors created by the gods. His special powers allowed him to defeat Shinnok and imprison him in his amulet. Quan Chi tried to kill Johnny and resurrect him as a member of his non-dead forces, but Raiden used all of his divine powers to fight this movement – and the interaction of their powers did not happen. not only saved Johnny, he restored the other undead in the room. to their human forms.

Quan Chi escaped, but Shinnok was defeated and everyone was able to relax. Sub-Zero and Scorpion rebuilt their clan and finally buried their hatchet, while Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade had a daughter together and Jax had his own daughter. Twenty-five years later, Kano managed to get his hands on Shinnok's amulet and sell it to Mileena, prompting the next generation of fighters to search for him.

The Earthrealm fighters had a difficult alliance with Kotal Kahn, the new Outworld leader, who had sent Lieutenant Vorah to help them find Mileena. When they did, Kotal Kahn kept the amulet – but did not know that D & Vorah was actually working with Quan Chi to get it. The Earthrealmers worked together to find and capture Quan Chi, but Scorpio and his clan came forward to take revenge on the man who had caused the death of his family. Scorpion killed Quan Chi, but not before D & V delivered the amulet and used it to free Shinnok.

Back again, Shinnok was able to corrupt the Jinsei, the mystical life force of Earthrealm, with his evil magic, as he had planned for the first time. This gave him intense powers and turned him into a demon – but Cassie Cage, the daughter of Johna and Sonya, fought Shinnok and defeated him, thanks to Johnny's line of warriors. Raiden is sacrificed to purify the Jinsei and save the world. Unfortunately, Raiden is again corrupt. He is now again a kind of evil Raiden, with Shinnok's amulet and Shinnok's severed head – still alive, thanks to his god status.

More time travel in Mortal Kombat 11

We do not know much about the story of Mortal Kombat 11, but Ed Boon's comments suggest that the journey back in time is coming back immensely. It seems that we will see another time go back in the hands of Kronika, the Keeper of Time. The new villain was apparently quite pleased with the way the story had unfolded and did not like Raiden's interference in the plan and rewriting the story, as the shows the trailer of the game.

This will not be another return at the beginning of the story. Apparently, Kronika is making the different chronologies "fold" together, past events merging with those of the present, and the characters will clash with the past and the future. Perhaps most importantly, it means that Shao Kahn is back and that various forces of Earthrealm and Outworld will have to band together to defeat him and put an end to his imperious plans.