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Learn all about the world of Mortal Kombat, including the general story of the setting and the overall lore of the franchise.
With the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection coming soon, it’s worth taking a look at the world of Mortal Kombat in general. Currently, Mortal Kombat 1 is the most recent entry in the franchise. However, with the Legacy Kollection focusing on the earliest games in the series, fans may be interested in knowing more about the lore of the franchise as a whole.
The Story of Mortal Kombat
The premise of Mortal Kombat is that a tournament takes place between two realms, where one of them is looking to conquer the other. After a realm wins ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments, it will earn the right to merge the loser’s realm into its own. The laws of the tournament are overseen by the Elder Gods, who govern the realms.
Mortal Kombat: Shao Kahn Attempts To Merge Earthrealm With Outworld
The first Mortal Kombat game in 1992 saw Outworld, ruled by Shao Kahn, getting ready to merge with Earthrealm, having won nine consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments. However, with the guidance of the thunder God Raiden, Liu Kang defeats Shao Kahn’s minion Shang Tsung and saves Earthrealm from this fate.
In the sequel, Mortal Kombat II, Shao Kahn challenges Earthrealm’s warriors to another tournament in Outworld. If Earthrealm wins, Outworld leaves them alone. If Outworld wins, they get to merge with Earthrealm. This game ends with Liu Kang defeating Shao Kahn, securing Earthrealm’s future.
Now unable to issue a challenge, Shao Kahn has Shang Tsung revive the Queen of Edenia and his former wife Sindel on the Earthrealm in Mortal Kombat 3. This gave him the excuse he needed to invade the realm. However, he was once again defeated by the warriors of Earthrealm. As an insult to injury, he also lost the realm of Edenia.
New Threats Emerge in the World of Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat 4 saw Liu Kang and the Earthrealm warriors defeat the fallen Elder God Shinnok. However, Shinnok’s priest Quan-Chi and Shang Tsung would decide to form a deadly alliance in the game Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. They decide to use the army of the Dragon King Onaga, the first ruler of Outworld (and the Dragon in the game’s logo), to conquer the realms. Before they start, they eliminate potential threats to their plan, i.e., Shao Kahn (later revealed to be alive) and Liu Kang.
Despite the best efforts of Earthrealm’s warriors, the two succeed. However, Onaga himself shows up to challenge them. Raiden makes an attempt to take Onaga out but fails, leaving both him and the two sorcerers seemingly dead. Onaga is the main threat of Mortal Kombat: Deception, but is finally defeated by the protagonist of that game, Shujinko.
All of this leads into the next game, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. Fearing the power of the kombatants could destroy all realms, the Elder Gods constructed a pyramid where a final battle would take place between all of them. The winner of that battle was Shao Kahn, and just before he killed Raiden, the Thunder God sent a message back to the past, leading to the first reboot of the franchise.
Mortal Kombat (2011): The Soft Reboot of the Franchise
Raiden’s message to his past counterpart in Mortal Kombat (2011) was “He must win.” The game hinges on this question, with several events playing out as they did in a manner similar to the previous games. However, Sindel is used by Shao Kahn to kill most of Earthrealm’s warriors. Raiden deduces that “He” meant Shao Kahn. If he attempted to merge the realms without winning in Mortal Kombat, the wrath of the Elder Gods would come down on Kahn. However, he is forced to kill Liu Kang in self-defense. This leaves only him, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade to protect Earthrealm.
Like in Mortal Kombat 4, Shinnok attacks Earthrealm in the sequel Mortal Kombat X. He is defeated by Johnny Cage. After 25 years, Quan-Chi resurrects Shinnok at the cost of his life. But he is defeated again by Cassie Cage, the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade. However, all of the deceased kombatants now plot against Earthrealm under an undead Liu Kang.
This leads into Mortal Kombat 11. Shinnok’s mother, Kronika, works to alter the timeline due to Raiden’s tampering. In doing so, she brings past versions of several heroes and villains, including Liu Kang and Shao Kahn. However, Kronika is defeated by a Liu Kang who has become a Fire God after both versions of him merge with Raiden, leading into the second reboot.
Mortal Kombat 1: A New Beginning
Mortal Kombat 1 sees a new universe created by Liu Kang. Relatively peaceful at first, with the Mortal Kombat tournament being more ceremonial, older villains like Shang Tsung and Quan-Chi have started to emerge. It’s revealed that Liu Kang’s universe is being invaded by one where Shang Tsung defeated Kronika instead. You work alongside Liu Kang to defeat Shang Tsung and restore peace to your universe.
While this is where the story of Mortal Kombat has led us so far, expect more additions to this lore with the arrival of the next game.
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