Shao Kahn
Shao Kahn is a video game villain who features in Mortal Kombat.
Contents |
Biography
Original Timeline
Shao Kahn was a denizen of the realm of Outworld who long ago once served as the personal advisor to its emperor namely the Dragon King Onaga. During Onaga's reign, his empire grew to be the most powerful in all the realms and he sought to make his rule eternal by seeking the means of attaining immortality. Before he could achieve his goal, Onaga was poisoned by his advisor thus leading to the demise of the Dragon King whilst Shao Kahn became the new ruler of Outworld. Under Emperor Shao Kahn, Outworld continued its policy of conquest of other realms that were merged with his own and thus expanded his powerbase. Such conquests made use of a series of combats that were put in place by the Elder Gods with these being the Mortal Kombat Tournaments. Many years ago, the realm of Edenia became subject to the attention of Outworld with Shao Kahn conquering it after one of his warriors won the Mortal Kombat Tournament. This allowed Kahn to invade the realm and conquer it where he killed the Edenian King Jerrod. In the aftermath, Edenia was merged with Outworld whereupon Kahn took the Edenian Queen Sindel as his wife with her and Jerrod's daughter Princess Kitana as his own child. Kitana grew unaware of her heritage and only knew Shao Kahn as her father where she was trained to be his personal guard as well as assassin. In time, Sindel could not live with Shao Kahn any further and decided to take her own life rather than continue in servitude to the Emperor of Outworld. However, Kahn was not willing to be denied his prize and held Sindel's soul in Outworld rather than allow it to pass on to the afterlife. Centuries ago, Shao Kahn turned his attention to Earthrealm and desired to conquer it with him dispatching his warriors to complete the Mortal Kombat Tournament so that he could possess that realm. Chief among his servants in this endeavor was the sorcerer Shang Tsung who spearheaded the attempt to win the Tournament.
Tsung came to face an obstacle in his plans to win the tournament after his defeat at the hands of the Earthrealm warrior known as the Great Kung Lao. In response, Shao Kahn dispatched the Shokan Prince Goro to deal with this foe. A turning point came when Prince Goro defeated the Great Kung Lao in Mortal Kombat and initiated a winning streak that would last for 500 years. Shang Tsung, a shape shifter, supervised the tournament. The tenth Mortal Kombat tournament, however, saw the defeat of both Goro and Shang Tsung by a Shaolin Monk, Liu Kang, thereby ruining five hundred years of Kahn's investment. Shang Tsung begged Shao Kahn to spare his life, and came up with a plan to lure Earth's chosen warriors to Outworld for a new tournament. Kahn agreed to this plan, spared Shang's life, and restored his youth. If Earthrealm's champions could be killed, they would no longer be able to interfere with Kahn's plans. After kidnapping Kano and Sonya Blade in the Living Forest, ambushing Johnny Cage on the set of his new movie, and enraging Liu Kang by sending Baraka and his Tarkatan hordes to destroy the Shaolin temples, they waited for the Earthrealm warriors to arrive in Outworld. Despite Kahn's vast power, Liu Kang's determination saw him through, and he defeated the despot. Unwilling to accept defeat, Kahn called his armies to destroy the Earthrealm warriors. They fled back to Earthrealm and out of Kahn's clutches.
By this time, Shang Tsung had been able to resurrect Queen Sindel in Earthrealm, and Kahn would be able to cross the border and claim his beloved wife, allowing him to conquer Earthrealm. Nearly every living being in Earthrealm had their souls stripped from their bodies by Kahn, claiming them as his own. He then had his extermination squads hunt down and kill the remaining survivors. However, Lord Raiden had protected the souls of a handful of warriors. It would be their task to stop Shao Kahn, and liberate Earthrealm from its new Outworld rulers. In the ensuing fights, Kahn was confronted by Kung Lao, another Shaolin monk and descendant of the warrior Goro defeated to become champion of Mortal Kombat, but Kahn had blasted him away, seemingly killing him. Enraged, Liu Kang attacked Shao Kahn and defeated him once more. Worn down from the battle, Kahn recalled his squads and retreated back to Outworld. This stopped the merge with Outworld, and restored Earthrealm to its original status. To make matters worse for Kahn, many of his loyal soldiers had abandoned him, and Kitana had succeeded in turning Sindel to her side, restoring Edenia as an independent realm.
Reboot Timeline
During the Armageddon, Shao Kahn ultimately won where all of creation faced destruction but during the last moments of Raiden he managed to his past experiences back to his younger self. This created a change in the timeline as the younger Raiden was guided by the scattered visions of the future where he sought to avert this dark future.
In the aftermath of his death, the throne of Outworld came to pass to his 'daughter' Mileena. However, the Osh-Tekk general Kotal arose where he rallied warriors to his rule thus dividing the realm in civil war. Ultimately, Mileena was forced from her throne and Kotal took the position of Kahn of Outworld with her leading a resistance group to topple his rule. Ultimately, Mileena's rebellion was ended when she was captured and slain by D'Vorah. Years later, time itself was being rewritten causing changes in the timeline that brought people from the past into the present. Among them included Shao Kahn along with several of his formerly slain warriors. They arrived at the Kolosseum where he was shocked to find Kotal on the throne leading to a confrontation between the new Kahn and his resurrected allies. In a battle with Kotal, Shao Kahn was defeated but managed to escape when a portal was opened with D'Vorah ushering him along with his allies to leave the battlefield. Joined by the Kollector, they arrived at the Lost Hive of the Kytinn where the Naknadan briefed him on events following his demise. They were joined by the fabled Keeper of Time namely Kronika herself who revealed that they were all under his protection. She asked for Shao Kahn's aid in helping protect her as she intended to rewrite history to create a New Era universe that would bring balance to the realms. She assured Kahn that this era would see him rule and Raiden removed from history with the Outworld Emperor agreeing to lend his forces to aid her. He then made efforts to reclaim the throne of Outworld from Kotal Kahn and gain full control over his forces.
Overview
Personality and attributes
Kahn was said to not trust anyone except those of his own creation. As a result, he had experiments made to create warriors to serve him such as Ermac and Skarlet. He cared little for the fate of his minions and was perfectly willing to sacrifice them to achieve his goals. Such was the case when he consumed Shang Tsung's soul in order to empower Sindel so that she could bring about the merger of Earthrealm with Outworld.
With regards to Kitana, he was shown to hold no affection for his adopted daughter and stated that he only kept her alive because her mother Sindel convinced him of her worth. It was this dismissal of Kitana that led him to authorize Shang Tsung in crafting him a child that he could call daughter. Through his Flesh Pits, Shang Tsung was able to use Kitana's DNA and merged it with a Tarkatan to create his 'daughter' Mileena.
It was said that Shao Kahn's position in Outworld was similar to that of Raiden in Earthrealm.
Powers and abilities
The magic he wielded often manifested as a green energy that he could use for a variety of effects. These including generating constructs from this power or form a protective energy field that reflected attacks back at his enemies. In some cases, he could fire beams of energy from his eyes or hands that he struck at a target. Kahn could also use it to enhance his physical strikes such as his attack speed or aid him in propelling him by jumping over great distances.
One of his signature weapons was the mighty warhammer know as the Wrath Hammer.
Among his followers were a cadre of sorcerers known as the Shadow Priests.
Notes
- Shao Kahn was created by Ed Boon and John Tobias where he made his first appearance in Mortal Kombat II (1993).
In other media
Television
Film
Video games
- In Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Shao Kahn appeared as a playable character and featured in the story mode of the fighting video game where he was voiced by actor Patrick Seitz.
Appearances
- Mortal Kombat II: (1993)
- Mortal Kombat:
- Mortal Kombat 11: (2019)
External Link
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