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The Mortal Kombat timeline has changed many times in the past two decades of game releases. As such, the fate of the realms in the Mortal Kombat universe has not been consistent over time. The heroes and villains of this narrative have tampered with time often, changing the universe’s history, which has led to a complete reboot of Mortal Kombat 1 in 2023. But how many times has Mortal Kombat‘s story been altered, and how did the events of different eras result in the Mortal Kombat 1 reboot? Let’s find out!
What is a Mortal Kombat Tournament?
The Mortal Kombat game series started with the original Mortal Kombat in 1992. This arcade game introduced a very unique narrative alongside the gameplay, which was, of course, about a tournament called Mortal Kombat. This tournament is held by rulers of each realm every 50 years, where the best fighters compete in elimination matches. Each realm brings forth its best fighters, and the outcome of each match affects the fate of the realms. If the champion and fighters of a realm win the tournament ten times in a row, they can invade the losing realm.
In other words, Mortal Kombat is the sanctioned way of conquering other realms. The champion of each tournament becomes immune to aging until the next tournament, which means the ruler or protector of that particular realm can bring them to another fight for the next generation.
The First Mortal Kombat Timeline: MK Trilogy and Midway Timeline
The Mortal Kombat game series timeline starts with the final tournament of Earthrealm vs. Outworld. The Outworld’s champion Goro has won the last 9 tournaments of Mortal Kombat against the Earth. So, this is the last chance for Earthrealmers to protect their homeland. The Thunder God Raiden is the protector of Earthrealm, and he must stop the Outworld’s conquest as millions of human lives are in danger.
Raiden seeks out the best warriors of the Earthrealm and informs them of the upcoming event. This is where the Mortal Kombat game’s timeline takes shape with its main roster. The Earthrealm heroes in this Mortal Kombat tournament are Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, and Sub-Zero, who have come to assassinate Shang Tsung.
Shang Tsung is the sorcerer of Shao Kahn’s Outworld realm, and he is the one that manages the Mortal Kombat tournaments. But during the 9th tournament, Liu Kang defeats the Outworld champion and becomes the new champion of Mortal Kombat. This makes Shao Kahn angry, and Shang Tsung begs him for a second chance wherein he manages to get the Earthrealm protector to have a second Mortal Kombat tournament in Outworld.
The Rise of The Chosen One
After the defeat of Goro, Shang Tsung proposes a second tournament held in the Outworld to replace the 50-year tradition. This time, if Earthrealm’s champions win the tournament, Outworld cannot claim a merge with Earthrealm ever again. But this tournament is never affirmed by the Elder Gods, and the outcome is that Liu Kang defeats the Outworld once more. However, regardless of Liu Kang’s victory, Shao Kahn’s patience grows thin concerning the Sorcerer’s plans. Kahn invades Earthrealm, thus invoking the happenings of Mortal Kombat 3‘s narrative in the timeline.
To break the barriers of Mortal Kombat rules, Kahn tries to revive his Queen Sindel on Earthrealm itself. This will open portals for the Outworld’s protector and emperor to invade Earth, thus making it possible to attack Earthrealm without the Elder Gods’ interference. After this happens, the champions of Earthrealm are once again reunited to stop Shao Kahn, and Liu Kang proves that he’s the chosen one by defeating the Outworld invaders.
The Elder God’s Revenge and The Midway Mortal Kombat Timeline
After the events of MK3, a fallen Elder God named Shinnok manages to break free with the help of a sorcerer named Quan Chi. The sorcerer and Shinnok have the goal of merging all the realms to rule them all. They start with Edenia, which is the homeland of Princess Kitana and her revived mother Sindel. The fallen Elder God Shinnok invades and destroys Edenia, and then tries to finish off Raiden, who had captured and imprisoned him many years ago.
But in a simple Mortal Kombat timeline fashion, Liu Kang defeats the antagonist and helps Raiden become an Elder God. Shinnok’s invasion of realms is over, and Edenia is saved by the Earthrealm’s champion. These events happen in Mortal Kombat 4‘s story, which was developed by Midway Games.
The Deadly Alliance and The Dragon King
The 6th gen era of consoles received many Mortal Kombat games, starting with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance in 2002. This game featured a unique story of revenge and the alliance of the two famous sorcerers: Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. Together the sorcerers try to revive the Dragon King Onaga’s army. Onaga was the previous emperor of Outworld before Shao Kahn poisoned him.
Now with power at hand, Shang Tsung and Quan Chi give the Mortal Kombat timeline a different direction by killing Liu Kang and Shao Kahn. Raiden becomes aware of this happening and turns into the Thunder God again to protect the realms. But he’s defeated by the duo of sorcerers, and Onaga strikes to claim his army. This all happens while Onaga deceives an Earthrealm warrior Shujinko as Damashi to retrieve the six Komidugus for him.
A Komidugu is the essence of a realm, which is created by the Elder Gods. With all six of these tools at hand, the wielder can travel through and merge all six realms to rule them. As mentioned, this was Onaga’s plan, which was stopped by Shujinko himself. After defeating Onaga, the Elder Gods send Blaze to finish the Mortal Kombat combatants once and for all.
The Second Mortal Kombat Timeline: Raiden Sends A Massage Through Time
During the events of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, all the Mortal Kombat combatants are fighting to gain power. This all-out war is destroying everything, so Blaze comes to kill as many of them as he can. But in the end, Shao Kahn returns from death and defeats Blaze. Kahn and Raiden are the only remaining warriors of the Armageddon event.
Shao Kahn tries to kill Raiden in his final act. But Raiden alters the timeline and sends a message to his past self. This is the first time that the Mortal Kombat timeline is altered, and Mortal Kombat 9 shows this happening. Raiden and all the MK warriors are seen back in the time of the original Mortal Kombat when Earthrealm is taking part in the last Mortal Kombat tournament. However, this past version of Raiden sees some visions from the future and receives the message from his future self: “He Must Win!”
Mortal Kombat Trilogy’s Story With Altered Timeline
With an incomplete knowledge of the past, Raiden can’t help but make strange decisions. The outcome of these decisions ends up with the death of many Earthrealm warriors, and finally, Liu Kang tries to stop Raiden from seeking visions. But the quick battle between Raiden and Liu Kang results in the death of Earthrealm’s champion. After that, Shao Kahn arrives on Earth to invade the realm, but the Elder Gods prevent this from happening by overpowering Raiden.
The Thunder God fights the Outworld’s emperor, and Shao Kahn gets defeated and destroyed. This is while Quan Chi and Shinnok were observing all of this mess and decide to destroy everyone and everything in classic Mortal Kombat timeline story fashion.
The Next Generation of Mortal Kombat Fighters Arrive
In order to get more powers, Shinnok has to fuse himself with the Earthrealm’s Jinsei. Quan Chi resurrects many of the fallen warriors of the previous war on Earth and creates an undead army using the fallen soldiers’ soles. After that, Shinnok reaches the Earthrealm’s Jinsei. But Raiden, Sonya Blade, and Johnny Cage stop him by retrieving Shinnok’s amulet. They imprison the fallen Elder God, but it’s definitely not enough to keep Shinnok’s revenants from helping him.
After decades, Shinnok’s amulet is found in the Outworld in the position of Kotal Kahn, the new emperor of the realm. Dvorah, a double agent of Quan Chi, gives the amulet to the sorcerer, and he frees Shinnok once more. This happens before Scorpion kills the sorcerer in an act of revenge.
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Now in this never seen future, the children of some of the Mortal Kombat timeline’s main characters are together as a team. Cassie Cage, Jaquie Briggs, Takeda Takahashi, and Kung Jin are the new warriors of Earthrealm, who try to stop Shinnok’s evil plan.
In the main Mortal Kombat timeline, it’s Liu Kang that stops the fallen Elder God. But in this alternate version, Cassie Cage does it with the ancient magic that the Cage family has. However, Shinnok had already corrupted Earthrealm’s life force. That’s why Raiden enters the Jinsei, and cleanses it with his power, becoming corrupted himself.
The Third Mortal Kombat Timeline: Kronika Reshapes the Sands of Time
After Raiden becomes an anti-hero and invades Netherrealm to destroy revenant Liu Kang and Kitana’s army, they’re encountered by a Titaness named Kronika. She’s the mother of Shinnok and wants to reset time to start a new era. Kronika has seen everything in all these years and knows how to stop Raiden from messing with time once more.
Kronika blows a wind of time into the Mortal Kombat timeline, which soft reboots everything. The past versions of many characters like Liu Kang and Kitana are now back in action and the timeline gets cracked when old and young versions of characters meet each other. This happens while Kronika acquires many of them, such as the revenants Kano and Sector, to be by her side in reshaping the timeline. But there’s one thing that prevents Kronika from completing her goal, and that’s the combined power of Liu Kang and Raiden.
Kronika eliminates the past version of Liu Kang from existence, thus making Raiden fight alone. The Elder Gods are also defeated by Kronika’s daughter, Cetrion, and she plans her final act of destroying everything to create a dark new era. Meanwhile, Kronika had forgotten about one thing, and that’s the revenant Liu Kang.
The Birth of Fire God Liu Kang
The revenant version of Liu Kang that serves the Titaness Kronika absorbs his past version’s soul. Then he tries to fight Raiden with his new power, but instead of a deadly battle between the two, Raiden decides to give all of his power to Liu Kang. The two characters infuse, and Liu Kang becomes a very powerful god, even immune to Kronika’s time-shifting plans.
The Earthrealm and their allies’ army attack Kronika, and they break her lines of defense at the end, only for Kronika to reset time once more. She uses the Hourglass to bring time thousands of years back. However, Liu Kang is immune to this power of hers and defeats Kronika in the end.
The Fourth Mortal Kombat Timeline: Liu Kang Wins and the Timeline Resets!
Almighty Fire God Liu Kang succeeds in defeating Kronika. but when he wants to reshape the sands on time, Shang Tsung, Fujin, and Night Wolf come along to tell him that Kronika’s crown is missing. Liu Kang cannot completely reset the timeline without this crown. Thus he sends the trio back in time to retrieve it for him.
This alters the Mortal Kombat timeline once more, with Queen Sindel getting resurrected, and Shao Kahn defeating every Earthrealm champion like Cassie Cage and even the past version of Liu Kang. But Shang Tsung reveals that he’s not there to help and claims Kronika’s crown for himself. He defeats everyone and absorbs Kronika’s power. But at the end, the Fire God Liu Kang confronts him, saying that he knew all of Shang Tsung’s plans from the beginning.
Mortal Kombat 1 Timeline
The Fire God fights Shang Tsung, thus retrieving Kronika’s crown. After that, it’s time for a complete reshaping of time. Liu Kang has knowledge of the past, and this helps him to shape a new timeline. However, things are different this time. Liu Kang has altered many of the classic events of the original MK timeline, like making Hanzo Hasashi and Bi Han brothers instead of rivals.
In this new era, Mortal Kombat tournaments are still being held by the realms with certain rules. Characters like Shang Tsung and Quan Chi are still around. But this time, the Fire God is the protector of Earthrealm. It remains to be seen what will happen in this new era with the impending release of Mortal Kombat 1.
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Mortal Kombat 1 releases on September 21, 2023, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
