Thanks for the feedback it was very well put.
I will be the first to admit that I didn't think her story was the best!
Sadly I'm no writer so my talents do not lay in storytelling, I basicly design characters and give them a very basic background.
Ultimatly I tried to find plot device that we hadnt seen too much before and love was one of them, but it obviously just didnt work.
I agree with with you her design wasnt very Edenian, I suppose i was kind of inspired by the Kitana and Mileena web episode in terms of design which of course was a silly move but it just stuck with me. I also didn't really want to design another female character that had tons of skin on show.
Once again thanks for the honest feedback its greatly appreciated and I'm liking your idea of a new Earthrealm villian, I'm toying with the idea of a coven of witchs that desire a merger of the realms.
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Ultimatesavage here is a quick doodle of shoulen..I don't know if I will finish it but I don't want to keep you emptu handed

Congratulations to Kruor for winning KAK #6! umbrascitor, please let me know what prize you wish to select. Afterward, please let me know which remains you'd like to have Ekimaru.

An additional congratulations to Ekimaru and Casilde for reaching the final round and winning their respective brackets.

Congratulations to umbrascitor and Kruor. I read the backgrounds and I've got to say that Kruor is one menacing character. I did not participate this contest even though I had inspiration to an interesting character but whenever the next KAK-7 contest appears - prepare yourselves for the neutral-aligned femme fatale, Yxon!

View all contestants of KAK tournament vol. 6

Looks good for a first go! I like the shading!


Congrats to the winner and the runners up in the competition.

I should stop being such a lazy ass and actually participate in the next one

congratulations to the winner.

NOOO! I wanted Ekimaru to win

Well I gave it my best and it still wasn't enough I can't say I am not disapointed for losing the only opportunity that I will ever have for jax007 's representation of Ekimaru but hey..second place is still good ain't it

My HUGE congratulations go to Kruor's creator and to Casilde's respective creator you guys were awesome adversaries and it was an honor to face off against you too!

And to those who helped Ekimaru get this far I can only say that this is one of those moments when your artwork and concepts get apprecierted for what they are. It was really heart warming hearing all the nice stuff you guys said ,and believe me I shall remember it for years to come .

And last but not least, I thank the MKO team for making this AMAZING contest ,it was TONS of fun . These last days I was on the edge of my seat the whole time

Even the arrogant bastard that he is , Ekimaru bows his burning head to you all!

Sounds like an idea with potential! [Will be good to see a Brit!]
Design-wise, I imagine it will be within your comfort zone, too. I would just recommend treading carefully with regards to how much new mythology you try to add, and how the characters relate to anything existing.

A good tangent can be undermined very quickly if you try to add too many completely new things, but equally so if relationships with existing canon are too intimate. I think one or the other was a significant handicap for a sizable percentage of characters entered, and was why I personally felt there was no real stand-out character in the contest.

It'll be interesting to see what people take away from experience if/when there's another contest! I think there's plenty of potential for a much stronger field, on the whole.

Congrats Kruor and his creator!

He's a great choice in the end, and while I would have preferred something a little more 'outside the box' by MK standards, Kruor is definitely inventive and thought out enough to be satisfying. I feel there was real effort put into him, so even though he wasn't a favorite of mine, I am glad he won. Good yob, good yob.

Congratulations to Kruor and his creator and also congrats to Ekimaru and Casilde for making it to the top 3.

I was hoping that the final 3 competitors would be a diverse group, a blood monster, fire swordsman, and a woman possessed by a vampiric demon, the final three were as diverse as they were worthy contestants.


Every person in this contest is a winner and I'll be looking forward to seeing the top 3's creations in the future as well as the other 97 contestants, there are some brilliant minds on this forum with a great deal of artistic and story telling talent, innovative ideas were abound.


Thanks must be given out to the staff of MKO as well, Crow, MIck-Lucifer, Ghost-Dragon, Tony the Tiger, and the rest of the staff who helped make this contest possible and read through all these entries, thanks so much, you guys are wonderful.

Oh and three cheers for everyone who voted consistently in the tournament, especially if your character was eliminated, without many people pushing forward regardless of their position in the tourney, the voting would not have been as exciting nor would it have been as huge of a success.


In short, everyone here is awesome, staff and users alike cheers and I'm looking forward to a possible tourney in the future

Congrats to umbrascitor and the other finalists for a good battle! Winning character artwork really soon!

Great job to all who made it to the top three

ok after DAYS trying to get rid of a virus off my computer im finally back (lol like anyone noticed )

Anyways congrats to Kruor! im glad i lost to the grand champ of the tournament.

If the next tourney is indeed in dec i have to come up with something as good as Serenity (if possible)

hey Crow can you create a new character that makes a reference to a past KAK that you created?

Sure, if you wish. I try not to stifle creativity of any sort.

Congratulations, Kruor!

Yeah! Yeah! YYYYYEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH! Go, umbrascitor! Congrats on your victory! I look forward to honoring our deal if you won, which you did! YOU WON!

After numerous dealys, here they are

Marek

Shiku

Nowhere near the work by other users here, but still somewhat decent, I'll say...
..

Congratulation's to Kruor and his creator for winning!

That is so awesome and badass.

Marek struck me as an interesting entry purely because it was one of the least developed characters in the contest. On the one hand, it would've been nice if there was a bit more meat to [Marek], but the contest suffered generally from a lot of overwritten and over ambitious characters, so it was actually quite refreshing to have a character with a lot of open-ended potential.

In keeping with that strength, I think having artwork to go along with the entry might have actually worked against the character. While I think you've done a nice job daryui, it veers a little bit too much into stock territory for my tastes, failing to connect with the fundamental idea that makes this a good character -- he's a shadow priest.

Obviously it would be a bit disappointing -- particularly in a creative contest -- to literally bring one of the robed characters out of the MKII arenas and into the foreground, but I think it would be much more complimentary to keep to the basic model, whilst adding those individual traits.I suppose the design you've drawn would work as an alternate look, but I almost think it would be nice to use that to do something much more contrasted, perhaps without a robe at all.
It might've been interesting to use a tattoo motif a bit like the one that appeared in Mortal Kombat: Conquest, on one of the shadow priests who was helping expose a traitor in later episodes, with a similar conceit to Sub-Zero's very removed look in MK3 (after he'd left the Lin Kuei).



To pull a reference, I thought Marek would've done well to borrow from the Xavier Pendragon model (from Eternal Champions). Something that looks very much like a shadow priest, but reflects the fact that the character has left the fold by exposing more of his body. I think of a typical shadow priest as quite covered and enshrouded in mystery, putting a literal design to a figurative trait. Perhaps you could drop the hood, as well, to again show that Marek is a shadow priest who has exposed himself as an individual.

Again, there's a little bit of a dubious nature to Marek, in that it's so basic it can really play however someone wants to imagine it. On the other hand, the details that are there are quite tasetful and reserved, very plausible for any character that might've been introduced in earlier periods. It's a great, understandably popular concept -- a playable shadow priest -- and I think you were lucky not to have any competition for the concept. Either way, I think there's something positive to take away from this character.

On the general matter of overwriting, I think it lends a valuable degree of plausibility to really distinguish the differences between story and bios. I think it's good to include some backstory in a bio, but the classics generally kept it simple, and very much on note with the basic concept of the character. The fighting game tradition is to have a very vivid theme and reference point for a character, using that as the point of interest that creates and elaborates on story through the interaction of vivid ideas. When you've done the hard yards in that respect, that's when you start to earn the license to slide in to more broad tangents and wider areas of story.

Oh... oh wow. This is both gut-twistingly exciting and extraordinarily humbling.

I was one of the first to jump when this contest was announced. Kruor came to mind fairly quickly, and when I entered him I was pretty sure I'd made something semi-finals worthy, but then I saw characters like Khibok, Merrick, Neuros, Adsler, Shoulen, Serenity, and others... and, well, I still thought I had a chance but I certainly wasn't counting on winning the whole damned thing! Especially when Skarlet showed up and took my theme....

Congratulations to Ekimaru for coming up with a great character and putting up such an intense fight in the final round. The effort you've put into him over such a long time really shows through. And to DandyBoy: your idea of a realm-merger hybrid was very clever, and the look of your character is devilishly stylish. Congratulations for earning your place in the finals!

Thank you kontestants, judges, and voters for making this a fantastic month to be an MK fan. Thanks also to the Kruor supporters amongst you, to my friends in the Realrealm for their encouragement, and to Veldaxx for helping me out with HeroMachine.

And Crow, I believe I'll accept the first prize in its current form: MK Kollector's Ed., signed MKA, signed MKDC poster, JAX artwork. It's an awesome prize package, much more than I expected at the outset. MKO definitely has it going on.

~~~~~~~~~~

Kruor tore through the kombatants, driven by the rage of untold legions of fallen warriors. He ended the lives of murderers and tyrants, mercenaries and warlords, fiends and gods, until no one was left alive to kill again. The Stygian warrior's thirst for vengeance has been quenched, but he knows that it is only a matter of time before the cycle of violence begins anew.

Until then, Kruor continues his crusade to end suffering in the realms through his partnership with the Red Cross. Unfortunately, as the world was horrified to discover, transfusions from Kruor's cursed blood turns ordinary mortals into raving, bloodthirsty half-demons. It seems that the next major threat to the realms has come sooner than expected.

Have a nice day.

Thanks for the review, Mick. I really appreciate it.
And here I thought I didn't develop him enough. XD
I'll be certain to take these comments to heart if I bring him back in future tourneys.

I think it's fair to say that had there been another shadow priest character, you might've had your work cut out for you, but I think you really hit on the right amount in the right contest. In the event that the next contest isn't overrun with returning characters, you might like to try taking the point of biographys versus story and do as the series has done, exploring how a second chapter can develop Marek. It presents some obstacles, progressing a story that doesn't actually exist in the canon, but if you can do it just right it might be an interesting hook for the character. A way to earn a credible story gradually in the minds of readers.

Not sure if I'm very likely to be a judge next time, but I'll probably try to check it out and see how things are developing!

Once again, thanks alot. I'll try my best.

Thanks, whoever gave me those DPs!

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I may not bring Krimson back agian for the next tourney, just decided. But if I did, what would you all recommend changing? Also, list what you thought were her pros/cons, if you don't mind.

I know her moveset needs a lot of work since I threw it together because I couldn't think of anything at the time.

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