You missed the part where I never said one of those two words...



That's better.
Although, for the sake of argument: 1) Kai's canonically an African-American from Detroit, Michigan, and he's a White Lotus who wants to join the Shaolin. Granted, I don't know if the IRL Shaolin have any "no foreigners" or "no black guys" rules to go with their apparent "no females" rule, but...
2) the Shaolin went extinct in MK2 and Liu Kang and Kung Lao, as the only two left and the guys who rebuilt it, can make up whatever new rules they like.

Instead of making her Shaolin, then how about making her a Triad member? That'd be cool.... no?

The Triads and Yakuza are just a mundane-world version of the Black and Red Dragons. They're also, I'm fairly certain, WAY more strict about the nationality and gender of their members than a fictional international organization like the White Lotus Society.

Also that would make her a villain. The whole point of the character is to give Kung Lao and Johnny Cage something to do by making them trainers.

I might have a character select screen for the first story (if this was confirmed as a game) hand-drawn uploaded tomorrow. It's not supposed to be serious artwork it's just a fun hypothetical sketch. I'll probably have my own description for each character along with it.
UPDATE: The link is right here: Character Select

Scorpion: Gave him his Deception costume, but gave him the MKX mask half-broken, revealing left molars that would normally be seen when he unmasks himself

Sub-Zero: Deception costume. I can't think of anything Grandmaster-y better to put or coming of age facial features

Kung Lao: Not much changes except a short beard and some specks of sideburns to emphasize his coming of age

Kenshi: Not much changed except he has a few face scratches from the Armageddon battle

Cyrax: MK9 costume

Ermac: The face wrappings are taken from Deception, but when I saw that hooded Ermac concept art that was released two months ago (which did NOT confirm Ermac in MKX) I thought it would be cool for my hypothetical Ermac to get one. This can put emphasis on the Lone Ranger archetype protecting the denizens of Outworld being mysterious and what not

Smoke: Ever since his break from Noob's control, I wanted to emphasis Smoke's humanity present and lost at the same time. Smoke's former Deception mask is broken and rests on top of his head. On the right side shows just remnants of Smoke's former human facial flesh before the mechanization while the left side reveals the result of it, showing a nasal opening and solid skeleton of the mouth. Possibly some mechanics stuck in the gums

Jade: I gave her a headband depicting the Edenian Kamidogu and a neck collar. If Jade was viewed in body view, she would have a light armored breastplate plus some shoulder and shinguards to present her as a newly appointed General to Edenia's army and Kitana's right-wing lady. Plus she would have magical amulets all decorated around her to aid in battle. Now that Tanya is the new sorcereress with both Shinnok's and Quan Chi's power, Jade needed to up her game so she has to fight magic with magic

Tanya: After surviving Armageddon, Tanya can retreat to the Outworld mountains and adopt some sort of hermit hood while she attempts to channel the amulet's power. I like this appearance. It builds around her survivalist and manipulative personality by working to gain control of Outworld through Reiko while at the same time retain a low prolife

Reiko: His Armageddon costume with a slightly taller haircut. I didn't want to give him Shao Kahn's helmet because the whole point of his story is that he's NOT another Shao Kahn or Onaga and he doesn't want to go back to an age of insane despots. Outworld needed a competent ruler and Reiko will see fit that he's the one for the job while maintaining an iron fist

Kira: Gave her Deeption costume with a Black Dragon tattoo carved below her neck on the left side. I couldn't give her anything that could distinguish her as Black Dragon leader that could resemble Kano or Kabal so I left it at that

Mileena; Deception costume no questions needed

Skarlet: Now before I get pounded for this, let me state this very clearly: Skarlet does NOT have Mileena's mouth. That's actually her mask depicting a tiger's maw open that I based off another version of her: Skarlet Since this Skarlet nowadays seems like a former Netherrealm rogue, I thought this costume would depict her clearly in that light

Drahmin: I couldn't find anything to make him look like a Ruler of theN etherrealm so I left him as that

Hsu Hao: Based off actual oni masks and his DA face, I made him a more scary and imposing character than Moloch though I may have put too many horns in his mouth

Sareena: She now has a half-and-half appearance. She still retains her Netherrealm taint (black hair, black eye tattoo, black lips) on her right side while her left side is free of her black coloration. This is a result of her, obtaining Datusha, Ashrah's "holy" sword after the later was killed in Armageddon. Will this sword free her from the Netherrealm or consume her like Ashrah is another question.

Taven: Now Protector God of Edenia, he now has monochromatic eyes like Raiden's and Fujin's though he's less wiser than the two. He knows sports a headband and has grown a full beard and long hair in the back. He hasn't been confident in his new job over what happened to his family in Armageddon so he briefly isolates himself, avoiding his duties as Protector God out of guilt thus the rugged appearance. Taven also has the Edenian Kamidogu symbol engraved on his clothes. With his full body armor, Taven would probably resemble somewhat of a Herculean figure.

Fujin: Kept his Armageddon costume with an Earthrrealm Kamidogu symbol engraved on his robe.

Havik: Gave back his Deception costume

The next four are supposed to be unofficial silhouettes of the three bosses in the story in order: Seidan Leader, White Mage, Evil Teacher, Chaos God

Some interesting ideas there, a few of them running pretty well parallel to my own plans. Scorpion and Sub-Zero I definitely intend to have running close to their Deception designs, though Sub will combine elements of his DA one, for instance, he'll never lose the scar and he'll have the Dragon Medallion on his body somewhere. I also kinda like the idea of Jade dressing more like a soldier with a bit of armor to her outfit and such.

Some of the ones I'd do differently...for starters, I think my "older mentor Kung Lao" design would be more based on the outfit with the long ponytail he had in Deadly Alliance. Like...he'd be taking after Bo' Rai Cho a bit in the way he dresses, except skinny and with the hat on.

With Ermac...I don't really favor putting him in a big baggy hood very much because I feel that that gem he wears on his forehead is an important part of the character because it's supposed to symbolize the "third eye", and acts a focus item that makes his psychic powers stronger. So I don't like to cover his forehead too much and make it so you can't see the gem, or have him not wearing it.

Smoke...I wouldn't draw with skin, because he has none left Post-Deception. He's a demon made of nanobots now. So...he's more like a ghost (who can make parts of himself solid enough to punch people and touch things), and he sorta feels like one too because he didn't have his free will and hasn't been out in the world for like over ten years so he's kinda emotionally distant and disconnected from life, and he's not sure if he's alive or dead or if he belongs in Hell or on Earth, because his story is going to revolve around learning that he was an Enenra all along, that he wasn't really human even before he was automated and, sorta similar to Sareena, wondering if that means he has an evil side or if he can truly decide his own destiny.

Skarlet's story is going to go down kind of a weird path after MKA. I don't want to spoil too much about it, but the baseline is about developing her character from the mindless golem MK9 introduced her as into an actual person with a personality, so my starting point will be to say after she's freed of Quan Chi's mind control, she's actually got amnesia and sets out to discover who she is and why Kahn made her in the first place. So I'm not entirely sure yet what that means her wardrobe should be...but it's not gonna be the expected red ninja girl look at first, because she doesn't remember being a ninja.

Sareena...if she were to get the Kriss, it wouldn't happen until game 2. My plan for her first design is basically the same sort of skimpy black w/ red or pink trim goth-leathers she always dresses in...except with all the Brotherhood symbols replaced with Lin Kuei ones, and the tattoos on her shoulders covered in scars and wrappings around her arms like she's so ashamed of them she's cutting herself and covering them up. A little emo perhaps, but I think completely in-character.

Taven...I dunno, his design looks kinda Greek/Roman in MKA so I'd probably go for something that emphasizes that like make his armor look a bit centurion-esque and keep the Caesar haircut. I'm not entirely sure how yet, but I'd also like to display what he's the God of in his design (I may have to modify the portfolio I intend him to have, depending on what Kotal in MKX actually is, so there's no overlap...but I've up till now intended him to be Sun because his special moves in MKA revolve around fire, lightspeed, and gravity.)

And Fujin...I've always preferred his MK4 look to MKA. Never liked MK9 Cyrax either, I think his original MK3 helmet looks better and he should be a bulky war machine when he's working for the OIA, not a skinny acrobatic fighter. I see Sektor as the skinny one because the Tekunin are still ninjas. In both respects, I take a lot of influence from this art Jax007 did years ago.

I was kinda hoping you'd take a stab at the new character ideas too, even though we've locked down almost nothing about how they should look. I can't promise I'd use any of it in the final designs, especially since we don't even have ethnicities finalized, but you never know what might stick if we keep throwing stuff at the wall.

Thanks for your thoughts. I thought I'd do the old characters for the select screen first then I would draw the new characters separately in body form instead of just their faces. The villains are going to be very difficult to sketch especially the Chaos God. I don't want him to be another Shinnok but I want him to be a badass at the same time. To be fair I thought Shinnok should have survived and continued to be the big baddie that wont die. I mean he's millions years older than Raiden and always has a back-up plan if anything doesn't go to his plan not to mention he used Quan Chi to screw over the lives of MANY kombatants. That's why I liked Shinnok in the new timeline and now see that Quan Chi WAS necessary for trolling the new timeline. I discussed it further in this link here: Discussion

I think I'll try that Hydro granddaughter first and then Lodestone without giving him any brown garb. I don't want to make him resemble a pseudo-Tremor

A few games from now but still worth talking about, MK:Deception. I am sure you'll use the characters like Ashra, Darrius, Kobra, Kira, Dairou, etc. and give them some spice and make 'em nice.



I could imagine a design right now with Darrius' blades out ready to defend himself from an attacking Hotaru. I'm sure if they made those blades a little more int integral in his design he may have been better received. I think it just needs an overhaul, truly. Keep those blades, though..

Honestly, I never liked Darrius's weapons. I don't really see how they fit him, to be honest. He seems more like the kind of guy who wouldn't use a weapon if it weren't for the fact that he was in a game where EVERYBODY had to have one.

Plus, Baraka already has arm blades.
Although to be fair, I have no clue what Darrius's moves SHOULD be since he had no actual theme to his specials, they were just random leftovers. Maybe, since I'm making him a Red Dragon, he should have an electric baton like the RD henchmen in Shaolin Monks and Armageddon Konquest do? I feel like some kind of paramilitary gear like that would go well with his outfit and role as a guy who incites riots.

Has anyone thought of making a geographic map of each realm like the one in Game of Thrones? Not the crummy Deception conquest mode maps. Those just give glimpses of realms as a whole

There's a map of Outworld in the back of the Shaolin Monks instruction manual. Unfortunately, parts are hard to make out because it's just used as a background and there's instruction booklet text printed over top of it.

I'm also not entirely certain how accurate is to canon. For example, the Living Forest is said to be on the border of Shokan territory in the MK2 comic but on the map, it's on a different continent entirely from where the Shokan lands are, next to Centaur and Edenian territory. Also, the map unfortunately lists the locations of very few actual stages. It has several MKDA/Deception ones like the Drum Arena, Golden Desert, Lung Hai Temple, and Quan Chi's fortress (this one's especially weird since in the actual stage, Quan's fortress appears to be floating in a Nexus-like pocket dimension all by itself), but it doesn't show where the actual classics like the Tower or Pit II or Wasteland or Kombat Tomb are at.

The Netherealm would be a little difficult to map since it's made of 9 sub-realms and each one is infinite in size.

Similar deal with Chaosrealm being a bunch of floating chunks of land constantly spinning in different orbits around a giant energy-tornado.

Well now that Kotal Kahn was confirmed Emperor of Outworld in the MKX storyline, I assume it's going to decrease Reiko's chances of gaining the Outworld throne.

Also, if Cassie Cage were to be canon, wouldn't the parents be in their 50's in order for her to be as she is in MKX? I can't comprehend how Johnny and Sonya (if it WERE true) could get together and have a kid after the traumatic events of Deception and Armageddon. I assume Johnny just "offends" Sonya somehow for not changing his personality even though he get KILLED by Motaro in MK3 and they kind of work together after his MK4 resurrection, but not in a "friends with benefits" fashion. I'm pretty sure both Johnny and Sonya DO like each other (each to themselves, not with each other), but they wouldn't feel comfortable about showing that sentiment in the open.

Two different timelines.

I can't make a decision on whether or not Kotal Kahn even exists in the Razorverse until X comes out and I know his full origin story.

As far as Cassie goes, in the MK9/MKX universe, Johnny and Sonya hook up right after MK3. In the original timeline and Razorverse, Johnny and Sonya's romance never goes anywhere at LEAST until after Armageddon, which is like ten years later. For the record, Sonya would be only about 36 in DA/Deception/Armageddon and Johnny would be 39. Plenty of time to have a kid...but would that kid come out just like Cassie? I mean if you have sex on two different days, it's not the same sperm and the same egg and even if it were, the DNA isn't guaranteed to combine in the same pattern and make the same baby.
Also, I'm only setting my games like 5 years after Armageddon, so if she does exist, Cassie would be in pre-school.

Will the tournament in the first story take place in Chaosrealm?

No, it's meant to pick the new ruler of Outworld, so it'll be in Outworld.

That doesn't mean that all the kombatants in the story will be fighting for the title though, right?

Nah I think Sub-Zero just wants to settle the Lin Kuei in Outworld, the Cryomancer's original place in peace while Ermac wants to protect Outworld from potential despots so they would be no more "Shao Kahns" oppressing the population.

Meanwhile Scorpion is trying to prevent any potential demon breaching from the Netherrealm post-Armageddon as Champion of the Elder Gods

Yeah, there will be some people in the tournament who are trying to help an ally win rather than winning themselves. And there will be some characters who aren't in the tournament at all.

How do the Tarkartans and the Shokan fit in the post-Armageddon universe? Did Reiko just deport them out of Outworld because they supported Shao Kahn or did he just leave them in peace? Plus both parties are leaderless. For the Shokan Goro, Kintaro, and Sheeva are dead so there's a power vacuum. For the Tarkartans especially chaos ensues when their most strongest leader Baraka is killed in Armageddon by slaughtering each other over the position. They wouldn't pick Mileena obviously because they know she betrayed Baraka back in Deception through stories and they obviously make slanderous stories about Mileena being dubbed "The Whore That Killed Baraka" like what happened with Cleopatra's reputation. Even if they she didn't kill Baraka, the Tarkartans could attribute Baraka's downfall to this "foreign" and seductive imposter and serve it as an example for Tarkartans not to trust Edenian women.

Maybe this is where these "leaders" could be the additional new characters, but first we have to deal with the characters that need developing as you stated. I can't promise my "drawing" of Cascade will be done by this week, but it will probably come out later this year.

Between losing a whole camp to Sub-Zero and a war to the Edenian Army in Deception, The Tarkatans are something of a dying breed, and Mileena's the closest thing they have to one of their own in power. Her attempting to betray Baraka probably isn't common knowledge (remember, Baraka was literally the only person who knew she was disguised as Kitana, that's why she tried to kill him in the first place, so the Tarkatan army doesn't actually know she was on the other side in that battle, they think they were defeated by Kitana and Bo' Rai Cho), or might just be seen as a lover's spat. I imagine violence is common in Tarkatan relationships, and their "politics" likely consists entirely of murderous coups anyway, so they're probably used to seeing that sort of thing...

As for the Shokan, technically, Goro's dad King Gorbak never went anywhere, so there's not really much of a vacuum...but there'll probably be a new Shokan character in game 2 anyway.

Primarily the reason Tanya betrayed Edenia was jealousy of Kitana and her position as royal princess not to mention taking Kitana's past as a brainwashed killer very personally. But as the story progresses, is she trying to justify her actions by saying she's saving Edenia from "Outworld puppets" ? Does her jealousy for Kitana diminish and gets replaced by desire for ultimate power like her mentor Quan Chi? Is there actually any remorse, regrets or humanly feelings that Tanya might briefly have for the "monster" that she's become in post-Armageddon like leaving her father to die or her so-called innocence being slowly taken over by darkness?

Well her Deception bio makes it pretty clear she's coming from a place of "they kicked me out of Edenia and I'm just trying to survive". I think her desire to acquire power comes from a place of having power is the only way to be safe when you live in Outworld or the Netherealm. There's probably a bitterness/desire for revenge as well when she thinks about Edenia and the royal family.

Because they aren't and cannot function as such.

Well I didn't like 'em 'cause they copy Baraka and don't match what little coherent aesthetic the rest of his character design has...but you're welcome to have your own reasons.

How far has Cyrax developed in terms as a character from MK4 up to this point? He's been freed from control, helped Nitara restore her realm (and got "chucked" back to Earthrealm ok at least she did send him to Sektor's headquarters and Cyrax was able to recon the info back to the Outworld agency so that's a plus), and did some stuff that's not mentioned in MKD and MKA. Is there a desire for Cyrax to be reverted fully human? What makes him a unique and likable "good Lin Kuei" character apart from Smoke and Sub-Zero? What drives him to continue fighting for Earthrealm and living as a whole? Will he finally get his robo-showdown with Ketchup in MK Redemption (the second story)?

Lemme say this and I apologize because it might come off a little aggressive or angry, but it's not personal, I'm just kind of venting some pent-up frustrations I have about the concept of the Cyber-Initiative and how I've seen other fans around MKO talk about the cyberninjas from time to time over the years:

Cyrax I'm sure would LIKE to be fully human again, he probably has a residual longing for it and regret about his half-mechanical body the same way I'm sure Kano regrets going bald every time he looks in the mirror but can't do a damn thing to stop it...but here's the important thing about the automation process that people sometimes forget or ignore: IT'S NOT REVERSIBLE. He's not wearing an Iron Man suit, his entire body was surgically mutilated, the machines are INSIDE him.

I mean sure, you can magic away anything if you're willing to be a shitty writer. Cyrax could have himself cloned and put his brain in the clone and boom, he's fully human again. Cyrax could die and be reincarnated in a new body and boom, he's fully human again. But those plot devices would CHEAPEN his story, I will not use them.

(Let me be clear on this point because it may sound like hypocrisy: I HAVE advocated the use of a cheap plot device like this for turning Cyber-Sub-Zero in MK9 back into human Kuai Liang. That is because Kuai Liang never should have been a cyborg in the first place. It does not fit his character thematically and it made for a poorer story, so since it's ALREADY cheap, doing away with it in a quick and dismissive way can't make it any worse so why not. Cyrax, however, IS meant to be a cyborg. It's the most important thing about him. It's the only reason the character was created in the first place was to be a cyborg.)

So anyway...

Cyrax was strapped to an operating table and skin and organs and bones were removed from his body. Things that don't grow back. These things were replaced by machines and armor. Cyrax doesn't have a ribcage, he has a metal drum in his torso with a hinged double-door that shoots out bombs and nets. He will always have that. You can't remove his robo-ribs and hope the ribs grow back, he would just die.

Every piece of cybernetics that CAN be removed from his body already HAS been, which is what makes his Deadly Alliance alt costume possible. That skin is the MOST skin he can show, it's all he has left.(Give or take. He could probably get or might already have some skin grafts where non-crucial cybernetic parts WERE able to be removed, and I think his left eye is fake or a cloned eye or something since he had a Borg eye there when the helmet came off in MKG) Overall though he's half-man, half-machine and that's just the way it is.

And I imagine after being stuck that way for a decade or two, he'll have gotten over it and learned to live with it and to appreciate the advantages it grants him. It makes him physically stronger and faster, gives him built-in weapons and superpowers (whereas before, as a human, his only gift was a talent for alchemy and he was otherwise completely unremarkable as a fighter), and it allows him to age slower and still be in his physical prime in my series, which is why he's still a field agent while 40-year-old Sonya more often sits behind a desk supervising him.

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As for what makes him unique as a good guy Lin Kuei compared to Sub-Zero and Smoke?

For me, there's two answers to that question. The first is that he's NOT Lin Kuei anymore. Cyrax was not an interesting character until MK Gold and Deadly Alliance. Hanging out with Sonya and Jax, becoming military, that gives him his own angle separate from Sektor and any other ninja. (And since Smoke also went off and became his own thing thanks to Noob Saibot and nanites and being a demon, Sektor is the only one who's still in a ninja clan and it's not even the Lin Kuei, it's a clan of cybers he himself created, that means all three are now as unique from one another as could be.)

The second answer is that each of the cyberninjas reacted to being a cyberninja differently: Sektor embraced it, Smoke hates it and never wanted it, Cyrax is the middle-ground between those two extremes. He chose it and then realized AFTERWARD that it was a mistake. He's REPENTANT, a bad guy who turned INTO a good guy.

Like...Kuai Liang was not a "bad guy who turned good" even though his brother was bad and his clan was bad, because he was introduced to us as being different from the norm in having morals from the very beginning. He was an anti-hero who became a hero. Kitana is the same way, even though she was technically described as one of the villains, we learn that she was FAKING being a villain the whole time, she's actually a hero, her conversion from bad to good happened offscreen years before we even met her.

Cyrax, however, is an actual villain in his debut. And he realized the error of his ways and changed at a later point in his story. That's a unique perspective. I can think of only one other bad guy off the top of my head who turns good: Goro. And he turned bad again in Deception, making the whole thing look stupid. (You could make an argument for Kabal too but he's sorta like both the Kitana and Goro examples combined.)

So I think Cyrax's motivation is at least partially a desire to make up for his past mistakes. As an assassin for the Lin Kuei, he's likely committed crimes, killed innocent people, stolen things, all for money/because he was told to and at the time was a sheep who did what he was told. He realizes now that those things were wrong and he wants to make up for them by doing good. And especially doing good in the name of the OIA because he owes Sonya and Jax his life. Without them, he wouldn't be as human-looking as he is, he wouldn't be able to think for himself, and most importantly, he'd be trapped waist-deep in sand and insane for the rest of his life.

Another part is, like most Earthrealm heroes, he just plain believes the world needs protecting from supervillains like Kahn and Shinnok and Onaga. He's participated in enough interdimensional wars to know by now that they're a thing one should try to prevent, y'know?

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Will he fight Sektor at some point in the Final Trilogy? Well let's just say opposing the Tekunin is definitely part of his mission, so...it'd be kinda dumb if he didn't.