Actually there is no evidence that Edenia is free again in the present storyline. The original timeline left it quite ambiguous as to exactly how Edenia was freed, but if Vaeturnus is any example, we can assume that there is a physical act required to be performed in order to free a realm from merger. Again, we don't know exactly, but with no major Edenians alive or active at this time, and no mention of its being freed, we can't really speak to it.

As for other realms, I would welcome, if not the addition of further realms, the exploration of the ones we already have. Seido and Chaosrealm were excellent ideas, with a ton of potential, but came across as too one-dimensional. It was an intentional lack of depth, but being able to see a little more of what makes those realms tick would be nice.

It's mentioned in Deception Konquest that Kitana hunted down the crystal ball that joined Edenia to Outworld and destroyed it, just like Nitara does with the one that connects Vaeternus to Outworld in MKDA.

Good point about the orb, guys.

IndyRI, I see what you mean about Seido and Chaose being one dimensional. How would you make it more dimensionals? I actually found it interesting, the Chaos have a lot of respect for Water, and how Seido try to steal Water from Chaos. Idk, about you guys, while I can see the importance of water, I do not "cherish" it as much. Also, I found that Pool of Age thing interesting. There have been stereotypes (whether true or not) that young people are more chaotic than older people, so it's interesting that Chaorealm have something that makes people get older.

RazorsEdge701, was it one of the side missions that require Shujinko to help Kitana locate the crystal ball? It's been awhile since I replay MKD Konquest, and I don't remember that.

Idk about everybody else. After seeing how the end of MK2011 Story Mode play out, with how Raiden allow Shao Kahn to come to Earthrealm and be destroy by the Elder Gods for violating their rules of not properly conquering a realm through victory of 10 tournaments. I wonder what their policy is for a realm that want to break away from another realm that conquered it. The rule is that after winning 10 straight tournaments can legitimately invade and conquered another realm, without interference from the Elder God. If they recognize the right of conquest, would they look at those trying to break away, as rebels? And in the process breaking their rule?

No, it's just something a random NPC tells you about, that during MK3, or after MK3 but before MK4, Kitana went out looking for the orb and destroyed it and that's how Edenia got free from Shao Kahn.

Personally I would like to see some additional insight into exactly WHAT Chaos and Order are in respect to how the residents of those two realms view things? Part of the beauty of Chaos is that it is impossible to predict. Perhaps exploring that Order itself is something you wouldn't predict happening in Chaosrealm, and thus is unpredictable, and completely suiting. By this, I mean perhaps explore the possibilities of a Chaosrealm character who would be far more appropriate for Seido, to illustrate that in order for Chaos to be ture, it must occasionally also create order.

Now, high concepts aside, learning some more about the social structures, as they stand, within the two realms would be nice. What does the Seidan Constitution consist of? How did Seido become the way it is. Are there other cities in the realm, etc. Or with regards to Chaos, maybe some more major landmarks. Perhaps an explanation of the specifics of how it became the embodiment of chaos. Also, a look into the social structure, or lack thereof, of Chaosrealm could be interesting.


I
'd also like to know more specifics if you still have them Razor. I've been playing MKD a little recently (mostly for Puzzle Kombat and Konquest), but I'd love to know where to keep an eye out for this. Midway was good bout hiding little factoids throughout this mode.




That's a very good question actualloy. i doubt they'd mind as much, since the MK tournaments were less to provide a means for merger than they were to restrict the relatively easy path of simply merging by force which existed prior to MK. I doubt they'd appreciate the informality of seperating realms, and it would make for good story fodder, but I doubt they'd make a huge deal of it.

It's something one of the NPCs says in Edenia, I believe. The pain in the ass thing about those tidbits of story you get from talking to Konquest NPCs is their quotes are somewhat random, you never know when or where you'll find it if you're looking for one in specific.
As for "do the Elder Gods have a stance on splitting realms?", they would probably be in favor of it, in their "stay quiet and uninvolved" way, since the specific reason they're against mergers is the realms are broken pieces of the One Being's body and if they're ever all put back together, he's gonna come back to life, which is pretty much what their entire existence is dedicated to preventing. Splitting them, on the other hand, would make it even harder to bring back the One Being, so they shouldn't have any problem with it.

Would REALLY love to see Netherrealm act as its own realm and challenge outworld for power!!

and would like to see chaosrealm involved in the plot more.

I see what you mean, Razor. I admit, while I did interract with the NPC in MKD i.e. press button to talk to them, I only really attention only a few times. Most of the time, since the speech was backward or repetitive, I get bored. It was more fun, to just beat them up afterward. Just for fun, wham! It seems something else I missed was that Kochal was the God of Chaos who unleashed the Tempest on the Chaosrealm. The only bit, I remember was there was a challenge to defeat Kira, Kobra and Kabal in the Netherealm, to unlock a three headed demon god, which turn out to just be onyx coins.

Hmmm, from what I understand the One Being consciousness was split into the 6 kamidogus saw in MKD. So do you think there's more, and that's why the Elder Gods would actually like the splitting? Interesting and good point. I guess if they were the only 6, we might have saw the One Being itself.

One thing I didn't get. Ok, Shujinko destroyed the kamidogus to weaken Onaga. But doesn't destroying it, mean releasing the One Being consciousness to go freely wherever it wish, and maybe even linking back up. Kind of like water in a vase. A vase can keep water, but destroying it, the water is free to go elsewhere.

mkmileena, maybe Chaosrealm have a chance of being something in the next game, and not just the backdrop for the Challenge Tower.

Well the One Being's mind/soul was tied to the 6 separated Kamidogus, but his body is what the realms are made of.

Recombining the Kamidogus into one is like recombining the broken pieces of the One Being's soul, which would wake him up because it would put his reformed consciousness into the body of whoever's using the Kamidogu, in this case Onaga, so that's bad.

But destroying Kamidogus just disperses those parts of his soul and they fade into his real body, the realms, which is no big deal because there's a ton of realms and they're all still safely spread out apart from one another, so that won't wake him up.

The only danger then is merging every realm together.

^^Which is basically what all the bad guys have been trying to do because the One Being has been subconsciously influencing them....Right? That's right, right?

Well mainly Shao Kahn and Onaga are being influenced, Shinnok's never shown much interest in merging realms, he just wants to be top God, rule Heaven, kill the other Elders for revenge, that sort of thing. As an ex-Elder God, it's possible he's outside of the One Being's influence because the Elder Gods aren't made of the One Being's body or dreams like everyone and everything else in reality is.

Okay, so everybody who's NOT an Elder God, then. lol
But I would very much like to see how exactly he came to fall from grace.
Backstory stuff interests me greatly.
Edit: I know about the war with Raiden, I just meant like what exactly drove him to be a bad God in the first place.

It would be nice of them to elaborate on what drove Shinnok evil. I rather doubt they will, or the answer would be unsatisfactory, judging by how they treated the villains in this game as just clichéd plot devices who do villainous things solely to be villainous.

i.e. Kahn hating Kitana and preferring Mileena as a daughter because "fuck any sense of attachment to the child I've raised for millennia, bad guys don't feel love! I want the crazy bitey one because she'll be a better killer!"

Or consider the fact that they killed Kahn off, implying they have no further use for him and intend to do no further delving into his backstory...but we still don't know WHY he turned on Onaga. They simply didn't care to, in the one game where Kahn is front and center as the main bad guy, establish WHY he's a bad guy.

Or the fact that in past games, they've actually said outright why Shang turned to black magic and working for Kahn: he's afraid of aging and desperately chases sources of youth and immortality like soul stealing...but is there even a single hint of that motivation, or ANY motivation, in MK9? Fuck no.

So what hope does Shinnok have of finally getting a motive, if the game that's all about reminding the audience what the origin stories are couldn't bother to provide ones for its main bad guys?

If it were me, personally, I'd say that he's basically still bitter at the way the One Being treated the Elder Gods before they killed it, like, he's jealous of that power the One Being had over them and wants to be that top dog himself so that he can abuse people like he feels he was abused. And maybe he resents the mortals because they, in a way, are pieces of the One Being, so he wants to rule them as a turn of the tables.

That's not such a bad theory.
Now if only he didn't look like Ronald Mcdonald's long lost twin....

Assuming he was not in the first place. Evil is not a condition, some people simply are.

Also, a siple drive for power can drive many men to evil. It's one of the primary motivators through history. Is the simple avarice of wanting more power compltely insufficient?

Nobody's born evil, personality is nurture, not nature. Everyone wants power for a reason. And the Elder Gods already have all the power there fucking is, what more could Shinnok want...unless he had some reason to disagree with or want to dominate the other Elder Gods.

And they've actually established that Shao Kahn was once benevolent back when he worked for Onaga and his change was very sudden and unexpected...but they just left the mystery hang. I would like to fucking know what happened to cause it, because the One Being is subtle, it doesn't just suddenly possess people and make them do a 180, it lightly pushes people who are already evil into having ideas like "I shouldn't just rule one realm, I should rule them all and merge them!" or "I want to be invincible...If I collect the Kamidogu and merge them, I will be."
Something that happened in his life caused Kahn to go crazy, similar to how Raiden's soul was polluted when he died and came back as Dark Raiden. I can't be the only one who wants to know what the fuck it was.

I'd like the reason to be that he had a wife and kids once and lost them, maybe explaining the whole thing with keeping Kitana and Sindel alive after killing Jerrod. And Khameleon's MKA bio somewhat hints at him getting a boost from battle, so maybe he's like the Ares of the Mortal Kombat series. A dead family + being the God of War could go a long way towards making you become an evil and ruthless warlord. Again, just speculation and contributing to the conversation. But rest assured you're not the only one who wants to know what the fuck it was, lol.

That's the direction I've always leaned/hoped for too, yeah. A tragedy of that nature, like if they were murdered or were collateral damage in some war Onaga was fighting would explain why he suddenly decided his world was out of control and needed to be conquered and, yeah, it would give him a motive to take Sindel and Kitana, like he's trying to recapture the magic or whatever by force.

Yep, love can make you do alotta crazy shit. I still think he shoulda taken a hammer to Onaga's head rather than poison him, but I guess hat jsut means that Kahn is pretty crafty and not completely brawn, lol.

Making a mock family in vain + Ares

I'd be all for that, sounds great.


I've always been a fan of Shao Kahn being portrayed as mostly evil, but with a strange genuine care for Sindel and Kitana.

------

On Shinnok, the closest to his purpose of wanting power is what Sub-Zero: Mythologies has.

"Thousands of Years Ago...

Shinnok existed as an Elder God. The Elder Gods are the true rulers of all realms. They watch as worlds are created and destroyed and govern the realms with untold eons of wisdom. Shinnok, however, gave in to greed and illusions of false power by the new realm of Earth. If he could have that realm to himself, he would have power unmatched. He first would have to face the young God of Thunder known as Raiden, who was appointed as Earth's guardian by the Elder Gods themselves. Their battle for the realm of Earth was fierce; causing the planet's near destruction and plunging it into centuries of darkness. But, the Thunder God eventually won as Shinnok's overconfidence proved to be his undoing.

Raiden discovered that Shinnok entered the realm through the powers of a mystical amulet. It allowed Shinnok to enter the realm without challenge and keep the other Elder Gods from intervening. The amulet could only be created once, and Raiden stripped it from Shinnok's possession. With the aid of the true Elder Gods, he banished the fallen Elder God into a place known as the Netherealm. Raiden buried the amulet deep within the mountains of Asia, determined to keep it from ever falling into the wrong hands. He then created a massive temple within the mountain to house the amulet. As long as the amulet remained on Earth, Shinnok would be trapped, forced to remain dormant for the rest of eternity."

Well I do try my best to contribute.
Man, really starting to wish I played Mythologies.

The problem with Shinnok's MKM bio is a problem the MK universe suffered from during the Tobias era: Never explaining what makes Earth special, why everybody wants it so bad and would be invincible if they got it. How is "Ooh look, Earth! If I had that, I could rule the universe!" reason enough for an ELDER GOD to go power-mad?

The closest we get is that, in some of the older comics, they keep referring to it as "The Mother Realm", but who knows what that means exactly.

I believe there's some ancilliary material somewhere, interviews with Tobias in strategy guides or some shit like that, where he actually explains the reason Earth is more important than other realms is that it's chock-full of portals just randomly occuring in nature so you can invade anywhere from there or something like that.

In the Vogel era, they stopped pretending Earth was special, it's basically just another world on the list for Kahn. He's taken this and this and that and it's next in line, and other guys like Shinnok or Onaga don't target it specifically, they go after other realms like Outworld or Edenia and try to take the whole universe all at once from there.

Random portals, huh? That's a new one. For me, of course.