While I'm not as up on the lore as others, I can tell you that the Tarkatan's are an actual Outworld race that Kahn uses. So, they weren't created in the sense you're describing. I think you might be merging Mileena's backstory ( who was created by Shang Tsung' s sorcery). Logic dictates then that their blades and teeth are just a natural part of their genetics and while I've never seen any reference to a metal skeleton, they are regarded as fierce and durable warriors. Kahn's favorite shock troopers are the Shokan though.

Actually, it was established in Deception that Tarkatans were indeed "created".

I mean, not in a magic laboratory like Mileena was. But they were deliberately bred, by crossbreeding Outworlders with Netherealm demons. And it's hinted Kahn is the one who did it. Probably because when he took over, Onaga's entire army went and committed suicide to become mummies, so...he needed troops somehow.
I don't think they have metal bones though, the main blade on each arm seems to be the only metal part. Because all the other spikes and spurs growing out of them look like ordinary bone.

Yeah I was hoping you or XD would chime in. I was going off of early game memory but iti sounds like Deception retconned it a bit by abandoning the "nomadic Outworld race" thing. A shame too since this slight change more or less reduced Baraka to the perpetual henchman status we've come to expect. Pretty lame too as Tarkatan's are pretty cool designs.

Well the Tarkatans were created hundreds of thousands of years ago, so they ARE currently a "nomadic Outworld race".

It's like saying dogs aren't a race, just because humans created them from wolves. Dogs are totally a species of their own now.

And besides, Baraka was always a "perpetual henchman", that was never gonna change. When he was introduced in MK2, we were told his defining character trait was berserker rage. He was never going to be intelligent or a strategist/general.

Establishing that Tarkatans were deliberately created to be animalistic foot soldiers who follow the alpha male was the logical direction, not a change.

It also makes Mileena's backstory make more sense because it explains why the fuck they thought putting Tarkatan genes in her, of all things, would make her a more loyal version of Kitana.
If you really want Baraka to have some sort of aspirations of greatness, that's still possible. Just say that he wants to BE the alpha male. Just because he's stupid doesn't mean he's too stupid to have ideas of his own. They're just not gonna be particularly good ideas is all, lol.

I guess when I hear "Nomadic race" I associate some basic tribal/clan culture with that but admittedly, that's my own projection. I realize that MK has enough Outworld races doing the whole "savior of my species" thing but I'd like Tarkatan's to have a little more depth beyond just being Kahn's fanged and bladed attack dogs. Especially concerning Baraka.

Doesn't most of Baraka's endings involve him boning Mileena and lead the Tarkatan's in crushing Kahn and the rest of Outworld? So that "Alpha leader" system doesnt necessarily have to be fixed on Kahn.

As I said, he usually does have aspirations of taking the alpha male role for himself.

it's just that if Baraka ever actually acted on those wishes, not only would he be crushed easily, on account of just being a savage with sword-arms up against sorcerers and demigods, he'd also make a terrible leader if he won because what's he know about bein' a king? "Rape and pillage the countryside" is all he and his people are good at.

My suggestion would be that if one wanted to make the Tarkata more interesting, you'd have to create diversity and the way to do that is to introduce a new one who ISN'T Baraka, and establish that he's vastly different in ideology from the rest of his species and has some more lofty or benevolent goal. Kintaro's looks and Sheeva's ideals are what made the Shokan become interesting, after all. Without those two, it's just a race of Goro clones.

a new Tarkatan character would be nice to see.
Someone who is primitive without being savage, perhaps the equivalent of a Tarkatan Shaman.

What I wanna know about their physiology is how that blade fits in that arm. It looks too long that I doubt they'd be able to even flex their arms.

Also: mating rituals and female tarkata

I've often wondered about how the arm blades fit.
Unless they aren't sheathed but can just grow and shrink as needed.
like fingernails.

at least with wolverine it makes sense because his claws are about the length of his forearms so they can fit in there.

Yeah, I've always said I think the arm blades work more like Marrow than Wolverine. They do look like they slide forward some, but mostly seem to grow out and shrink back.

Ah yeah
Marrow seems the best comparison.
.

Okay, that sounds like a decent explanation.

But are female tarkatas as ugly or even got hair? also, in a practical sense, they shouldn't have boobs

Well maybe Tarkatan teeth don't grow in right away as babies, so they can breast feed, as opposed to them all, y'know, starving to death at a young age.

Apologies for resurrecting a dead thread; MKX retconned the Tarkatans' origins yet again so that they came from their own minour realm that was conquered during Shao Kahn's reign, meaning that they are now no longer a hybrid species, and have come from their own evolutionary line.

Metal blades and bone (or possibly some other organic material like keratin or enamel) blades are both simultaneously canon, as they are organic materials for Baraka's men in MKX and MK11, but Baraka's blades change from the metal of past installments to bone (MKX) and back to metal (MK11) ([EDIT] there was also Erron Black's sword in MKX, which was a skeletal tarkatan arm with a metal blade). I suspect that there might be a combination of genetic and environmental factours at play in the materials, with perhaps the mother's diet during pregnancy probably impacting it a great deal ([EDIT] Animals being able to grow iron parts is biologically possible IRL, though only one species has been observed to do this (Scaly-foot Snails)).
As for how they fit, they clearly protrude out the forearms so as to provide greater length.

I have also noticed a greater number of retractable blades, with Baraka having two smaller blades on either side of each arm in addition to his primary blade. These other two could be more defensive in nature, acting as a sort of protective cage for his hands and wrists. It's likely that Netherrealm will be sticking to the three-blade arrangement.

Also, in MK 2011, we saw a female in one of the images in Baraka's ending. She had two shorter blades on either arm instead of the one long blade that's typically found in males. This was likely intended as an indication of sexual dimorphism. However, based on the females we see in the War Kamp background in MK11, who seem to have the same armblade arrangement as their menfolk if you can zoom in on them, this may have been retconned too.

(a short tangent) I also haven't seen any examples of males having scalp hair, meanwhile the females clearly do (i.e. the female from Jade's chapter in story mode), so that may also be a sexually dimorphic trait. [EDIT] Or it could denote a cultural preference for bald males.