That has yet to be explained. It seems to me like the Cryomancer story was going to be further explored until you had the concept of MK: Armageddon brought in. I would think that the near extinction of the Cryomancers has to do with Onaga and his army. If Shujinko wasn't in the story, Sub-Zero could have elevated to "main hero" status, something that has yet to happen for his character.

okay thanks. i know it was weird that i had never heard an explanation why they were gone. whoever did it must have been powerful because they seem like a fearsome group of warriors.

People always mix "race" and "species" in the sense people mix "robot" and "cyborg" but I guess the latter could be forgiven since even the developers mix them in one of Mortal Kombat 9's achievements (Robots rule!). It would be cool if NetherRealm named the foreign human species for the fans, such as Homo cryomanceris or something down that line.
The Cryomancers are probably less extinct than Saurians – the remaining members are likely just not willing to fight??

yeah tricky mix up. thanks for clearing it up.

so i guess the cryomancers just wanna chill. lol

It was probably a war with or extermination by either Shao Kahn or Onaga that killed them off, given, y'know, they lived in Outworld, a wartorn realm where the emperor is always trying to subjugate his people.

It's likely that Sub-Zero's family bloodline and Frost's family line are the only ones left, given we don't know how many cryomancers escaped to Earthrealm and interbred with humans however many hundreds or thousands of years ago, but it can't have been very many or they wouldn't have become forgotten and left nothing but a tomb in Outworld behind as evidence of their civilization.

If there are any other descendants out there, they probably don't know about their powers because it takes training to discover them.

so maybe they fought against kahn ,,,,,the game always made it look like they were on his side because the lin kuei always worked with kahn( i think).

The Lin Kuei never work for Shang or Kahn at any point in MK1 thru Armageddon. They're a neutral party and in fact were generally on Earth's side: the Sub-Zeros had been hired by someone to assassinate Shang Tsung in 1 and 2, and in 3, the Extermination Squads considered the cyberninjas a threat because their orders were to kill anyone from Earth whose souls couldn't be stolen, and Sektor, Cyrax, and Smoke are that.

In MK9, Shang PAYS them to work for him in the first tournament and then they join Kahn's side in exchange for permission to kidnap Sub-Zero from the second tournament.
Also, the Lin Kuei have nothing to do with the Cryomancers. The only Cryomancers in the Lin Kuei are the Sub-Zero family and they didn't even KNOW they were Cryomancers until Deception.

In Sektor's bio is written that the cyborgs lost their soul after the automation process, that's why he survived Shao Kahn's magic.

I don't know if there's a later retcon or another change, but from what I read out of Sektor's bio it seems that the Lin Kuei and Exterminations squads ignored each other. Or perhaps the Squads used the Lin Kuei for doing the dirty job in their stead.
This situation changed at a later point, when Smoke regain his humanity. Why attacking someone that could help you out, killing Sub-Zero for you?

Yeah. The cyborgs' souls couldn't be stolen because cyborgs don't have souls. They lost them when they lost their free will.

Or more like their souls are dormant or hidden in some way, since Cyrax and Smoke eventually regained theirs.



In Cyrax's MK3 ending, Sub-Zero captures him and reprograms him to target Shao Kahn instead of him. So Cyrax fights Outworlders until the invasion ends, then tries to return to Lin Kuei HQ so he can receive new orders, but malfunctions and gets lost in the desert. This ending is canon 'cuz we know Cyrax did get lost in the desert and MK4 and DA continue his story from there.

And in both Sektor and Smoke's MK3 endings, they're attacked by the Extermination Squads. Bottom line is the Extermination Squads will attack ANYONE from Earth who does not fight for Shao Kahn. They simply regarded them as enemies because they're from Earth and the world-soul-steal didn't get them.

ok, thanks for the explanation. I still don't get WHO rescued Cyrax from the Desert: the SF or the Lin Kuei (Sektor)?

MK4 said it was the Lin Kuei. Deadly Alliance retconned it and said it was the SF. The retcon or the version of the story that came last/most recent is what sticks, generally.

Global warming.

lol That's awesome.

That is quite the question, I must say. But yes, I guess Armageddon's intrusion did keep us from finding out more.

Or they were assassinated by Al Gore.