Shao Kahn

Shao Kahn
Series	Mortal Kombat
Age	Over 10,000 years old
Birthday	Unknown
Sex	Male
Species	Outworlder
Height	7'2" (218 cm)
Weight	400 lbs (181 kg)
Alignment	Chaotic Evil

“	I am Shao Kahn, conqueror of worlds! You will taste no victory.	„
	~ Shao Kahn

Emperor Shao Kahn the Konqueror is the ruler of Outworld and one of the main antagonists of the Mortal Kombat franchise. He made his debut in Mortal Kombat II as the game's final boss.

Background

Millennia ago, the Elder Gods appointed Shao Kahn as defender of Outworld and advisor to the realm's king, the dragon Onaga. Together they built a powerful, realm-wide empire to rule with an iron fist. At the height of their might, however, Shao Kahn turned on Onaga and poisoned him, taking the throne of Outworld for himself. Throughout the millennia, Shao Kahn continued his campaign to conquer all the realms under his power. Along the way, he conquered the legendary realm of Edenia, known for its utopian landscape and revered power, and took the queen and princess as his own wife and daughter respectively. His conquest went unopposed until he crossed paths with Earthrealm. There he met resistance in the form of the thunder god Raiden and his warriors, and they held a Mortal Kombat Tournement every 50 years. When he was 1 win away from victory, the monk named Liu Kang thwarted his plans and kept Kahn at bay. Eventually through complex loopholes, Shao Kahn just tried to take Earthrealm by force. He nearly succeeded until he faced Raiden in a final battle in Earthrealm, where the Elder Gods themselves rained judgment on Shao Kahn and destroyed him forever.

That is, until the machinations of the Keeper of Time Kronika resulted in a past version of Shao Kahn being brought to the present timeline. Upon arriving, he was outraged to learn of his death and that Kotal Kahn became Outworld's ruler. He agreed to work for Kronika after learning of her plan to reset the timeline and wipe Raiden from existence. He attempted to take his throne back from Kotal and rebuild Outworld's forces, but he was defeated by Kitana, who became the new ruler of Outworld and Kotal's successor. Shao Kahn later reunited with Sindel after a time-travelling Fujin and Shang Tsung revived her to help fight Kronika. Intending to take Kronika's Crown of Souls for themselves, the tyrants defeated Kitana and Liu Kang and assaulted Kronika's keep. However, they were betrayed by Shang Tsung, who absorbed their souls.

Powers & Abilities

• Godly Strength: Shao Kahn is an incredibly strong fighter, capable of overpowering almost anyone he faced.
  • Enhanced Jumping: Shao Kahn can jump several dozen feet into the air.
  • Double Down: To finish off some opponents, Shao Kahn will plant his hands into their sternum, then slowly tear the victim in half as he walks through them like a set of double doors.
• Enhanced Speed: Although Shao Kahn isn't the best speedster character, he's still fast enough to charge at people with good speed.
• Enhanced Durability: Shao Kahn can take punishment far beyond what any human can normally take.
• Superhuman Stamina: Shao Kahn is able to fight longer than humans.
• Agelessness: As an Immortal, Shao Kahn has ruled Outworld for thousands of years.
• Magic: Shao Kahn is highly proficient in the use of dark magic to achieve various effects.
  • Soul Manipulation: Shao Kahn is a master of soul magic, being superior to the likes of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. He can consume souls to replenish his life force and increase his power, killing the affected in the process and causing their body to vanish.
    • Fusionism: By fusing souls, he created Ermac, who wields immense power over telekinesis due to the large number of souls bound together.
    • Energy Manipulation: The energy Shao Kahn generates is likely the same kind that Shang Tsung uses: soul energy. He can use it to increase the power behind his attacks, amplify his speed, propel himself and his weapons should it be required and create energy constructs in battle. He can also fire searing energy beams and orbs from his hands and eyes.
      • Light Spear: Shao Kahn makes a spear of pure magic to throw at the enemy as a projectile.
      • Explosive Ball: To damage enemies from afar, Shao Kahn can shoot an explosive green fireball from his mouth.
      • Emperor's Shield: Shao Kahn can reflect projectiles fired at him by creating a brief shield of green magic.
    • Soulnado: To absorb multiple souls at once, Shao Kahn is capable of creating a magical tornado that vacuums up any souls in the realm.
  • Telekinesis "Mystic Choke": With a gesture or motion of his hand, Shao Kahn can freely move his opponents with the power of telekinesis. He can push opponents away from him with a telekinetic blast and treat them like rag dolls before slamming them away using his psychic power.
  • Portals: Normally used to enter realms after winning the right to invade it. He can create small, green personal portals to teleport between the realms without needing to go there by foot.
  • Mind Control: Shao Kahn was able to enslave thousands of souls when he created Ermac.
• Basic Attacks/Kombos:
  • Face Smash: Shao thrusts the butt end of his hammer at the opponent's face.
    • DIE: Following the initial attack, Shao backhands the opponent and summons his spear which he uses to impale them on. He drops them down and brutally stabs them thrice before kicking them away.
    • Takeover: This combo adds two simple but savage hits from a front kick and a double axe handle.
  • Hammer Slam: Shao swings his hammer at the opponent.
    • You Will Die: He then converts the first swing into a lower swing, tripping the opponent into the air. He then punches them away.
    • Die By My Hands: This combo adds two more swings, starting with Dragon Toe to a two handed Rage Strike.
  • Tenderizer: Shao rushes forward and stabs the butt of his hammer into the opponent's gut.
  • Rage Strike: Shao turns to his back, spinning around to swing his hammer with one arm.
    • Bow To Me: After Rage Strike, Shao unleashes an uppercut and strikes with his hammer, holding it vertically.
    • Fear Me: Adds a second hit to the combo where he simply drops the hammer on his opponent.
  • Dragon Toe: Shao rushes forward, swinging his hammer close to the floor in a rising arc.
  • Knee Shatter: While crouched, Shao thrusts the butt of the hammer at the opponent's knees.
  • Hammer Slammer: Shao swings low with his hammer, tripping his opponent.
  • Breaking Dragon Claw: After hopping up, Shao brings his energy infused hammer down to the ground.
  • Deadly Swipe: When recovering from knockdowns/successfully blocking an attack, Shao counters by swinging his hammer low while in a crouched state.
  • Fatal Warning: When recovering from knockdowns/successfully blocking an attack, Shao counters by swinging his hammer up, launching nearby opponents.
  • Last Breath: Shao does a side kick and stomps forward, crushing the opponent's knee. He grabs their shoulder and presses them over his head before breaking their back on his shoulders.
• Special Moves:
  • Merciless Spear: Shao summons his lance and hurls it towards the opponent, impaling them on it.
  • Scum Grab: Shao grabs an airborne opponent by the neck and throws them to the floor. Once the opponent is downed, he may choose to slam his hammer on them.
  • Shoulder Charge: Shao performs a powerful shoulder charge imbued with green magic. After the first attack, he can either go for an uppercut which launches them or a crushing fist that slams them down.
  • Hammer Lunge: Shao takes a great leap towards the opponent and slams his energized hammer down. Shao can impale the opponent on his spear when they bounce off the ground before flipping them away.
  • Skewered: Shao summons his lance to impale an airborne opponent and throws them to the floor. Once he impales the opponent, he may also slam them to the ground while they are still impaled.
  • Spear Charge: Shao summons his lance and dashes towards the opponent with a spear thrust. He may thrust the spear and leave it on the opponent, allowing him to roll toward it and pick it up before he slams them.
  • Annihilation: Shao weighs his hammer on the opponent, forcing them down. He restands them using a hammer slam before swinging his hammer over them.
  • Ridicule: Shao points at the opponent and taunts them, inflicting a debuff that reduces the opponent's damage. He will taunt them with the following lines:
    • "You suck!"
    • "It's official, you suck!"
    • "You are nothing!"
    • "Bow to me."
    • "Don't make me laugh."
    • "You weak pathetic fool!"
    • "You will die, mortal!"
    • "You are pathetic."
    • "Prepare to die."
    • "That was pathetic."
    • "Is that your best?"
    • "Feel the wrath of Shao Kahn!"
    • "Feel the power of Shao Kahn!"
    • "Worthless and weak."
    • "Outworld will rule."
  • Humiliate: Shao places his fists on his waist and lets out a laugh, inflicting a debuff that increases the damage taken by his opponent.
  • Ground Shatter: Shao slams the head of his hammer on the ground, creating a close range shockwave of energy. He can perform a second, powerful hammer swing on the opponent.
  • Wrath Hammer: Shao throws his hammer straight at the opponent. This move can also be done while airborne.
  • Seeking Wrath Hammer: Shao throws his hammer behind him, which strikes the opponent from behind.
  • Up Wrath Hammer: Shao energizes his hammer and tosses it up, before it lands on the opponent.
  • Dark Priest: Shao summons his Dark Priest that enchants his hammer, gaining a buff that increases his hammer damage.
• Brutalities:
  • The Klassic: Shao Kahn executes a rising hammer swing, but it decapitates the opponent with their spine intact.
  • Obliterated: Shao Kahn leaps towards the opponent with his hammer before crushing them into a pile of giblets and broken bones.
  • Spiraling Out: Shao Kahn hits the opponent over the head using his hammer, forcing them to the ground. He then slams the head of the hammer on the ground, creating a shockwave that forces the opponent to stand back up and proceeds to impale them with a spear. Lastly, he spins around and strikes it using his hammer, causing it to spin which in turn twists them in half as their upper torso is sent flying up.
  • Charging Through: Shao Kahn shoulder charges through the opponent with a trail of energy behind him, vertically splitting them in half.
  • Going Ham...mer: Shao Kahn grabs the opponent by their scalp and bends them down. He strikes them over the head with a mighty blow of his hammer that forces them down on all fours. After this, he pounds their back until their limbs and heads pop off their body which has a gaping hole at the chest.
  • Kahn Croquet: Shao Kahn jabs the opponent in the stomach with the butt of his hammer and over their head with a hammer swing, bringing them down on all fours, then launches their head with a golf swing.
  • Head Kabob: Shao Kahn strikes the opponent with the butt of his hammer and backhands the opponent then stabs them in the stomach with his spear, where he stabs them three more times in the chest using his spear. After four strikes, he thrusts his spear up their groin and plants it on the floor with enough force to rip their head off which remains on top of the spear.
  • brutality: Shao Kahn swings his hammer across the opponent's face and sweeps them via low hammer swing, causing them to fall. Before they drop, he impales them on his spear and lifts them as a Dark Priest teleports behind them to rip their head off. He will then leave the corpse impaled on his spear.
• X-Ray (It's Official): Shao Kahn hammers his opponent to the ground and grabs their arm. He then stomps on their head which breaks the whole skull and lifts the opponent up by the arm, and delivers a skull-shattering headbutt.
• Fatal Blow (YOU SUCK): Shao Kahn thrusts his spear to impale his opponent and lifts them before putting them down. Just as he puts them down, he turns back to deliver two slashes of his spear and slices them upwards. The opponent is sent flying from the sheer force as Shao Kahn leaps up to hit them with a shoulder charge and catches them by the foot before brutally slamming them down. He crashes down to impale them at the back with his spear before slamming the back of their skull with his signature Wrath Hammer.
• Master Martial Artist: Despite being an otherworldly being, Shao Kahn is well versed in the Chinese martial arts Lui He and Tai Tzu, which he merges together to build a fighting style focused on defensive abilities and raw power.
  • Charging Spikes: To close distances, Shao Kahn shoulder rams his enemies with his spiked shoulder pads.
  • Uplifting Knee: Shao Kahn jumps into the air whilst kneeing the opponent.
  • Grab & Punch: Shao Kahn grabs the opponent by the throat then punches them in the face to send them flying.
  • Mystic Choke: Shao Kahn dashes at the opponent and grabs them by the throat then kicks them away.
  • Home Run: When he gets bored with an enemy, Shao Kahn may finish them by uppercutting them into the air, then swinging his hammer on their bodies as they descend to make them explode into thousands of pieces.
• Skilled Tactician: Being the leader of Outworld, Shao Kahn has gained plenty of experience in tactical warfare and has become rather proficient at it.

Equipment

• Wrath Hammer: The signature weapon of Outworld's mighty emperor. It is a large warhammer with a handle that is half the height of its wielder connected to a heavy metal head with a face adorned with rows of pyramid-shaped tenderizers that makes the flesh that it hits softer for gorier results. It is far larger than any maul known to man, and its mass makes it too heavy for two superhuman soldiers to lift it. Only Shao Kahn can wield this weapon like a broken twig.
• Lance of the Great Kahn: His secondary weapon. This six foot long spear can be summoned like his primary weapon anytime he wants. He can throw this spear with enough strength to pin down opponents and break the sound barrier with it.
• Shadow Priest: A Shadow Priest is an Outworld sorcerer clad in black robes and they're capable of magic such as resurrection, clairvoyance and weapon enchantment.

Feats

Strength

• Can effortlessly knock people dozens of feet into the air with the Wrath Hammer.
• With Raiden, shook Earthrealm to its core. (Non-canon, Raiden's MK3 ending)
• Can tear people in half with his bare hands.
• Can easily make people explode with a single blow from the Wrath Hammer.
• Took every soul on Earthrealm except the participants for the Mortal Kombat tournament with a single Soulnado.
• Broke Kotal Kahn's back.
• Snapped Kung Lao's neck.
• Can break stone pillars with a hammer swing.
• Can throw people over long distances.
• Can lift his Wrath Hammer which is too heavy to be carried by two soldiers.
• Can move Shang Tsung’s island (150 tons of TNT)
• Superior to Tremor, who can cause city wide earthquakes (478 tons of TNT)
• Broke a marble pillar with a shoulder charge.
• Comparable to Raiden and Shinnok, whose battle almost destroyed the entire planet.
• Can merge entire realms together and sustain their merger.
• Has shattered realms into pieces in the past.
• Comparable to Taven, who, with the Ice Specter, froze a large area (124 tons of TNT) (Mortal Kombat: Armageddon)
• Comparable to Sindel, who dissolved the power binding Outworld and Edenia to their merger and can defeat Elder Gods.
• Comparable to Shinnok, who merged every realm in the universe together into the One Being. (Shinnok's ending in Mortal Kombat X)
• Killed Blaze, who was powerful enough to destroy all of reality. (Mortal Kombat: Armageddon)

Speed

• Can quickly dash across the arena with Shoulder Spikes.
• Kept up with Onaga.
• Comparable to Raiden, who can move at the speed of lightning.
• Can block Liu Kang’s fire attacks.
• Far superior to Kenshi, who can slice bullets.
• Far superior to Kabal, who can parry machine gun fire (Mach 9), and can move a far distance FTE and travel the same distance back (Mach 70)
• Could keep up with and dodge Kitana's attacks.
• Superior to Quan Chi, who has intercepted Raiden's lightning (Mach 291)
• Comparable to Shinnok, who has also intercepted Raiden's lightning (Mach 239 - Mach 1063)
• Comparable to Cetrion, who can fire a beam that reached Earth in a short amount of time and was able to move her arms while as big as a planet (0.015c and 0.03c respectively) (Mortal Kombat 11)
• Outsped Sonya and Johnny, and is superior to Scorpion, who can keep up with Sonya and Johnny.
• Has kept up with and bested Kotal Kahn, who weaponizes beams of light directly from the sun (0.215c)

Durability

• Can tank attacks from Raiden.
• Laughed off lightning attacks from Raiden enhanced by the Elder Gods.
• Can generally take more punishment than any other character in Mortal Kombat.
• Can survive electrocution and having his bones crushed by Raiden.
• Tanked Shang’s fireball that knocked other kombatants back.
• Tolerated having his own Wrath Hammer thrown back at him (MK: Shaolin Monks)
• Superior to Nitara, who survived the explosion of the force of an orb that stored the power that merged her realm Vaeternus to Outworld.
• Superior to Noob Saibot, who survived the Soulnado’s explosion in MK9.
• Superior to Kintaro, who survived this massive explosion from Kano’s weapon.

Skill

• Conquered many realms into Outworld over the millennia.
• Regularly defeated the god Raiden over the millennia.
• Mastered numerous martial arts.
• Defeated Blaze, whose essence surpassed the power of the Elder Gods, in combat. (Mortal Kombat: Armageddon)
• In the original timeline, became a god after destroying Blaze, and successfully merged all of the other realms with Outworld. (Mortal Kombat: Armageddon)
• Poisoned Onaga and took his throne.
• Successfully lead Outworld for over 10,000 years.
• Effortlessly stole Shang Tsung's souls.
• Easily dispatched Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade at once.
• Defeated and killed Kung Lao with ease in the original timeline.
• Killed many fighters during the Battle of Armageddon, including some who joined the Forces of Darkness. (Mortal Kombat: Armageddon)
• Successfully killed Blaze. (Mortal Kombat: Armageddon)
• Victor of the final battle of Armageddon and causer of Armageddon. (Mortal Kombat: Armageddon)
• Temporarily merged Earthrealm & Outworld. (Mortal Kombat 3)
• Conquered many realms ranging from Tarkata, Vampire and many more.
  • Conquered Edenia and merged it with Outworld.
• Completely overpowered Raiden.
• Killed Shang Tsung, then placed his soul into Sindel.
• Killed King Jerrod, Kitana's real father.
• Acquired the souls of people from not just an entire city, but the entire planet.
• Might've became the One Being in the original timeline.
• Fought and defeated Kotal Kahn and Liu Kang.
• Entered the battle between Raiden's and Kronika's armies to steal the Hourglass, defeating several heroes (enslaving some, killing most) and stealing their ships.
• Killed Kotal Kahn.
• It required the combined forces of every Elder God to finally defeat Shao Kahn.

Weaknesses

• Arrogance: Though he is an absolute powerhouse with several millennia of experience, Shao Kahn is horribly crippled by his arrogance. He constantly underestimates opponents in battle and sees himself as no less than a god beyond gods. Because of this superiority complex, Shao Kahn will actually stop in the midst of a battle to insult the enemy, leaving himself wide open to attack.
• Dependence on Souls: Many of Shao Kahn's achievements and prowess depend on how many souls he's absorbed and enslaved into himself.

Fun Facts

• Shao Kahn appeared in the second season of the popular web series DEATH BATTLE! where he fought against Master Bison and won. He appeared again in the eighth season where he fought against Akuma and won again.