Ermac
Ermac is a male video game character who features in Mortal Kombat.
Contents |
Biography
Original Timeline
Ermac was a being native to Outworld who was composed of the souls of numerous dead warriors. It was believed that Shao Kahn had created Ermac with his life force consisting of the souls of extinguished Outworld warriors. Kahn had taken possession of these souls and used them to aid in his tyranny. Ermac was created to obey Shao Kahn without question and served as his enforcer for many years.
Within the Netherrealm, many of Emperor Shao Kahns allies were killed by the demon Ashrah that she desires in order to purify herself. To combat this threat, he dispatched Ermac to combat the warrior in that hellish realm. Once there, Ermac sought for his foe but his quest was hampered by the fact that this realm sapped magic energy with this effect growing in the lower levels. In this time, he encountered the wandering warrior Shujinko and enlisted his aid in finding a Soul Stone to restore his power. After encountering the Stone, Ermacs power were restored and he battled the demon Ashrah.
One day, he confronted an Earthrealm warrior named Kenshi who came to free Ermac from his bondage and awakened his perception of the worlds that surround him.
Ermac's new found freedom meant he was also free to choose his own destiny. He decided to repent his earlier ways and became a force for good. After making this decision, he met a warrior soul who, like Kenshi, understood his suffering. This warrior soul was that of Liu Kang and was not only in need of another ally, but assistance in freeing his enslaved comrades.
Ermac was eager to help Liu Kang, as this was an opportunity to help him atone for the evil he had committed in Shao Kahn's name. Ermac decided to help Kang and the two would set out to free the Mortal Kombat champion's allies (Jax Briggs, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, Kitana, and Kung Lao) from Onaga's control. They are eventually successful in their pursuit.
Later on, Ermac joined the Forces of Light in the battle of Armageddon, where he swiftly incapacitated if not killed Rain when the battle began. However, during the battle, he disappeared for a short time, allowing Shang Tsung to take his place. Ermac was later shown to be among those who eventually died.
Reboot Timeline
In an effort to stop Shao Kahn's victory, Raiden sent a warning back through time to his earlier self in order to avert this future. This caused a change in the timeline as Raiden sought to use the incomplete experiences of his future self to prevent that timeline from occurring. During the Mortal Kombat Tournament at Shang Tsung's island, Ermac was brought into the competition as the newly developed creation of Shao Kahn. He was described as the souls of many beings fused into a single body and he battled Liu Kang but was defeated. He later returned to Outworld following Shang Tsung's defeat but a second tournament was held in Shao Kahn's realm. During the midst of his regeneration, Sub-Zero, Sonya Blade and Jax Briggs arrived and inadvertently disturbed Ermac. After awakening, Jax attacked him but Ermac used his telekinesis to rip his arms off leaving him near dying on the floor. During a confrontation with Sub-Zero, Ermac lost the fight allowing for Sonya Blade to take her wounded C.O. back to Earthrealm to be healed.
During the second tournament at the Coliseum, Ermac defeated and eliminated Johnny Cage from the tournament, leaving only Liu Kang and Kung Lao to fight for Earthrealm. After Kung Lao was killed by Shao Kahn, Liu Kang was enraged and tried to avenge his fallen friend. The emperor was supposedly killed, and his allies argued about who would be the next ruler of Outworld, an argument where Ermac was also present (but did not participate in). Shao Kahn eventually appeared alongside Quan Chi, who had aided him on his recovery and helped the emperor develop a plan to invade Earth, an invasion in which Ermac took part. After Kurtis Stryker defeated Kintaro and attempted to call in a medical evacuation for the injured Kabal, Stryker was telekinetically lifted and thrust down into the Subway by Ermac. Stryker and Ermac then fought, and for a third time, Ermac was defeated. Ermac's final appearance comes after Cyber Sub-Zero frees the Earthrealm prisoners. The recently freed prisoners were shown being telekinetically thrown back into the room by Ermac. In a rematch, the automated Sub-Zero faced Ermac again, and as before, Sub-Zero won.
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, Ermac was a humanoid being whose body draped in tattered robes of crimson and black that seemed to flutter even in the absence of a breeze, as if stirred by the restless spirits churning within him. His skin often possessed a sickly, pale or greyish hue, stretched thin over a powerful frame that pulsed with an eerie, emerald-green bioluminescence—the visual manifestation of the soul energy, or 'mortal coil', that granted him his telekinetic might. Perhaps most unsettling were his eyes, which glowed with a piercing, lidless green fire, devoid of pupils and radiating an ancient, collective hunger for order. In earlier iterations, his face was obscured by heavy bandages or a ninja’s cowl, leaving only that haunting gaze visible, while later manifestations saw him as a decaying, mummy-like figure, his very flesh beginning to fail under the volatile pressure of the myriad souls fighting for dominance beneath his skin. Every movement he made was punctuated by a faint, ghostly resonance, and he often hovered inches above the ground, his presence accompanied by the distorted, overlapping whispers of the legion that resided inside his singular, macabre form.
With much of his past shrouded in mystery, Ermac was considered an enigma to all those that had contact with him.
Due to the many souls that inhabited him, Ermac was a composite entity and thus spoke in the third person referring to himself as 'We'.
Ermac’s personality was a complex, jarring mosaic of collective consciousness that functioned less as an individual ego and more as a consensus of ghosts. Because he was composed of thousands of souls harvested from the wars of Outworld, he almost never referred to himself in the singular, famously utilizing the pronoun "we" to reflect the legion of voices debating within his mind. This created a persona that was cold, detached, and unsettlingly objective, as his thoughts were the result of a thousand disparate perspectives weighing in on a single moment. He lacked personal ambition or petty malice, acting instead with a terrifying, mechanical loyalty to his creator, Shao Kahn, or later, to the throne of Outworld itself. There was a haunting stoicism to his demeanor; he did not feel fear, pain, or joy in the way a mortal would, but rather operated with a grim, singular purpose that made him appear more like a living manifestation of a natural disaster than a sentient being. Occasionally, a single dominant soul—such as that of the noble King Jerrod—would ripple to the surface of his psyche, momentarily softening his harsh edge with a flash of ancient wisdom or forgotten compassion, before being swallowed once more by the overwhelming, dissonant roar of the collective.
Originally, he had been created by Shao Kahn to obey him without question.
Once a force of evil, following his freedom he looked to control his own destiny.
Powers and abilities
He was a life force brought together by the souls of extinguished Outworld warriors. As such, he was a fusion of the souls of dead warriors.
Using his teleportation, he could vanish into a cloud of fire and reappears behind his opponent punching them.
Offensively, he could use his telekinetic powers to lifts his opponent into the air and then slams them hard on the ground allowing for a combo.
With his telekinesis, he could propel himself into the air and hover over the field.
For periods of time, Ermac underwent a period of regeneration where his body disappeared into a mass of souls until they manifested into his corporeal form again.
Notes
- Ermac was created by Ed Boon and John Tobias where he featured in the setting of the Mortal Kombat universe.
In other media
Television
- In Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, Ermac appeared in the setting of the 1996 animated television series.
Films
- In Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Ermac appeared in the setting of the 1997 live-action film where he was portrayed by actor John Medlen.
Appearances
- Mortal Kombat:
- Mortal Kombat X:
External Links
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