Shinnok
Shinnok is a video game character who features in Mortal Kombat.
Contents |
Biography
Original Timeline
Shinnok was an ancient god who was a member of the race of deities known as the Elder Gods. He was the child of Kronika the Keeper of Time and had a sister of Cetrion. Afterwards, he became the custodian of Earthrealm and was well acquainted with the gods of Edenia. As such, he was considered a close friend of the Argus family with him knowing the god's sons Taven and Daegon prior to them being placed in suspended animation for their future quest. In time, Shinnok grew corrupted as he sought dominion over all of existence causing him to turn against his fellow deities. He attempted to achieve his goals with a mystical Amulet that came into his possession. His plans saw him come into conflict with the thunder god Raiden who sought to stop Shinnok's plans. This left Raiden in a dilemma as he could either devastate Earthrealm to stop Shinnok or leave that realm to the fallen Elder God. Raiden ultimately decided to confront Shinnok and their battle ravaged the realm that drove the native Raptor civilization to the brink of extinction thus forcing them to flee the realm. It was only through the support of the other Elder Gods who supported Raiden was Shinnok defeated. He was then stripped of his mystical Amulet and imprisoned in the Netherrealm to be trapped in a powerless state where he was tortured by the demon Lucifer. To prevent Shinnok's freedom, his mystical Amulet was hidden away at the Temple of the Elements situated in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal. It was locked away where numerous elemental gods were placed in charge of guarding the artifact as Shinnok was locked away for all eternity. In the aftermath, Raiden was appointed as the new protector of Earthrealm and he became charged with its defense. Though defeated, Shinnok was not killed but instead he managed to create an army of followers that worshipped him with these being known as the Brotherhood of Shadow. These revenants and demons fell under the control of the sorcerer Quan Chi who served Shinnok. The fallen Elder God offered the sorcerer ultimate power in exchange for being freed from his imprisonment with Quan Chi agreeing to these terms. Quan Chi thus aided in the overthrowing of Lucifer and thus freeing Shinnok from his prison. As a result, Shinnok became the new master of the Netherrealm but despite being freed from his prison he was still trapped in the Netherrealm. Due to being bound to that realm, he began to reshape it in the form of Earthrealm as he long desired to reclaim his former realm. As a reward to Quan Chi, he empowered the sorcerer making him more powerful along with him making him the arch-sorcerer of the Netherrealm. At some point, he encountered the revived Daegon who was disoriented from being revived and convinced him that his father intended to pass his godhood to his brother Taven. In anger, Daegon killed his parents with Shinnok siding with him in an attempt to use him to achieve his own goals.
To further his masters goals, Quan Chi sought to acquire the mystical Amulet of Shinnok. To that end, he hired the services of the Earthrealm assassin clan known as the Lin Kuei. He hired them for a select task where he dispatched their prized warrior Sub-Zero the Elder with the goal who journeyed to the Temple of the Elements. Sub-Zero was not aware of the goals of his employer but was instead focused on his mission where he battled the temple guardians to finally acquire the Amulet. He provided the artifact to Quan Chi who walked away unchallenged and returned to the Netherrealm to give it to his master. It was then that the thunder god Raiden appeared where he informed Sub-Zero of what he had done and tasked him with retrieving the Amulet. Sub-Zero journeyed into the Netherrealm where he battled its various inhabitants leading to an eventual confrontation with Shinnok. In the battle, the Lin Kuei warrior succeeded in taking the Amulet from the fallen Elder God and escaping back to Earthrealm where he gave it back to Raiden. Though thwarted, this was not the end of Shinnok's plans and he dispatched the newly risen warrior Noob Saibot to observe the Mortal Kombat Tournament at Outworld. He was secretly tasked with preventing the Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn from emerging as a victor in the conflict. At some point in this time, Shinnok tasked the Earthrealm warrior Shujinko with recovering his Amulet from Quan Chi. Following Shao Kahn' defeat, the Amulet came into Shinnok's possession and he made himself ready to begin his conquest of the realms. In this time, the Edenian Tanya secretly allied with the fallen Elder God and sought to bring about his forces to Edenia. She allowed a group of apparent refugees into Edenia but they were unaware that these were Shinnok's forces that proceeded with invading the realm. This allowed them to capture the Edenian Queen Sindel along with her daughter Princess Kitana. With himself freed from the Netherrealm, Shinnok proceeded with invading the Heavens themselves where he began to get his revenge by slaying many of the Elder God. He was ultimately defeated by Earth's champion Liu Kang who defeated the evil Elder God in Mortal Kombat thus saving the realms as Shinnok was banished back to the Netherrealm.
Though defeated, Shinnok was not killed and he continued to scheme to bring about his rise to power. Among his plans was secretly allying with the awakened son of Argus named Daegon who desired power. By this point, the thunder god had become corrupted and turned into a dark deity that dealt in swift vengeance against his foes after temporarily being killed in the fight against the Dragon King Onaga. Among Raiden's actions was bringing back the warrior Liu Kang who had been killed by the deadly alliance of Quan Chi and Shang Tsung with the thunder god returning him through black magic as a zombie. Shinnok would meet Raiden and offered to help secure the protection of Earthrealm but in exchange he desired the thunder god's help in securing the power of Argus for himself. During this time, he also secretly supported Daegon in the hopes of him becoming the victor of the contest arranged by his father Argus that would bring about ultimate power. In this time, he also encountered Daegon's brother Taven who had awakened from his own slumber and continued with his quest. Taven was unaware that Shinnok had fallen to evil and believed him to still be an Elder God. Shinnok sought to test Taven and made it seem that he had been deposed from his throne by rogue demons. These demons were actually apparitions created from Shinnok's power and were created to trick Taven into aiding the fallen Elder God.
- If successful, its learnt that Shinnok created a duplicate to help Taven but it ended up defeating Blaze giving it power that matched its creator. This meant that Shinnok was now forced to fight against his clone.
Reboot Timeline
During the Armageddon, Shao Kahn ultimately won and defeated all before him causing him to become the victor. In an effort to avert this future, Raiden sent parts of his experiences back through time to his younger self. Armed with this knowledge, Raiden by the time of the first Mortal Kombat Tournament attempted to use these scattered visions to stop this timeline. Unknown to anyone, Shinnok through Quan Chi had been manipulating events in order to weaken all his enemies. This saw the goading of Shao Kahn into thinking that the Elder Gods would not intervene in his attempt at forcibly merging Earthrealm with Outworld. As Shao Kahn invaded Earth, he stood victorious and attempted the forceful merger whereupon the Elder Gods intervened causing them to destroy him. Quan Chi then informed his master that everything was going according to plan with Shinnok making his plans to bring about the Netherrealm's invasion of the realms. This chain events led to the Netherrealm War with the forces of Shinnok attacking Earthrealm. Its defenders combated his forces with a confrontation with Lord Shinnok himself by Johnny Cage. Cage's ancestry made him immune to the power of Shinnok's Amulet allowing him to defeat the fallen Elder God. Defeated, he was imprisoned in his amulet by Raiden who took it into his safekeeping thus ending the war. Despite his defeat, Quan Chi had escaped and with the Brotherhood of Shadow they went into hiding as they sought to free their master at a latter date.
Within Raiden's tower, he faced constant torture at the hands of the thunder god who had become more aggressive in his defence of the realm since his rebirth in this form. Though in excruciating pain, Shinnok noted that Raiden could not kill him and that his actions had affected the thunder god deeply. In response, Raiden decided to impart a fate worse than death to Shinnok which was severing his immortal head from his body with him intending to leave it as a warning to the Netherrealm. Whilst his foe was briefly away, the fallen Elder God was visited by his mother the Titan Kronika who was disturbed by this event as she noted that this was not his fate. Thus, she decided to intervene and moved to change all reality in order to usher in a new universe. When Raiden returned, he took the head of Shinnok where he left it before the Revenant Liu Kang and Empress Kitana as a warning to never intrude on Earthrealm. The head was placed within the Cathedral of Shinnok and secured the Revenant rulers command over the demonic forces of the Netherrealm. This was until a Special Forces unit broke into the Cathedral and used explosives to destroy the structure which left the Revenant rulers vulnerable. However, Kronika came to restore the structure which secured an alliance from the undead Liu Kang and Kitana in bringing about the Keeper of Time's New Era universe.
Overview
Personality and skills
In appearance, Shinnok was a very tall and slender built man.
Shinnok was different to Shao Kahn as he relied less on brute strength and fear mongering but more on magical powers as well as ancient artifacts. The nature of his power as well as being the ruler of the Netherrealm meant he possessed millions of years of knowledge and power. This meant he was capable of impersonating other beings perfectly.
Among his followers, Shinnok demanded complete obedience and unwavering faith. This meant he did not hesitate in killing those who doubted or challenged him. He described himself as not being a god of his word and that he was perfectly willing to betray those he made promises to. As such, it was said that Shinnoks currency was in lies.
As an Elder God, it was said that he was impossible to kill but he could be physically harmed such as having his head removed though he was still alive but catatonic in such a state. He held a great deal of hatred towards the Elder Gods and Raiden for his imprisonment.
Powers and abilities
Being a god, Shinnok's powers were greater than that of a mortal. He was capable of teleporting between two locations and firing powerful energy blasts from his hands as well as his eyes. He was capable of also creating ethereal skeletal hands of energy that ripped from the ground to attack his enemies. Shinnok was able to shapeshift and mimic the powers of other kombatants. He also had the ability of creating duplicates of himself which were bestowed with only a fraction of his power. As a fallen Elder God, he could not be killed even by another god though he could be incapacitated by other means.
With his amulet, Shinnok's power was greatly enhanced making him many times more powerful. He was capable of weakening the dimensional barrier between the realms and travel with them with ease thus bypassing his imprisonment. Curiously, he was capable of transforming into a large demonic beast when stripped of the amulet.
When attaining ultimate power over the realms, Shinnok was capable of bending time itself allowing for people to go back to locations before they were destroyed. It was said that the power of all life flowed through his being and that he fed on such energies though he was capable of sparing certain individuals.
In addition to his amulet, he made use of a staff where the amulet typically resided on.
Being the lord of the Netherrealm, he was capable of manipulating the entire hellish realm. This meant that he was capable of transforming its demonic inhabitants into more Human looking creatures. He was also capable of creating apparitions of fighters who were capable of combating opponents and behaving as if they were the real person they were based on.
Once he made his dominion over the Netherrealm, the former Elder God resided within Shinnok's Spire where his throne room resided at the top chamber.
He was noted to had assembled a fanatical cult called the Brotherhood of the Shadow that was dedicated to worshipping him. Shinnok also commanded a legon of demons and monsters who were known as the Army of Darkness.
Notes
- Shinnok was created by John Tobias and made his first appearance in Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (1997)
In other media
Films
- In Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Shinnok appeared as a minor antagonist where he was portrayed by German actor Reiner Schöne. He had a human appearance where he was one of the Elder Gods where in this continuity he was the father of Raiden and Shao Kahn, who wishes for power not only over all realms, but over the gods as well. Shinnok is also never without his Sacred Amulet which was made of gold with a ruby gem instead of bronze with an emerald gem. He favors Shao Kahn, considering Raiden too weak and caring to be his son. Shinnok orders Shao Kahn to kill his brother while guiding him in his path to merging the parallel universes of Earth and Outworld. Shinnok was later imprisoned by his fellow Elder Gods and Raiden was offered his position in their ranks.
- In Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, Shinnok appeared as the main antagonist in the setting of the animated film where he was voiced by actor Robin Atkin Downes.
Appearances
- Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero: (1997)
- Mortal Kombat: Armageddon:
- Mortal Kombat X:
- Mortal Kombat 11:
External Link
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
