Shao Kahn

“All realms will tremble before me! Outworld will again be conquerors, never the conquered!” - Shao Kahn
Shao Kahn is a character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. A powerful tyrant of the Outworld throne, he is one of the most celebrated villains in not only the fighting game genre, but the video game genre as a whole. He serves as the main antagonist of the franchise alongside Shinnok.
Shao Kahn made his debut in Mortal Kombat II as the final boss, a role he also served in Mortal Kombat 3 and in later games. He later returned as the non-playable final boss in Mortal Kombat (2011), serving as the main antagonist of the game's Story Mode.
Shao Kahn returned in Mortal Kombat 11 as a pre-order bonus character while also having a role as a secondary antagonist in the game's Story Mode, in addition to being one of the announcers for the game's Arcade. He reprises his role as a secondary antagonist in the Aftermath Story Mode expansion, serving it alongside Sindel.
== Biography for the original timeline ==
Long ago, Shao Kahn once served as the adviser to Onaga when the latter ruled Outworld as the Dragon King. Onaga's Empire had become the most powerful among all of the realms, and so he began searching for a way to become immortal. Before this goal could be realized, Shao Kahn made his move by poisoning Onaga and taking his kingdom. Upon assuming the emperor's throne, Shao Khan began to drain the vegetation energies of Outworld and turned it into a barren wasteland. From then on, Shao Kahn continued many of the former emperor's plans to conquer all. He continued to add lesser realms to Outworld, either through direct conquest or through Mortal Kombat.
A milestone in his military victories was the merging of the Realm of Edenia with Outworld. After his warriors had won ten consecutive victories in Mortal Kombat, Kahn invaded the realm.
Taven and his brother fought alongside their father and the dragons Orin and Caro, repelling an attempted invasion by Shao Kahn in the realm of Edenia.
With Shao Kahn's threat still looming, many years before Armageddon, Taven and his brother Daegon were put to sleep by their father, Argus, who intended to send his sons in a quest to save the realms from Armageddon. They were sent to Earthrealm, encased in stone to protect them from harm and assigned two guardians by the name of Orin and Caro. Shortly afterwards, Daegon was mistakenly awoken too early by Blaze and Shinnok took advantage of his jealousy towards his brother by making him kill his mother and father, Lady Delia and Argus, with the god-slaying weapons that were meant for his and his brother's quest. With Delia and Argus dead and Taven and the dragons in Earthrealm, Shao Kahn's armies invaded Edenia and could not be stopped.
On the battlefield, Kahn killed King Jerrod, and took Queen Sindel as his own queen through (forced) marriage, raising her daughter, Princess Kitana, as his own. He had the young princess trained as his personal guard and assassin. Unfortunately for Kahn, Sindel took her own life in an attempt to escape what she believed was eternal subservience to the Emperor. However, Shao Kahn held her soul in Outworld, stopping her transition to the afterlife, not willing to let his beloved queen go so easily.
Many years later, Kahn chose Earthrealm as his next conquest. He sent Shang Tsung and eventually Goro to Earthrealm to prepare it for an invasion via Mortal Kombat. A turning point came when Prince Goro defeated the Great Kung Lao in Mortal Kombat and initiated a winning streak that would last for 500 years. Shang Tsung, a shape shifter, supervised the tournament. The tenth Mortal Kombat tournament, however, saw the defeat of both Goro and Shang Tsung by a Shaolin Monk, Liu Kang, thereby ruining five hundred years of Kahn's investment. Shang Tsung begged Shao Kahn to spare his life, and came up with a plan to lure Earth's chosen warriors to Outworld for a new tournament. Kahn agreed to this plan, spared Shang's life, and restored his youth. If Earthrealm's champions could be killed, they would no longer be able to interfere with Kahn's plans. After kidnapping Kano and Sonya Blade in the Living Forest, ambushing Johnny Cage on the set of his new movie, and enraging Liu Kang by sending Baraka and his Tarkatan hordes to destroy the Shaolin temples, they waited for the Earthrealm warriors to arrive in Outworld. Despite Kahn's vast power, Liu Kang's determination saw him through, and he defeated the despot. Unwilling to accept defeat, Kahn called his armies to destroy the Earthrealm warriors. They fled back to Earthrealm and out of Kahn's clutches.
By this time, Shang Tsung had been able to resurrect Queen Sindel in Earthrealm, and Kahn would be able to cross the border and claim his beloved wife, allowing him to conquer Earthrealm. Nearly every living being in Earthrealm had their souls stripped from their bodies by Kahn, claiming them as his own. He then had his extermination squads hunt down and kill the remaining survivors. However, Lord Raiden had protected the souls of a handful of warriors. It would be their task to stop Shao Kahn, and liberate Earthrealm from its new Outworld rulers. In the ensuing fights, Kahn was confronted by Kung Lao, another Shaolin monk and descendant of the warrior Goro defeated to become champion of Mortal Kombat, but Kahn had blasted him away, seemingly killing him. Enraged, Liu Kang attacked Shao Kahn and defeated him once more. Worn down from the battle, Kahn recalled his squads and retreated back to Outworld. This stopped the merge with Outworld, and restored Earthrealm to its original status. To make matters worse for Kahn, many of his loyal soldiers had abandoned him, and Kitana had succeeded in turning Sindel to her side, restoring Edenia as an independent realm.
The emperor was now greatly weakened, and would remain so for a period of several years, gradually recovering his strength during Shinnok's war against the gods. The Edenians had in the meantime made peace and military treaties with the Shokan, on whom Kahn had always heavily relied, and were ready to attack Outworld a few years later. It was only through his new commander Kano's ingenuity, and the stealth of his assassin Noob Saibot (who critically wounded Goro) that Kahn able to repel the Edenian army and force them into a draw. Soon afterward, the sorcerers Quan Chi and Shang Tsung entered his throne room, swearing false allegiance to the emperor. Quan Chi and Shang Tsung caught Shao Kahn off guard and seemingly killed him. This would appear to be the demise of the mighty Kahn. In Mortal Kombat: Deception, it is revealed that Kahn did not die, and that it was a clone that Quan Chi and Shang Tsung killed. The real Kahn appeared to the wounded Goro and, using what little power he had left, revived him, thus gaining Goro and the Shokan as allies once again.
In the events of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Shao Kahn is the emperor of Outworld once again. It was revealed in the bios of Shang Tsung and Mileena that Shao Kahn had regained power after Onaga's defeat, by storming his own fortress (then under the command of Mileena, who had earlier deceived and used Kitana's Edenian Army to capture the fortress) with the aid of Goro and Shang Tsung. After succeeding in using his own brute force to storm the throne room, Mileena surrenders to him and Shao Kahn becomes Outworld's ruler once more.
Later on, he would go on to form an uneasy alliance with Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, and Onaga in the hopes of defeating Blaze and seizing his god-like powers. Shao Kahn soon found himself fighting his allies and was carried off by Onaga after an unsuccessful attack on Shang Tsung. Shao Kahn somehow escaped from his nemesis Onaga and killed Blaze and obtained his power. He then becomes the ultimate winner of Armageddon when he killed Raiden.
Having suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the warriors of Earthrealm, Shao Kahn is first seen having retreated to a Graveyard, weakened and fuming from his loss. When Quan Chi arrives to chastise the emperor for his failure, while threatening him that Shinnok would not be pleased, Shao Kahn smashes the ground with his Wrath Hammer maul and orders the sorcerer to hold his tongue. Raiden soon arrives and strikes the weakened emperor with his lightning, angered by his blatant violation of the rules of Mortal Kombat.
After telling Shao Kahn that his Tarkata hordes had been routed by the Forces of Light, Raiden told the emperor his allies were now deserting him. Seeing Quan Chi summon a portal to flee from Raiden's wrath, Shao Kahn calls the sorcerer a traitor and knocks him aside with a single blow from his hammer. Before he could do anything else, Shao Kahn was struck by Raiden's lightning once again and knocked into the portal, which quickly destabilizes. Shao Kahn demanded to know what Raiden had done before the emperor and portal vanish in an explosion of yellow light.
Shao Kahn was believed dead, but in truth, he had merged with the despotic New God Darkseid, forming the monstrous abomination Dark Kahn, who sought to merge its progenitors realities and destroy them both. When Dark Kahn is defeated by Superman and Raiden, Shao Kahn was left on Apokolips in Darkseid's place. After Superman and Lex Luthor inquire his identity, Shao Kahn raged that they would all bow to him, only to discover he had lost almost all of his once formidable power. Though weakened, he was still considered too dangerous to be left freed, and so Superman imprisoned the emperor in the Phantom Zone. Shao Kahn is last seen futilely striking at the shards of the Zone he was imprisoned in, screaming in rage as he drifts further off into space. 
== Biography for the Current Timeline ==
Though he shared the same past histories as his original timeline counterpart prior Mortal Kombat, Shao Kahn has additional connections with his former general Kotal, and Kronika, such as betraying the former to be experimented by Shang Tsung, and learned about the latter's existence whom he thought to be a myth at first. However, in this new timeline, he is not the one who murdered King Jerrod, it was Sindel.
As the timeline shifts, the first Mortal Kombat tournament is the focus. While Shao Kahn is not there, he is monitoring the tournament. When Shang Tsung is defeated by Liu Kang, an irate Shao Kahn prepares to kill Shang Tsung. However, Shang Tsung offers an alternate solution for Shao Kahn: holding a tournament in Outworld with new rules. Shao Kahn agrees and rejuvenates Shang Tsung.
During the second Mortal Kombat tournament, Shao Kahn is physically present. He also makes some of the matches instead of Shang Tsung. Shao Kahn becomes frustrated when after Sub-Zero defeats Scorpion, the Lin Kuei cyborgs appear in front of him. While he allows them to take Sub-Zero away for automation and is granted the Lin Kuei's loyalty and service, he demands that Kitana explain why Earthrealm warriors are able to brazenly appear before him, when he had earlier ordered her to kill them. Before she can explain, he dismisses her, which allows Raiden the opportunity to sway Kitana to the Earth warriors' side. When Kitana discovers the experiments in Shang Tsung's Flesh Pits, she defeats Shang Tsung and brings him to Shao Kahn. Contrary to Kitana's expectations, Shao Kahn compliments the sorcerer instead. He then reveals to Kitana that her whole life has been a lie, and orders her to be executed and replaced by Mileena. In the process, Kitana's best friend Jade overhears this and aligns with the Earth warriors to rescue Kitana and defeat Shao Kahn.
Near the end of the second tournament, Shao Kahn pairs Shang Tsung with Quan Chi to face Kung Lao. However, they fail to defeat Kung Lao. Shao Kahn then sends out Kintaro to fight Kung Lao, but Kintaro also fails. As the arrogant Shaolin Monk celebrates his victories, Shao Kahn breaks the rules of the tournament by snapping Kung Lao's neck without issuing a challenge to Mortal Kombat. While Raiden attempts to electrocute Shao Kahn, an enraged Liu Kang assaults Shao Kahn. Liu Kang proceeds to defeat Shao Kahn, and punches a hole through his chest, mortally wounding him.
Later in the throne room, Kahn's lieutenants argue over who should be the new ruler of Outworld. The argument is quickly ended when Shao Kahn appears before them alive. It is revealed that Quan Chi used his sorcery to heal Shao Kahn. Upon returning to the throne room, Kahn berates Shang Tsung, as now Outworld has been forced to give up its claim to Earthrealm forever. Quan Chi, however, offers Shao Kahn an alternative solution: A direct invasion of Earthrealm.
Quan Chi explains that Kahn's former queen Sindel realized that the Mortal Kombat tournaments provided Earthrealm no real protection against Outworld. Thus, she committed suicide to create a barrier that would prevent Shao Kahn from physically entering Earthrealm and merging it with Outworld. Quan Chi goes on to explain that this barrier could be nullified if he were to resurrect and corrupt Sindel. Shao Kahn agrees to this, and in exchange, grants Quan Chi the souls of any Earthrealm warriors who are killed. With Sindel resurrected, Shao Kahn had an open window to merge Earthrealm with Outworld. He starts the invasion of Earthrealm as a result.
When Motaro is brought back dead, having been killed by Raiden, he is enraged. Sindel, however, states that she will finish what Motaro has started. To ensure that Sindel does not fail, Shao Kahn drains the souls from Shang Tsung's body, killing him. He then transfers the souls into Sindel. During this time, Kabal attempts to attack Kahn, but is intercepted by Mileena and Noob Saibot. After Kabal defeats Mileena and Noob, Kahn orders Quan Chi to seal the portal to Earthrealm, but Kabal manages to escape just in time.
After Sindel kills most of the Earth warriors before being killed herself by Nightwolf's sacrifice, Quan Chi reveals to Raiden in the Netherrealm that all of the souls of the lost warriors were granted to him by Shao Kahn. It is also during this time that Raiden discovers who "He must win" truly is: Shao Kahn. If Shao Kahn is allowed to merge the realms as he intends, he will be breaking the rules of Mortal Kombat, and the Elder Gods will destroy him.
As Shao Kahn appears to merge the realms, Liu Kang attempts to stop him, despite Raiden's warnings. This leads to a huge fight between the two, and it finishes when Liu Kang loses it and attacks Raiden from the back; Raiden electrocutes Liu Kang in self-defense, which, much to Raiden's horror, results in Liu Kang's death. Sonya and Johnny Cage attempt to stop Shao Kahn, who quickly incapacitates them with ease.
After this, Raiden surrenders to Shao Kahn. Shao Kahn gleefully attacks Raiden and beats him mercilessly. However, just as Kahn prepares to finish Raiden, the Elder Gods intervene, giving Raiden their powers. Raiden and Shao Kahn face off, and Raiden finally defeats Shao Kahn. As the weakened Shao Kahn attempts to attack Raiden one final time, Raiden blasts all of the Elder Gods' power into Shao Kahn, and the Elder Gods take Shao Kahn away for punishment. Raiden, Sonya Blade, and Johnny Cage then leave to help rebuild the world.
In the end, Quan Chi is seen picking up what's left of Shao Kahn's helmet. He then speaks with the fallen Elder God Shinnok, who reveals that all of the events in the game were actually part of Shinnok's master plan to escape the Netherrealm and take control of both Earthrealm and Outworld. After his death, Shao Kahn's soul later resided in Ermac in the next game.
Shao Kahn is featured in several flashbacks throughout the comic. As revealed by Kotal Kahn, Shao Kahn invaded the realm of Osh-Tekk ages ago, slaughtering the warrior race alongside his champion, Goro. When the ruler of Osh-Tekk, Kotal K'etz, surrenders, Shao Kahn allows him to keep his realm's treasure, the Portal Stone, in recognition for the Osh-Tekk's obedience. Shao Kahn would then merge Osh-Tekk into Outworld.
Sometime later, Shao Kahn, joined by Goro and his general, Reiko, would invade the Arnyek Islands before the Kytinn's could mount a proper defense. While other Kytinns ran at the sight of the emperor, one did not, and Shao Kahn demanded to know why she did not, at first believing her to be the queen of her people. The Kytinn declared herself the Kahn's humble servant and knelt before him. Shao Kahn ultimately spared this Kytinn, D'Vorah, from her people's fate and allowed her to serve him.
During the events of Shang Tsung's final tournament in Earthrealm, Shao Kahn ordered Reptile to enter, believing the sorcerer to have his own agenda and demanded Reptile do whatever he must to ensure victory. When Reptile continued to suffer defeat after defeat, Shao Kahn ordered Kotal Kahn to execute the Saurian for his failures but Kotal Kahn instead requested to take command over Reptile. Despite Kahn's reservations, he allowed it.
Before his death, Shao Kahn had become impressed with his general Reiko's ruthlessness in conquering in his name and adopted him.
Though long dead, Shao Kahn's weapon, the Wrath Hammer, would be wielded by Kotal K'etz when he was tasked with hunting down the traitors Reiko and Mileena. Goro would reclaim the hammer from K'etz after killing him, and Reiko took the hammer with him to Shang Tsung's Island, where Ermac would give it to Kahn's heir, Mileena, the weapon used to kill Reiko in a single blow, though not permanently due to his soul being tied to the Blood Code at the time.
When Kronika begins manipulating the present timeline in preparation to create a New Era, the past era collides with the present, and as this effect takes hold in Outworld, Shao Kahn returned, emerging from the sandstorms of time whipping through the koliseum alongside his enforcers, the similarly previously deceased Tarkatan chief Baraka, the blood mage Skarlet, and the Black Dragon mercenaries he had forged an alliance with, Kano and gunslinger Erron Black, along with several of his own soldiers, in the middle of an execution attempt on Shao Kahn's debt Kollector. Shao Kahn is initially confused by the unfamiliar sights now in the koliseum and is outraged when he hears his former general Koa'tal declare himself as a Kahn.
Shao Kahn at first believes it is a trick by the Thunder God Raiden, who along with his champions, arrived in the present alongside the konqueror, but upon learning from Kotal that he and his heir Mileena are both long dead, Shao Kahn demands Kotal vacate his throne, and when the Osh-Tekk refuses, he summons his Wrath Hammer and engages in a brief but fierce duel with Kotal. Though Shao Kahn suffers a wound to his shoulder from Kotal's blade, his raw strength quickly overpowers his successor. However, before he can deliver the fatal blow to a defenseless Kotal, he is attacked by the time displaced Liu Kang and Raiden, saving the new emperor. This causes an all out brawl to erupt in the koliseum as those loyal to Shao Kahn battle those loyal to Kotal, with Raiden's champions joining with the Osh-Tekk's forces against Shao Kahn's fighters.
After Kotal escapes and defeats Shao Kahn's personal enforcers, the Osh-Tekk emperor resumes his battle with the konqueror and gains the upper hand. Before Kotal can execute Shao Kahn and his loyalists, they are rescued by the timely arrival of the Kytinn D'Vorah, who whisks Shao Kahn and his followers to her Hives. There, Shao Kahn learns from D'Vorah of his death at Raiden's and the Elder Gods' hands, and D'Vorah also readily admits to having killed Mileena. Infuriated that his daughter was killed, Shao Kahn moves to attack D'Vorah when Kronika, the Keeper of Time arrives. Shao Kahn recognizes Kronika as the Titan of time that he had previously known only as a myth.
Kronika offers Shao Kahn an even greater empire in the New Era she seeks to create if he serves her by taking back his throne and rallying Outworld's armies to protect Kronika as she prepares to erase time. She also makes clear her intentions to remove Raiden from existence. Shao Kahn readily agrees, eager to retake his empire and make it greater than ever before and finally destroy Raiden. Shao Kahn then moves himself and his followers to the Tarkatan Kamp along the edges of the Wastelands of Outworld, where he readies the Tarkatan horde for war and prepares to reclaim the throne.
When Kotal Kahn and the past Jade's infiltration of the Kamp fails, Shao Kahn finds the two just after Jade has defeated Kotal for attempting to execute innocent Tarkatans for crimes their future selves committed by siding with Mileena. Shao Kahn has both imprisoned, giving Jade to Skarlet so she may feast on her blood while preparing to take Kotal back to the koliseum for public execution as a symbol of his victory and reclamation of his throne. As he boasts to the bloodthirsty crowd that Outworld's true ruler had returned and that they shall become konquerors once again, the koliseum is besieged by the united forces of the Tarkatans, the Shokan, led by Baraka and Queen Sheeva, with Shao Kahn's own adopted daughter Kitana having successfully rallied them to her side. Though angered, he expresses admiration of her boldness, stating that if she had shown it before, he never would have needed Mileena. Kitana retorts that both her adopted father and twin were unholy monsters before engaging him in a fierce duel that is interrupted by the Kollector.
Infuriated as Kotal is freed from his binds by Jade, the two Kahns resume their duel. This time, Shao Kahn emerges victorious, crippling the Osh-Tekk by breaking his spine over his shoulders. Kitana confronts her adopted father before he can kill Kotal, and Shao Kahn mockingly bemoans letting Kitana live after killing her father, Jerrod, sneering that he never wanted Jerrod's heir, only his wife. He then goes on to say that he kept Kitana alive only to make his new queen happy, and that he has no reason to spare her again. Shao Kahn then battles Kitana but is defeated by his adopted daughter, shocking the crowd. After declaring that she would not inherit his cruelty, Kitana tears away the mask of his war helmet and slices his eyes with her fan blade, blinding the tyrant and defeating him once and for all, avenging her parents and her kingdom.
Following his defeat at the hands of Kitana, Shao Kahn was imprisoned underneath the Koliseum. There, the blinded tyrant was being tortured by a pair of Shokan who planned to kill him before being ambushed and killed by Sindel. Sindel then defeated Sheeva when the queen attempted to intervene and convinced the other Shokan that Kitana Kahn had betrayed them and murdered the two guards. With the support of the Shokan, she brought Shao Kahn to the Soul Chamber, where his eyes were healed and he was restored to full strength.
Following this rejuvenation, Shao Kahn and Sindel went on a mission to intervene in the battle between Raiden and Kronika's forces to seize the hourglass for themselves. They defeated Sonya, Cassie, and Johnny, seizing their ships that they were planning to take across the Sea of Blood. Dumping cargo to increase their speed, they caught up to Kitana Kahn's ship. Boarding the vessel, Shao Kahn brutally struck down Kotal, and he and Sindel fight Kung Lao, throwing him overboard after his defeat. After, the pair battled Liu Kang and Kitana, with Sindel defeating her daughter and Shao Kahn striking down Liu Kang and crushing his legs, also crippling the future Revenant Liu Kang in the process.
Arriving at Kronika's island, Shao Kahn rallied the remaining Outworld forces to his side and continued the assault on Kronika's Keep, allying with the newly empowered Shang Tsung who had multiplied his own power using Kronika's Crown. Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung and Sindel then easily defeated Kronika's last protectors, the revenants Kung Lao, Kitana and Jade, killing them. However, Shao Kahn and Sindel reveled in their victory too quickly, and where they are struck down by a surprise attack from Shang Tsung. The sorcerer reveals that he plans to take the Hourglass and Kronika‘s powers for himself and offers the couple a spot in “his” New Era as his minions. Enraged, the tyrannical couple battle Shang Tsung, but are overwhelmed by his increased power from the Crown. Having both of them weakened by the sorcerer, Shang Tsung then absorbs their souls, killing them both and gaining enough power to battle Kronika.
== Personality ==
Shao Kahn is a treacherous, violent, ruthless, sarcastic, persuasive, egotistical, and bloodthirsty sadist, so he has driven to his goals by any means, yet also possesses a strange sense of humor, laughing maniacally all the time or at least when fighting his opponents. He desires only power and will do anything to make sure he has it, showing great paranoia at times whenever he believe someone plans on overruling him. Kahn is also extremely manipulative, malevolent, arrogant, and cruel, so he desires only to conquer other realms and add them to his own. On the other hand, he does shows compassion and romanticism in some media, such as the live-action series (as he seduces and charms several women in the series, including two of Quan Chi's undead female slaves) and shows a fatherly, caring relationship with Kitana despite the fact that she is covertly working against him in the second film. Jeffrey Meek's role is more interesting when one considers that he played Raiden on the same show, occasionally opposite himself. In episode 21 "Stolen Lies", he deceives a society of people called the Shaakans into believing that he is their god; every aspect of their culture (Farland = Outworld, children pretending to steal souls, a six-armed Shokan warrior and Kahn's henchmen on the scarf, a skull on the head of a Shaakan warrior) reflects this blind worship of the Outworld emperor.
In Battlewave, Shao Kahn would arrange a different plan to open the portals. He kidnaps Sonya and, by means of hypnosis and brainwashing, convinces her to marry him. The marriage would weaken the barriers between realms enough to allow Kahn to seize Earth easily (and make Sonya the queen of both realms and his wife). During the wedding ceremony held, however, the wedding would be crashed and he would be stopped by the Earthrealm warriors' interruption, ending with Sonya becoming free from Kahn's influence. In the comic, he claims to not be the romantic type, but he also states that Sonya is very beautiful as his bride. However, he soon comes to realize that both Outworld and Earth would be in turmoil as a result of the wedding.
In Shao Kahn's personal Mortal Kombat: Armageddon ending, he successfully merges all of the Realms to Outworld, but he is soon driven to madness, because there are no longer any realms left to conquer.
In the rebooted timeline, players get to learn more about Shao Kahn's true personality. Throughout his appearances, he shows how little he cares about anyone but himself; only showing concern for those he considers useful. This includes Sindel who he never shows any actual affection despite their interactions making it seem that he did care for her deep down. This is shown with his horrible treatment of his henchmen as he only shows regard towards them whenever they prove useful.
Shao Kahn in some cases can also be seen as cowardly. He poisoned the Dragon king Onaga because he was so fearful to fight him, and Kahn eventually took over his role of as ruler. Another instance is when Shao Kahn snapped Kung Lao's neck, not even fighting the Shaolin fairly face to face. Kahn's deceitful nature is shown when for many years throughout Kitana's life he's lied to her about her true father's death and her past involving her mother and to enforce that he creates Mileena which was part of his plan.
== Enemies ==
* Original Timeline 
** Raiden
** Liu Kang
** Kung Lao
** Kitana
** Sindel
** Sub-Zero
** Onaga
** Jade
** Khameleon
** Taven
** Scorpion
** Kai
** Stryker
** Bo' Rai Cho
** Nightwolf
** Johnny Cage
** Sonya
** Jax
** Li Mei
** Nitara
** Kenshi
** Smoke
** Fujin
** Kabel
** Shujinko
** Jerrod
** Overlord Zeffeero
** White Lotus Society
** Hotaru
** Elder Gods
** Ermac
* Current Timeline
** Raiden
** Elder Gods
** Kotal Khan
** Liu Kang
** Kung Lao
** Kitana
** Sub-Zero
** Onaga
** Jade
** Johnny Cage
** Sonya Blade
** Jax Briggs
** Smoke
** Jerrod
** Nightwolf
** Kurtis Stryker
** Kabel
** Shang Tsung (past)
** Cassie Cage
** Baraka (past)
** Quan Chi
** Erron Black
** Sheeva
** Geras
** Kronika
== Trivia ==
* In the movie Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, he was depicted as Raiden's brother.
* Shao Kahn was originally going to be unmasked with large, fang-like teeth since everyone in Outworld was originally going to be of Baraka's race, the Tarkata. However, in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, he appeared for the first time unmasked after he threw his hammer at the player, but it was thrown back into his face, smashing his helmet. His appearance was like that of the Mortal Kombat II comic.
* In a strategy guide in 1993 published for MKII in the UK, he was stated to dress like a 70's disco queen.
* In the internet video, he appeared in Annoying Orange Vs. Mortal Kombat as a minor character who was murdered by Shang Tsung, who then became champion.
* Shao Kahn made two appearances on ScrewAttack’s DEATH BATTLE he fought M. Bison in an season 2 episode and won then he returned in a season 8 episode to fight against Akuma and won again.
== External Links ==
Shao Kahn on the Villains Wiki
Shao Kahn on the Mortal Kombat Wiki
Shao Kahn on the DEATH BATTLE Wiki
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