Caster (Fate/Crossover - Shang Tsung)

**Caster** (キャスター, *Kyasutā*) is the servant of ??? in the ??? Holy Grail War.

"*Your soul is mine!*" - Shang Tsung

## Profile

### Identity

Caster's true identity is **Shang Tsung**, A powerful, soul stealing sorcerer, Shang Tsung is a celebrated villain of the series and serves as the host for the traditional Mortal Kombat tournament. He serves as a major antagonist to the series. He is Shao Kahn's right-hand-man and the archenemy of its de-facto protagonist, Liu Kang.

He is a powerful, manipulative and deadly sorcerer, virtually unmatched in his mastery of sorcery, and a shapeshifter who consumes souls in order to sustain himself. He is also an ambitious traitor who prefers planning behind other's back instead of direct conflict although he still remains one of the most powerful kombantants of the franchise.

### Appearance

Shang Tsung initially had the appearance of a decrepit old man. His skin was pale with long, balding white hair, a beard and mustache, with dangling thin fingers and long fingernails. He wore robes with shades of blue and yellow and had a sword holstered at his side at all times. Since MKII, he regains his youth, though with varying degrees. His skin returns to a natural tint and is depicted with long black hair. As with his older persona, he shares featureless white eyes. In both MKII and MK3, he wore yellow and black clothes. In Deadly Alliance and beyond, he wears a heavy red uniform. Interestingly, he is depicted with pupils, having brown eyes.

In MK 2011 during the first tournament, Shang Tsung wore a black kimono shirt with a golden accent, black pants, and black boots with a golden X decoration at the top. Above his kimono shirt, he wore a crimson vest-like robe, with a large golden trim at the edge of the robe and at the cuffs; black and gold decorations on the front of the robe, the robe has a long, single strip which falls down to around his boots; two, thin strips of black fabric protruding from the top of the pants; and a belt, with the middle colored black, the rest gold and a jade stone in the middle.

In MK11, he once again appears in his older and younger forms, the former being a slight redesign of his MK 2011 outfit with his younger form being a hybrid of his MK3 and MK 2011 appearances, sharing the similar design traits of the latter with the color palette of the former. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa provides his likeliness for the character, his younger form in particular being based directly off of his physical appearance in the 1995 live action movie, sporting a near identical hair style and a complete lack of facial hair. One of his alternate costumes also grants him his look from the aforementioned movies. Interestingly, his old form has visible pupils rather than being pure white.

### Personality

Shang Tsung is infamous for his sadism and greed. Even before joining Shao Kahn, he was a heartless sorcerer who gleefully took advantage of his punishment after the Elder Gods cursed him to die unless he consumed the souls of those he defeats or souls he decided to consume for fun. Using his polite facade as a means of tricking opponents, Shang shows he is willing to do anything that will help him gain more power. He can also be highly condescending, often looking down on his opponents while pretending to be affable towards them. All of this proves that he is nothing more than a heartless coward who would do anything to ensure his survival.

During the events of Mortal Kombat 11, Shang Tsung despite helping the heroes against Kronkia, shows how treacherous he can be after he betrays them and later Shao Kahn and Sindel. Furthermore, although he remains as pragmatic as ever, he barely even tries to hide his true intentions nor convince his allies that he is not using them as if mocking them for even considering teaming up with him to stop Kronika's forces.

## Abilities

Shang Tsung has the power to steal the souls of those he defeats and must do so to continue living. He can shapeshift into the people whose souls he steals, giving him their combat abilities and memories. However, he can shapeshift into someone without their soul. Shang is highly skilled in black magic and sorcery, and his attacks are mainly fire-based, much like his archenemy Liu Kang. Like with most other kombatants, he also has superhuman strength, speed, and endurance with him becoming more powerful after each soul consumed. When transformed into someone else, he also gains their abilities. Even without transforming, however, he is powerful enough to stand up to the likes of Liu Kang even in his elderly form.

He mainly got these powers from Shao Kahn, but in later games, this was no longer the case. Shang Tsung can fire flaming skull projectiles, which can also be summoned from the ground, that are believed to be the souls he has collected. He can create a giant flaming cobra, though he only used this ability in the opening of Mortal Kombat: Deception, which is a reference to his Animality in Mortal Kombat 3. Shang can also create portals between realms and teleport in bursts of fire. Furthermore, he can also engulf his hands with fire to increase the power of his attacks as shown in Mortal Kombat 11.

Once Shang Tsung took Kronika's crown his power increased exponentially .With the crown, he could easily defeat the likes of Raiden, Shao Kahn, Sindel and even Kronika without much issue. The only one who could match or even surpass him was Fire God Liu Kang.

Shang Tsung is very gifted (Expert schemer and skilled combatant; possesses knowledge of genetics, having created such biological abominations as Mileena, Skarlet and Meat in his Flesh Pits). He may be powerful, but he must regularly steal souls to maintain his power, unlike Quan Chi. If he loses all of the souls he had absorbed upon losing his physical body, he will return in an immensely weaker state.

## References

https://mortalkombat.fandom.com/wiki/Shang\_Tsung

https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Shang\_Tsung

https://vsbattles.fandom.com/wiki/Shang\_Tsung