Chapter 1

The Mortal Kombat tournament had difficulties when it first began. Abacus and Zaggot would argue about the structure of the tournament with Abacus believing a bracket system would make the most sense while Zaggot wanted Mortal Kombat to be a battle royal where the everyone fought in bloody combat until one remained alive. Unfortunately for the elder god of chaos and fortunately for the elder god of order, the bracket system was chosen for the structure of the tournament.
It had Begun.
On top of the bracket system, the Mortal Kombat tournament had more rules that had to be followed. As the title implied, participants in the tournament had to be mortals. The gods of the realms were required to gather these selected fighters for the tournament, they were forbidden from interfering. The gods served as the judges of the tournament, looking out for any rule violations as well as keeping fighters in designated arenas. As for how many fighters from each realm could compete, at most fifty competitors from each realm could compete at a time. This would often cause the tournament to last for several days, possibly even weeks depending on how fierce matches can become. While the gods watching the tournament were more than willing to applaud the skills of weapon masters, weapons were originally forbidden from use in fights unless both fighters were armed. The elder gods had hoped that these rules would keep combat fair, but they forgot that mortals always find a way to break structure and order.
Mortal Kombat had lured in a wide variety of combatants to the battleground. Many were devout martial artists that have used their knowledge of chi to perform many superhuman feats. However, there were many less than honorable fighters that would stop at nothing to gain immortality. They would sneak in weapons, throw sand in opponent's eyes, and even attempt to kill them. While most of the elemental gods weren't thrilled with the idea of mortals joining their ranks, they took great joy in watching the contests become bloodier as they went along. In an odd way, the blood, the violence, that's what made the gods view these foolish mortals with respect. Suijin and Zaggot were particularly fond of those that broke the rules and brought their own hidden weapons. Zaggot began to make demands to the other elder gods for later tournaments to be more violent and the victor of each match killing the loser. A fatality. It would the ultimate proof of victory and humiliation. Cetrion and Abacus were opposed to the idea, feeling that barbarism wasn't needed. After all, the role of a god requires one to be honorable and focused. Lucifer took the side of Zaggot and Suijin, after all, the dead would simply go to the Netherrealm to be his subjects.
Cetrion knew Kronika and Ourano would be too occupied with keeping the structure of the realms intact, what she didn't expect what Shinnok refusing to take her side. In fact, Shinnok didn't side with anyone. He found the tournament to be an insult to him and all the elder gods had worked on. Why should an elder god treat a barbaric mortal as a god? It made no sense to him.
Only two gods shared Cetrion and Abacus's concerns: Raiden and Argus. Raiden had grown attached to the mortals of his realm. They could be a chaotic and violent race of mortals at the worst of times, but at the best of times they could unite together to overcome any obstacle. It saddened him to see how poorly they would do in the tournament as they lost all of their matches fairly quickly and even worse, lost some of their lives. He requested that he'd take a more active role in his realm. He would form the White Lotus Society, a clan comprised of multiple different groups and cultures throughout the world. With their temple hidden in the mountains of China, the White Lotus would train Earthrealm's chosen warriors so that they could at the very least survive the onslaught of the tournament. Two groups stood out in particular, the Wu Shi academy of monks from China and the Matoka tribe from the western world. The Wu Shi monks were normally a peaceful clan that had detached themselves from the materialistic needs of the outside world to free their minds but knowing that their realm could use more protection in the tournament, they used their meditative practices to unlock their chi. The Matoka tribe were often in combat against other tribes in the western land and those that wished to colonize their territory, but they too understood the need to remove themselves from the vileness of the modern world to connect themselves with nature. Their bond with the natural world has allowed to form a connection to spirit world, allowing them to use animal spirits to assist them in combat.
While the White Lotus society helped improve Earthrealm fighters in combat, that didn't change how poorly Earthrealm did in the tournament. Very few managed to walk away from the tournament unscathed and even less managed to become victorious. Tournament victories often went to realms with the more unusual races. A male vampire from the realm of Vaeternus, a female Raptor from the realm of Zaterra, an Osh-Tekk from the realm of gold, and a dragon from Outworld. These were a few of the victors from the tournament, but one champion stood out among the rest. A mortal from Outworld, a member of a race that has been long forgotten, he was the most brutal of all the combatants in the history of the tournament. His strength was immeasurable, able to rip right through the bodies of his foes with the ability to manipulate the souls of dead around him to add to his strength. He was known as Shao Kahn and despite the fact his skills were legitimate, he was despised by the elder gods. He had no faith in them and refused to worship them. He only desired the gift of immortality as well as the status as a god. Since he had claimed victory in the tournament, the elder gods had no choice but give him what he desired. He became immortal, a god just like Raiden and Fujin, and just them he was tasked with becoming guardian of Outworld.
They had made a mistake to place Shao Kahn as guardian. He immediately went mad with power, turning the already barren realm into a tyrannical empire. True, under his rule more architecture had been developed, but it was through slavery and even slaughtering and replacing the already established civilizations with more of his empire. While the elder gods frowned upon his actions, they had sworn not to interfere unless the rules of the realms had been broken and Shao Kahn slaughtering his own people technically didn't break any rules. However, they knew Shao Kahn would become a threat and eventually he did. He had sent an army to invade the realm of Vaeternus, slaughtering thousands of the vampires. Shao Kahn would have conquered the realm outright if the guardian god of the realm, Vladimir, urged the elder gods to send Shao Kahn back. Preventing Shao Kahn from invading realms proved to be difficult due to both his power and the rules that had set upon themselves. Eventually, Abacus found a solution to keep Shao Kahn under control. In the farthest depths of Zaterra there was a rare species far more powerful than the raptors and chameleons. Dragons.
The dragon that Abacus called upon was known as Onaga, a dragon with mastery over magic as well as his natural dragon wings, claws, and fire breath. Onaga was promised he would be recognized as the one true king of Outworld if he could put Shao Kahn in his place. Onaga accepted the offer and immediately proved himself more than a match for Shao Kahn. While the elder gods wished to have Kahn killed and make Onaga the new guardian of Outworld, Onaga wanted to humiliated Shao Kahn. He had turned the would-be conqueror into his personal advisor. Right at the grasp of power but not being able to claim it himself, it was the ultimate humiliation. Onaga quickly took control of the realm and the armies Kahn had developed created his very own kingdom out of it.
Shao Kahn's outbursts and Onaga's refusal to kill him like the elder gods requested was the final straw. Shinnok had already made it clear he had no desire to treat mortals as gods, but the fact the elder gods had refused to act when they could have. Even then, it's not like the rules had been bent gods like Zaggot and Abacus. Shinnok demanded the rest of the elder gods to take action when mortals acted out of line, yet they refused to listen to his pleas. They argued that interfering with the realms and the lives of mortals would eventually lead them to act just like the One Being did. To avoid every going down that path, they had to limit themselves. Shinnok obviously disagreed with them and began to make plans for a change in order.

Here is the first official chapter of Mortal Kombat Kreation and it was definitely trickier to work on than the prologue. I actually planned for it to last around 4 to 5 pages, but it just barely went over to the third page. Anyways, I know Shao Kahn was never a MK champion, in fact the MK tournament wasn't around until Outworld wanted to invade earth, but I changed the origin of the tournament a bit. I feel like Shao Kahn is someone of an unknown race that gained his godlike powers instead being born a god. I know Deception said Kahn was a member of the same race as Raiden, but...I don't really view godhood as a race, especially since Kahn's race has always been a mystery (something I plan to keep a mystery). I also know Onaga is stated as being from Outworld, but I kinda wanted to call back to that connection Onaga and Reptile had.
We got the rise of Onaga, a set up for Shao Kahn's thirst for power and land, and Raiden wanting to protect mortals. It also shows off Shinnok's distaste for the elder gods. I kinda wanted to do a smooth transition for Shinnok for having a reasonable reason to back away from the elder gods to being another power hungry maniac. Hopefully that came across that way.