She was once a queen.
Her realm had been one of the first to be challenged to Mortal Kombat by Shao Kahn of Outworld - one of the first to be bested, conquered and merged into the emperor's domain. She knew, even before the tenth tournament came to a close, that her time as Queen was now limited. As such, she began to scheme.
When Shao Kahn himself stepped through the portal at the head of his vast army and began slaughtering all of his new domain's defenders, she enacted her scheme. Her husband had been making preparations to face the invader in single kombat.
Armed and armoured and facing the invaders head-on, he spared not a glance back toward his wife, who took the opportunity to literally, as well as figuratively, stab him in the back. The shock of the sudden betrayal allowed his wife to continue her assault, finally driving the dagger into his throat, right as the Kahn burst into the throneroom. Exactly as planned.
Licking her husband's blood off of her hand, she stepped forward and knelt before the intruder. She pledged her fealty and devotion to him, inviting him to take her as his loyal bride. Having suffered a recent loss himself, Shao Kahn accepted the offer and took her back to his palace while his followers made preparations for the merger.
That was how Queen Valkaria of Vaeternus became Empress Valkaria of Outworld. Like all natives of the now conquered realm, Valkaria was a vampire. She bore the traits typical of her race - large demonic wings, jagged white fangs, numerous mental and blood-related abilities - but her complexion was notably darker than the paler skin of most of her subjects. Vampiric abilities were typically weakened by the sunlight of other realms, but those of darker complexions were more resilient to such debilitating effects. This made Valkaria a very dangerous foe to face in any realm.
Along with craving it as a source of sustenance and manipulating it as a weapon, Valkaria also utilised blood to intimidate her foes. She painted her face with the stuff in the style of theatrical depictions of Vaeternus' deposed Protector God, Abakabb, as well as adding highlights to her otherwise ebony hair. In battle, her armour bore numerous small spikes to easily draw blood from her enemies. Not that she needed these advantages, of course. She already struck an imposing figure at seven feet tall, with large wings that naturally grew jagged protrusions to further aid with the bloodletting. Excess blood was typically stored in numerous vials she wore on a shoulder-slung belt, for later use as a weapon of drink.
The vampires of Vaeternus became scattered after the merger, but Valkaria had not an ounce of care for their plight. All that mattered was that she remained in the lap of luxury, the wife of the man who would conquer all the realms. Truly, there was no man more worthy of Valkaria than he.
Shao Kahn continued to conquer realms, as he had Edenia and Vaeternus. Many fell to his champions in Mortal Kombat, and the realm Valkaria held dominion over continued to grow. Of course, many of the conquered would rise up in rebellion; especially those from Vaeternus. Valkaria herself took on the responsibility of crushing such rebellions as a sign of her loyalty to her new husband, and her absolute lack of sympathy for those who defied their masters. She was powerful in many senses: politically, physically, mentally.
However, there was one thing that she, much to her chagrin, held no power over. Before he set his sights on Vaeternus, Shao Kahn had conquered Edenia, slain King Jerrod, and taken Queen Sindel as his first bride. Sindel had taken her own life not too long after.
He took new prospective brides from each realm he conquered. None but Valkaria lasted very long. Some took their own lives, as Sindel had before them. Others were unable to adapt to Outworld's atmosphere. Most, however, were ended by Valkaria's schemes. There was room in the Kahn's heart for only one Empress, and she went to great lengths to ensure that Empress was her.
There was little doubt that Shao Kahn was aware of her actions. He was a highly intelligent man, having taken the throne via clever scheming to begin with. However, Valkaria's scheming to keep her place either amused him or impressed him. Either way, he cared little for these other women. After all, no woman could compare to Sindel.
Sindel was the only woman Shao Kahn had ever truly loved. It was his devastation at the loss of his first wife that had opened him up to accepting the conniving vampiress as his second. However, while it had opened the door for her, it also served to limit Valkaria's potential significance in the Emperor's heart. Of course, she herself loved him no more than he did her. If anything, theirs was simply a mutually beneficial relationship: she retained her power and privilege, so long as she remained useful as an enforcer and lover. Her frustration, rather, came from the knowledge that she could hold so much more sway over him, were it not for the constant reminder of his previous wife that was her daughter, Kitana.
Kitana had been spared her father's fate by Sindel's pleading. She had agreed to the Emperor's demands, only on the grounds that Kitana be spared. He had adopted the child and held Sindel to her promise, with Kitana serving as a bargaining chip.
From what Valkaria could tell from the sparse details she had learned from him, Shao Kahn had genuinely believed Sindel would one day come to love him as he did her, and never treated her or her daughter poorly. Valkaria theorised that it was the ever-looming knowledge that she would eventually have to submit sexually to her husband's killer that drove Sindel to her death. Valkaria could somewhat relate, though she was more than willing to subject herself to such things in the name of maintaining her privilege. Of course, Shao Kahn was an excellent lover, so that was even less of a concern for her.
But Kitana would always serve as a reminder to Shao Kahn of what he had lost. Valkaria despised the girl for keeping that wound fresh by her mere existence. She much preferred Kitana's 'twin sister', Mileena. As far as Valkaria was concerned, Mileena was her and Shao Kahn's progeny.
Mileena, due to her tarkatan DNA, had a savage bloodlust, not unlike that of the vampires. Teaching Mileena to control this bloodlust was another of the duties Valkaria had volunteered for. She intended to train Mileena to view her as a mother figure to manipulate the girl into becoming her puppet. Her savage, animalistic heritage made her easy to train. Loyalty to her 'father' made her loyal to his wife. Combined with Valkaria's powerful sanguimancy and hypnotic vampiric abilities, dominating Mileena and reshaping her mind was a trivial pursuit.
She had to be slow and subtle, of course, lest her husband take notice and have her executed for interfering with the delicate mental conditioning already in place within Mileena's mind. So long as she approached this properly, Valkaria would have Kitana removed from play and her own place secured by the time the next realm was challenged to Mortal Kombat.
Or, that was the plan. Earthrealm, it turned out, was a much more dangerous threat than first believed. It was now two times that Earthrealm had broken Outworld's nine tournament streak. First, Kung Lao had beaten Shang Tsung. Now, it was his descendant, Liu Kang, that had beaten both Shang Tsung and the champion that had beaten Kung Lao, Goro. Shao Kahn had then challenged the Earthrealmers to a tournament in Outworld with the highest stakes yet. If they could overcome the Emperor himself in his own dominion, he would lose his claim on Earthrealm forever.
And he did. Liu Kang won this second tournament and saved Earthrealm forever.
This alone would not have a huge impact on Valkaria's schemes. She would need to comfort her Emperor and ease his pain through obedience, but her plot to eliminate Kitana would proceed largely as planned. However, Liu Kang had managed to throw a wrench into that scheme as well. It became apparent that Kitana had met Liu Kang prior to the Outworld tournament and set the wheel of fate into motion.
During the Outworld tournament, Kitana's true memories were restored, exposing her true lineage to her. Mileena, as per Shang Tsung's programming, had attempted to intervene, only to find herself executed by her 'sister'. Valkaria couldn't deny feeling more than a little upset at Mileena's death. Still, she supposed she could have the young Edenian, Tanya, take her place. She had always liked Tanya. She reminded her a little of herself.
Valkaria, like the rest of the Outworlders competing in the tournament, had been bested. She supposed she should be grateful for Earthrealmers and their 'morality', or her chances of survival would have been about as high as theirs would have been were the results inverted. She was also fortunate that Shao Kahn himself had been bested by Liu Kang. His wrath was terrible when his subordinates failed him, but if he himself also failed, lashing out at his followers for doing no worse than him would paint him as petulant and damage the meticulously-planned image he presented to his subjects. She was safe.
Now, months after Earthrealm secured its freedom from Outworld forever, Kitana was seeking refuge in Earthrealm with her shaolin boyfriend, while Shang Tsung was in the process of resurrecting Mileena. Only the sorcerer himself and the Emperor and Empress knew of this, of course. Valkaria sensed this revival served a greater purpose than simply restoring Mileena, as her 'father' was hardly the sentimental type. She supposed it might be part of a plot to have Mileena take advantage of Kitana's newfound association with the Earthrealmers to mislead or assassinate them.
While the sorcerer handled that and Shao Kahn formulated his scheme to bend the rules, there was little Valkaria could do besides help with the training of the troops and crushing the numerous rebellions that had started popping up since the tournament first exposed the Kahn's fallibility. For now, she could only wait for the next phase of the Emperor's plan to begin.
Part of her duties in training the troops was to serve as a liaison between her husband and his new Earthrealm allies, the Black Dragon. Though she was unaware of their specific role in the big picture, Valkaria knew Kano and his followers were supplying Earthrealm weaponry and assisting with the battle planning of the upcoming invasion. Valkaria could respect their willingness to sell out their own realm for profit and status. Perhaps that was why she had been chosen for this task.
Kano was not the sort of man Valkaria would choose to associate herself with. He was dirty, hairy, generally unpleasant, and a bit of a letch. Still, he had his uses, both for Shao Kahn and for her. Many would think that Kano was not a man to be trusted. But Valkaria understood that this kind of man, with such simple motivations, was actually the most trustworthy there was, so long as it was your pockets that ran deepest.
A meeting with Kano was arranged by the Emperor, who wanted Valkaria to organise Kano's next weapon shipment. It was a mundane task that was far beneath one of Valkaria's station, but it meant she was still at the forefront of Shao Kahn's mind, which was exactly where she wanted to be. So, she would gladly meet with Kano in the War Room to arrange his next shipment of 'guns' for her master.
As expected, he was waiting there for her, along with a group of his followers. Valkaria took particular note of the man with rock-like skin over his exposed arms and chest. The rest, however, were far less interesting to look at; aside from the young woman in the skin-tight purple outfit with the firm abs and the nice round buttocks, of course.
Naturally, Shao Kahn was always wary of Kano and his people, and arranged to have his secret weapon, Skarlet, hide in the room, ready to act in the event of a betrayal. Skarlet was a fascinating creature to Valkaria: a blood golem, created from text that originated in Vaeternus. Blood golems were a creation of Valkaria's people that were bound to the will of the one that sat upon the realm's throne. Skarlet's existence was known to only a few, and even fewer know anything beyond that she was another of Shao Kahn's assassins. Even Valkaria had only met the golem a few times since her creation.
"You have more of these 'guns' on the way, yes?" Valkaria said with only as much professional politeness as was necessary. Her true disdain for this meeting was plain for all to hear.
"That's right," Kano confirmed. "Enough ta' arm a thousand a' your tarkatans."
"For how long? These weapons have limited ammunition, do they not?"
Kano smirked, in a way that suggested he was impressed by her understanding of these foreign devices he was peddling. "That's just the guns themselves. The next shipment'll be a lot more ammo fer 'em."
"And how much will that be? You understand we're aiming to conquer an entire world, yes? Not just some insurgent rats in a desert."
"Yeah, yeah," the dealer replied dismissively. "Trust me. It'll be enough."
Valkaria snarled. She greatly disliked Kano's tone when speaking to his superiors. He was slightly more formal with Shao Kahn, as he was the one 'paying the checks', as the Earthrealmer put it. But even then, his tone was only tolerated by the Emperor because a turncoat was invaluable in any invasion scheme. Valkaria could do nothing to jeopardise this working relationship, but she promised herself that she'd drink this cretin dry the second he outlived his usefulness.
"Will that be all?" she asked through grit teeth. "I'd rather like to get back to being anywhere but here."
Kano chuckled. "I do appreciate the honesty. But, no. There is one more thing before we let you go."
"Do get on with it," she replied, struggling to mask her contempt.
Kano drew his butterfly knife with intent. His followers, likewise began drawing weapons and taking stances. Valkaria now realised she had been careless as she had focused entirely on Kano and her disdain for him, and not paid attention as his people subtly moved to surround her.
It was the woman - Tasia, she believed Kano had called her earlier - who made the first move. She was nothing special. Valkaria was easily able to outmanoeuvre her and wrap a hand around her throat. She sensed that the woman's will would be quick to overturn with her gaze, but the rock man was able to close the gap surprisingly quickly. She threw Tasia directly at him, forcing him to stop to safely catch her, opening him up to a boot to the face.
Kano was upon her soon after, attacking with his knife. Valkaria's boots were resilient enough to take the fierce thrust and knock the blade clean from his hand. Of course, never one to go unprepared, Kano had a second knife out in seconds. He threw this one for her chest, forcing her to dodge, rather than deflect. The dodge brought her closer to another of Kano's followers, who swung a large hatchet her way. She used the momentum of her dodge to dodge further, narrowly avoiding the attack and countering with a swing from one of her large wings, knocking the man off his feet.
She took flight to evade any further close quarters attacks, forcing them to make use of the very weapons she was here to oversee. She dodged behind a pillar and waited for Skarlet to come to her aid. Hearing the clashing of steel as Skarlet made her presence known, Valkaria took advantage of the confusion to swoop down and tackle Kano.
Despite being pinned by the taller woman, he continued to try to stab her with numerous blades hidden on his person. Unluckily for him, she was able to disarm him each time. After he tried to shoot her with a laser from his metallic eye, she took one of his blades and stabbed the implant, seemingly destroying it.
Then, she turned to choose her next target, only to find her throat suddenly open and blood gushing out of the wound. The blade that was now coated in her royal blood was a tanto, held in the blood-red manicured hand of Skarlet. Despite the utter shock of the betrayal and the gaping wound that was stealing her breath from her, Valkaria still attempted to demand an explanation from the golem, who simply brought her blade below Valkaria's chin and thrust it sharply upwards, bursting out through the top of the vampiress' skull.
In the few remaining seconds before Valkaria's life was fully extinguished, she observed how this woman, this creature, who should be totally bound to Valkaria's will, barely registered any recognition of what she was doing on her cold features, aside from the slight smile as her tongue traced her ruby red lips to taste the vampire blood that had splattered across her face. There were so many possible explanations for Skarlet's treachery and cold demeanour that Valkaria could consider maybe half of them before her mind finally shut down for good.
The final possible explanation that passed through her mind was that this was all done on the orders of Shao Kahn himself. Regardless, Valkaria, last Queen of Vaeternus and second Empress of Outworld, fell to the floor, dead.
"It is done, Master," Skarlet reported after her body formed itself from blood the seeped up through the cracks in the marble floor of the throneroom.
"And how was it?" asked her creator, Shang Tsung.
"She put up quite a struggle, but Kano and his people upheld up their end of the plan. Her blood was... mmm... exquisite." Skarlet moaned slightly.
"No doubt, Kano will have disposed of her desiccated remains by now. A shame there will be nothing left to identify who was responsible for this treason. Sending you to deal with such a powerful sanguimancer was risky, but fruitful in the end. With any luck, this... exquisite beverage will make you more powerful than ever. Still, it truly is a shame about the Empress. You have my condolences, Emperor."
"Indeed." For once, Shao Kahn's grin almost matched Shang Tsung's own in width. "But, there is no time to mourn. Be on your way. You have important duties to continue."
"As you wish, Emperor." Shang Tsung bowed and departed for the Flesh Pits once more.
"If I may ask, Master," Skarlet began with a quiet nervousness. "For what purpose was I given this task?"
Normally, Shao Kahn would be annoyed by one of his underlings questioning his commands. However, Skarlet had already successfully obeyed said commands, and her master understood she was akin to a child, trying to understand the world in her brief periods of release from her secret chamber. Plus, he was too enraptured by his own brilliance not to tell someone his plans, and Skarlet would certainly never tell. He motioned for her to come closer. She did so, crawling towards his feet as any good servant would, and he began whispering into her ear.
"Valkaria was an obstacle in my grand scheme. Although useful, her status as my wife would prevent my marriage to Sindel from being recognised by the Elder Gods upon her resurrection. If, however, my second wife were no longer with us, any revived wife would be recognised as legal. That legality will be key in allowing me access to Earthrealm once Kano and his Earthrealm ilk abscond with my beloved Sindel and take control of her mind to use against me. Thanks to this unfortunate turn of events, I will be granted permission to pursue, bringing an army with me to secure my wife's safety from the villains who took her from me."
"And Shang Tsung's experiments with Mileena are a test for Sindel?"
The Emperor grinned proudly. "Unfortunately, the sorcerer is still an Earthrealmer at heart, and he will betray me, utilising data from his secret research to use Sindel against me. I will scour Earthrealm for her, unable to find her thanks to the machinations of Shang Tsung and the Black Dragon. I will continue to search for her, conquering Earthrealm territory as I go to ensure they have no place to hide. Only once all of Earthrealm is conquered will I finally find my wife and her captors. I will pardon them, out of respect for the lengthy chase, and Earthrealm will become a part of Outworld for the transgressions of these villains."
"A brilliant plan, Master."
"It is. You, too, are a brilliant creation. Shang Tsung should be proud of his work."
Skarlet's pale cheeks flushed slightly.
"Now, I think it is about time for your reward."
Kahn bit down on the tip of his large thumb, drawing blood, and pressed it against Skarlet's lips. She closed her eyes and began to gently suckle at the wound. The lifeblood of the mighty Emperor was one she had voiced a taste for in the past. As such, he used this desire to maintain her servitude and to reward her for success in important missions - a tactic he had originally used to keep Valkaria placid. And given the importance of this mission today, Skarlet certainly deserved a reward for opening the door to the return of Shao Kahn's one and only Empress.
As of today, I'm 29, MK is 28, MK11 is getting Mileena, and MKK is starting to introduce some original characters.
The origin for this character lies in my belief that MK11's take on Sindel would work far better as a separate character with the exact same backstory. I chose to have her hail from Vaeternus, since our knowledge of the realm is limited to Nitara's story across two games. Check out her bio on my DeviantArt for more: the4thsnake/art/Valkaria-The-Substitute-Empress-827523100
And don't worry. I'm not planning to overload MKK with OCs. Only the ones I think have a particularly strong concept and potential in the narrative will be incorporated, and they won't overshadow the canonical cast.
