Shao Kahn has been one of the biggest bads in the Mortal Kombat series and for good reason. This power hungry warlord has carried out numerous atrocities in his goal to conquer the realms and become the most powerful being in existence.
At best he’s a shady manipulator doing dishonorable things to get ahead and at worst he enslaves those closest to him both in this life and the next. While this is by no means a comprehensible list of all the terrible things he’s done, here are some of the worst.
10 Poisoned The Dragon King Onaga
His first step in becoming the powerful warrior he is today was by poisoning his former master Onaga. The Dragon King had Shao Kahn serving as his right hand providing him great power and privilege. But this wasn’t enough for Shao Kahn who sought the throne Onaga sat on.
Rather than face him in one on one combat Shao Kahn poisoned him and took control of his kingdom. It’s possible Shao Kahn wasn’t strong enough to depose him at the time or poisoning him was simply the most efficient option, either way it shows Shao Kahn cares little about honor when achieving his ends.
9 Drained Life From Outworld
Upon obtaining the throne, Shao Kahn found a way to augment his powers by storing the life essence of all plant-life from the Outworld into his own body. The ritual or rituals he performed to do this certainly gave him incredible strength, but it left the Outworld a barren wasteland.
Perhaps it’s partly for this reason he’s obsessed with conquering other realms as his own is barren and lifeless. However, it could also be that he sees other realms as a deep reservoir of power for him to tap into and take for himself.
8 Conquered Edenia
One of Shao Kahn’s early conquests was to conquer the lush fertile realm of Edenia. After successfully defeating Edenia’s finest warriors in 10 tournaments, Shao Kahn was permitted to invade. Considering the realm’s strongest fighters continually lost to Kahn’s it’s no surprise that the realm quickly folded under the might of his armies.
To secure his rule of the realm, Shao Kahn brutally killed it’s ruler, King Jerrod and seized his spot on the throne. For thousands of years Shao Kahn and his minions would rule over the realm with an iron fist. It wasn’t until Kitana severed the connection to Outworld and Sindel, King Jerrod’s wife, retook the throne and brought peace again however fleeting.
7 Invaded Earthrealm
Following the successful conquering of other realms Shao Kahn set his sights on Earthrealm, but was unable to secure the 10 tournament victories needed to conquer it. So he fabricated a fake tournament in Outworld and tricked Earthrealm’s greatest warriors into taking the bait and leaving Earthrealm defenseless.
By having Shang Tsung resurrect Sindel, the barrier was dropped and Outworld was permitted to invade. Shao Kahn used this loophole to launch his invasion and likely led to the deaths of many, many civilians in Earthrealm.
6 Killed Kung Lao
In Mortal Kombat (2011) Kung Lao manages to defeat Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, and Kintaro in mortal combat and seemingly set the timeline on the correct path Raiden was hoping for. Unfortunately for Raiden’s plans Shao Kahn snuck up on Kung Lao and snapped his neck.
Granted it was a smart move and did remove the greatest threat to Shao Kahn’s plans at the time, but it was also low and underhanded. When facing Earthrealms greatest warriors you want to show your power, not your cheap tricks.
5 Delivered Dead Heroes to Quan Chi
Later in Mortal Kombat (2011) Raiden seeks to broker an alliance with the powerful sorcerer Quan Chi and offers the souls of the dead heroes as bargaining chips. He quickly finds out that Shao Kahn has been collecting these and other souls and has delivered them to Quan Chi already.
The purpose was to have Quan Chi turn these souls into faithful revenants to serve as powerful fighters on the frontline of combat when conquering Earthrealm. It also raises the question of how many others souls Shao Kahn has delivered to Quan Chi for his twisted purposes over the years.
4 Enslaved Sindel
Upon conquering Edenia and killing King Jerrod Shao Kahn decides to secure his rule by taking Sindel, King Jerrod’s wife, as his own. For many years Sindel is essentially a slave, subjected to untold horrors at the hands of Shao Kahn and forced to live as his queen both on the battlefield and in the bedchamber.
Sindel would later escape this hellish existence by taking her own life, but unfortunately this only served to mark the beginning of the horrors she would experience at Shao Kahn’s hands.
3 Captured Sindel’s Soul
It turns out that after Sindel took her own life Shao Kahn used his powers to capture and secure her soul in Outworld. Prevented from moving on to the afterlife, there’s no telling how long Sindel suffered in the Outworld or how she was kept contained.
After however long she was kept trapped in the Outworld, Shao Kahn delivered Sindel to Quan Chi for a much darker purpose. It’s unclear if this was his plan all along or if he kept her soul as punishment for her defiance to his will.
2 Created Mileena
Intent on establishing something resembling a family and realizing his adopted daughter Kitana would never bow to him and could potentially become a threat, he did something vile. In an effort to replace her, Shao Kahn directed Shang Tsung to have a more powerful and compliant clone created.
The sorcerer fused Kitana’s essence with a Tarkata warrior in the notorious Flesh Pits. What resulted was the nightmare fuel that is Mileena, a cannibalistic monstrosity that would serves as Kitana’s sister, Kahn’s spy and assassin, and a terror to be unleashed upon Kahn’s enemies.
1 Brought Back Sindel
Perhaps the worst act Shao Kahn has ever done was to take Sindel’s captured soul and reanimate it as a corrupted Revenant. The once kind and honorable Sindel was now a bloodthirsty Revenant, her memories destroyed and her personality altered dramatically.
This brainwashed undead being bore little resemblance to the woman that stood at King Jerrod’s side. Sindel would be manipulated into killing many of Earthrealm’s finest warriors before being killed in combat against Nightwolf that left him dead as well. Considering all the atrocities and horrors Sindel has faced, having her twisted and manipulated after death to serve Kahn is by far the worst thing he’s ever done.