Shang Tsung
The soul-stealing sorcerer who can take any fighter's shape.
Shang Tsung is a sorcerer and one of the main villains of Mortal Kombat; he was the main antagonist of the first game (1992). He is defined by his ability to shapeshift into other fighters and to absorb the souls of the opponents he defeats, and he is usually opposed by the hero Liu Kang.
Quick Facts
- Series
- Mortal Kombat
- First game
- Mortal Kombat (1992)
- Role
- Sorcerer; main antagonist
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Cursed by his gods to steal souls or age and die early, he found that the souls also gave him his victims' knowledge and skill. He won the first tournament, then ran it and helped Outworld win nine in a row so the tenth could hand Earthrealm to Shao Kahn, until Liu Kang beat him and his champion Goro. In Mortal Kombat II Shao Kahn restores his youth. In Deadly Alliance and Deception he and Quan Chi try to raise the Dragon King Onaga's undead army, but Onaga returns, and both die fighting him alongside Raiden. In Mortal Kombat 11's Aftermath he steals Kronika's Crown of Souls and becomes a Titan in his own timeline. In Mortal Kombat 1 that Titan, calling himself Damashi, helps the new timeline's powerless Shang Tsung, a struggling medicine seller, become a sorcerer again.
Reader's Guide
He was first called Shang Lao and drew on the 'Chinese sorcerer' of martial arts films such as Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China. In the first game he morphed into other fighters partly because the arcade hardware had no memory left for more of his own frames, and his projectile is a flaming skull.
More in Fighting Roster & Fatalities
Elsewhere in Mortal Kombat
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