| Gender | Male |
| Origin | Earthrealm |
| Resides | Earthrealm |
| Species | Human |
| First appearance | Mortal Kombat 1 |
- History Of Liu Kang
- Old timeline
- New timeline
History of Liu Kang
Old Timeline
Liu Kang is one of the many iconic faces of the series despite not being the poster boy of many of the game’s covers he does arguably act as the protagonist of the game. Liu Kang has a rather tragic backstory behind him. At an extremely young age Liu Kang was orphaned by his parents and was left at the doorstep at the order of light a Shaolin Temple in China. The tower was overseen by Raiden. Growing up in the temple wasn’t exactly the easiest thing. There was an extremely heavy emphasis on discipline and respect.
Liu Kang had to learn the hard way on some different occasions. Growing up in the temple he learned about the Mortal Kombat tournament and the iconic greats. Kung Lao, an individual that many in the temple aspired to be, was a descendant of the Great Kung Lao. The two would grow up together forming an extremely close and somewhat brother-like bond. The two would train and spar together and eventually, Liu Kang became the most talented fighter in the Shaolin Temple. This would catch the attention of Raiden. The God was extremely surprised by how talented the youngster was and actually believed that the survival of Earth from rest on Liu Kang’s shoulders.
Raiden would send Liu Kang to train with an individual known as Bo Rai Cho. Though Bo Rai Cho was an outworlder, he was able to mold Liu Kang into a solid fighter. After several years of training, the Mortal Kombat tournament would arrive. Under Raiden’s orders, Liu Kang would travel to Shang Tsung’s Island to participate Mortal Kombat.
During the tournament, Liu would meet other individuals that wish to protect Earth, like Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, but of course, they did have their own mode for being there.
At the tournament Liu was not only able to defeat the current champion of MORTAL KOMBAT Goro, but also defeat the tournament organizer Shang Tsung. Upon Shang Tsung’s defeat the island began to crumble and Liu Kang only just managed to escape whereas many others weren’t as lucky
In Mortal Kombat 2, Liu Kang returns home and was devastated to learn that Outworld had led an attack against his Shaolin brothers, killing many of the friends he’d made at the temple. Disgusted by the acts of Outworld he and Kung Lao would assemble EarthRealm’s forces in order to find out what exactly was going on with this unwarranted attack. This did somewhat violate the rules of Mortal Kombat tournament they won. The pair seek out Johnny Cage we see that he’s the next victim of Outworld’s attack. The movie star’s assisted by Jax and together they hold their own against Outworlds forces it’s only until Raiden arrives and Shang Tsung presents from a novel Mortal Kombat tournament that cannot be turned down. To make things worse this tournament would also be held in Outworld.
Raiden would accept and all of Earthrealm’s defenders would participate During the second tournament a relationship would blossom between Liu Kang and Katana but the two didn’t actually act on their feelings until much later. We don’t know everyone who had battled during Outworld’s tournaments, we know that Liu was able to defeat a Shokan Kintaro, a rejuvenated Shang Tsuung, and most importantly, Outwards Emperor himself Shao Khan. Shao Kahn did not take this loss well and despite being defeated would begin a massive assault and invasion of Earthrealm’s forces.
Raiden and his allies return back home to prepare for the coming invasion titled Mortal Kombat 3. After the events of the previous tournaments, a massive invasion would begin and many humans would fall during this battle. Shao Kahn had created extermination squads to seek out and kill any earth humans in their way. During the later half of the game, Kung Lao would confront the Emperor and a two wood battle. Kung Lao would be killed in this battle. This would enrage Liu Kang and he would challenge Shao Kahn to Mortal Kombat. The two would fight and the Emperor was defeated once again.
Because of his loss Shao would return back to Outworld in an extremely weakened state. After the battle was over, Katana was tremendously pleased as by Liu defeating Shao Kahn the Edenians were able to reclaim their lost home.
In Mortal Kombat 4, the fourth Mortal Kombat game, Liu Kang would travel the world in order to find a new generation to teach. He was mostly roaming China with Kai when the Netherrealm invasion would begin. While Shao Khan was dealing with Outworld’s affairs in the Mortal Kombat tournaments a fallen elder god known as Shinnok had been binding his time and was waiting for Shao Kahn to be defeated so he could strike and take control of the realms. After hearing that Edenia had been captured by Shinnok, Liu Kang would set out to free Katana and her fellow Edenians from Shinnok’s rule.
Towards end of the fourth game Liu Kang finally came face to face with the fallen elder God and despite Shinnok’s overwhelming power, Liu Kang’s intuition allowed him to have an edge over the fallen elder god, defeating him and sending him back to the Netherrealm. After freeing Kitana and her realm, the princess would give him the opportunity to join her as a ruler of Edenia. Liu Kang really appreciated this gesture as he did love Kitana, however, due to being the champion of MORTAL KOMBAT he knew that he couldn’t abandon his role. Liu decided to stay in Earthrealm to protect his home.
Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance was a huge tonal shift for the series as a whole. It started to step in more of a dark and grim direction are uniting Shang Tsung and Quan Chi as the deadly Alliance. Together the pair of them would kill Shao Kahn and Liu Kang. A few years after Mortal Kombat 4 the two were able to bind their time and would attack Liu Kang when he was training a Shaolin Temple. During the ensuing battle, Liu and the monks were overpowered by the sorcerer. Even the Elder God Raiden was no match for the pairing and it ultimately led to his defeat. Once this had happened Dragon King Onaga would return and this force the deadly Alliance and Raiden to work together in order to stop Onaga. Unfortunately, the Dragon King proved to be too much and Raiden sacrificed his own life in the hopes that would destroy Onaga. Raiden’s efforts were in vain as a Dragon King did survive and Raiden would be corrupted.
After these events Liu Kang’s soul was seemingly freed of Shang Tsung’s body service allowed him to roam the realm as he did want to get back into the fight. Liu was secretly hoping that he could be reunited with or body. After Raiden had been corrupted he wanted to punish those that not only threatened his realm but dismissed what he’d done for his home. Raiden would find the dead body of Liu Kang and resurrect him, swearing to punish anyone that took the Elder God’s protection for granted. After seeing this Liu Kang was understandably extremely upset about what had happened to his mentor.
Once Onaga survived the explosion he would resurrect all of Earthrealms warriors that were killed in this battle and that consisted of many individuals including Kung Lao and Kitana. Liu Kang would team up with the mystical Ermac and the two would start a mission in order to save their friends from Onaga. There was on their journey Liu Kang would catchword about a man names to Shujinko who’s tricked by Onaga to get the Kamidogu.
After hearing of this deceit and hearing about your Shujinko abilities to learn other people’s techniques, Liu decided he would teach him. Together the trio would attack Onaga with the dragon king being defeated and all Onaga’s slaves being freed of his control. The new Kang was reunited with Kung Lao and the beautiful princess he had fallen in love with Kitana… but the piece wouldn’t exactly last long.
Mortal Kombat Armageddon is an extremely important point in time for the Mortal Kombat universe as it is the final installment in the original timeline. In this installment things become rather dire for Liu Kang. Due to his soul not being reunited with his body, Liu struggles to retain his spirit. Because of his state, he was forced to anchor himself to someone that he had a strong relationship with. For a considerable amount of time he was with Kitana. After a while, he needed to find someone else that could not only hold on to his soul but reunite it with his body and that’s where Nightwolf steps in.
While this dilemma was going on, Liu Kang’s body was still going on a massacre across the realm but once the pyramid of Argus arose, the body sensed that Shang Tsung was there. Despite the body being a somewhat brainless zombie the vengeful spirit tracked down the sorcerer during the final battle and began to drain some of Shang Tsung’s lifeforce. Unfortunately we don’t actually know what happens from this point onwards. The best answer we give is that basically everyone falls during the battle of Armageddon. Because Nightwolf is killed off during this fight, Liu Kang loses the only possibility of being reunited with his body and the ability to continue existing in visceral. Liu Kang’s soul is sent to the afterlife and it marks the end of the original timeline.
New Timeline
Liu Kang somewhat disappears for the next few chapters but does make a very brief appearance during Scorpion’s chapter, where we learned that Kung Lao has infiltrated the tournaments. Kung wishes to prove himself as Liu Kang’s equal by challenging Scorpion something which does catch Liu Kang off guard. Kung Lao is defeated in this battle and Liu Kang tends to his wounds. Later on in the tournament Liu has his first fight and it’s against Ermac.
Ermac is defeated by the Shaolin warrior and this would naturally catch the attention of Shang Tsung. Seeing him as a threat that could stop Shao Kahn’s plan. During Liu’s training in the courtyard he’s approached by Raiden and the two discussed the visions that Raiden has been having. Raiden from the previous timeline had sent a message to his past self with an extremely vague statement saying he must win. Raiden believes it was his future self providing this vision, and that Liu Kang must be the one that must win.
Despite the pressure, Liu felt more than prepared to win this tournament. Once Raiden leaves, we learn Shang Tsung had sent Kitana to attempt to kill Liu Kang, but was unsuccessful. After her defeat she felt disgraced and wanted Kang to kill her but Liu said he wouldn’t do this and instead told her to carry on like nothing had happened.
As the tournament progressed Liu had to fight the current champion of MORTAL KOMBAT, Goro and finally Shang Tsung himself. Just like in the original timeline, Liu Kang was able to defeat everyone in his way and save Kitana from Shao Kahn’s clutches. Raiden noticed that his amulet had cracked once again which is a sign that things aren’t getting any better.
A celebration was held in Liu Kang’s name at the Wushi Academy. Quickly it would be attacked by a revitalized Shang Tsung and a Tarkatan army. During the assault many monks at the Wu Shi Academy were killed and Sonya Blade was kidnapped.
During this invasion, Shang Tsung had invited them to participate in a novel Mortal Kombat tournament of this time on Outworld’s home turf. Considering what they had done, they knew that they had to compete. During the second tournament Liu Kang, Kung Lao and Raiden would venture to Outworld in order to rescue some Shaolin monks that had been kidnapped by the Tarkatan army. Raiden would battle the likes of Devorah and Baraka while Liu and Kung Lao destroyed the Tarkatan forces. Shortly after this Sonya is rescued and the defenders are informed by Jade that Kitana is scheduled to be executed by Shao Khan. The Shaolin Monks would travel deeper into Outworld to save her. They battled many kombatants during their journey including Goro. They interrogated the Shokan learning that Kitana had been taken to Kahn’s Coliseum to be executed.
Traveling quickly, Liu Kang attempted to free Kitanaa of her shackles. Kung Lao held off the forces, and defeated Kintaro, but this victory wouldn’t last long. Not realizing Shao Kahn had snuck up behind him and snapped Kung Lao’s neck, killing him. When Liu saw this he instantly snapped, challenging the Emperor to one-on-one Kombat.
Liu defeated the Khan by plunging his fist through his chest. Although Liu was happy about Shao Kahn’s defeat, he did mourn the loss of someone who he deemed was his brother. Much like the original timeline Shao Kahn would come back and was enraged by his loss at the second tournament. Shao would begin his mass invasion of Earthrealm. He also had Quan Chi resurrect Sindel and to somewhat guarantee his victory he would infuse her with Shang Tsung’s lifeforce. This significantly amplified her power.
Liu Kang and Raiden would go see the elder gods as they believed that Shao Kahn’s invasion violated the rules of Mortal Kombat but elder gods were not help. More cracks appeared on Raiden’s ambulance and a situation was becoming more and more dire. The two returned back to their headquarters to find many of our own defenders dead. Nightwolf sacrificed his own life in order to kill Sindel. Realizing what had happened, Liu Kang would immediately rush to Kitana’s side and try to comfort her. In her final moments the two have a very bitter and sad parting of ways.
For Liu Kang this was the final straw. Despite his guidance, Raiden had made mistake after mistake which cost the life of his brother, all of his friends, an ally, and a girl he’d quickly fallen in love with.
Liu is a bit wear of Raiden’s decision-making skills at this point. He helped to nurse Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage back to health prior to heading back to Earthrealm to confront Shao Kahn. Raiden intervenes and explains that Liu must allow Shao Kahn to merge four realms as this violates the rules of Mortal Kombat. Raiden believes the message he received earlier “he must win” in fact refers to Shao Khan because by doing so he will enjoy the Elder God’s Wrath.
Liu is mildly hesitant as he still believes that the Raiden he once knew is now long gone. Liu Kang continues on his mission to stop Shao Kahn until Raiden intervenes. The two of them battle each other with Raiden ultimately being successful in stopping his pupil. Out of rage and disgust for his mentor, Liu Kang lights up his fist and prepares himself to kill the God. When Liu attempts to strike him down, Raiden would put up a wall of lightning which would react with Kang’s fire fist, inadvertently and accidentally killing a champion of MORTAL KOMBAT.
Mortal Kombat X – In this installment of the game, Liu is playing more of an antagonistic role The story has a heavy emphasis on a new generation of characters and a civil war in Outworld between Mileena and Kotal Khan. As the story progresses, special forces are attempting to track down Quan Chi to find ways of returning fighters back to their former selves. They’re able to ambush Quan Chi with Jax and incapacitate some of his revenant allies.
Liu Kang is amongst his revenants and he’s able to kill many Special Forces operatives in order to protect his master Quan Chi. This doesn’t stop Jax from catching up to them and he’s able to defeat Liu Kang and capture the sorcerer. They are taken to the Special Forces base, but Hanzo Hashashi and the Shrai Ryu infiltrate the headquarters to retain Quan. Quan Chi is killed and Shinnok is freed from his amulet. The revenants appear to greet him and take Johnny cages body to the sky temple as Shinnok wishes to crop Earthrealm’s life force in the Jinsei Chamber.
Arriving at the temple the revenants would attack an incapacitated master Bo Rai Cho as they knew that by doing this it would draw out Raiden. Shinnok forces Raiden to stay outside whilst he travels to the Jinsei chamber. Raiden battles the revenants and electrocutes a handful, leaving only revenants Liu Kang and Kung Lao before him. Raiden is able to defeat Kung Lao but is blindsided by his former student Liu. Raiden attempts to apologize to Liu Kang again but the revenant does nothing more than mock him and his vision feeling like he was betrayed by his mentor about the only thing that Raiden could do at this point was die. An extremely fierce battle emerges and Raiden is able to gain the upper hand yet again.
Raiden doesn’t succeed in stopping Shinnok during the final chapter of the MKX story but the Kombat Kids do. Once Shinnok is defeated, the revenants outside the temple realize their master has perished, they all seemingly disappear and return back to the Netherrealm. Katana and Liu Kang decides to assert themselves as Emperor and Empress of the realm.
During the credit scene in MKX we see a fully corrupted Raiden confront them and threatened them that if they attack he will retaliate in full force.
Mortal Kombat 11 – Some time after Shinnok’s defeat at the hands of Cassie Cage, Raiden is seen torturing the fallen Elder God in the damaged Jinsei Chamber. The God of Thunder, now with a darker persona due to the Jinsei’s corruption, announces to Shinnok that he will no longer have mercy and will destroy Earthrealm’s enemies before they can attack the realm. Though Shinnok reminds him that he cannot kill an Elder God, Raiden retorts that “There are fates worse than death” and decapitates him. Raiden resolves to deliver him to Liu Kang in the Netherrealm as a warning and before teleporting away.
The Keeper of Time, Kronika, appears in the chamber, enraged at Raiden for upsetting the balance of time after the events of Mortal Kombat X. She confronts and tells Shinnok that the Arc of Time bends to her will and that “it’s only a matter of time.” Yet another timeline reset happens.
Kronika recruits Kitana and Liu Kang from the Netherrealm to help with her plan to remove Raiden from existence. This change merges the current timelines and past timelines, resurrecting past kombatants.
The past Liu Kang and Kung Lao begin lamenting their dark futures. Liu Kang decides to continue to put his faith in Raiden, but Kung Lao begins feeling skeptical.
Upon infiltrating the academy, the Shaolin Monks encounter the same Scorpion from their timeline. One of the monks works to disable the traps while the other fights Scorpion, at first to no avail, until the arrival of revenant Jade, who is under Kronika’s orders to keep the Shaolin Monks alive. This allows the two an opportunity to make the revenant Edenian and the time-displaced wraith retreat.
Upon arriving in the Heavens, Raiden consults the Elder Gods, with Cetrion telling him what to do. The duo then come across Geras, who is stealing vials that contains Earthrealm’s life force, the Jinsei. Geras knew they were coming, however, due to the revenant versions of Liu Kang and Kung Lao. After defeating their counterparts, the two then fight and defeat Geras before he freezes them in time. If Kung Lao fights Geras, Kronika’s strongman reveals that he met and fought the Great Kung Lao once.
Kronika appears and although Geras states that it would be dangerous to let them live, Kronika keeps them alive, as if they die, their revenant counterparts would cease to exist. Geras and Kronika disappear as time resumes for the duo.
Back at the Special Forces Desert Base, Liu Kang, Kung Lao, Sonya, Cassie and Johnny Cage learns that the realms are in crisis. Raiden tells the two what he have learned, and promises not to lead them to their deaths as Dark Raiden did. He will find a way how to solve it.
It is revealed that Kronika fears Liu’s power alongside Raiden’s and thus manipulated the timelines to force the two to fight against each other. Her fears are fully realized when Raiden merges his own essence with Liu Kang’s past and present selves, turning him into a Fire God. With this merger, Liu Kang’s powers are boosted exponentially, taking down an entire legion of Netherrealm demons in one fell swoop by simply dive-bombing and creating a massive explosion on impact. He has also inherited Raiden’s command over lightning and thunder as well as the ability to fly. His power and skill are so much that he is able to best the Elder God Cetrion in single kombat and later defeat Kronika, whose power eclipses that of the Elder Gods, cementing him as one of the most powerful kombatants in the entire franchise. He is also the only person not affected by the full power of the Hourglass even as it was rewinding time back to the prehistoric era.