KonQuest: a Mortal Kombat-inspired Martial Arts Fantasy RP

[AndyC]

In the middle years of their twenty-first century, the people of the Earth Realm have grown accustomed to their own private struggles, their own existential dreads, their own demons and hells that they fight on a daily basis. For most, those struggles are of a mundane variety, their demons and hells figurative. Only a precious few, however, know just how close the Earth Realm is to experiencing demons and hells of a very literal kind...

The Earth Realm is but one of many, and in its opposite Realm, the savage and brutal Outworld, the cunning and despotic emperor Shao Khan plots to grind all Realms beneath his heel. His sinister forces have conquered several Realms to absorb into his own, and now he has his sights set on the Earth Realm, and its billions of souls to consume. Whether it be through his hordes of vicious monsters or his manipulation of dark magics, Shao Khan has laid his plans to subvert and destroy the world of mortal men.

The only thing that has kept his dark armies at bay thus far has been the imposition of the Elder Gods. In order to conquer another Realm, the Gods have decreed the champions of both Realms must compete in the ultimate test of life and death: the Mortal Kombat tournament. Only when one Realm's champions have won ten consecutive tournaments can they lay claim to Konquest.

As of now, Outworld has won the last nine.

In a year's time, the tenth and final tournament between Outworld and the Earth Realm will begin. Raiden, God of Thunder and protector of Earth, is gathering the Earth Realm's greatest warriors in a desperate last defense, calling upon ancient allies, and making deals he would have never considered. Meanwhile, Shao Khan's emissary, the devious sorcerer Shang Tsung, gathers his own forces and schemes to undermine Raiden's champions, hoping to weaken or kill them before they even have a chance to make it to the tournament.

The fate of the Earth Realm hangs by a thread, and those who answer the call of Raiden or Shang Tsung will be tested. And both Raiden and Shang Tsung themselves will be tested as well.

What cost are you willing to pay for victory?

What are the things an evil soul would die for? And what are the things a good soul would kill for?

The tournament draws near. Konquest is nearly at hand.

Prepare for Kombat.

---

CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY

KonQuest is an RP set in an alternate version of the Mortal Kombat universe. While the driving figures behind each side (Raiden, Shang Tsung, Shao Khan, and a few outsiders like Quan Chi) are the same as they are in the games/movies/TV show/etc, the actual Kombatants will be OCs created by the players and pitted against each other. In this world, there is no 'Chosen One,' no unbeatable champion, no incorruptible hero to single-handedly save the day. The Earth Realm stands or falls based on your decisions, with Raiden attempting to bring the best out of each of his warriors, and Shang Tsung whispering in their ear to bring out the worst.

Players will be allowed to create characters (sorry, Kharacters) fighting for the Earth Realm or Outworld, or potentially outsider factions such as the Netherrealm (at GM's discretion). Heroes, villains, mercenaries, monsters, assassins, soldiers and sorcerers are all welcome. If you prove that you can reliably post with one Kharacter, you may be allowed a second one.

Kharacter Sheet

Kharacter Name:

Race/Species: (Human, Outworlder, Edenian, Tarkata, Shokan, Saurian, etc)

Realm: (Earth Realm, Outworld, other)

Alignment: (Good, Evil, Neutral)

Faction: (Special Forces, Lin Kuei, White Lotus, Shirai Ryu, Black Dragon, Brotherhood of Shadow, or Independent)

Physical Description:

Fighting Style(s): (Your Kharacter has mastered two hand-to-hand Fighting Styles and can use one signature melee weapon)

Elemental Power: (Your Kharacter can manifest energy from their soul to create supernatural effects (or mimic it with advanced technology), typically aligned with a specific element like fire or ice. The YouTuber Cynical Warlock has a great video on how MK created a pretty great elemental magic system completely by accident, but we're going to use it on purpose)

Origins: (Who is your Kharacter, where did they come from, and what do they have at stake?)

Values: (Your Kharacter, even if they are selfish or aloof, has certain ideals or goals that they would be willing to die for)

Desires: (Your Kharacter has certain motivators that they would be ready to kill for, even if they don't know it themselves)

NPCs: (Your Kharacter has at least one person who means a great deal to them, and who may be in danger if an opponent comes after them)

---

TEST YOUR MIGHT

All Kharacters are free to seek each other out and engage in PvP (this is an RP based off of a fighting game, after all). As well, the GM may send agents of rival factions after a Kharacter to test their abilities. In these moments, players are encouraged to communicate with each other on how the Kombat should go, brainstorm fun and creative ways to use their abilities on each other, create lasting consequences for the winner and loser of each fight, and of course, talk copious amounts of trash.

Given the most famous part of Mortal Kombat, there is one other thing that sets this game apart from similar RPs...

---

FINISH HIM!!!

At the end of Kombat, it is entirely possible for your Kharacter or for one of their NPCs to die. Players are forbidden from killing another player's Kharacter or their NPCs without explicit consent from the other player, but if it feels like a fitting story beat, players are encouraged to come up with an appropriate death scene, with the loser reaching some kind of final pathos before the victor performs a Fatality. A good Kharacter might try to dispatch an enemy quickly and painlessly, while an evil or sadistic one might take their time drawing the carnage out as much as possible. In any case, a Fatality should be just as much an expression of your Kharacter as any other part of them.

And if your Kharacter does die, that isn't necessarily the end. If your Kharacter has an NPC, or if you're allowed a second Kharacter, they may take their place and attempt to get revenge, or continue their legacy. And with the Netherrealm involved, there's always the possibility that your Kharacter could be restored to life....though whenever the death-god Shinnok and his minion Quan Chi are involved, there's always a price for that kind of 'miracle.'

---

FLAWLESS VICTORY

This RP will come to its end one year after the IC thread goes live, after which Raiden and Shang Tsung's preparations are complete, and the Tournament itself begins. Kharacters can change factions and even change alignments during the year-long buildup, but once the Tournament begins, everyone is locked in and all bets are off until only the forces of Earth Realm or Outworld are left standing.

[POOHEAD189]

Damn, this looks cool

[Bright_Ops]

Konrad Nachtnebel

Kharacter Name:

Konrad Nachtnebel

Race/Species:
Formally Human, Currently undead.

Realm:
Originally from Earth Realm, but has spent a great deal of time in the Netherrealm.

Alignment:
Was Evil, is currently Good.

Faction:
Independent

Physical Description:
In his original mortal life, Konrad Nachtnebel was a 192 centimeter tall German special forces solder, with white skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Promoted as a living paragon of his nation and government, Konrad would spend over six years of his life fighting in some of the most brutal, bloody and merciless combat Earthrealm has ever seen against a wide variety of human enemies.

His resurrection into undeath and his countless years within the Netherrealm have changed Konrad in many ways, one of which was physical. His skin is now an unnatural, pallid gray, with cracks running throughout it that glow with the damned fire that has been seared into his soul. What was once rich blond hair has become a lifeless bone white and the blue eyes that were once admired now glow a sickly yellow. It is impossible for anyone who sees him to mistake him for a living person, for his unnatural state cannot be hidden.

Fighting Style(s):

S84/98 III Bayonet: The melee weapon of choice during Konrad's military career, he had such a connection to his Bayonet that it has followed him into death, readily summoned to his hand as easily as a taking a breath is for the living.

Mixed Boxing: As part of his physical training for the special forces, sports were generally apart of the program to both improve the physical condition of trainees, but also to promote comradery among the solders. Boxing was one such sport and Konrad was good at it. While the realities of war meant that pure boxing wasn't really an option on the battlefield, it served as a strong foundation, even more so when combined with tenants of Jujitsu.

Mixed Wrestling: Like boxing, wrestling was one of the sports that was encouraged for training purposes. Being on the taller side and having a lot of physical power, Konrad was unsurprisingly good at it. Like with boxing, the realities of the battlefield meant that pure wrestling didn't have a place, but it did serve as a good foundation for the combat form that developed.

Elemental Power:
The fires of the Netherrealm are apart of Konrad's being, merged with his very soul. While a source of pain and discomfort, it can also be used by him to achieve his goals.

Origins:

In life, Konrad Nachtnebel was born and raised in Germany during and after the First World War. He would grow up in a poor nation that was crippled by the loss of said war and the brutal sanctions and punishments that were forced upon it. Believing the narrative that German hadn't so much as lost the war as been sold out and betrayed from within, Konrad would prove to be an ideal candidate for the Waffen-SS and would serve in it from the start of the Second World War almost right to the end in 1945.

During those years, Konrad would fight on a number of different fronts against people of many different nationalities. He would also commit numerous war crimes against those people, believing zealously in the righteousness of the Nazi cause and the sub or inhumanity of those he was torturing and killing.

Konrad did not go quietly into death. Tasked with protecting one of the desperate attempts at Occultism by the leadership of the Third Reich at the final days of the war, Konrad's body would be found surrounded by the corpses of two special forces squads, appearing to have died due to having been struck by lightning during a freak storm that appeared over the site.

In death, Konrad's soul was sent to the Netherrealm. His damnation to that realm and the many, many years he would spend there served to inform him of just how mistaken he had been about the righteousness of the cause he had dedicated his life too. However, before the Fallen Elder God had taken over the Netherrealm, it had served other purposes beyond that of a prison for the evil and damned. Infinite in size, by chance Konrad found himself under the administrations of one of the realms original jailers... an entity that believed in the reformation of the soul once the evil had been painfully and brutally cleansed from it.

Instead of being used as a plaything or turned into a weapon, Konrad was instead subjected to the torturous pain of purification of his sins.

In truth, Konrad was just as surprised as anyone when he found himself brought back to life in Earthrealm... through the manner of that new 'life' was not what one would have naturally wanted. A human student of Shang Tsung, in a plot to create undead warriors from Earthrealm in order to bypass the rules of Mortal Kombat via having 'local agents' weaken and kill the realms defenders, would pull several such souls from the Netherrealm and grant them undead bodies.

However, in a cosmic twist of fate so strange that one cannot help but believe an Elder God had a hand to play in it, all the warriors that the sorcerer pulled from the Netherrealm had been under the care of the reformulation demons for some time. Long enough to acknowledge their wrongdoings and actively desire to be reformed. The sorcerer in question was also nowhere near as talented at magic as he believed himself to be and was very swiftly dispatched to the very realm he had been pulling souls from in the more traditional manner of going there.

Back on Earth but clearly changed by both the Netherrealm and the manner in which he was brought back, Konrad decided that he was going to dedicate whatever time he had on this plane of existence to trying to do good and prove, if only to himself, that his soul could be reformed and saved.

Values:
Redemption:
If there is one value that has been instilled in Konrad, it is the fact that no matter the sin, redemption is possible. It is not easy and the process is often painful... but if the desire to atone is earnest, it can be done.

Kindness:
Kindness is an... interesting value in Konrad's eyes. While many would view him as brutal and cruel in his fighting style and the state he might leave people, from his point of view he is doing them the greatest kindness of all: He is giving them the chance to rethink their lives and the path they are taking. He knows from personal experience the lengths required to make someone living an evil, twisted life question the beliefs that allow them to exist in such a state... and he earnestly wishes to spare them the Netherrealm, for most souls that go there aren't as lucky in who claims them as he himself was.

Valor:
Not everything from his living days were stripped away from him during his purification. While some misconceptions on what it meant to be valorous were corrected, the virtue of bravery and the desire to act to save others has remained largely intact.

Desires:

Atonement:
While Konrad knows that no amount of good deeds will prevent his return to the Netherrealm when his undead state is brought to an end, he does legitimately desire to show that his time there had inspired him to be a better person... even if the only person who cares is himself.

Justice:
It has to be stressed that Konrad believes in the power of redemption. That a person, no matter what they have done, should be given the opportunity to rethink their lives in order to change and become a better person. However, if they absolutely refuse to reconsider their dark path despite his efforts to enlighten them of what is to come, he has absolutely no issue with sending them to the Netherrealm as swiftly as possible.

NPCs:
Justin Arthur:
A former Australian solder who died during the Second World War, Justin's actions against the Japanese during the war resulted in him going to the Netherrealm where, much like Konrad, he found himself 'fortunate' enough to come under the tender mercies of a demon that wished to show him the error of his ways. He was also pulled from the Netherrealm at the same time as Konrad and, after slaying the evil bastard that tried to enslave them to kill the living, the pair opted to travel together because... well, it wasn't like they had anyone who would offer them a couch to sleep on if they parted ways.

Jane Doe:
A third 'redeemed' soul from the Netherrealm, Jane was there far longer then either Justin or Konrad. While they know that she is originally from Earth, they have no idea who she was in life, what era she's from or even what her name is due to the fact that she is completely mute and honestly doesn't seem to be aware of where she is most of the time. However, what they know for certain is that whatever or whomever she was, she is deadly when it comes to a combat situation. During the brief battle against the sorcerer that raised them in undeath, Jane personally killed five of his assistants/cultists without a word with brutal efficiency with a combination of her bare hands and improvised weaponry. Combat seems to be the only time she seems lucid.

Going to be honest: Raiden killed Konrad back in 1945. It wasn't anything personal against Konrad himself so much as Raiden needed to directly intervene due to the occultist site in question being too great a danger not to. The best way I could word what was happening at that site is 'Imagine a tribal human smacking an unexploded but armed thermonuclear warhead with a piece of flint repeatedly because they found that it made great fire starting sparks'. The kind of thing that Shang Tsung and Quan Chi would trick someone else into doing because being in the same realm as it is a terrible idea.