#onaga

Hotaru & Seido

In Havik and Rain's endings, they flood the realm of Seido and in one of Havik and Mileena's intro's, Havik orders Hotaru to be brought to him and Mileena states "Seidan refugees will not be returned."

So my pitch is Havik and his followers invade Outworld trying to get back the refugees of the flood, they are the elite, Generals, Politicians, the Rich who could afford to escape the Flood.

Hotaru in the New Era is the leader of Seido. He runs the oppressive regime Havik opposes. He helps Liu Kang maintain order of the realms by any means necessary and learning that Fire God Liu Kang himself put Hotaru in charge drove Havik’s ire. Hotaru being absent from MK1’s narrative is a creative failure. Like, they could’ve painted a shade of grey on Liu’s character by having him recruit Hotaru to help maintain order in his timeline. The fact that there is no Chaos Realm just tells me Liu Kang just forced Hotaru and Havik to co-exist and that led to potentially Hotaru enforcing oppressive Order by any means necessary while Havik becomes an anarchist.

Once again, I fail to see why Ed and NRS refused to use Hotaru. You have Havik, the embodiment of chaos and Hotaru, personification of Order, both in an authoritarian sense and a strong sense of justice and you don’t fucking think to include him??? Havik is chaos personified. Hotaru is the worst aspects of Order. He can go from saving you, liberating villages and setting up a fucking police state and NRS STILL does not see the potential in Hotaru? Okay, sorry rant over.

All of Havik's scars is because of Hotaru. On his order the seidan guard did this to him and was turned into the pariah and anarchist he is today.

Now? Hotaru is powerless, a refugee and holds no titles. But sees opportunity. He gets into the royal family's good graces. Says he and the remains of the Seidan guard will help them against General Shao and Onaga's onslaught. All he asks is a position in her council and complete control of the military and police of Outworld. Mileena has no choice, she accepts.

Eventually the heroes has to stop Hotaru because his vibes are complete absolute and authoritarian. and when he is defeated and removed from power. That's when Havik appears.

Havik has a chance to take revenge against Hotaru and Hotaru has the chance to avenge Seido. You get to choose between Havik and Hotaru.

Havik wins, he kills Hotaru, tears his eyes, and crushes his head into a bloody mess. But he loses his mind completely. He loses his purpose in life and pledges to spread chaos throughout the realms. Chaos is all he has left.

Hotaru wins. He completely melts his face. Havik is dead. Hotaru pledges to restore Seido to his former glory and spread order throughout the realms, whether they like it or not.

Onaga

Reiko’s ending becomes canon in an act of desperation to defeat Seido’s onslaught. Onaga is free. But unlike in the Shao and Reiko’s endings, Onaga is not a mindless beast, Onaga has a mind of his own and he will take back what’s his. Outworld. The Kamidogu and all the realms to unite as one and become the One Being.

Shinnok

Shinnok can work as a complex, fallen, or reformed deity rather than just a traditional omnicidal villain. Because Liu Kang reset history to keep characters like Shinnok and Quan Chi from gaining power early on, Shinnok’s narrative would need to pivot to fit this new status quo

Without his innate Elder God status, Shinnok could be introduced as a naive or noble god of life and death. His descent into the dark "Fallen God" persona could act as a cautionary tale of hubris

Because Shinnok's signature Amulet was notoriously indestructible in previous timelines, it could exist as a "fixed point in time" that Liu Kang cannot permanently erase.

Shinnok is "reborn" because the Amulet inevitably pulls a consciousness into it across realities. Liu Kang might be forced to act as Shinnok's reluctant warden, forcing the fallen god to help Earthrealm in exchange for keeping his soul intact.

Alternatively, Liu Kang designed Shinnok to be an ordinary, mortal inhabitant, Shinnok’s role could be completely reversed. Shinnok is an unsuspecting scholar or archivist whose soul begins to reawaken to his past divine memories, gets teleported to the Netherrealm, masters and becomes the god of the Netherrealm and everything goes to shit.

Outworld Civil War

This one is obvious. It's a major plot point in the arcade endings and is heavily mentioned in Khaos Reigns. For this story to work, I would add Jade, Motaro, Sheeva and Kotal as playable characters(they were mentioned in the story that Raiden defeated them) and Skarlet in Kombat Pack 3.

The story goes that the war has reached a breaking point. General Shao and Reiko get desperate. They find and unleash Onaga. Thus forcing the Outworld royal family on the run. They regroup in Earthrealm and band together a counter attack to reclaim Outworld and reimprison Onaga or an alternate fate. Liu Kang was watching during the events of KR and taught Tanya how to truly tame Onaga and bring peace to the realm.

The One Being.

The One Being is inevitable. Instead of just residing within the original universe, the One Being's consciousness is already scattered across the newly introduced multiverse. Since every timeline (including Shang Tsung's or Havik's) is a fractured reality, the One Being could operate as the glue binding them all. It could act as a sentient, warping anomaly that threatens to collapse all known timelines into one chaotic singularity to make itself whole again.

In the current story, Titans and external universe shifts pose massive threats to Liu Kang’s peace. The One Being could function as the hidden architect manipulating these beings. By whispering to desperate characters in different timelines—such as Titan Shang Tsung or Onaga—the One Being could subtly drive them to merge the realms or shatter the Hourglass, feeding on the cosmic chaos without directly appearing on the battlefield.

If the narrative culminates in the One Being's return, it could be realized as an Eldritch boss. Because the Elder Gods shattered its body to form the realms, the One Being could attack by summoning environmental hazards derived from the six broken realities (e.g., throwing massive chunks of Earthrealm, Chaosrealm, and Netherrealm). Its moveset could be an unbalanced, shifting combination of all existing character powers, functioning as an apex boss for the fighting game.

Multiversal Tournament

This is something I came up with. Something is driving timelines at war for their very survival. The heroes & villains of each timeline are plucked from their timelines' destruction. Forces beyond their comprehension force them into Mortal Kombat. We get the choice to play as either the New Era, the Previous NRS timeline, Midway Timeline or Shaolin Monks timeline. We find out things we never thought we'd seen or heard before. Armageddon wasn't inevitable. It was planned by a master manipulator, this person is behind everything. Behind Armageddon, behind the cracks in Raidan's medallion and behind Kronika. It's Delia.

Red & Black Dragons and Special Forces

The Red and Black Dragons are introduced. They are at war. Newly introduced Sonya, Stryker and Jax are introduced, Takeda pulls in Kenshi and Johnny Cage to end the fighting before it brings complete chaos to Earthrealm. It ends with both dragon gangs being captured and the Outer World Investigation Agency being founded with a tease of Cageblade.

However......it's different. You see, the Red Dragon Clan begins as it does in the Midway canon. Daegon awakens and forms the clan. BUT. Taven awakens early as well. This causes Taven to form the Black Dragon Clan. Started out as a noble cause to stop his brother Daegon, but the power corrupts him and becomes a ruthless criminal war lord. But a vision from Argus and Deliah causes him to abandon the criminal life style and do this the right way. Lets expand on this.

Both Taven and Daegon woke up early, Finding his parents murdered, Taven loses his mind and his sense of duty. He forms the Black Dragon as a splinter group to actively fight the Red Dragon.

The Black Dragon is not started by Kano or Jarek, but by a bitter and vengeful demigod.

Taven might have gathered these outcasts and castaways as a noble, ragtag rebellion to stop his corrupted brother.

Instead of his faithful guardian Orin acting as his protector, Taven would have enslaved and manipulated Orin much like Daegon enslaved Caro.

Daegon named the Red Dragon after his guardian, Caro. A Taven-led Black Dragon would likely be named after Orin

Daegon famously harvested Caro's genetic material, combining it with Saurian/Zaterran(Reptile) DNA to mutate his own human followers into horrific Human-Dragon hybrids. If Taven founded the Black Dragon using this method, the Black Dragon—traditionally a straightforward, greedy syndicate—would instead operate as a twisted biological-weapon facility, churning out dragon-human soldiers for Taven's campaign.

The clan war becomes a literal proxy war between two immortal, divine brothers.

Kano, and Kabal, would be his top lieutenants, similarly to how Mavado and Hsu Hao are Daegon, with Kira and Kobra being Taven's latest recruits. Maybe they all get specific Dragon Hybrid transformations via special moves or fatalities.

The Special Forces role is to stop this war before it can consume all of Earthrealm and reminding Taven as his role as protector of the realms.

War of Elder Gods and Titans

I look at Shang Tsung's Arcade ending and see wasted potential

I thought we could've gotten a war of Elder Gods and Titans.

So the Titans invade. This causes the Elder Gods to act and it's a war that threatens to consume all of existence.

Delia

Watch this video, this guy put more thought into it than I can do justice

But long story short.

First and foremost, Delia has a very unique design and nothing is done with her after Armageddon's opening, which I always viewed as wasted potential

Bringing back Delia as the main antagonist in the next Mortal Kombat sequel or timeline expansion is a brilliant, long-overdue concept. Delia’s prophetic sorcery, ties to Edenia, and obsession with Armageddon fit perfectly into the chaotic, timeline-shifting era established in Mortal Kombat 1.

Delia is historically a brilliant, calculating sorceress and prophet. In Liu Kang’s New Era, she and her husband Argus are worshipped as Gods, but her dark potential is far greater.

The Grand Manipulation: Delia could use her visions to orchestrate a true Armageddon event, similar to the events of MK: Armageddon.

Control of Destiny: Believing that the new pantheon of Liu Kang and the decadent Elder Gods are destined to ruin the realms, she triggers a multi-realm conflict to consolidate all power and forcefully reset or splinter the universe into her own perfect vision.

Delia should be written as a ruthless philosopher, similarly to Kreia from KOTOR II who views the Mortal Kombat tournaments and realm cycles as flawed, cyclical wars orchestrated by arrogant Elder Gods and petty tyrants. Similar to Kreia, she could seek to end the "will of the gods" by destroying the foundations of the realms altogether.

Kreia despised the Force because it forced beings to act as mindless pawns in an endless cosmic balance. Translate this by making Delia view the Elder Gods, Titans, and their endless "New Eras" as an abusive, eternal cycle of pointless suffering

Instead of just abandoning her sons Taven and Daegon to prevent Armageddon, she should manipulate the heroes (like Liu Kang) from the shadows. She guides them, not out of maternal love, but because she needs them to dismantle the current celestial order.

She should view the eternal conflict between Outworld, Earthrealm, and Netherrealm as an absurd, petty squabble. She would actively lecture heroes like Raiden or Kitana, calling their heroism "fragility" and telling them they are just delaying the inevitable ruin of the cosmos

If Delia takes center stage, she brings a massive roster of characters with her

Taven & Daegon: Delia’s sons. Daegon, having turned rogue (and historically killing his own parents in past timelines), would make a fascinating rogue operative. Taven could serve as the tragic, reluctant hero trying to stop his mother’s madness.

Rain: In Liu Kang's era, Rain studies dark sorcery and has deep ties to Edenia's lore. Delia could act as his dark mentor or a manipulative step-mother figure, using Rain to fuel her fire magic.

Blaze: Delia's creation from Armageddon. She could manipulate Blaze to absorb the powers of everyone in the tournament, making him the ultimate final boss leading to Delia

Delia would be an incredible addition to the roster, likely playing as a hybrid zoner/setup character:

Lady of Flame: She would use pyromancy, creating traps of blue, green, or red fire that control space or burn opponents who step into them

Precognition & Sorcery: Her unique mechanic could involve temporary buffs, counter-zones, or time-reversal abilities that "rewind" a few frames of damage