Netherrealm (Mortal Kombat)

Netherrealm is a fictional region appearing in the video game series Mortal Kombat, originally created by Midway Games. The realm is comparable to the Underworld, also known as Hell in religions and mythologies. Netherrealm is sometimes spelled Netherealm, as confirmed in the character biographies and endings for Mortal Kombat Gold and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

Characteristics

The Netherrealm is an unholy, supernatural world of the negative afterlife in the Mortal Kombat universe. Due to it's semblance as an eternally volcanic "continent" with many volcanoes and lava pits, the Netherrealm is comparable to Hell within the Abrahamic faiths as well as others of different religions and cultures. This realm is where Lord Shinnok, after being banished by fellow Elder Gods for his crimes against the universe, rules over it and reigns supreme over both the realm's demonic creatures and the souls of the doomed.

The Netherrealm appears to be like the Outworld realm composed of thousands of different layers. In the Mortal Kombat universe, deceased souls or entities who have committed major crimes descend into the Netherrealm to undergo endless torture. In the older timeline, it was as if none could enter the Netherrealm without being evil or having a tainted soul. Additionally, magic users and magical beings are slowly weakened while in this realm. It is an alternative, more generic name for the Abrahamic concept of Hell, as one of its former rulers was Lucifer (whose name appears only in the Sub-Zero game manual but not in-game). It is also described as "the darkest region of reality", and is inhabited by demons, monsters, and beings of the purest evil.

Though exits from and entrances to the Netherrealm are very limited for obvious reasons, the world had quite a tumultuous history. Millions of years ago, the fallen Elder God Shinnok was banished there. After ages of imprisonment, he was able to break free, deposing Lucifer in the process. He restructured the realm to bear some resemblance to Earthrealm (planet Earth), which he had long desired to make his own. He later used it as a staging ground for the invasion of Edenia, but found himself cast into the depths of the realm again after this invasion was foiled. The abandoned war machines of Shinnok were then put to good use by one of his former acolytes, Noob Saibot.

Two locations within this realm include the Bridge of Immortality and the Prison of Souls. These are almost like the Di Yu in Chinese Mythology. The Prison of Souls is the Chamber of Grinding and so is the Slaughterhouse. Shinnok's Spire resembles that of Yan Wang's spire in 'Journey to the West.'

In Mortal Kombat: Deception's Konquest mode, Shujinko arrives during the "Festival of Torture", in which dead bodies are burned and the inhabitants watch them.

Inhabitants

Non-native:

• Drahmin: Drahmin was once a warlord who was presumably assassinated, and transformed into a caricature of his former self by unknown powers, until he became an Oni. He may have been at the seventeenth level of Hell, seeing that he's somewhat eaten by maggots or he might have been skinned in Hell as well.

Source

• Text was copied from Netherrealm at Mortal Kombat Wiki, which is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license.

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