The featured fighting tournament and namesake of the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games. Mortal Kombat was originally thought to be a solely human conception, until later retcons revealed it to be universal among the series' featured Realms, created by the Elder Gods as a way for other realms to defend themselves against Outworld after it grew too powerful. The Earthrealm tournament was created by an order of the wisest in the Far East when they received visions of Shao Kahn in order to prevent the invasion, hosted by the Shaolin temples.