Match of the Millennium

When Mordread was a boy, his father was a beloved ruler, a wise king rumored to have the ear of the Little People. With a sword blessed by fairies, and a wife descended from Noble Witches, Prince Mordread watched as his father, Good King Deimos the First put the needs of his people above even his own health. During famines, during peasant rebellions and challenges from rival nations, Good King Deimos stood stalwart and kind. Even as his hair grew gray. Even as his wife was rumored to have lain with his best knight who fought with lance and steed.

The second Mordread the second had the opportunity, he drew a sword and slaughtered his father where he stood, for what the young prince saw as weakness and incompetence. Immediately he took power, gathering an army by force when the old king's men refused to fight for the new tyrant. When they would not join him, he made pacts and deals with demons, chief among them Asmodeus. When he needed more, he went out and sought out the secrets of the Lich Queens, accepting them back into the kingdom and defying his father's previous decrees even as he found the traitrous ex-knights and executed them one by one, in battle after battle. Extending his life through unnatural Dark Magicks, The Crimson One drove his kingdom into misery and hardship. For two hundred years this was the norm, and life was good for the young King.

Then Shao Kahn took the seat of emperor, and suddenly Lord Mordread actually had to pay -taxes-. No matter how much he had his subjects whipped and tortured, no matter how many distant villages he ransacked, it never seemed to be enough(In truth he could have paid taxes the rest of his life with no issue. But the sheer insult of someone giving HIM any command was unacceptable.).

One day, merchants made their way through the Kingdom of Hel, and showed Lord Mordread a curiosity, more than anything: A clever piece of sorcery, a small glowing box, with a built-in "Vee Eitsh Es Player" attached. For this, the traders were graciously given the gifts of their own lives, as they were allowed to leave Hel minus their trinkets or large purses of coin. At first, to Mordread the device was merely a curiosity, but then one of the Vee Etsh Es tapes showed something interesting: Grainy footage of a powerful bald man with a bloody pit where his eye should be, slaying his fool of an opponent in honorable unarmed combat. Mordread was intrigued.

After a few more tapes, the Lord of Werewolves discovered that this was Earthrealm, a place Shao Kahn hadn't yet plundered, and in fact, a place he could not visit, due to ancient bylaws and other such nonsense. And suddenly, Lord Mordread was struck with a vision: A vision of him, conquering warlord and hero, testing his mettle and his might against this 'Earthrealm' and its forces. Not only could he gain some of their riches and fortify his own kingdom, the idea of him giving a bloody nose to the so-called 'Emperor', a man he despised with every fiber of his being. That was attractive indeed.

And so he packed his things, locked his many concubines in chastity and threatened execution by impaling to anyone who touched them, and opened a Demonic Rift to step into this Earthrealm, in search of new lands and new adventure. And, perhaps, new Vee Eitsh Esses for his glowing screen at home.