** Spoiler Alert!!! click to hide or show**
Thousands of years ago in a battle with the fallen elder god known as Shinnok, I was responsible for the death of an entire civilization.
To rid all realms of Shinnok's menace I waged a war that plunged the earth into centuries of darkness and banished Shinnok to a place called the Netherealm.
Now after Shao Kahn's defeat at the hands of the earth warriors, Shinnok has managed to escape his confines of the Netherealm.
The war is now being fought once again, and this time it can be won by mortals.
- The Words of Raiden
In 1999, John Tobias, co-creator of the series, resigned from Midway and took a large number of Midway's staff with him. This occurred while Mortal Kombat: Special Forces was still in production. Ironically, when asked by video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly in a 1994 interview whether a Mortal Kombat game would be made without him or Ed Boon, Tobias replied, 
