Lin Kuei
(Please note that this is a work of fiction)The Lin Kuei are an ancient clan of theives and assassins for hire. Their location is in the North-Eastern part of China. For many years, the Lin Kuei made financial profits off the evil desires of others and their warriors are trained from youth after being stripped of their former lives. Each Lin Kuei recruit, who are actually the offsprings of veteran Lin Kuei warriors, are selected for their special abilities that they inherited from birth and are trained in martial arts. However, one Lin Kuei warrior, who was orginally from Japan, named
Takeda, decided to break away from the Lin Kuei and return to his homeland. There, he developed the art of
Ninjutsu, an art of stealth, exotic weapons, and magic that could be learned by anyone, and offered his services to the Japanese samurai lords during that country's feudal era. Takeda also founded the Shirai
Ryu clan, which became an instant enemy of their counterparts back in China. Unlike the Lin Kuei, the Ninja clans of Japan such as the Shirai Ryu,
Iga Ryu, and
Koga ryu, were actually a loosely organized spy network composing of different clans serving lords. Takeda was a target for assassination by his former clan for years until he died not from battle, but from poisoned slipped into his tea. One of the most famous Shirai Ryu ninja was a family man named
Hanzo Hasashi aka Scorpion who later be killed while on a mission in China and be reincarnated as a
specter. The most famous members of the Lin Kuei are
the Sub-Zero (the man who killed the ninja Scorpion in China) and his younger brother (who possesses the same codename) along with Smoke,
Cyrax,
Sektor, and Frost (a female Lin Kuei). In the modern times, the Lin Kuei decided to take on modern technology and automate their human assassins into soulless
cybernetic warriors in
MK3. During
MK4, the Lin Kuei was mysteriously disbanded and was re-established during MK: Deadly Alliance, by the younger
Sub-Zero. (For more info on Lin Kuei and its members, play
MK1,2,& 3,
MKM: Sub-Zero, MK4, MK: Deadly Alliance, and MK: Deception)