Thousands of years ago, during a war with the corrupt Elder God known as Shinnok, Rayden was responsible for the death of an entire civilization. To avoid a repeat of this event, as well as to protect all realms from Shinnok's threat, Raiden waged a brutal campaign and, at a heavy price, exiled his rival to a dark place known as the Netherrealm. A few years before the 1992 Shaolin tournament, the original Sub-Zero assisted the necromancer Quan Chi in obtaining Shinnok's amulet, the source of Shinnok's power (as recounted in
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (1997)). Now (1997), 2 years after Shao Kahn's failed attempt to seize Earthrealm, Quan Chi has allied himself with Shinnok and helped the god escape from his confines. With the help of an Edenian traitor, they enter the Heavens and kill most of the gods, but Fujin and Rayden escape and gather Earthrealm's finest warriors to fight them. The Raiden-Shinnok feud had burst open once again, but this time the battle could be won by mortals.
—Anonymus