Kan-Ra

Story

Some people are so eager to gain power that this desire blinds them and leads to awful mistakes. Kan-Ra is one such guy. After many centuries, he is still hunting for magical might and aggressive influence on people — alas, he still can’t see how pointless this struggle is.

Way back in Babylonian times, Kan-Ra was a vizier. This high social status granted him wealth. Nature gifted him with an exceptionally handsome look. But that wasn’t enough for Kan-Ra to try and find his happy path in this world. He decides to betray the king and take his place.

Kan-Ra has some influential supporters, but they all can’t see beyond their ambitions. The king knows everything about the conspiracy. Not only does he decide to stop Kan-Ra, but also the king uses all his abilities to punish every traitor. And just physical methods aren’t enough in such a case. Black magic should be summoned to make Kan-Ra and his comrades suffer.

The king takes away the biggest strength of Kan-Ra — his ability to attract people and affect their minds. It's a terrible curse for such a person, but Kan-Ra does not give up. He looks for ways to return to his previous positions. And he reaches the darkest rituals, turning himself into one of the evilest sorcerers. 

Bold experiments with the dark arts transform Kan-Ra’s body. He is not a handsome man any longer. He is generally rotten and totally disgusting. Only magic tricks allow the sorcerer to be around people.

And he actively uses all sorts of means to be close to powerful rulers. His intentions are the same greedy and cunning. Once, Kan-Ra steals magical Egyptian daggers, using the chaos of war — when the army of Alexander the Great besieges the Phoenician city of Tyre. Then he leaves for the Americas and pretends to be a messenger of Inca’s god of creation. Kan-Ra becomes kind of a sacred person here and terrorizes locals with his insatiable desires and dangerous magical rituals.

The life of Kan-Ra isn’t easy at all. The king of Babylon discovers how the ex-vizier tries to bypass the punishment, so he sends the war golem Aganos to stop Kan-Ra once and for all. After many attempts, Aganos finally succeeds — and only thanks to the help of monster hunters. They are the Night Guard, an Inca order. They want to avenge Kan-Ra — and as the sorcerer is immortal, they burn him and lock ashes in a vault.

A few centuries later, that vault was accidentally opened. Kan-Ra is free, and he manages to recover his body.  Again, it looks awful with bandages and rotten flesh, but still, it’s a body to travel the world, try to gain power, and participate in matches of Killer Instinct.

Personality

Kan-Ra’s strive for power is the basis of his personality. The former vizier is ready to commit any crime and make deals with any mystical creature to become stronger and more influential in this world and even in other dimensions. 

This recklessness in the pursuit of power still keeps a tiny small place for something different in Kan-Ra’s personality. However evil he might seem, the sorcerer is capable of remorse and actually some glances of good sense. When Kan-Ra feels he crosses a line of generally acceptable and threatens the very life in this plane, he somewhat takes steps backward and tries to support brave heroes in their quest against outworld monsters. Probably, that is the reason why Kan-Ra is running a shop with helpful artifacts in Killer Instinct mode Shadow Lords. 

Playstyle

Kan-Ra has pretty unique zoning tools that allow him to open opponents and keep pressuring them. The character summons Swarms of insects, and they remain on the screen waiting for the victim — it’s also an effective defensive feature. In the offense, Swarm is both combo-starter and combo-extender.

Good use of zoning options compensates for rather slow normals. Kan-Ra has decent attacks for various situations — but they shine especially bright in combination with other elements of his moveset.

As a fighting game character, Kan-Ra opens many opportunities for your experiments. His bandages and sand spots create dangerous traps. His ability to control shadow energies leads to tricky combos and impressive damage. He is not an easy character, but Kan-Ra might be rewarding in skilled hands.

Appearance

First, there was a destructive curse of the Babylonian King to transform a handsome man into a disgusting creature. And then Kan-Ra himself added awful ingredients into his poison. Every new horrific surgery and each next dark ritual make the body of Kan-Ra more rotten, mummy-like. He wears bandages to cover the wounds. And generally, he doesn’t care about his appearance any longer. Power is the only thing that matters to him. Maybe the priceless ancient jewelry can compensate for the decaying body of Kan-Ra?