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| “ | Victory is still at hand. The Hourglass is nearly ready. | „ |
| ~ Lady Kronika about the Hourglass. |
The Hourglass, also known as Kronika's Hourglass and Hourglass, is a powerful time-warping relic belonged to Lady Kronika, the Keeper of Time and Architect of History, and also a member of an obcure group of powerful immortal creatures called the Titans who predated the Elder Gods including Lord Shinnok and Lady Cetrion. It is an important major plot element in the videogame Mortal Kombat 11 and it is one of many well-known objects in the Mortal Kombat universe.
Appearing as a giant, ornate silver hourglass, this artifact of immense power is the focal point of Kronika's ability and even dominion over time and history for eons. The Hourglass allows her to alter time and space itself, plan or alter the course of history, or even bring those in the past to the present.
To safeguard it, the artifact is protected by Kronika and her forces in the very heart of her personal Keep on the Isle of Kronika itself.
A testament of the Hourglass' power is its creation of countless timelines while in the hands of Kronika, all in the name of seeking out order and balance through all realms. Whenever the course of history begins to go not in a direction she pleases, in specific cases the scales between good and evil go out of sync and lose balance, Kronika begins gathering as much power as she can before turning back the Sands of Time within the Hourglass itself to wipe out the current timeline and begin again. The device can also bring forth younger versions of people from the past and even ensuring both doppelganger of the same person to exist and occupy the same space at the same time. Should the person in question happened to be an immortal god however, his present-day self would instantly cease to exist; this happened to Dark Raiden who crumbles into sand as result of the presence of his past, uncorrupted self brought to the present.
Following Kronika's destruction, the Hourglass fell into the custody of Liu Kang, Kitana (non-canon), and Raiden so its powers will never again be abused.
In Aftermath, Liu Kang and Raiden abruptly stopped by Shang Tsung, Nightwolf and Fujin from tampering with the Hourglass; Shang Tsung revealed that the Hourglass' power cannot be used on its fullest without Crown of Kronika which the transcended Shaolin Monk destroyed by mistake when defeating its namesake owner and worse, being the vital component of the device as opposed of amplifier as they assumed to be, the Crown's end would ensure the Hourglass as well and all realities with it. In a bid to retrieve the Crown, Shang Tsung asked to be sent back in the previous timeline alongside the past version of Nightwolf and Raiden's fellow god, Fujin, back to an earlier point in time so he can return to his island and bring it to Raiden and restore history since the ability to travel back in time was still within Liu Kang's power, justifying his status as one of Kronika's vital pawns and therefore knows more about the Hourglass and the Crown than anyone. Liu Kang reluctantly agreed with the plan, but not before secretly informed Fujin that he will confront Shang Tsung himself should Tsung double-cross them.
Using the Hourglass, Liu Kang observed the events unfold, from the gathering of forces to Shang Tsung's secret scheme unfold, leading to Fujin giving Shang Tsung the Crown when he was in the guise of Raiden as well as defeating Shao Kahn, Sindel and even Kronika. Predictably, Tsung eventually turned against Raiden and Fujin and drains their powers, a cue for Liu Kang to step in and face his nemesis. The two battled, and Liu Kang finally defeated Shang Tsung once and for all, resulting the latter to be erased from existence. Afterwards, with both Crown of Kronika and restored Hourglass in his possession, Liu Kang restores history and with it, the true New Era devoid of Kronika and Shang Tsung's visions. However, as the new protector god of Earthrealm, he decides to make a small deviation. Traveling back in the distant past, he meets a young Kung Lao and personally enlists him as his new disciple to prepare him.
As of Mortal Kombat 1, Liu Kang is still in charge of watching over timelines as one of its two Keepers of Time, the other being Geras' revised timeline self. It was from this Geras Liu Kang was alarmed about discord in their current timeline where someone ensured the likes of Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, and General Shao taking same path of villainy as their alternate selves from timeline Kronika scrapped prior, yet Geras rules out the implication of Kronika's return since Titans cannot be reborn after death. Further investigation later, Geras learned the mastermind being someone from alternate timeline rather than the one they live in. The mastermind behind the discord soon revealed to be Titan Shang Tsung; back when Fire God Liu Kang and Shang Tsung fought over the ownership of the Hourglass, their duel resulting in twin timelines: one in which Liu Kang was victorious and another where it was Shang Tsung's. Upon learning of the other timeline, Titan Shang Tsung decided to destroy all life within and then merge it with his own.
In a bid to stop Titan Shang Tsung, Fire God Liu Kang reclaims his Titan powers which he previously stored away before enlisting the aid of Titan counterparts of his allies to counter his forces; Titan Kitana, Titan Kung Lao and Titan Raiden. The battle escalated further when Titan Shang Tsung noticed this and aimed to simply destroy Liu Kang's Hourglass (and thus him and his entire timeline as well) before leaving to conquer other realities in response. Titan Kung Lao and co. soon travel to Shang Tsung's dimension and wage a second Battle of Armageddon at the Pyramid of Argus.
In the end, Titan Shang Tsung was defeated and Titan Liu Kang sent his allies home to their respective dimension as the first step to undo the damage. The Hourglass also remains in Liu Kang and Geras' custody. However, the battle nonetheless brought the attention of Lord Havik, a Titan who unamused by how it ended too quickly to his liking.
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Trivia
- It was sometimes also known as the "Hourglass of Time", a name shared by 2 separate magical time-based artifacts from both the Prince of Persia videogame series and the World of Warcraft MORPG game franchise.
- With the the tearing of the fabric of timeline from Titan Shang Tsung and Titan Liu Kang apparently resulted many other timelines with different possible outcomes, it can be inferred that each of said timeline has its own Hourglass, safeguarded by other individuals who defeated Kronika in theirs.