Nitara

"Yes, I am a vampire. I am called Nitara. Why do you ask?"

- Nitara to Shujinko

Nitara is a character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. She made her debut in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

Info
Nitara spent a very long time trying to find a mysterious orb that bound her planet to Outworld before actually discovering its location. The orb, however, was inaccessible to her, submerged under molten lava. Fortunately for her, at one point she had spotted the Outer World Investigation Agency agent Cyrax travelling across Outworld. With his robotic body, he would be able to descend into the lava and come back with the orb, unharmed.

But she realised she would need to offer the robot something in exchange for his services. Seeing Reptile as an easily exploitable fool, she presented him with a Kirehashi blade, an artefact of Reptile's Zaterran planet, and revealed to him the location of Kitana's military encampment. After Reptile discovered the dead body of Shao Kahn, he offered his services to Nitara, grateful for her apparent kindness. He pledged to serve her, and she commanded him to attack Cyrax, describing him as an Earth invader, and explaining he could be weakened by destroying his arm console, which Nitara was aware the robot used to travel between planets.

Reptile did as instructed, and fled after being frightened away by one of Cyrax's attacks. Nitara introduced herself to Cyrax immediately after, and made her proposal: having the ability to traverse planets through the powers of her gemstone, she would send him home, under the condition that he retrieve the orb for her. Although hesitant to trust her, Cyrax accepted, having little choice. The two journeyed to the orb's location, Onaga's incubation chamber. There, both parties held up their end of the bargain: Cyrax descended into the lava and retrieved the orb, and Nitara sent the robot home. With the orb in her hands, her plans had come to a successful conclusion. She then smashed it into pieces on the floor, separating her planet from Outworld at last. The ordeal knocked her unconscious, but when she awoke, she was home. She then made it her mission to protect the planet's fragile stability.

During the events of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, mass genocides of her people began to occur in her planet. The wounds on the bodies indicated that the attacker used a mystical kriss known as "Datusha", which is described as existing solely to slay vampires. Nitara is sent by her people's elders to a crater in Edenia so as to find a prophesied force of great power that would be able to destroy the blade. While travelling there, she came upon the demon Ashrah, the possessor of Datusha who was slaughtering vampires in the belief that it was purifying her soul. To protect the rest of her race, Nitara defeated Ashrah and continued on her journey into Edenia, planning to lure her attacker to the Edenian weapon where it may be used against her.

Nitara would join the Forces of Light in the final battle and die alongside the rest of the combatants.

Quotes

 * "The planet of Venerus had regained independence from Shao Kahn. I was revered for my part in the victory. The restructuring of our civilisation was well underway; soon we would regain our former majesty. Unfortunately our honour was not all that had returned from ages past... Reports of genocide raced throughout the restored Moroi Empire. Many vampires had been slain; none had yet survived an attack to describe the assailants. I set forth to uncover the truth. Examining the wounds of the dead, I came to the disheartening conclusion that these murders were not the work of a band of assassins. The victims had fallen to the blade known as Datusha, the bane of the Moroi. The ancient kriss had found a new wielder. It had returned for vampire blood. Though Datusha's origin has been lost to history, its purpose is clear: It lives to kill as many vampires as it can. We are a powerful race; there are few who threaten our immortality. It has been speculated by the Elders that the sword itself may be our one "natural" predator. The accursed blade finds a wielder and corrupts them into believing they are slaying for some higher purpose. In the past it has chosen a vampire as its puppet. The last was Kali Grigesh. Though he was driven mad by the power of the sword, he was strong enough to eventually overcome its mind control. To atone for slaying his fellow vampires, he took the sword into the Never Never Land, where he committed hara-kiri, imprisoning Datusha in Hell. It was believed that the sword would never find another vampire wielder in that desolate place. Safe from slaughter, our numbers had exceeded those of any recorded era. But with Datusha's return, vampires were being rapidly driven to extinction. Something needed to be done! The Elders researched ancient vampire texts, hoping to find some means of defeating the blade. An obscure Edenian prophecy they found might hold the key. It describes a force of great power concealed in a crater there. I was commanded to find this power and use it against our foe."

Journal Entry
A vampire from a forgotten planet, Nitara fights to keep her homeworld independent. Years ago, her planet was fused with Outworld, throwing it into chaos. Now that her homeworld has been freed, she struggles to maintain its fragile stability.

Powers and abilities
As a vampire, Nitara's moves seem to revolve around blood; one of her special moves is literally a ball of blood being shot at the enemy, and her fatality in Deadly Alliance has her biting violently into the enemy's neck and draining their blood. Also, due to her wings, she can cover ample ground to either advance towards or retreat from the enemy in little time.

Apart from her combat skills, deception and exploitation appear to be Nitara's greatest weapons.

Trivia

 * Nitara's ability to withstand daylight is explained by the fact that only Earth's light is hazardous to vampires. As such, she can freely move on Outworld and other worlds during the daytime.
 * Nitara has a few cameo appearances in Mortal Kombat: Deception. One of the arenas players can fight in is a prison and she can be spotted in a cell together with several other familiar characters. In Konquest mode, she can be found in Outworld, and in the Never Never Land speaking with Cyrax. Since her character model is in the game, she can be made playable in the PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions of Deception with the use of an action replay code. However, playing as her in Deception can cause the game to freeze.
 * Even though she has wings, Nitara was never seen in full flight like other winged or levitating characters. It is likely she would use them for crossing large gaps, travel long-distances, catching swift-moving opponents, or as means to escape danger.
 * For some strange reason, whenever she is the victim of another character's fatality, her wings are unharmed from her back (and the same goes for death traps).
 * Nitara and her race are different from the old vampire legends, mostly because they have wings on their backs, instead of transforming into bats.
 * She is the first female character to have wings, the second being D'Vorah.
 * Nitara is seen in the Armageddon opening fighting Smoke.
 * Nitara, Meat and Skarlet are the only characters whose powers involve blood.