MANDARIN (EARTH-7)

Biography 

Origin

 It is not known exactly when Xu Wenwu was born, but it is easy to trace Mandarin’s origins. After witnessing his village being conquered, devastated, and humiliated by a group of marauders, the young man realized that certain people will never understand what humanity is all about, even if taught. For some, nature is about conquest and subjugation; for him, that is precisely what makes us unique among all animals. We are capable of taking a different path. But one cannot change the world alone, and soon he had to take on the role he so despised—that of a leader—to prove that human existence is meant to be horizontal, never vertical.

Changing the World

 An alliance that challenges the status quo will never have enough power to do so; therefore, it sought to find a new way to wield real power—enough to bring about real change.
In his family lineage, tales were told of a higher spiritual realm from which they had immigrated at the very beginning of time; stories of mysticism were common in those lands, such as those of the legendary wizard Fu Manchu, who also hailed from a half-world inaccessible to all and possessed a power scarcely comprehensible to mere mortals: the Ten Rings.

 It was based on these stories that he forged his own, spreading terror among aggressors and kings, who would fear a power rooted in magic—one capable of wiping them from this world with a mere thought. He asked his companions to keep watch over the descriptions while he returned to the Spiritual Plane, following the stories told by his grandparents, and would bring back with him absolute power and the most beautiful lotus flower he could find.

 After hours, the man was already back home, though for him, months had passed. He brought with him exactly what he had promised: the Ten Rings in his hands, obtained with the help of the most beautiful lotus flower he had found—the maiden Ying Li, who also carried within her womb the heir to all that power.

The Cursed Lotus

 But it seems the young woman felt betrayed and devastated upon discovering the true state of the Material Plane. She called Wenwu an aggressor, without understanding that in order for him to rebuild the world, he would first have to destroy it. Tormented by the fact that she had helped the man she now considered a monster, Ying LI stole the Ten Rings he possessed and scattered them throughout the land, giving one to each noble so they could use them to halt the Mandarin’s advance.

 He branded her the Cursed Lotus and her son the Cursed Child, both the causes of his great downfall. When she returned to take her son with her, he killed her without deigning to look at her or at the child. He ordered a random servant to take the baby away, to raise him far away, and never to return, for he did not want another talisman of misfortune to be carried with him.
What Xu Wenwu didn’t know was that he had just sent away the only ring he would ever be able to find, since Ying Li had returned home to give the tenth ring to her infant son, Xu Shang-Chi.

The Ten Rings

 Mandarin remained unshaken, and let his reputation echo throughout the world, which now feared the new holder of the Ten Rings—far more powerful and ruthless than the legendary Fu Manchu. He didn’t actually need to possess that power; he understood that people simply needed to believe he did. Even so, not even for a single day did he stop dreaming of the immaculate entropies he had lost.

1. Daimonic, pure entropy, makes its user’s mind absolute and impenetrable—incorruptible by external forces, unshakable by hidden wills.

2. Incandescence energizes whatever is desired; an item is transformed into a weapon of absolute destruction, capable of cleaving worlds.

3. Amorphous shapes waves according to your will, making you one with the fluidity and inconsistency of liquid.

4. The Liar creates tangible illusions and condenses them into reality—all at the mercy of your own imagination.

5. Zero: I manipulate the complete vacuum—from the lower levels that cause utter freezing to the deepest depths that consume everything into its void.

6. Nightbringer: It makes you one with darkness, capable of manipulating shadows to your advantage and rendering them usable through the dark silk that weaves them.

7. Spectral hurls you beneath the sky, capable of passing through the clouds as gently as a single feather; in a ghostly manner, it renders you intangible.

8. Influence elevates your body to a higher state; a new form of existence is attained—one completely linked to your soul, yet extending into the astral plane.

9. Remaker restores access to the past and to what has already happened; he manipulates death by summoning benevolent spirits who can aid him on his journey.

10. Spin distorts time around him and within himself, turning him into nothing more than a shadow—far faster than ordinary beings and impossible to find.

Currently

 You can’t live a prosperous life without a string of regrets, but what torments Mandarin is knowing that certain people have never paid for their crimes—and that he cannot allow. Mistakes must be corrected, and the more serious the mistake, the greater the punishment. Those who deemed themselves worthy of building empires must also consider themselves capable of facing hardship and penance; and if they have not done so, their descendants will.
Hayato Sataki was just one of several Axis scientists responsible for creating concentration camps during the war; all were captured and exterminated by the Ten Rings—except him. He cowered before the victorious empire, and in the U.S., he was given a new name and purpose, but he still carried the same guilt.
Even decades later, justice does not expire. When they were finally located, the organization moved to capture them at the Mandarin’s command; however, a planning error occurred due to the reaction of the Stark family’s security detail, and the only one captured alive was the young Tony Stark. Months later, he escaped from the Complex, sparking a mass rebellion. The Mandarin does not consider him someone to be feared, but Stark seems determined to be just that.

Upon assuming a new vigilante identity, he vowed to find the Mandarin and completely destroy his organization, but the Mandarin is unconcerned—the young man is not the first to fear the inevitable reckoning and the fear of losing his privileges. What Stark calls “revenge,” the Mandarin sees as nothing more than pettiness.

 May the best team win.