Raiden, the legendary god of thunder from Mortal Kombat, was inspired by the thunder god of Japanese mythology, Raijin. Raiden's creator, John Tobias, decided to incorporate this archetype into MK's universe after stumbling upon a depiction of Raijin in a museum while creating the first Mortal Kombat.
Raiden's final design took very little from Raijin, in the end. His costume and visual design was mostly based off Big Trouble in Little China's The Storms - Lighting, in particular. The concept for Raiden, though, was originally born from Raijin.
As Tobias recounted on Twitter, he first ran into Raijin while at The Field Museum in Chicago. In an exhibit of Japanese artifacts, he saw "a warn down idol carved from stone" depicting Raijin and "knew" Mortal Kombat needed a god of thunder. He later found descriptions of the same thunder god as "Raiden," depicted as a "pot-bellied demon" carrying a drum. Both Tobias and Boon decided this depiction didn't fit the style of Mortal Kombat, so they instead went with a human-looking warrior.
Even beyond visual differences, Mortal Kombat's Raiden and the Japanese god of thunder share almost no similarities, aside from their control over lightning. Tobias wanted players to trust in the authority Raiden had as a god and made him a mentor of sorts, being a force of balance and good in the series. Raijin, on the other hand, is a force of destruction and mischief in most depictions. He is often shown as an angry, menacing demon, happy to rain down destruction. Though Raijin is sometimes helpful, he is generally a force of chaos. One story credits Raijin and his brother Fujin, who also appears as a character in Mortal Kombat, for creating a storm to sink Mongol ships in order to stop their invasion, according to historian Gregory Wright.
On Mythopedia, Wright explains Raijin comes from The Land of the Dead, where he was born after the death of his mother, Izanami, a goddess of creation and death, making Raijin himself "a being of death." He carries a drum to create thunder and is the bringer of rain. He is irreverent and is said to ignore priests, monks, and emperors, though he will, however, obey the other deities above him. Some stories say Raijin kidnaps and eats children who do not hide their bellybuttons, since he is jealous of humans because of his unnatural birth. These depictions paint a picture of a malevolent and violent force of nature - a hugely different character from MK's Raiden.
Looking at Raiden from Mortal Kombat and Raijin side by side, it's almost surprising the Japanese god of thunder is what inspired Tobias' character. They have entirely different personalities and appearances, with Raiden being a noble warrior and Raijin being a destructive demon. The only thing Tobias used from Raijin is the idea of a thunder god, and the rest of Raiden's design came from other sources or Tobias himself. Still, without Raijin, Mortal Kombat wouldn't have one of its now-most iconic characters in the first place.
Source: John Tobias/Twitter, Gregory Wright/Mythopedia
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