Timeline

The King of Fighters timeline shows the chronological events taking place in the series.

65 Million B.C.

• Orochi calls itself "Gaia's Will"
• Orochi and his clan continued to protect earth for centuries since ancient times.

194 A.D.

• The Kusanagi, Yata and Yasakani clans seal Orochi and the Hakkesshu.
• The Hizoku clan is formed by a powerful Chinese sorcerer named Hizoku.

500 A.D.

• The Dragon's spirit is developed by the ancient Chinese warrior Qin Wang Long and is considered to be a great psychic power in its case took the form of a dragon.

854 A.D.

• The Orochi seal begins to weaken.
• A member of the Hakkesshu kills the Yasakani clan leader's wife and flames the Kusanagi clan, creating a conflict between the two clans.
• The Yasakani clan make a blood pact with Orochi to gain the necessary means for revenge and, gaining the forbidden technique, Forbidden Method 1211: Eight Maidens, renamed themselves as the Yagami clan.
• The Hizoku clan leader dies.

1857

• The Hizoku clan become a secret clan.

1896

• Ron becomes the leader of the Hizoku clan.

1973

• 18-year old Leopold Goenitz takes out the eye of an arms dealer called Rugal Bernstein during a fight and gives him a small portion of Orochi's power for surviving the attack. Because of this, a bionic eye replaced the one he lost.

1984

• Goenitz pays a visit to a remote village where a Hakkesshu member, Gaidel, was staying.
• Surprised that Gaidel had no intrest in their lord's mission, Goenitz activates the Riot of the Blood in his daughter, Leona, which lead to the death of her parents and everyone else in the village.
• Goenitz seals away Leona's memories and continues to look for ways of speeding up his lord's revival.

1986

• Ash Crimson is taken in by the Blanctorche family, where he be friends a girl named Elisabeth.
• Rugal kills Heidern's family.
• To break his master's seal, Goenitz kills the head of the Yata clan and Chizuru Kagura's sister, Maki Kagura.

1988

• Heidern adopts Leona as his daughter and starts training her as an Ikari Warrior.

1990

• Kyo surpasses his father and is designated as the clan's leader.

1992

• Ash leaves the Blanctorche manor and their teachings.
• The Blanctorche Manor is burned.
• Mature and Vice are hired as Rugal's secretaries.

1994

The events of The King of Fighters '94 take place.

• Kyo, currently 19 years old.

• Rugal, bored of lack of competition, hosts a new King of Fighters tournament after Geese Howard and Wolfgang Krauser were defeated, seeking to add strong opponents to his statue collection.
• Kyo enters in a preliminary held in Japan to determine the members of the country's representative team in the King of Fighters tournament. He bests Goro Daimon and Benimaru Nikaido to become the leader of the team, with the two becoming his teammates and eventual friends.
• 24 invitations are sent and fighters around the world, including The Lone Wolves and the Kyokugenryu practitioners, participate to form a team of three members.
• The 1994 King of Fighters tournaments takes place.
• Saisyu challenges Rugal in the Black Noah and is beaten, badly.
• The Japan Team surprises the globe, defeating their opponents and eventually heading to the finals.
• Mature invites the Japan Team to fight their final match within Black Noah, where Rugal revealed the true purpose of his tournament: defeat the winning team and add them to his grisly collection of previous challengers.
• Kyo sees his defeated father there and decides to avenge him.
• After he was defeated, Rugal triggers the self-destruct mechanism on his ship. The team escapes and reflects on their victory.
• Rugal uses the Orochi power to survive and replaces his destroyed right forearm with a cybernetic one.

1995

The events of The King of Fighters '95 take place.

• Kyo, currently 20 years old.
• Rugal brainwashes Saisyu and sends out invitations for another King of Fighters tournament.
• Billy Kane and Eiji Kisaragi end a sudden duel in a draw. Billy then introduces Eiji to Iori who comes in dragging the body of one of Geese's assassins. Overwhelmed by Iori's strength, Billy invites both Eiji and Iori to form the Rival team to enter the tournament. Iori joins them as a means to meet his rival.
• The 1995 King of Fighters tournament takes place
• Rugal abducts the Japan Team in an abandoned missle base and had Saisyu fight Kyo.
• After Saisyu's defeat, Rugal uses the Orochi power and to becomes 'Omega Rugal' to defeat them, but Kyo's team defeated him. Again beaten, Rugal tries to use more of the Orochi power, but it consumed him. As his body disintegrated, he sees Iori Yagami, who told him that only those "of the bloodline" could control Orochi's power.
• Claiming that such power could only belong to him, Iori severely injuries his fellow team members and declares Kyo and his clan will be next.

• The events of The King of Fighters '96 take place
• The events of The King of Fighters '97 take place
• The NESTS syndicate uses Kyo's DNA to make various beings for their purposes. One day, Kyo finds himself surrounded by bizarre gadgets and needles. Deciding to search for answers, Kyo broke out of captivity and managed to escape the hidden fortress despite the sedatives. While escaping, he constantly heard references to the NESTS cartel.
• K' and his sister, Seirah are captured by NESTS and he is kept under NESTS and trained to be some kind of weapon. One day, K' was made to participate in the Kusanagi cloning program. He was infused with Kyo Kusanagi's DNA, which gave him the power of pyrokinesis. During the program, K's memory was tinkered with and he was made to believe that he was Krizalid's clone. Any real memories from his past has either been erased by NESTS, forgotten, or repressed.

• The events of The King of Fighters '99 take place.
• The events of The King of Fighters 2000 take place.
• The events of The King of Fighters 2001 take place.
• Shingo continues to train under Saisyu.

• The events of The King of Fighters 2003 take place
• Chizuru survives the attack, but can no longer participate in fights, remaining in the hospital.
• The events of The King of Fighters XI take place.

• The events of The King of Fighters XIII take place.
• The events of The King of Fighters XIV take place.
• The events of SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy take place.