Jade first appeared in Mortal Kombat II (1993) as a hidden, unplayable fighter created by series co-designer John Tobias: a faster green palette-swap of Kitana with darker skin and the same steel fans, reachable only through cryptic in-match clues. She had no story of her own until Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), when she became fully playable and was written as an Edenian noble and childhood friend of Princess Kitana. After Shao Kahn conquered Edenia, both women were raised as his elite personal assassins alongside Kitana’s cloned “sister” Mileena. Jade’s defining weapon became a steel bō staff, later joined by razor-edged boomerangs called razorangs; her look settled into the familiar green leotard, gold accents, and masked visor that set her apart from Kitana’s blue and Mileena’s magenta.
When Kitana learned her true parentage, killed Mileena, and fled to Earthrealm, Kahn ordered Jade to bring the princess back alive. Torn between emperor and friend, Jade chose Kitana: she stopped Reptile’s secret kill-order, helped Kitana reach the newly resurrected Queen Sindel, and fought with Earthrealm’s champions until Shao Kahn fell and Edenia was restored. Jade was made a general of the Edenian army and remained Kitana’s most loyal ally. In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance she arrived too late to save her friends from Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. In Deception, after the Dragon King Onaga raised the dead as his slaves, Jade imprisoned a mind-controlled Kitana to protect her, freed Sindel from Tanya’s betrayal, and later fought her brainwashed friend so the queen could strike Onaga down.
The 2011 reboot recast Jade as Edenian royalty assigned as Kitana’s bodyguard with standing orders to kill the princess if she ever turned on Kahn; she again sided with Kitana once the truth of Edenia came out. In the Mortal Kombat 11 era she is shown in a romantic partnership with Kotal Kahn before the timeline fractures. Across both continuities Jade’s role is consistent: the green-clad assassin whose loyalty to Kitana outweighs any throne, and whose staff and razorangs mark her as one of Edenia’s deadliest defenders.