Origin Thousands of years ago, Xu Wenwu discovered the
Ten Rings, mystical
iron rings that grant their user
immortality and great power. Wenwu amasses an army of warriors, named after his Ten Rings, and conquers many kingdoms and topples governments throughout history. In 1996, Wenwu attempts to invade the mystical realm of
Ta Lo, but is stopped and defeated by village's guardian,
Ying Li. Wenwu and Li fall in love; forbidden from settling in Ta Lo due to his warlord past, Wenwu takes Li with him to his home in China, where they marry and have two children,
Shang-Chi and
Xialing. Content with his new life, Wenwu gives up his weapons and deactivates the Ten Rings organization to be with his family. When Li is murdered by the
triad Iron Gang, old rivals of the Ten Rings, Wenwu takes up his rings and reactivates the Ten Rings organization, having Shang-Chi trained in
martial arts as an assassin by
Death Dealer; Xialing is forbidden from training due to her reminding Wenwu too much of Li. When Shang-Chi is 14, Wenwu dispatches him to kill the Iron Gang's leader and avenge Li. Despite his success, Shang-Chi is traumatized by the ordeal and abandons the Ten Rings, with Xialing following afterwards six years later.
Dealing with Iron Man In 2010,
Obadiah Stane, who has been trafficking
Stark Industries weapons to the Ten Rings, hires the organization's
Afghanistan cell to attack a US military convoy in the country. Unbeknownst to the Ten Rings, the convoy includes a visiting
Tony Stark, whom Stane wants the Ten Rings to kill so he can gain control of Stark Industries. The cell instead captures Stark alive and sends a video message to Stane, demanding more money. Cell leader Raza demands Stark build a Jericho missile in exchange for his freedom. Knowing Raza will not keep his word, Stark and fellow captive
Yinsen build a prototype
suit of powered armor to aid in their escape. The Ten Rings learns of their plans and attacks their workshop; Yinsen sacrifices himself to save Stark, who uses his armor to defeat his captors and destroy their weapons. Despite this setback, the Ten Rings continues working with Stane, eventually purchasing Jericho missiles from him to attack multiple villages, including Yinsen's home village of Gulmira. Stark dons a sleeker, more powerful version of his improvised armor suit and flies to Afghanistan, where he saves the villagers from the Ten Rings. Meanwhile, Raza and his men are able to salvage the remains of Stark's prototype suit and meet with Stane. Stane double crosses Raza and has the entire cell killed by his mercenaries, taking the prototype armor for himself. Shortly after Stark publicly reveals his identity as Iron Man, the Ten Rings helps arrange for
Ivan Vanko to travel to
Monaco to take revenge on Stark.
Copycat attacks In 2012, in an effort to cover up explosions triggered by soldiers subjected to the
Extremis program,
Aldrich Killian and the think tank
Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) hire English actor
Trevor Slattery to portray Wenwu in propaganda videos that are broadcast to the world where he and the Ten Rings claim credit for the explosions. Possessing limited knowledge of Wenwu's history and basing it only on legends of the man, Killian creates the persona of "the Mandarin" for Slattery, and even uses the title for himself; Slattery is completely oblivious to the true meaning of his actions, believing he is only starring in a movie. Wenwu is outraged over the appropriation of his image and organization; with Killian dead due to Stark's actions, Wenwu sends Ten Rings agent
Jackson Norriss to break Slattery out of Seagate Prison to be executed. However, Wenwu becomes amused by Slattery's performances and has him imprisoned in his compound as a "
court jester" to entertain him and the Ten Rings.
Meeting with Darren Cross In 2015, when
Darren Cross attempts to sell the
Yellowjacket and
Ant-Man suits, the Ten Rings sends one of its agents as a buyer. The plot is foiled by
Scott Lang.
Battle of Ta Lo and new leadership In 2024, Wenwu begins hearing Li's voice, telling him she is trapped in Ta Lo. Wenwu sends the Ten Rings to take the pendants that Li had gifted his children, Shang-Chi and Xialing.
Razor Fist leads the mission to obtain Shang-Chi's pendant during a bus ride in
San Francisco. After that mission is a success, Wenwu sends his men to take Xialing's pendant at her fight club in
Macau, which leads to a brawl between Shang-Chi and Xialing against the Ten Rings operatives, led by Razor Fist and Death Dealer. Wenwu breaks up the brawl and takes his children and Shang-Chi's friend
Katy to the Ten Rings compound. Once there, he explains Li's predicament and uses her two pendants to create a map that reveals the location and time to enter Ta Lo. After revealing some of his son's history to Katy, Wenwu reveals his plans to destroy the village after freeing Li. He then imprisons his children and Katy when they refuse to go through with his plan. The three later escape the compound with Slattery and his
hundun companion Morris to warn Ta Lo of the Ten Rings. Instead of giving chase, Wenwu decides to wait until the planned date to invade Ta Lo. Wenwu and the Ten Rings arrive in Ta Lo to destroy the seal holding his wife, prompting a battle between the Ten Rings and the village inhabitants. Guided by Li's voice, Wenwu begins breaking the seal holding her in Ta Lo; unbeknownst to him, he is being manipulated by the
Dweller-in-Darkness, who is using Li's voice to trick him into destroying its seal with his ten rings. Upon discovering that their weapons are useless against the Dweller and his minions, with one of these minions killing Death Dealer, the Ten Rings forms a truce with the villagers to fight the new threat. Meanwhile, Wenwu eventually realizes his mistake and sacrifices himself to save Shang-Chi from the Dweller by bequeathing him the ten rings, which Shang-Chi uses to destroy the Dweller. After the battle, the surviving Ten Rings members and villagers join together to honor the fallen in a paper lantern ceremony. Xialing is advised by Shang-Chi to disband the Ten Rings. Xialing takes up leadership of the Ten Rings which she restructures to include female fighters in the previously all-male organization. ==Alternate versions==