what happened to kratos in god of war

The cover artwork for the original God of War.

SCE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Calculator Entertainment

God of War: The story to date

Catch up on the serial' key plot points before heading into Sony Santa Monica's latest

Past April 17, 2018, ane:00pm EDT

Information technology all started and so simply. In the original God of War, you piloted the wrathful, ashen-skinned Spartan Kratos as he tore through beasts and gods ripped from the pages of Edith Hamilton'due south classic Mythology on his fashion to enact vengeance on the titular Ares, stopping only to deliver grim monologues almost the tragic loss of his wife and child.

Now, after the ensuing avalanche of sequels, prequels and side stories, the saga of Kratos' star-crossed life has go every bit tangled and complex equally the mythic tales that inspired the world he'due south inhabited. And though the upcoming PlayStation 4 follow-up does its all-time to leave the lyres and winged chariots of fantasy ancient Greece in the rearview mirror, here's a quick primer on all the major revelations from the previous games, and how they shaped the aroused antihero at the helm.

As revealed in 2007'southward God of War ii and the 2010 PlayStation Portable entry God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Kratos was built-in in the Greek city-state of Sparta, the demigod spawn of one of Zeus' many dalliances with mortal women. He was bred for boxing in that infamously disagreeable society alongside his brother, Deimos, knowing nothing of his Olympian heritage.

Early in his adolescence, Zeus learned of a prophecy that stated that ane of his children would eventually slay him — just equally he himself had murdered his begetter, the Titan Cronos, to usher in the era of the gods. Zeus sent two of his children, Athena and Ares, to discover the fated offspring and impale them. Eventually, the two siblings determined that Deimos was the likely candidate due to strange markings on his trunk, and they stole him away from Kratos and delivered him to Thanatos, the god of decease, giving Kratos a distinctive scar over his heart when he tried to cease them.

Kratos fighting a cyclops in God of War (2005).

SCE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment

As he grew older, Kratos married and fathered a child, as recounted in the backstory to the original God of State of war. His appetite for glory and merciless tactics in battle won him acclamation from his superiors and fright from his legions of foes, and over time he gathered his own army under the banner of Sparta. Yet, even great armies lose battles, and his somewhen constitute itself overpowered past the Barbarians from the nebulous "E." With defeat in sight, Kratos swore fealty to Ares, the same god of war that had taken his brother, in order to turn the tide of the battle. Impressed by his half brother'due south ruthlessness, Ares allowed him into his service, and bestowed upon Kratos the Blades of Chaos, a set of swords forged in the underworld that became literally chained to his forearms as a reminder of his oath. With this newfound power, Kratos defeated the entire opposing force by himself, reveling in the bloodshed.

As the god of war'due south loyal subject, Kratos roamed around the countryside, killing soldiers and innocents indiscriminately. Still, his wife and child tied him to the realm of everyday people, and Ares saw fit to hatch a programme to sever that thread, teleporting the Spartan'southward family into a nearby temple during one of his rampages through a village. Too drunk on his rage to recognize his own loved ones, Kratos entered the temple and slaughtered anybody in sight. Once he realized his terrible mistake, Kratos broke his oath to Ares and swore revenge. The village oracle, who tried to warn him, cursed him to bear the ashes of the family that he murdered on his skin forevermore. This gave him the pale hue that he wears as a badge of dishonor, inspiring the moniker of "Ghost of Sparta."

Though Kratos desired retribution for his terrible acts, killing a god is no trifling thing, even for a hulking Spartan. In the interval later on he first sprang from Ares' control — as depicted in 2013's God of War: Ascension — Kratos was hunted by the Furies, deities of vengeance that sought to bring him back into the god's service. Though Kratos had taken back his oath, breaking free of Ares wasn't then elementary: He would have to find the "oathkeeper" who held the link between him and the god, and somehow pry it from the keeper's grasp.

Earlier defeating them, Kratos learned that Ares had figured out in the intervening years that information technology was Kratos who was the kid destined to overthrow Olympus, non his blood brother Deimos. Thus, Ares allowed Kratos to serve him out of his own interest: Once Kratos defeated Zeus, Ares would betray Kratos and have the throne for himself. After besting the Furies and reluctantly killing the innocent oathkeeper Orkos, Kratos finally found himself free of his vow. However, as a upshot of his actions, terrible visions of his past misdeeds began to haunt his sleep, which redoubled his desire for revenge against Ares.

Over the adjacent decade, as fans of the 2008 PSP entry God of War: Chains of Olympus well know, Kratos performed diverse labors for the gods of Olympus, including defeating the basilisk and rescuing the god of the sun, Helios, from the escaped Titan Atlas. Though he never faltered in his service, Kratos began to sow seeds of resentment confronting the gods for their reliance on his impossible strength, while cursing his lack of progress toward fulfilling his vendetta. Yet, once Kratos defeated the dreaded Hydra in the memorable opening sequence of the original God of War, Athena finally agreed that it was fourth dimension for the Ghost of Sparta to make a move against Ares, who was raising his armies against her city, Athens. With Athena'south guidance, Kratos made his fashion through the urban center and the desert across, somewhen swiping the legendary Pandora's Box from Cronos' dorsum. As Kratos finally put his hands on the prize that had eluded him for so long, Ares impaled him on a massive stone colonnade, finally stealing the life of the relentless Spartan.

In 2007'due south God of War 2, Kratos uses the Blades of Athena as anchors. (This screenshot is from 2009's PS3 remaster of the game.)

SCE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Reckoner Amusement via MAT/MobyGames

However, death is no impediment to a man of conviction, and Kratos escaped the underworld like Orpheus earlier him to face Ares in one-on-ane gainsay. Though Ares stripped Kratos of his chained blades and tried to use the lingering specter of Kratos' guilt to gain the advantage — even going so far every bit to murder phantom versions of his family in forepart of him, again and again — Kratos somewhen gained the upper hand, running Ares through with a massive sword that he filched from a nearby statue.

But even with Ares dead, the nightmares nonetheless wouldn't cease, with the Olympians that Kratos so diligently served refusing to cure them. In despair, and with no mission left to consummate, Kratos jumped from bluffs high to a higher place the Aegean Sea, sure that the autumn would kill him. Instead, Athena defenseless him at the terminal moment and gave him a new postal service: that of the vacant seat on Mountain Olympus. Having nada else to live for, Kratos accustomed the offer, and became the new god of war.

As a deity, Kratos returned to his warmongering means, waging battle afterward battle on behalf of Olympus. Somewhen, he discovered that his female parent was still living, trapped in the Temple of Poseidon in the city of Atlantis. Earlier she turned into a shambling horror, she revealed to Kratos that his brother Deimos was even so alive, beingness tortured in the land of Thanatos, the god of expiry. After finally remembering Ares and Athena's role in robbing him of his brother — the latter having stripped him of that memory at some point, likely and then she could proceed to utilize him as a pawn — Kratos led Deimos out of the Domain of Decease. Unfortunately, this rescue mission incurred Thanatos' wrath, and though the two brothers fought bravely to seal Death himself into his ain realm, Deimos didn't survive the boxing. Afterward burial his beloved sibling, the Spartan mounted the Suicide Bluffs again, merely decided against taking his own life, questioning what exactly it would attain.

Following this farther tragedy, Kratos enveloped himself even more deeply in constant warfare, deciding to conquer the city of Rhodes with his Spartans without seeking the counsel of his fellow Olympians. Due to this betrayal — and the unsanctioned murder of Ceryx, 1 of the messengers of the gods — Zeus dove down in the form of an eagle and sapped the Spartan of most of his godly powers, giving them to the Colossus of Rhodes. Though Kratos was able to destroy the Colossus, he was badly wounded and unable to fight against Zeus, who asked him to swear fealty, fearing that Kratos sought to overthrow him just as Ares did. When Kratos refused, Zeus stabbed him with the Bract of Olympus through the heart, and the Ghost of Sparta descended down to the River Styx once again.

In a scene from 2010's God of War 3, Kratos battles a centaur as the Titan Perseus looks on in the background.

SCE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment

This time, however, Kratos didn't salvage himself from the clutches of Hades — it was the Titan Gaia who healed his wound and cast him out of the underworld. Gaia told Kratos that every bit a Titan, she viewed the Olympian gods every bit big-headed and complacent, and encouraged him to return to Olympus and end Zeus's reign once and for all. Since Kratos was no longer a god, nevertheless, Gaia urged him to seek out the Sisters of Fate to turn back the clock to before his demise and claim the Bract of Olympus for himself. After defeating a bang-up number of Greek heroes, including Perseus and Theseus, and killing the Sisters himself, Kratos shuffled astern in time to boxing Zeus once more, this fourth dimension with the Blade of Olympus at his side.

After tricking Zeus with a plea for paternal affection, Kratos seemed poised to finally kill his father once and for all, just for Athena herself to manifest herself and beg for his mercy. When Kratos refused, she defended her male parent and took the killing stroke herself, assuasive Zeus to escape. Equally the godhood drained from her gaping wound, she begged Kratos to end his countless quest for retribution, saying that information technology would destroy the world. Kratos remained unmoved even by her dying pleas, stating that he would have his revenge on all the Olympian gods. He then used the fourth dimension-traveling powers of the Sisters to bring the Titans from the past to fight the gods, setting upwards the reprisal of a world-rending conflict between two immovable forces.

Before long after boxing between the Titans and the Olympians began in 2010'south God of War 3, Kratos almost immediately plant himself betrayed in one case more, this fourth dimension by Gaia, who dismissed him as nothing more than a useful tool and cast him into the River Styx for the tertiary time. Lost in the murk, Kratos eventually constitute the spirit of Athena, who beseeched him to take revenge on Zeus, challenge that her death had brought her a new perspective on the conflict. As a token of trust, she gave Kratos the Blades of Exile, which he used to escape the underworld and fight the rogues' gallery of gods that awaited him. Though Kratos had slayed gods in the past, he had tried to avert directly conflict with the Olympians equally much as possible. With newfound vigor, Kratos began to cleave a swath through the Greek pantheon at an unprecedented rate, murdering Hades, Helios and Hermes with ease. Fifty-fifty as Kratos slew these gods, the world around him began to collapse. Nevertheless with the underworld falling to pieces around him and the sun winking out, he showed no concern — after all, his revenge was more than of import.

In the new God of War, Kratos is once once again a father, exploring the Norse realm of Midgard alongside his son, Atreus.

SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Eventually, later decapitating more mythical figures, Kratos learned the secret of Zeus' power, the Flame of Olympus. Afterward collecting Pandora, the showtime homo woman forged by Zeus, from Daedalus' Labyrinth — who must immolate herself in the flame in guild to seal its power away — the Spartan institute himself at the end of the world, going toe-to-toe with Zeus once again as the very textile of the universe crumbled around him. Though a reawakened Gaia tried to to ambush them both, Kratos managed to overcome the Titans, the gods and his own tormented past to finally destroy them all using the ability of hope, which was contained at the bottom of Pandora's Box, which Kratos first opened to defeat Ares all those years agone. With his enemies finally vanquished, Kratos gazed at the ruined globe around him and realized the ultimate futility of his vengeance-soaked quest: Fifty-fifty with all the Olympians expressionless, he all the same had little to show for information technology.

Athena's ghost then appeared from the ether and asked Kratos to repay her by returning the hope that found in Pandora'south Box, ostensibly to rebuild the world. Instead of trusting such a task to an Olympian, the despondent Kratos decided to commit suicide instead, gutting himself on the Blade of Olympus and releasing the power of promise into what remained of the earth. Though Athena — yet some other victim of his endless thirst for retribution, the sole desire of the unabridged video game franchise — remarked that she was disappointed in Kratos, he didn't seem to intendance, just offer a laugh in respond as he succumbed to his wounds. Of grade, like every video game antihero, Kratos didn't really dice — rather, he simply slunk away to Scandinavia, leaving the pile of rocks in one case known as Olympus to rot in the eternal twilight.

Finding himself in the frozen Nordic lands, Kratos put his rage-fueled legacy behind him and began anew, marrying a woman and raising a child together, Atreus. Unfortunately, by the time players encounter this at the start of the new God of War, Kratos' wife has died. When Kratos before long finds himself embroiled in the piffling disputes between the Norse gods, the Spartan must accept up arms once more. Only with his son beside him, Kratos must wrestle with the vestiges of his wrathful past and learn how to raise Atreus to exist a groovy fighter, and an even amend man.

God of State of war hits PS4 on April 20. Check out Polygon'southward review here.

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/features/2018/4/17/17236516/god-of-war-story-recap-ps4

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