Kratos is the Spartan at the centre of God of War. In the Greek games he is a Spartan captain who sold his service to Ares, was tricked into killing his own family and spent the series taking revenge on the gods of Olympus with the Blades of Chaos chained to his arms. In God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarök (2022) he lives in Midgard, the human realm of Norse myth, with a son, Atreus, and a new weapon, the Leviathan Axe, while Fimbulwinter, the great winter before Ragnarök, closes in. Atreus, it turns out, is the boy the giants call Loki.
The Greek saga runs across several games, from God of War (2005) to God of War III and its prequels; the Norse saga is the 2018 game and Ragnarök. Where the two differ, this says which one it means. Every design on the God of War shelf comes from one or the other. Spoilers for both below.
Kratos and the Blades of Chaos
The backstory is told in flashbacks in God of War (2005). Kratos is a Spartan captain facing defeat by a barbarian army. He promises his life to Ares, the god of war, in return for victory. Ares wipes out the barbarians and binds Kratos to the Blades of Chaos: twin blades on long chains, the chains seared into the flesh of his forearms.
As Ares' champion, Kratos raids a village with a temple to Athena. Ares has placed Kratos' wife and daughter inside, and Kratos kills them in his frenzy without knowing who they are. The village oracle curses him: their ashes are bound to his skin, which turns it white for good. From then on he is the Ghost of Sparta.
He serves the gods of Olympus for ten years, hoping they will take away the nightmares. The first game ends with Kratos killing Ares with the power of Pandora's Box and taking his throne as the new god of war.
From Olympus to Midgard
In God of War II (2007), Zeus, fearing Kratos, tricks him into draining his godly power into the Blade of Olympus and kills him. Kratos climbs out of the underworld and sides with the Titans. In God of War III (2010) he storms Olympus and kills nearly every god in his way, among them Poseidon, Hades, Helios, Hermes, Hera and finally Zeus, and the Greek world falls into ruin with them. At the end he drives the Blade of Olympus into himself, releasing to humanity the power of hope that had been inside him since he opened Pandora's Box.
The Norse games pick him up years later in Midgard, older and quieter. He has married again, to Laufey, called Faye, and has a son, Atreus. God of War (2018) opens with her death; her last wish is for her ashes to be scattered from the highest peak in all the realms.
The Blades of Chaos are wrapped and hidden under the floor of the house. Kratos digs them out only when the journey forces him into Helheim, where the cold makes the axe's frost almost useless.
Spartan Rage
The main games give Kratos a rage meter, renamed for whoever he is loyal to: Rage of the Gods in God of War (2005), Rage of the Titans in God of War II, Rage of Sparta in God of War III, and Spartan Rage in the Norse games.
In God of War (2018), filling the meter and triggering Spartan Rage makes Kratos drop his weapons and fight with his fists, hitting far harder than usual. Ragnarök splits it into three forms: Fury, the bare-handed rage of the 2018 game; Valor, which spends rage to heal, and heals more and sharpens his attacks if timed just before a hit; and Wrath, which charges an enemy with the weapon in his hand for one heavy strike. Spartan Rage takes its name from it.
The Leviathan Axe
The Leviathan Axe is the frost axe of the Norse games, forged by the dwarf brothers Brok and Sindri as a match for Thor's hammer, Mjölnir. It was Faye's, and she left it to Kratos.
Throw it and it sticks in whatever it hits, freezing it; call it and it flies back to his hand. The Blades of Chaos are its opposite, all fire and reach, and switching between the two is the heart of the Norse combat. In Ragnarök the brothers arrange a third weapon, the Draupnir Spear, forged from the ring Draupnir by the Lady of the Forge. Leviathan is named for the axe.
Fimbulwinter and Baldur
In Norse myth, Fimbulwinter is the great winter that comes before Ragnarök, the end of the world. In God of War it means three years of snow with no summer between.
It begins at the end of God of War (2018). Baldur, Freya's son, has hunted Kratos all game. Freya's spell makes Baldur unable to feel anything or be hurt by anything except mistletoe, and the strap of Atreus's quiver has been mended with a mistletoe arrowhead. When Baldur punches the boy and the arrowhead pierces his hand, the spell breaks, and Kratos kills him to save Freya, who swears revenge. The characters themselves believe his death set the winter off.
Ragnarök opens three years later, with Fimbulwinter close to its end and Ragnarök at hand. Fimbulwinter is named for it.
Atreus is Loki
Atreus is half-god and half-giant: his mother Faye was a giant living quietly in Midgard. At the top of the mountain in Jötunheim, the land of the giants, father and son find murals showing that the giants foresaw their whole journey, and learn the name Faye first chose for her son: Loki.
In Ragnarök, Atreus goes looking for the rest of the prophecy, which leads him to Odin in Asgard and to Angrboda, a young giant in hiding. In the end Atreus traps Odin's soul in a marble and Sindri crushes it. Then Atreus sets out alone to find the surviving giants, and Kratos stays behind to help rebuild the realms. Runestone Fury puts father and son together on the back.
On the back of a tee
Both sagas are on the God of War shelf, drawn from canon reference art. Check the size guide before you pick a size.
Why it works on the back: Kratos is all silhouette, the white skin, the red tattoo and later the beard and the axe, the kind of shape that reads from across a room like a good cover from the far end of a comic shop.
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