Blades of Chaos

The Blades of Chaos were the signature weapons carried by Kratos through the Greek era of his life. Forged in the depths of the Underworld by the smith god Hephaestus and bestowed upon Kratos by Ares, the twin blades were bound by their chains to the very flesh of his arms. Widely feared throughout Greece, they came to embody what Kratos had become during the darkest period of his life: the monster who killed his own family in a god-driven frenzy and earned the name Ghost of Sparta. The blades drew their power from the primordial realm of Chaos and burned with the fire of Tartarus.

Forging and the marked warrior#

The Blades of Chaos were commissioned by Ares and forged in the darkest depths of the Underworld by Hephaestus, in the furnace of Hades himself. Ares had learned of the prophecy of the Marked Warrior, which foretold the fall of Olympus at the hands of a mortal, and he intended to bind such a warrior to his purpose against his father Zeus. The twin blades were imbued with the primordial fire of Tartarus, and their power was linked to the realm of Chaos, which made them indestructible. The chains attached to their pommels could stretch out with each strike, allowing fluid, sweeping attacks no matter who held them. Beyond their own fire, the blades could channel other divine energies, and they granted a demigod such as Kratos near-Olympian strength and toughness.

Bound to Kratos#

After Kratos pledged his life to the God of War on the brink of defeat against the Barbarian horde, Ares had his Harpies fetch the Blades of Chaos and bestowed them on the Spartan. The chains were seared permanently onto Kratos' forearms, a lasting mark of his oath that could only be removed by the God of War himself or when his servitude ended. With the new weapons Kratos slew the Barbarian King Alrik in single combat. The blades fed his rage and bloodlust for years, drawing the life-force from his many victims to heal his wounds and amplify his strength, though each slaughter left his mind in unrest.

The slaughter of his family#

In a plot to bind his servant to him forever through a blood-oath devised with the aid of the Furies, Ares turned Kratos' brutality against his own wife Lysandra and daughter Calliope. Driven into a god-induced frenzy, the Spartan unknowingly killed his family. Shattered by shame and loss, Kratos swore that Ares would pay with his life and broke his oath, though the chains remained seared to his flesh. When the Furies later captured and tortured him in the Prison of the Damned, he broke free and hunted them down, the Queen Alecto and her sister Megaera both falling to the Blades of Chaos.

Champion of Olympus#

Kratos pledged himself to the gods of Olympus as their champion, hoping to atone and rid himself of the visions that plagued him. For ten years the Blades of Chaos served him through his quests, including his journey to rescue the sun god Helios from the titan Atlas. He valued the blades for their ability to heal his wounds by draining the life of his foes and bystanders alike, and considered them the only gift from Ares he still appreciated, intending to use the War God's own weapon to slay him.

His final task in Greece sent him against Ares himself, who had attacked the city of Athens. After slaying the Hydra and fighting through the besieged city, Kratos beheaded Medusa, conquered the Temple of Pandora, and confronted his former master. During the battle Ares ripped the blades from Kratos' arms and turned them against him, but the gods granted Kratos the Blade of the Gods, with which he slew Ares. Athena then made Kratos the new God of War and rewarded him with the Blades of Athena, more powerful weapons fit for an Olympian.

Retirement and return#

As God of War, Kratos gained access to all his predecessor's weapons but vowed never to use the Blades of Chaos again, storing them away in favor of the Blades of Athena, which carried no emotional weight. Yet the cursed blades proved impossible to be rid of. After the destruction of Olympus they returned to him again and again under impossible circumstances; when he tried to cast them into the ocean, the sea itself rejected them and wrecked his boat. He finally wrapped them in a red cloth and hid them beneath the floorboards of his cabin in the Wildwoods of Midgard.

When his son Atreus fell ill, Kratos learned that the cure required a journey into Helheim, where the cold of the realm rendered the frost of his Leviathan Axe useless. He retrieved the blades and grimly rebound their chains to his arms. Their fire proved able to burn even in the ancient land of the dead, the first known flame to do so there. Restored progressively by Brok and Sindri with Chaos Flames, the cracked Greek blades took on a refined Nordic style, gaining glyphs and a serpent motif.

Fimbulwinter and Ragnarok#

After completing his quest with Atreus, Kratos again set the blades aside and relied on the Leviathan Axe for three years. By the time Ragnarok began, the magic-weakening Fimbulwinter had reverted the blades to their cracked, rusted state, until Brok, Sindri, and later Lunda restored them once more with Chaos Flames. When Surtr sensed the primordial fire within the blades, he used them to transfer their flame and the spark of the world into the heart of his beloved Sinmara within his own body, becoming Ragnarok itself. In the final clash with Thor, the durability the blades granted again proved its worth, the fallen god absorbing the strength of a fully charged Mjolnir. Asked by Atreus why he kept weapons he seemed to hate, Kratos answered that even hateful things could be useful.