Brok

Brok, also called Brokkr, was a dwarven blacksmith of the Nine Realms and, with his brother Sindri, one of the two Huldra Brothers. Together they forged Thor's hammer Mjolnir and the Leviathan Axe that once belonged to Faye. Blunt, vulgar, and slovenly where his brother was fastidious, Brok nonetheless became a trusted friend to Kratos and Atreus during their travels.

Mjolnir and the first death#

Seeking to make their names, Brok and Sindri forged a lightning hammer for the Aesir and gave it to Odin, who passed it to his son Thor. Thor used Mjolnir to carry out a genocide of the Giants and other atrocities across the realms over the course of thirty years. Stricken with guilt, Sindri convinced Brok that since they had made the weapon, it fell to them to set things right, and together they forged the Leviathan Axe to rival it.

Close to finishing the axe, a spider seeking revenge for a kinsman Brok had killed crawled up his leg and bit him, and Brok died of the venom. Refusing to lose his brother, Sindri carried his body to the Lake of Souls in Alfheim and dove in to retrieve his soul before it passed into the light. He recovered it, but only three fragments, missing the part that gave a soul its direction. Brok woke with blue skin and no memory of having died, and the brothers finished the axe and gave it to Faye, the last Guardian of the Jotnar, hoping she might restore balance. In time the guilt over Mjolnir strained their bond until they could no longer work together, and they split their smithing brand down the middle and parted ways.

Aiding the father and son#

Brok first met Kratos and Atreus near a Jotnar marketplace, recognizing the Leviathan Axe at once and insisting that none but he and his brother should work on it. He upgraded the weapon and opened his shop, and across the journey he appeared again and again, improving their equipment and trading barbed remarks about Sindri while plainly missing him. He helped imbue the Blades of Chaos with the winds of Helheim so Kratos could save his ailing son, and modified the Mystic Gateways to reach new destinations.

When Kratos and Atreus needed a key forged for Tyr's temple, Brok at first refused, as it was no weapon, until Sindri appeared with a chunk of Skap Slag and offered to help. The two forged the key together and branded it with their reunited mark, mending their long feud. Like his brother, Brok hated the Aesir and regretted forging Mjolnir, yet he came to care for Kratos, who counted the dwarf among the few he called a friend.

Reconciliation and the Draupnir Spear#

Three years into the long winter, Brok rejoined Kratos and Atreus from his brother's house in the Realm Between Realms. He accompanied Kratos and Freya into Vanaheim to reunite Freya with her brother, and when the group resolved to deal with Heimdall, it was Brok who proposed forging the duplicating ring Draupnir into a spear to overwhelm the Aesir's foresight. He travelled with Kratos to the Lady of the Forge, a mermaid blacksmith, who forged the spear but departed without blessing it, ignoring Brok entirely. At Kratos' urging, Brok blessed the weapon himself, despite his misgivings over his incomplete soul. It was on this journey that he learned the truth Sindri had hidden, that he had died long ago, and though he grew angry, he chose to feign ignorance afterward to spare his brother.

Death and legacy#

When the group gathered after Atreus stole Odin's mask, the figure they believed to be Tyr suddenly claimed to know a secret way into Asgard and called Atreus by the name Loki. Brok, ever loyal and sharp, picked apart the inconsistencies in the story, and in answer the figure stabbed him through the chest and revealed himself to be Odin in disguise. Freya could not save him, for his incomplete soul could not be healed a second time. In his final moments Brok told Sindri that he knew what had happened to him long ago, that he forgave him, and that he had to let go and move on.

Sindri, unable to bear it, carried his brother's body away into the Realm Between Realms. Brok's death struck everyone deeply and drove Kratos and Freya to set Ragnarok in motion. Because his soul lacked its direction, Mimir explained, there was nothing left to bring back, and Brok could enter no afterlife. His death was avenged when Sindri destroyed the soul of Odin. His body was given a proper Norse burial in Svartalfheim, where Kratos helped push his barge into the water and Freya cremated him.