God of War Story Explained: the Whole Saga from Sparta to Ragnarök

God of War tells the life of Kratos across two mythologies. The Greek games (2005 to 2013) follow a Spartan captain who sold himself to Ares, killed his own family, and tore down Olympus for revenge. The Norse games (2018 to 2023) follow the same man years later in Midgard, raising his son Atreus and trying not to repeat his past. This page runs through every main game in story order, which isn't release order. For the event-by-event chronology see the God of War timeline. Full spoilers for every game. (God of War (2005); God of War III; God of War (2018); God of War Ragnarök)

Before the story begins#

Kratos was a Spartan, the son of the mortal Callisto and, though he didn't know it, Zeus. He rose to captain in the Spartan army and married Lysandra, who gave him a daughter, Calliope. Facing death against a barbarian horde, he offered his life to Ares in exchange for victory. Ares saved him and bound the Blades of Chaos to his arms. Kratos then led Ares's campaigns across Greece, until in a village temple he slaughtered everyone inside and found his wife and child among the dead. Ares had put them there. The village oracle cursed him to wear their ashes on his skin, and he became the Ghost of Sparta. (God of War (2005); God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

God of War: Ascension#

God of War: Ascension (2013) is the earliest story, set not long after the death of Kratos's family. Kratos renounces his blood oath to Ares, and the Furies, who punish oath breakers, hunt him down. The game opens with him chained in a prison built from the body of the giant Aegaeon, tormented by Megaera. He breaks free and kills her. (God of War: Ascension)

The rest of the story shows what led there. Kratos is helped by Orkos, the Oath Keeper, son of Ares and the Fury queen Alecto. The Furies have blinded the Oracle of Delphi, Aletheia, to hide what she knows of a plot between Ares and Alecto, and Kratos fights through illusions the Furies use to confuse him. He kills Tisiphone, and then Alecto, after she tries to trap him in a dream of his old life with Lysandra and Calliope. (God of War: Ascension)

Orkos then tells him the bond to Ares will hold while Orkos lives, and asks Kratos to kill him. Kratos does, and he's free of Ares. He isn't free of his memories, though. The nightmares stay, which is what drives him into the gods' service next. (God of War: Ascension)

God of War: Chains of Olympus#

Chains of Olympus (2008) takes place during Kratos's ten years serving the gods of Olympus, who have promised to rid him of his nightmares. While he drives a Persian army out of Attica, the sun god Helios disappears and the sun falls from the sky. Morpheus spreads sleep over the world, and Helios's sister Eos asks Kratos to find him. (God of War: Chains of Olympus)

The trail leads to the Underworld. Persephone has freed the Titan Atlas to destroy the Pillar of the World and end all life, gods included. In Elysium she offers Kratos the one thing he wants, to be with Calliope again, if he gives up his powers. He agrees, and Calliope is overjoyed. But the Pillar is about to fall, and Kratos has to take his powers back to stop it, which means leaving his daughter behind. He kills Persephone and chains Atlas to hold up the sky. Helios returns to his place. It's one of the series' saddest scenes, and nobody on Olympus ever learns what it cost him. (God of War: Chains of Olympus)

God of War (2005)#

The first game picks up in the tenth year of that service. Kratos kills the Hydra for Poseidon, and Athena gives him one last task: kill Ares, who is laying siege to Athens. Do it, she says, and the gods will forgive his past. (God of War (2005))

The only weapon that can kill a god is Pandora's Box, hidden in Pandora's Temple, chained to the back of the Titan Cronos in the Desert of Lost Souls. Kratos fights through Athens, crosses the desert and takes the Box, but Ares kills him before he can use it. Kratos claws his way out of the Underworld, opens the Box and, grown to a god's size, fights Ares. Ares makes him relive the death of his family, and Kratos kills him with the Blade of the Gods. (God of War (2005))

The gods forgive him but can't take away the nightmares. In despair Kratos throws himself off a cliff into the sea. Athena saves him and raises him to Olympus as the new God of War. (God of War (2005))

God of War: Ghost of Sparta#

Ghost of Sparta (2010) is set while Kratos is still new to Ares's throne. Visions of his mother lead him to Atlantis, where he finds Callisto alive. She tells him his brother Deimos still lives and tries to name Kratos's father, but a curse turns her into a monster and Kratos has to kill her. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

As boys, Kratos and Deimos trained in Sparta together. A prophecy said a marked warrior would bring down Olympus, and Ares and Athena took Deimos because of his birthmark, scarring Kratos's eye when he tried to stop them. They handed Deimos to Thanatos, the god of death. Kratos reaches the Domain of Death and frees his brother, who hates him at first for never coming. They make up and fight Thanatos together, but Thanatos kills Deimos. Kratos kills Thanatos, buries his brother and turns fully against Olympus. Kratos's red tattoo is a memorial to Deimos, whose birthmark it copies. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

God of War II#

God of War II (2007) opens with Kratos using his godhood to send the Spartan army across Greece, angering Olympus. During the siege of Rhodes, Zeus drains Kratos's power into the Colossus of Rhodes, tricks him into pouring the rest into the Blade of Olympus, and kills him with it. (God of War II)

The Titan Gaia pulls Kratos back from the Underworld and sends him to the Sisters of Fate on the Island of Creation, whose Loom can change time. Riding Pegasus, he frees Prometheus, and on the island he kills Theseus, Perseus and Icarus. He kills all three Fates and takes the Loom back to the moment of his death at Rhodes. (God of War II)

Kratos beats Zeus and goes for the killing blow, but Athena throws herself in front of it and dies. With her last words she tells Kratos that Zeus is his father, and that Zeus feared his son would do to him what Zeus had done to Cronos. Kratos doesn't care. He reaches back into the Great War, pulls the Titans into his own time, and the game ends with them climbing Mount Olympus. (God of War II)

God of War III#

God of War III (2010) is the Second Titanomachy. Kratos and the Titans storm Olympus, and he kills Poseidon, which floods Greece. Zeus knocks him off the mountain, and Gaia lets him fall, admitting he was only ever her weapon. (God of War III)

Guided by Athena's spirit, Kratos fights out of the Underworld and kills nearly every god in turn: Hades, Helios, Hermes, Hercules, Hephaestus and Hera. Each death brings darkness, plague or storms to the mortal world. He kills Cronos in Tartarus and finds Pandora, the girl made to be the key to the Flame of Olympus that guards the Box. She grows close to him, and she gives her life to put out the Flame. The Box is empty. (God of War III)

Kratos kills Gaia and beats Zeus to death. Athena then asks for the power that was in the Box, which she says was Hope, left inside Kratos when he first opened it. Instead Kratos drives the Blade of Olympus into his own chest and releases that Hope to the people of Greece. Athena pulls the blade out and leaves empty-handed. After the credits his body is gone, leaving only a trail of blood. (God of War III)

God of War (2018)#

God of War (2018) picks up many years later. Kratos has left Greece, settled in Midgard with a woman named Faye, and has a son, Atreus, who knows nothing of his past. When Faye dies, father and son set out to scatter her ashes from the highest peak in the Nine Realms. (God of War (2018))

They're hunted by a stranger who feels no pain, Baldur, son of Odin. Helped by the witch Freya, the dwarves Brok and Sindri, and the head of Mimir, they cross Midgard, Alfheim and Helheim. Kratos kills Thor's son Magni, and Atreus, newly told he's a god and arrogant with it, kills Modi. (God of War (2018))

Freya turns out to be Baldur's mother, whose spell made him invulnerable and numb. A mistletoe arrow breaks it, and when Baldur tries to kill her, Kratos snaps his neck. Freya swears revenge and Fimbulwinter begins. In Jotunheim a mural shows Faye was a giant who foresaw all of it, names Atreus as Loki, and seems to show Kratos dying in his son's arms. (God of War (2018))

God of War Ragnarök#

God of War Ragnarök (2022) opens three years later. Thor and Odin come to the door, and Odin offers peace if Atreus stops searching for the lost god Tyr. Kratos refuses. They free a prisoner they believe is Tyr, Atreus meets the giant Angrboda and later spies on Odin in Asgard, and Freya makes peace with Kratos after he helps break Odin's curse on her. Kratos kills Heimdall to protect Atreus. (God of War Ragnarök)

Then "Tyr" murders Brok and is revealed as Odin. Kratos leads the realms into Ragnarök. He beats Thor and spares him, and Odin kills Thor for refusing to go on. Kratos, Atreus and Freya defeat Odin, Sindri crushes the marble holding his soul, and Asgard burns. Kratos survives, finds a hidden mural showing him honoured by the realms, and gives Atreus his blessing to leave and find the remaining giants. (God of War Ragnarök)

God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla#

The Valhalla epilogue (2023) follows soon after. Freya has asked Kratos to take up the office of God of War, and the idea fills him with guilt. An anonymous letter, sent by the real Tyr, leads Kratos and Mimir into Valhalla. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

Inside, Kratos relives his Greek past in a series of trials, while Tyr questions him about the deal with Ares, the killing of Helios, and Pandora and his own sacrifice after killing Zeus. He faces his younger self as the old God of War. In the end Kratos accepts the title he ran from, deciding a God of War can also bring hope, and takes his place beside Freya in rebuilding the realms. (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

In what order#

Story order: Ascension, Chains of Olympus, God of War (2005), Ghost of Sparta, God of War II, God of War III, God of War (2018), God of War Ragnarök, Valhalla. Release order: God of War (2005), God of War II (2007), Chains of Olympus (2008), God of War III (2010), Ghost of Sparta (2010), Ascension (2013), God of War (2018), Ragnarök (2022), Valhalla (2023). (God of War: Ascension; God of War: Chains of Olympus; God of War: Ghost of Sparta; God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)

Release order is fine for a first time through, since the prequels assume you already know Kratos's story. If you only want the core arc, God of War, God of War II and God of War III, then the 2018 game and Ragnarök, carry almost all of it. (God of War (2005); God of War II; God of War III; God of War (2018); God of War Ragnarök)

Where the story stands#

At the end of Valhalla, Kratos is the God of War again, this time by choice, helping Freya rebuild the Nine Realms with Mimir beside him. Atreus is somewhere beyond the realms as Loki, looking for the giants whose souls he carries. The series hasn't said where that leads. The full God of War cast, from Callisto to Angrboda, is laid out on one page. (God of War Ragnarök; God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla)