Odin

Odin, also known as the All-Father and Odin Borrson, was the King of the Aesir and ruler of the Norse Pantheon. The eldest son of Borr and Bestla and grandson of Buri, he was the father of Thor, Tyr, Heimdall, and Baldur, and the grandfather of Magni, Modi, Forseti, and Thrud. Convinced of the superiority of the Aesir over the Jotnar, he slew the first giant Ymir to claim the title of All-Father, then spent the rest of his existence consumed by a desire to control his own fate. His paranoia and his hunger for knowledge set in motion the events that would ultimately destroy Asgard.

Slaying Ymir and the founding of Asgard#

Odin was a grandson of Buri, the first of the Aesir, who had sprung from the primordial giant Ymir. Unlike Ymir, Odin believed the Aesir were fit to rule the Nine Realms. Together with his brothers Vili and Ve, he killed Ymir and all who stood in their path, taking the title of All-Father for himself. Ymir's blood drowned the Jotnar save for Bergelmir and his wife, and from Ymir's flesh Odin shaped the realm of Midgard. He later created the first humans, Ask and Embla.

The death of Ymir tore open a rift in reality, and the sight of it consumed Odin. Convinced that something lay beyond the Nine Realms, he began an obsessive search for the secrets of that tear, building Asgard and declaring himself king of the Aesir. He raised a great lodge above the rift and a research complex beneath it, where he gathered knowledge plundered from across the realms. Seeking to expand his forces, he seized control of Valhalla and its Valkyries, using its endless supply of fallen warriors to raise an army of Einherjar against the coming of Ragnarok.

The seeker of knowledge#

Odin's hunger for knowledge defined his reign. He once impaled himself on his own spear and hung from the branches of Yggdrasil for nine days, bleeding into the Well of Destiny, roaming the realm of the dead to plunder the World Tree's secrets until he was thrown back among the living.

When the foreigner Mimir came to him offering a mystic well of knowledge, Odin drank from waters laced with hallucinogenic mushrooms and, lost in his visions, began tearing out his own eyes. Mimir stopped him and convinced him he had sacrificed an eye for wisdom. Odin saw through the trick almost at once but valued Mimir's cunning enough to take him as advisor, and only later imprisoned him, removed one of his eyes, and tortured him daily for over a century. His greatest obsession became an ancient mask he believed could grant infinite knowledge, which Mimir called the All-Father's greatest passion.

Wars, marriage, and betrayals#

After cementing his rule, Odin waged war to subdue Alfheim, Svartalfheim, and Niflheim, though Muspelheim and Jotunheim remained beyond his reach. His campaign stalled against the Vanir of Vanaheim until both sides, exhausted, agreed to peace. Odin married the Vanir goddess Freya to end the war and to secretly learn her magic, and with her he fathered Baldur. For a time he genuinely loved her, granting her wishes and softening his belligerent moods. When he later demanded she teach him her protection magic and she refused, their marriage shattered. Odin cursed Freya to remain imprisoned in Midgard, unable to harm any living thing even in self-defense, and bound the roots of Yggdrasil so the curse could never be undone.

His other betrayals were many. He befriended the seer Groa and killed her once she revealed Ragnarok, stealing her library. He tricked the giantess Skadi into killing her own father after she spurned him. He sought the prophecies of Jotunheim through his son Tyr, who arranged a summit with the giants, but the giants saw Odin's intentions and banished him with a curse. In response Odin ordered the genocide of the giants. When Tyr turned against him to protect them, Odin imprisoned his own son and spread rumors of his death.

Fimbulwinter and the mask#

For years Odin chose not to confront the foreigner god dwelling in Midgard, but the deaths of Magni, Modi, and above all Baldur at the hands of Kratos and Atreus prematurely triggered Fimbulwinter and, with it, the approach of Ragnarok. Three years into the great winter, Odin came in person with Thor to offer Kratos a status quo: he would forgive the blood debt owed for Baldur's death and hold Freya back, if Kratos and Atreus promised never again to attack the Aesir or seek Tyr. Kratos refused, and a brawl with Thor followed.

Odin then disguised himself as Tyr, the imprisoned Norse God of War, and insinuated himself among Kratos and Atreus' allies. Recognizing Atreus' rare gift for ancient languages, he brought the young man to Asgard and set him to rebuilding a broken mask covered in writing only Atreus could read, the mask Odin believed would reveal the meaning of life and the fate of the gods. He convinced himself that Atreus was the key to escaping his own destiny.

Exposure and the murder of Brok#

Odin's deception held until the dwarf Brok grew suspicious. The disguised All-Father slipped by addressing Atreus as "Loki," a name the true Tyr had never used, and by suddenly showing courage where Tyr had only ever shown caution. When Brok pressed him, Odin lost his temper and stabbed the dwarf fatally in the chest, dropping his disguise and revealing himself to the horror of all present. He took Atreus hostage and demanded the mask, but Atreus broke free, and Kratos knocked the artifact from Odin's grasp, forcing him to flee empty-handed.

The murder of Brok hardened Odin's enemies against him. Freya and Kratos swore revenge, and together with their allies they committed to bringing Ragnarok to Asgard far sooner than Odin had foreseen.

The fall of Asgard and death#

Cornered in Asgard, Odin mobilized his full military might, ordering legions of Einherjar, war-beasts, and dwarven war-machines into the field, and even forcing the Midgardian refugees he had taken in to man the front lines as bait against Atreus. When the Gjallarhorn sounded, the armies of Alfheim, Vanaheim, and Helheim fell upon Asgard. As the battle turned, Kratos spared and reasoned with Thor, who at last refused to fight. Enraged, Odin impaled Thor on Gungnir before Atreus and Thrud, then turned on Kratos and Atreus, blaming them for the ruin of his family.

Odin froze Kratos and Atreus in place, only to be choked by Freya with his own noose. In the chaos the floor gave way and all fell into his private study, where the rift of creation had grown larger. Odin made one final plea for Atreus to don the mask and look beyond, but Atreus chose his father and broke the mask in two, and it vanished into the rift forever. The trio defeated the All-Father and forced him to his knees. Refusing to repent or release his obsession, Odin had his soul sealed within a tiny marble by a Jotunn spell. Sindri took the marble and crushed it, destroying Odin's soul and denying him any afterlife.

After his death and Asgard's destruction, the surviving Aesir took refuge in Vanaheim under Sif, rejecting Odin's ways, though loyalists led by the Valkyrie Queen Gna sought to continue his legacy until they too were defeated. When Kratos later entered the trials of Valhalla, Tyr recalled that Odin had visited seeking answers about the rift and control over the Valkyries, and left disappointed, for Valhalla rewards only those who look within. As Tyr put it, Odin "looked for answers everywhere except within."