Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in the Peloponnesus, a region southwest of Athens in southern Greece, and the home of Kratos. A large and highly militaristic culture, it waged many wars against its Greek rivals and the Persians, and lived for ages in reverence of Ares, the God of War, whose statue stood watch over the city. After Kratos slew Ares it became his own patron city, until Zeus destroyed it in petty revenge.

A militaristic city-state#

Sparta was a large city-state and a highly militaristic culture, waging many wars with Greek rivals such as Athens and fighting the Persians across its history. Kratos once referred to Sparta as having been an empire, suggesting it held territory beyond its own walls, and it took part in the legendary Trojan War of the distant past. For ages the city lived in reverence of Ares, who had taken up its patronage and whose statue stood guard on the highest plateau above the city, keeping watch over the lands of Laconia. The Temple of Ares stood as a symbol of the war god's presence in the mortal world, and Zeus too was held in worship for his rule over the world.

The childhood of Kratos#

One of Zeus' mortal lovers, Callisto, bore two sons, Kratos and his younger brother Deimos, and settled in Sparta to escape the slander surrounding their father. The brothers trained and dreamed of becoming great soldiers. When the Oracle foretold the demise of the Olympian gods at the hands of a Marked Warrior, Zeus ordered Ares and Athena to raid the city and seize the marked one. They came with an army of centaurs and a barrage of flaming arrows, and Ares took Deimos away, leaving Kratos alone in the world at the age of seven, save for his comrades in the Agoge.

The rise of the Fist of Ares#

Kratos thrived in the Agoge and rose through the Spartan army with valor and skill. Chosen by Ares as his champion in the Quest for the Ambrosia of Asclepius, he led his men on a costly journey to save Sparta from a plague, defeating the Barbarian prince Alrik and returning a hero to be made Captain. Years later, facing Alrik's overwhelming Barbarian army and certain defeat, Kratos called out to Ares to destroy his enemies in exchange for his life. The god answered, bestowing the Blades of Chaos and making Kratos his earthly servant.

With Kratos at its head as the Fist of Ares, Sparta rose to even greater devotion and became invincible, its armies marching through Greece in his conquests with total death, no quarter, and no mercy. The bloodshed grew so great that even Zeus considered striking him down. The march ended only after Kratos slew his own family in a temple of Athena, becoming the Ghost of Sparta and losing his followers.

Pride and conquest#

A decade later, having slain Ares with the power of Pandora's Box, Kratos was welcomed among the rulers of Olympus as the new God of War, and a son of Sparta became its prime deity. The statues and symbols of Ares were torn down and replaced with those honoring Kratos, though some loyalists of the old war god rejected him as a usurper. When he returned to the city in search of the Skull of Keres in the Temple of Ares, Kratos faced and defeated a ghost in the image of his younger self before resolving to seek out Deimos in Atlantis.

In the aftermath of his brother's death, Kratos ordered Sparta to conquer Greece and kill all who refused subjugation, all to spite the gods. The armies of Sparta became invincible through their training and the favor of the war god, and city after city fell until only Rhodes remained. The Siege of Rhodes proved the high point of the conquest, for there Zeus intervened in person, impaling Kratos with the Blade of Olympus and destroying the Spartan invasion army.

Destruction by Zeus#

In the desolation that followed Sparta's bloody march, mortals across Greece began raising shrines to Gaia and the Titans. When Athena let slip word of this during a heated argument, Zeus lost all restraint and destroyed Sparta to punish Kratos for his insolence, the latest being his alliance with the hated Titans. As large as Kratos and Ares had been in their own rampages, the King of the Gods ravaged the city, stomping and hurling buildings full of women and children and burning thousands to death with his lightning before returning to Olympus. To his outraged daughter he declared only that he had done what was necessary, that as Kratos had destroyed the other cities, so he had destroyed Sparta.

Though Kratos briefly altered the past to force Zeus to retreat and spare his home, it is held that the floods wrought by the death of Poseidon destroyed the city in the end.