The Vanir: the gods of nature and magic

Aesir-Vanir War

The Aesir-Vanir War was the long and brutal conflict between the two tribes of Norse gods, fought ages before Kratos came to the Northlands. It ended in an uneasy peace sealed by the marriage of Odin and Freya, only for Odin's treachery to reignite it.

Alfheim: the elves' war over the Light

Light and Dark Elves fought for centuries over the Light of Alfheim, the source that powers the Bifrost. It changed hands more than two hundred times.

Baldur's Curse: the spell of invulnerability

Baldur's curse was a spell of protection that Freya wove around her son to cheat a prophecy of his pointless death. It made Baldur impervious to every wound, whether dealt by weapon or sorcery, but it stripped him of all physical sensation, drove him into madness, and left mistletoe as its single fatal flaw.

Fafnir: the dwarf thief who became a dragon

Fafnir Hreidmarson was a dwarf of Svartalfheim who ranged across the realms stealing treasure and made himself a nuisance to Aesir and Vanir alike. He was turned into a dragon by something he took, most likely a Vanir mirror, and was later chained in his own plundered storeroom by the dwarven king Mótsognir.

Fjorgyn: the giant earth goddess Odin truly loved

Fjorgyn was a Jotunn goddess of the earth, one of Odin's wives and the mother of Thor. She died under circumstances that remained a mystery, and her loss left the All-Father broken for ages and cast a long shadow over Asgard.

God of War Timeline: every major event from the Primordials to Valhalla

The full in-universe chronology of God of War, from the war of the Primordials and the fall of the Titans to Kratos's life in Sparta, his war on Olympus, and the end of the Aesir at Ragnarök. The games give almost no calendar years, so events are ordered by story sequence and grouped into eras, with notes wherever the games' own placement is vague.

Gods: the ageless rulers of the world

Gods were a race of ageless humanoids with magical powers who ruled over the lands of the world and were worshiped by the mortals beneath them. They gathered in distinct pantheons, from the Olympians and Titans of Greece to the Aesir and Vanir of Scandinavia, with still others reigning in distant lands.

Hoenir: the silent god of the Aesir

Hoenir was the Aesir god of silence, indecision, mystery, and avoidance, a kind but simple minded young god who needed constant care. Odin sent him to Vanaheim under the guise of a cultural exchange, and the Vanir families welcomed him as one of their own. When Hoenir learned that the All-Father had sent him away out of disgust, he took his own life.

Immortal: the deathless beings of the realms

Immortality marked the gods, titans, and certain great creatures of the Greek and Norse worlds, who could not die by age or disease. Yet it was never true invulnerability, for sufficient power could still bring even the mightiest of them down.

Midgardians

The Midgardians, also called Norsemen, were the mortal inhabitants of Midgard, divided into warring Nordic clans by their worship of the Aesir or the Vanir. Short-lived yet fearless, they sought glorious deaths in battle to claim a place among the honored dead.

Mythology: the many faiths of one world

In the world Kratos walked, mythology was not belief but fact. Every body of myth that mankind told was true within its own land, from the Olympians of Greece to the Aesir of the north, with the gods of Egypt, Persia, and lands further still holding dominion over their own corners of the earth.

Nerthus: the Vanir goddess killed by the sons of Thor

Nerthus was a Vanir goddess who fought in the Aesir-Vanir War and was cut down in one of its battles by Magni and Modi, the sons of Thor. The games say little else about her, but the old myths tie her to Njörd and his twins Freya and Freyr, whose family went on to pay for the peace.