What Happened to Kratos's Brother?

Kratos's brother, Deimos, was snatched from Sparta as a boy by Ares and Athena, who feared he was the marked warrior of a prophecy. He spent years as a prisoner of Thanatos in the Domain of Death. Kratos found him and freed him in God of War: Ghost of Sparta, but Thanatos killed Deimos before the two brothers had any time together. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

The day the gods took him#

The two boys were inseparable. Kratos was the elder, and he taught Deimos how a Spartan fights with spear and shield. Neither knew they were sons of Zeus. Deimos stood out for one thing: an unusual birthmark running across his body. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

That mark was the problem. An oracle had foretold that the Olympians would fall to a marked warrior, and the gods decided Deimos fitted the description. Ares and Athena came down on Sparta and seized him while he trained with his brother. Kratos threw himself at Ares and was knocked down, his right eye scarred. Ares would have killed him, but Athena held him back, since they already had the boy they wanted. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

Ares handed Deimos to Thanatos, the god of death, to be kept in torment so the prophecy could never come true. For years Deimos believed Kratos would come for him. He never did, and the hope turned to hatred. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

How Kratos found out he was alive#

Kratos assumed his brother was dead. Ascension, set before the first game, has one of the Furies' illusions remark that even losing his brother never broke his focus. Only after he became the God of War, haunted by visions of his past, did he go looking. (God of War: Ascension; God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

In Atlantis he found his mother, Callisto, ill and dying. She told him his brother was alive and suffering in the Domain of Death. Then she turned into a monster, and Kratos had to kill her. Before she died she thanked him and begged him to find Deimos. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

Reunion and death#

Kratos fought his way into the Domain of Death and found Deimos chained in the Temple of Thanatos. Once free, Deimos turned on his brother in a rage, swearing he would never forgive him for leaving him to rot. Before they could settle it, Thanatos grabbed Deimos and carried him off to Suicide Bluffs. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

Kratos followed and caught his brother before he fell. He swore never to leave him again and gave him the Arms of Sparta, the spear and shield of their childhood, and the two charged Thanatos side by side. Thanatos mocked them: Ares had chosen poorly, he said, taking Deimos when he should have taken Kratos. In the fight, Thanatos became a giant winged beast, seized Deimos and crushed him against the cliff. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

Kratos tore Thanatos apart. Then he carried his brother's body up the mountain, where the Grave Digger had already dug a grave next to their mother's, and laid Deimos to rest. The whole quest is told in the Ghost of Sparta story. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

Why it mattered so much#

Losing Deimos was the wound that turned Kratos against the gods for good. He vowed that the gods would pay for what they had done to his brother and his mother, and in God of War III he kills nearly all of them. The irony is that by doing it he became the very warrior the prophecy described. In that game Zeus, taunting Gaia, dismisses Deimos as "the other one". (God of War: Ghost of Sparta; God of War III)

Interpretation: look closely and Kratos's red tattoo follows the same pattern as Deimos's birthmark. Most players read it as a mark worn in his brother's memory. The game shows the likeness but never spells out the reason. (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)

Kratos still carries it in Ragnarök#

Centuries later, in the north, Kratos tells Freya about Deimos to push her to make peace with her own brother, Freyr. He explains that the gods of his homeland took Deimos when they were boys, that by the time he learned his brother was alive it was too late, and that Deimos's anger poisoned him against Kratos. "But I never stopped loving my brother," he says. (God of War Ragnarök)

Freya later asks whether he ever apologised to Deimos. He admits it is hard to ask forgiveness when you don't feel worthy of it. Interpretation: that answer is the whole story in one line. Kratos still blames himself for the years his brother waited, and Ragnarök uses Deimos to show how far he has come in learning to say so. (God of War Ragnarök)

Read more#

Deimos has the full character page, and Thanatos covers the god who killed him. For the rest of the family, see who Kratos's father is and why Kratos killed Zeus.