Andvari

Andvari was a powerful enchanter and formerly served as an ally of Kratos and Atreus. He was Brok's friend some years prior to the game. He is a supportive character in God of War (2018).

In Norse Mythology[]

In Norse mythology, Andvari (Old Norse "careful one") is a dwarf who lives underneath a waterfall and has the power to change himself into a fish at will.

Andvari had a magical ring Andvaranaut, which helped him become wealthy. Using a net provided by Ran, Loki catches him as a pike and forces him to give up his gold and Andvaranaut. Andvari cursed the stolen gold which would destroy anyone who possessed it. After the deaths of Brynhild and Sigurd, Gunnar left Andvari's gold in a cave. Years later, Andvari discovered the cave and his lost gold, although his ring was lost forever.

Biography[]

God of War (2018)[]

Before the action of the game, Andvari made a debt with his friend Brok. After making the debt with Brok Andvari began experimenting with ancients trying to turn them into beasts of burden. After some research he eventually discovered a way to remove the souls of ancients allowing dwarves to manipulate them with ease. However some time later one of the ancients would turn against its dwarves masters in the landsuther mines and devoured their souls in attempt to undo its own lack of one. After this incident Andvari would rechristen these modified ancients as “soul eaters” and realized they were abomination to all the nine realms. Despite this discovery of the danger of these creatures though some folks would still request soul eaters from Andvari. One of these customers was the fire jotnar Surtr a fact which frightened Andvari as he was worried about the reasons why Surtr would want such dangerous creatures. Another person was the Dwarven King Motsognir. In his case Andvari didn't particularly care what he wanted the soul eaters for and hoped he would be burned by them.

In contrast to the Dwarf King, Andvari was extremely concerned for the dwarves using his creation in the volunder mines as he knew his creation there might eventually attack them as well, and hoped it wasn't too late to save them. This concern would lead to his downfall though as during an expedition to check on the dwarves there he was attacked by the very same Soul-Eater he was worried over. Before being ripped apart though Andvari managed to cast a spell which locked his soul into his ring, which saved his soul from being absorbed by his opponent but leaving his soul trapped in the ring. Little did he knew that the debt he made previously, would be his salvation. Brok, becoming concerned about Andvari and wondering what happened to him after not hearing from him for some time eventually told Kratos and Atreus to check the Volunder mines and see if he was still alive. In the end all they could find though was his green ring leading them to believe he had been killed by the soul eater. Hoping to still get a reward they recovered the ring which they gave to Brok before leaving the mine.

Knowing Andvari's skills with soul magics though Brok would grow to suspect that before the soul eater got him Andvari had locked his own soul in his ring to protect it from the soul eater. To confirm this Brok after meeting Kratos and Atreus again told them to meet him at the landsuther mines as he believed he found a new lead on Andvari. Confused they traveled to the designated place where Brok told Atreus to talk to the ring. A bewildered Atreus told Brok he couldn't talk to rings only for Brok to give it to him whereupon the ring itself began talking to Atreus which proved that Brok's suspicions were correct. As Andvari was telling Atreus the details of how and why he locked his soul in his own ring Brok interrupted him as he wasn't interested in that stuff and only cared about the location of Andvari's gear, specifically a magic hammer that could be useful to him. Upon confirming its location in the mine Brok told them to take Andvari with them into the landsuther mines to find it.

Andvari wasn't pleased by what they were doing and told them to stop but Kratos wasn't interested causing Andvari to try to make Atreus tell Kratos something bad for him which Atreus refused to do. As they headed deeper into the landsuther mines he would constantly tell them to stop heading further in likely because of the dangers that were in the mines and also so they wouldn't figure out his shame that he created the soul eaters. Once they discovered his laboratory though he came clean and was grateful that Kratos destroyed his laboratory meaning no more soul eaters could be created. After the group returned to Brok and gave him the magical hammer he offered to melt down Andvari and use his soul to make a reward for Kratos and Atreus. However a disgusted Atreus disagreed with the idea and managed to convince his father Kratos to keep the ring as it was by arguing successfully that Andvari might still be useful that way. After this the ring became just another enchantment to improve Kratos and ceased talking after the favor from Brok implying he made the best of his current form.

God of War: Ragnarök[]

After defeating the Soul Eater in The Crater in Vanaheim, Atreus will mention that Andvari would be happy that another Soul Eater had been killed. When Kratos asked if Andvari is the same Dwarf who put his soul into his ring, Mimir tells that he is correct and that the dwarf was the creator of the Soul Eaters. When Mimir wonders on what happened to him, Atreus revealed that he gave Andvari to Sindri, who ended up losing him, causing Mimir to respond in a sarcastic tone.

Personality[]

While talking to Atreus, he was rather loud, mean and irritating however deep down he had feelings of shame and guilt due to the fact that he created soul eaters and that they caused so much devastation to Midgard. He hated Kratos for all he did was ignore him even though he was trying to warn him not to go any further into the landsuther mines because of the dangers within it. At the same time he was grateful to Kratos for destroying his laboratory so that no more soul eaters could be created. After being saved from Brok's re-melting he calmed down and accepted his fate.

Powers and Abilities[]

As a dwarf, Andvari was a skilled blacksmith, craftsman and was very entrepreneurial. He led his faction of Dwarves and Mortals to colonize several mines and even started to develop ideas to weaponize the Ancients as their workforce. He even sold his Soul Eaters to Surtr as well as Motsognir.

Andvari was also skilled enchanter and practitioner of soul-based magicks. He was capable of removing the souls of Ancients to turn them into Soul Eaters, mindless servants for the Dwarves. Prior to being destroyed by one of his Soul Eaters, he quickly enchanted his soul inside into his ring so that his soul may be saved, even if the body is destroyed.

While losing these abilities due to his current state, according to the codex Kratos can use this soul in the ring to enchant his weapons and armors.

Trivia[]

Andvari possessed a magical hammer, which was a good tool in Kratos' eyes.
Curious enough, since Andvari is trapped as a soul in his ring which potentially come into the possession of Kratos and Atreus, he could be the second other entity to go through the Journey with the duo, after Mimir.
- If he is not removed from the inventory, then it's possible that he made it to Jotunheim's peak with Kratos and Atreus, which is strange since the moment was to be only between the two.
Andvari is deceased physically, but his soul passed inside the ring which makes him alive.
His current fate is unknown as the ring containing his soul was seemingly lost by Sindri prior to the events of God of War Ragnarök.