The Greek World, otherwise known as simply Greece to its inhabitants, is the world that falls under the ancient Greek creation stories,[1] the world of the Greek Gods, demigods, mortals, monsters, and other creatures dwelling there. It is where the first saga of the God of War series takes place, until after Kratos' revenge on Olympus in God of War III where the world was left in ruin and almost all the Olympians and Titans were killed in the madness. After Kratos' departure to the Nine Realms, it is believed to be recovering with the mortals now living without the gods due to the power of Hope released to them.
It is divided into three major regions: the living world where the mortals dwell, the Underworld which houses the souls of departed mortals along with the imprisoned Titans, and Mount Olympus where the Olympians ruled over all of Greece until their demise. Notable cities and places include Sparta, Athens, Crete, Atlantis, Attica, Marathon, Troy, Kirra, Delphi, Delos, and Rhodes.
In the God of War Series[]
The Greek world of the God of War series is based on the mythology of ancient Greece, and also some parts of ancient Greek history.
The world is an alternate version of ancient Greece populated by the Olympian gods, Titans, and other Greek mythological beings. The events occurred in the series are equivalent to crucial moments in the BC era and mythology such as the sinking of Poseidon's kingdom, Atlantis, Hercules performing his twelves labors, or Jason and the Argonauts searching for the Golden Fleece. However, rather than follow the actual points in time when the events would occurs, the series follows its own chronological order of when they would happen.
The Greek world was created as a result of the war between the Primordials.
It's the home world of Kratos, the main protagonist of the series. Consisting of many city-states during the time period, Kratos' city is Sparta. The opposing city-state of Athens lies northeast of Sparta and is the place where the fates of Ares and Kratos are decided.
Marathon, Rhodes, Crete, and Attica also appear in the series. This sets the events of God of War II and the Second Titanomachy. The highest mountain in all of Greece is Mount Olympus, or Olympus for short. If is the home of the majority of Greek Gods and is ruled by their king, Zeus.
Below the surface lies the Underworld and Tartarus, where the Titan God, Atlas, holds the upper land with its hands after the destruction of the Pillar of the World.
With the world being fraught with powerful warriors, heroes, gods, and monsters, cases of the supernatural are very much real. There have been cases of mystics items of powers, traveling between other planes of realities, and even the acquiring of magical powers or interaction with supernatural forces. The diverse powers wielded by the Greek Pantheon was known abroad in other lands, as commented by Mimir.
The world was ultimately brought to ruin after Kratos violently murdered several prominent Gods of the Greek Pantheon. Their deaths triggered a series of cataclysmic events that killed the majority of mortals living there and made it largely uninhabitable. Kratos is currently the only known survivor.
It is suggested that Greek citizens, survivors of Kratos's cataclysmic rampage remained on Greece. Centuries later, at the Vault of Týr's Temple, Kratos found an amphora depicting him in his years as the dreaded Ghost of Sparta. On the back of this amphora, it is depicted a building, resembling much like many of the Greek styled buildings, being constructed, or reconstructed. This would mean that, after Kratos stabbed himself to unleash the Hope, preventing it from ending in Athena's hands, the Greek survivors obtained enough willpower to survive in that world, and therefore, rebuilt their civilization for themselves, by themselves. Hope may have given the souls of the Underworld both redemption and new life as well, allowing them in aiding their fellow Greeks.
Given that it was said that the Týr's temple was sumerged by the water of the Lake of Nine a century ago, it is possible that by the time Kratos and Atreus went on their journey to spray Faye's ashes on the tallest mountain in the Nine Realms, the Greeks had fully rebuilt their civilization, but this is unknown. According to Freya, since Kratos is unable to call upon any of his Greek magic, the land of Greece is dead, because magic is bound to the earth itself.
According to Týr, there were survivors in Greece that eventually rebuild the world as they spoke of Kratos' act of ripping Helios' head off. This news would reach Týr.
Gallery[]
God of War (2018)[]
Trivia[]
- The general God of War Greek cosmology of a three-tiered universe (the sky above, the earth in the middle, and the underworld below) is largely derived from the real-life Homeric view of the cosmos (which dates from the 8th century BCE). However, while Homer and his contemporaries believed the sky formed a solid, vaulted dome ("firmament") over the disc-shaped Earth, God of War clearly holds the heavens/universe outside of the Earth to be normal.
- While God of War: Ascension shows an image of a round Earth, contradicting the earlier portrayals of a flat planet, it was later revealed by the animation director that it was merely an easter egg to another series and that it had nothing to do with God of War.
- It was confirmed by Steve Caterson (Art Producer) on the documentary Unearthing the Legend that the God of War world is flat and that it has edges. Although this may have been retconned after the inclusion of Midgard
- Travel between this realm and others is possible, as demonstrated by Kratos and Týr in God of War and possibly the Persians earlier on in God of War: Chains of Olympus, although Persia may be simply a part of Greece.
- In God of War (2018), in Týr's secret vault, Kratos discovers an amphora depicting him during the Second Great War. The other side of the amphora is depicting the Greeks rebuilding their devastated civilization after the Second Great War. This may signify the power of Hope that Kratos released may have ended the chaos he is responsible for, allowing the survivors and presumably the redeemed souls of the Underworld to start anew with the Olympians gone forever.