God of War: Laufey was announced at State of Play and asks a lot of interesting questions, like can you have a God of War game without a god of war? Instead, we play as Faye, the badass wife of Kratos and the original owner of Leviathan’s axe. While Kratos is a brutal fighter in the new games, Faye is faster and faster and a little brighter than her husband. Do fans want this? Why is there a talking ribbon attached to the sword? Is Fraye the one who blew the horn at God of War 2018? If a god dies and Kratos wasn’t there to do it, does it count?
All very important questions. Everything will be answered in the fullness of time. But the most interesting aspect of what we’ve seen isn’t Faye herself, or finally seeing how good she is at fighting after all the praise Kratos has gotten from her over the years. No, it’s Evewhen, the name given to the afterlife Faye finds herself trapped inside. What happens when the gods die? God of War: Laufey finally answers that question. They don’t really disappear.
The first reason this is so interesting is that it allows Santa Monica Studio to weave the legends together in a way the series has never done before. Before, God of War was very focused on one legend at a time. First it was the Greek mythology, then the Norse. Evewhen changes that because it serves as the ultimate melting pot, the place where the gods of all mythology are perfected when death comes calling.
According to Santa Monica, Everywhen is not just another place like Midgard or Helheim. Rather, it exists as “a high place above the mortal world and the afterlife of men.”
We see this immediately with the two main antagonists of the play: Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of war and healing, and Begtse, the Mongolian god of war. These characters not only show how God of War: Laufey aims to weave different legends together, they can also have incredibly deep cuts. Santa Monica could have reached for more recognizable names from Egyptian mythology, but instead seems intent on casting a wide net and exploring cultures that haven’t gotten much attention in blockbuster games.
What’s so clever about Everywhen is that it also solves a problem that Santa Monica will eventually face. Kratos has spent the better part of two decades treating the pantheon like an all-you-can-eat buffet. At the end of the Greek saga, most of Olympus was dead. At the end of Ragnarök, the Norse gods were not well either.
So far, every new God of War game needs a new legend to explore. Egypt. Japan. Celtic legends. Wherever Kratos might wander next. Everywhen changes that. Instead of going to the sides of another legend, Santa Monica has created a place that lives above them all. According to the developers, it is where all the magic returns and where the gods go when they die. The one place where all pantheons finally meet.
As Cory Barlog explains, the goal is that “everything is connected to each other. Everything influences each other.” Soon the Greek era, the Norse era, and whatever follows no longer feel like separate stories. That means the franchise is no longer limited to telling Greek stories, Norse stories or Egyptian stories. It can tell them all at once.
The real reason Evewhen interests me, though, is because it’s exactly what it is: the afterlife of the gods. Everything. Take a moment to think about that.
If the rules apply equally to all gods, then Zeus, Ares, Hades, Poseidon and a host of Kratos’ former enemies must be somewhere in Everywhen.
“Throwing all these gods into one place where they can’t escape is this recipe, this powder,” Cory Barlog told IGN. That’s a lot of ego and a lot of old grudges.
Kratos may have accidentally become one of Evewhen’s biggest contributors. Zeus is there. Ares is there. Hades exists. Baldur is probably wandering around somewhere. Heimdall is arguably still insufferable. Depending on how the rules work, there may be enough former victims of Kratos in Everywhen to start their own support group.
“My name is Zeus, and Kratos killed me.”
“Hello Zeus.”
“My name is Baldur, and Kratos killed me.”
“Hello Baldur.”
“My name is Heimdall and…”
“Yes, we know.”
It is entirely possible that Faye has never met any of them. Everywhen sounds huge, and Santa Monica has yet to say anything about any returning characters. Also, the word “Whenever” makes it sound like this place exists outside of normal space and time, like the DVLA. But that seems impossible to imagine. When developing an idea like this, one of the first thoughts should be: what happens when Kratos’ victims end up in one place?
Building a place full of dead gods and then never using it to revisit any of the franchise’s fallen legends would be like holding a donut with fresh sugar in your hand and choosing not to eat it. Technically possible, I think. But he’s also completely crazy. Who would do that? What kind of maniac?
More importantly, however, the most interesting outcome is not seeing Zeus or Baldur return. To see what happens when they do.
Modern God of War was mostly about Kratos dealing with the consequences of his actions and trying to be something better. He spent two games fighting his past, trying to break the cycle of violence and teaching Atreus not to be the man he was. Behind him is a trail of dead gods so wide that entire religious texts need to be edited so that the last line says, “And then there happened to be treacherous Kratos.”
But what if the results finally caught up with him? Only not through him. About his wife.
Imagine introducing yourself as Laufey and watching the mood in the room change when someone realizes who you’re married to. Imagine spending eternity trapped next to gods whose only common bond is that your husband killed them. Some deserved it. Many were indeed coming. But I suspect the difference becomes much less once you’ve spent a few hundred years dead and angry. The gods often hold grudges in this franchise.
Kratos being slapped in the face by the consequences of his actions can feel expected. This is the kind of grief he faces from the first game. Faye being forced to face them instead? That is cruelty. It’s personal. That’s exactly the kind of gut punch the modern God of War likes to deliver. It’s that kind of effect that would drive the mighty Kratos to his knees.
Everywhen feels more like a backdrop to Faye’s story. It feels like Santa Monica is quietly building the franchise’s future. A place where each legend can collide, every story can connect, and where the consequences of Kratos’ twenty-year raid may finally find him again.
The only difference is that Kratos may not be there when he does.
His wife will be.
He is not a God of War.
He just loved the God of War.
