Every mythology of everything confirmed so far

God of War Laufey comes with a new protagonist and a whole new cosmology at its center. The Everywhen, as Studio Santa Monica describes it, is the birthplace and endpoint where all magic returns—a transcendent realm above the afterlife that players have come to know, where gods and creatures from various mythologies meet in what appears to be anything but harmonious coexistence. Since it is the main setting God of War Laufeymaking the game the most mythologically ambitious entry in the franchise's history,

It's clearly a setting built to bring together traditions that haven't shared the same space before, but that has many implications for what can actually be found in Everywhen. As far as fans know LaufeyFaye unexpectedly wakes up in this strange land after her death to find that the plans she put in place to protect Kratos and Atreus are now in jeopardy. He arrives without his full power, without allies, and quickly discovers that the realm is already ruled by strange gods who are hostile to the newcomers – and that last point is the difference between what's confirmed so far and what Everywhen will likely contain.

God of War Laufey escapes 2nd playable character

God of War Laufey features Faye as the main playable character, but leaks claim she won't be the only one in the game.

Foundation: Norse Mythology

The clearest attested mythology in God of War Laufey it's namesake: Norse mythology is the deepest because it lives in the protagonist herself. Faye emerged in 2018 God of War despite being dead before the start of the game, players eventually discover that she is Jötunn, a frost giant who has kept her true nature a secret. This legacy follows her to Everywhen; she defines how every other god in this realm is likely to perceive her—a giant who has arrived where only gods are meant to go.

Santa Monica has not confirmed any specific Norse gods as inhabitants of Everywhen, but the setting makes their appearance structurally plausible, especially after Ragnarök. The studio has yet to reveal whether the game's story will include both the first game and Ragnarök, but fans have speculated that time moves differently in Everywhen, making Heimdall, Thor, and Odin easy choices. After all, Odin spent the entire Norse saga obsessed with what lies beyond the mortal afterlife, and Laufey is quite deliberately placed as an answer to this question.

New pantheons confirmed

But when it comes to the biggest confirmed new mythology for God of War Laufeynumber one has to be the reveal of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet, who seems to be one of the game's main antagonists, capturing Faye early on and soon having her thrown into captivity. In actual Egyptian mythology, she is the goddess of war and the daughter of the sun god Ra – she has an intense bloodlust, can cause plagues, and risks being reductive, but is generally quite destructive. She comes to Everywhen more as an energy broker than a curiosity, and the game frames her as calculated, where her co-antagonist is volatile.

This co-antagonist represents the second confirmed new mythology that actually draws on lore that mainstream action games almost never touch. Begtse is a dharmapala – an angry god in Tibetan mythology and lord of war – and while Sekhmet appears measured in her actions, Begtse is much more aggressive. Traditionally, his wrathful violence is linked to the protection and defense of the sacred order, a thematic thread that the God of War series has previously drawn with Tyr. When Faye arrives, Sekhmet and Begtse work together as antagonists to Everywhen, which neither of them seem too comfortable with.

Unconfirmed: Phranque, Rue and Sword

The reveal also introduces two new companions to Faye and is among the most talked about elements, as neither of them have a clearly identifiable mythological origin. Voiced, somewhat aptly, by Jack Quaid, Phranque is a fast-talking, honest, gelatinous cube determined to protect both Faye and the captured Everywhen creatures. And Rue is a sentient ribbon attached to Fay's sword who seems to know a lot more than she's letting on. When we meet the pair of allies, the sword Rue is wrapped around is stuck inside Phranque, and gaining the trust of both companions is part of Faye claiming it as her primary weapon.

As for where the two might come from, the Celtic/Arthurian angle is currently the most popular read on the sword, as a popular fan theory links Rue to the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian mythology, especially if the sword turns out to be Excalibur in the end. This reading is helped a bit by the fact that Mimir, a fan favorite character, set in God of WarThe Norse Saga originates from the Scottish Highlands, so Arthurian references could reasonably exist within the franchise's lore. Phranque, meanwhile, has attracted his own theories: one fairly plausible one is that it represents Metatron's cube, a sacred geometric symbol associated with divine order, protection and creation in Jewish mysticism, and that its cubic shape may not be its true appearance at all.

The Greek elephant in the room

To end at the beginning of the franchise, the odd fact is that no Greek gods have been officially confirmed for Laufey, but the premise of Everywhen makes their absence all the more difficult to explain. Every Olympian Kratos killed in the original trilogy — Ares, Zeus, Athena, Poseidon — has a theoretical claim to this realm, and the game's timeline seems to set Faye up for grabs after the chaos Kratos has already caused in Greece.

Finally, the Greek angle is creepy God of War Laufey carries the most dramatic weight of all the unconfirmed possibilities. Athena in particular spent God of War III argue that Kratos owes her something—and if she's been waiting in the Everywhen since then, Faye carries a lot of information that Athena would want. Whether Santa Monica is willing to revisit the Greek chapter of the franchise remains to be seen, but the very design of Everywhen makes it hard to completely avoid this conversation when God of War Laufey finally arrives.