God of War

         YKratos is a warrior in the service of the Greek gods of Olympus. It is revealed in a series of flashbacks that Kratos was once a captain in the Spartan army. A fierce warrior, Kratos led his army to several victories, until finally outmatched by an invading horde of barbarians. Outnumbered and on the verge of being killed by the Barbarian King, Kratos calls to the God of War, Ares, whom he promises to serve if the god would spare the Spartans and provide the power to destroy their enemies.

Ares hears Kratos' prayer, and bonds the "Blades of Chaos", a pair of chain blades and forged in the depths of Tartarus, to his new servant. Kratos then returns to the confrontation with the Barbarian King and decapitates his foe. A victorious Kratos then wages war against all of Greece, and eventually leads an attack on a village occupied by worshippers of Athena. Ares tricks Kratos by placing his wife and child in the village, and he accidentally kills them.. Although Ares intends for this act to make Kratos the perfect warrior, the Spartan renounces his servitude to the god. The oracle of the now destroyed village curses Kratos, and the ashes of his family stick to Kratos' skin, turning it ash-white. Now the "Ghost of Sparta", Kratos is plagued by nightmares of his horrible deed and commits to ten years of servitude to the other gods of Olympus. Eventually tired of his servitude, he summons Athena, who states that if Kratos performs one final deed – the murder of Ares – he will be forgiven for the murder of his family. Athena assigns Kratos to destroy Ares because Zeus has forbidden divine intervention.

After he kills the Hydra on behalf of Poseidon, Athena guides Kratos to the city of Athens, which is under siege by Ares' minions. After a strange encounter with a grave digger, who encourages him to continue his task, Kratos battles his way to Athens' oracle, finds her and learns the only way to defeat Ares is to locate and use Pandora's Box, a legendary artifact which can give a mortal the power to kill a god.

Kratos enters the Desert of Lost Souls, and Athena tells him that Pandora's Box is hidden within a temple that is chained to the back of the Titan Cronos – a punishment inflicted by Zeus for Cronos' role in the Great War. Kratos summons Cronos, climbs for three days before reaching the Temple entrance, overcomes an array of deadly traps and an army of monsters, and eventually finds Pandora's Box. Although he is successful, Ares, who is aware that his former servant has succeeded, kills Kratos as he leaves the Temple with the box. As a group of harpies take the Box to Ares, Kratos falls into the Underworld. He battles his way through the Underworld, and with the aid of the mysterious grave digger, who tells him that Athena is not the only god watching over him, Kratos escapes and returns to Athens.

Kratos recovers Pandora's Box from Ares, opens it and uses its power to become god-like. Despite Ares' best efforts to destroy Kratos physically and mentally, including stripping him of the Blades of Chaos and all magic, he survives and kills Ares with the Blade of the Gods. Athens is saved, and although Athena states that Kratos' sins are forgiven, the gods cannot rid him of his nightmares. Kratos tries to commit suicide by casting himself into the Aegean Sea, but Athena intervenes and transports him to Mount Olympus where, as a reward for his services to the gods, she provides Kratos with a new set of blades, and he becomes the new God of War.