Who Is Faye in God of War? Laufey the Just’s Full Story Explained Before God of War Laufey
For two whole games, the most important character in God of War’s Norse saga was someone we never saw alive. With God of War Laufey now dated for May 20, 2027, and Faye finally stepping into the lead role, a lot of players are asking the same question: who is Faye in God of War? This guide explains everything the games have told us about Laufey the Just, from the funeral that opens God of War (2018) and the secret plan behind it to the revelations of Ragnarök, her roots in Norse myth and what we know about her journey through the Everywhen.
We stick to what the games and Santa Monica Studio have officially shown, and we clearly mark where something is only implied or where fans are interpreting the story.
⚠️ Spoiler Warning ⚠️ This article spoils the full stories of God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarök, including both endings.
🧾 Quick Facts: Who Is Faye in God of War?
- Real name: Laufey, known as Laufey the Just; Kratos calls her Faye
- Species: a Jötunn (Giant) who lived in hiding in Midgard
- Family: Kratos’ second wife and the mother of Atreus, whom the Giants know as Loki
- Official title: the Golden Hand of the Jötnar, the most powerful protector of the Giants
- Voice actor: Deborah Ann Woll (Ragnarök and God of War Laufey)
- Appears in: God of War (2018, only after her death), God of War Ragnarök (dreams and memories), God of War Laufey (playable lead)
🌲 The Funeral That Starts It All: Faye in God of War (2018)
God of War (2018) opens years after Kratos destroyed Olympus. He has settled in the wilds of Midgard, married again and had a son, Atreus. Faye has just died, and the games have never revealed how. The first thing Kratos does is cut down trees marked with a golden handprint to build her funeral pyre. After the cremation, Kratos and Atreus set out to honor her last wish: to scatter her ashes from the highest peak in all the realms.
Those marked trees matter more than they first seem. The game implies that they held up a protective ward that kept the family hidden, and that cutting them down broke it. Almost immediately, a stranger with godly powers knocks on their door. He is Baldur, sent by Odin. The Aesir were not hunting Kratos at all. They were searching for the Giant hiding in Midgard, and they did not know she was already dead.
Faye’s influence is everywhere on the journey. The Leviathan Axe that Kratos carries was originally forged for her by the dwarf brothers Brok and Sindri, and she gave Kratos his Guardian Shield. Atreus learned hunting, runes and languages from her, which is why he can read inscriptions that baffle his father.
🏔️ Laufey the Just: What the Jötunheim Murals Reveal
Faye was a legendary warrior and leader long before she met Kratos.
Kratos assumes the highest peak is the mountain in Midgard, but after climbing it, the talking head of Mímir explains that the highest peak in all the realms lies in Jötunheim, the land of the Giants. The realm had been cut off after Odin’s war against the Jötnar. After defeating Baldur, Kratos and Atreus finally reach it.
In Jötunheim they find a Giant shrine covered in murals, and the truth comes out all at once:
- Faye was a Giant. Her true name was Laufey, remembered as Laufey the Just, a guardian of the Jötnar who opposed the Aesir.
- She knew everything. The Giants had the gift of prophecy, and the murals depict the entire journey Kratos and Atreus just completed. Faye had seen it before she died and set it in motion.
- Atreus is Loki. Faye wanted to name their son Loki, and that is the name the Giants use for him. Kratos chose “Atreus” instead, honoring a selfless Spartan comrade.
- Atreus is part Giant. With a Jötunn mother and a demigod father, the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Atreus is half Giant, a quarter god and a quarter mortal.
One panel is hidden behind a covering. It appears to show Atreus cradling a dying Kratos, and Kratos chooses to keep it from his son. They scatter Faye’s ashes from the peak and return home, where Mímir warns that Baldur’s death has started Fimbulwinter early, with Ragnarök to follow.
💭 Faye in God of War Ragnarök: Dreams, Thor and the Final Shrine
God of War Ragnarök (2022) gave Faye a face and a voice for the first time, with Deborah Ann Woll in the role. She appears in Kratos’ dreams and memories, including glimpses of how the two first met and fought. She is gentle, sharp and stubborn, a match for Kratos in every sense. Her clearest message is that he should stop hiding from the world. She urges him to open his heart to it the way he once opened it to her, a lesson that shapes the man he becomes by the end of the game.
Ragnarök also proves the stories about her strength. In Vanaheim, a crater is scarred with frozen lightning, the same kind left behind when Kratos fought Thor. By helping the lost souls of the villagers who died there, Kratos learns that it was Faye, wielding the Leviathan Axe, who fought Thor in that valley. The battle devastated the area, and it had no clear winner. Santa Monica Studio now openly describes Faye as a warrior who proved equal to Thor.
The Giants themselves play a larger role this time. In the hidden forest of Ironwood, Atreus meets Angrboda, a young Giant who gives him marbles holding the souls of the Jötnar, preserved after Odin’s purge. When Ragnarök is over and Asgard has fallen, Angrboda leads Kratos and Atreus to one last hidden shrine. Its panels show that Faye tried to destroy the prophecy murals of the Giants so that her husband and son would not be bound by what had been foretold, and could choose their own path.
That is why the covered mural from 2018 turned out not to be a sentence. On the back of the final shrine, Kratos discovers a mural that shows him revered as a god by the people he protects, a future he never imagined for himself. Atreus leaves to find the remaining Giant souls, and Kratos stays behind to help rebuild the realms. It is the clearest sign of what Faye had hoped for all along.
📜 Laufey in Norse Mythology: Is Faye Loki’s Mother?
Yes. In the Norse myths, Laufey, also called Nál, is the mother of Loki, and her husband is the giant Fárbauti. What makes her unusual is that Loki is frequently named after his mother as Laufeyjarson, “son of Laufey”, even though Norse names were normally taken from the father. The surviving sources say very little else about her, and they do not clearly make her a giantess.
That near-blank page is exactly what Santa Monica Studio filled in. The games turn Laufey into a Jötunn warrior, give her Kratos as a husband in place of Fárbauti, and use the mythological link between Laufey and Loki to hide the series’ biggest twist in plain sight: the boy we spent a whole game with was Loki from the very beginning.
⚔️ God of War Laufey Story: What We Know So Far
Faye will not cross the Everywhen alone.
God of War Laufey was revealed at Sony’s State of Play on June 2, 2026, and it is the first mainline God of War game in which Kratos is not the protagonist. It is being developed for PS5 by Santa Monica Studio, with Ariel Lawrence as game director. According to the studio, the idea of a game about Faye goes back years: Woll has said the game was already pitched to her in 2018.
The story begins right after Faye’s funeral. Instead of the afterlife she expected, she wakes up in the Everywhen, which Santa Monica describes as the afterlife of the gods and the birthplace and endpoint to which all magic returns. Here she discovers that the plans she made to protect Kratos and Atreus are at risk. Her adventure runs parallel to the events of God of War (2018) and Ragnarök, so it is neither a prequel nor a sequel in the usual sense.
This also answers an old question that Ragnarök raised. Odin was obsessed with what lies beyond death, and the official synopsis frames the Everywhen as the answer to what happens to gods when they die. Faye soon learns that leaving it will be hard, because the natural flow of magic there has been disrupted.
🌀 What Is the Everywhen? Allies, Enemies and Faye’s Powers
Gods from other mythologies rule parts of the Everywhen, and they are not happy to see Faye.
The Everywhen brings God of War beyond the Norse world for the first time since the Greek era. Gods and creatures from different mythologies live side by side there, and not always peacefully. These are the confirmed characters so far:
- Phranque (Jack Quaid): a curious cosmic cube who does not remember his past and will do anything to protect his friends and the creatures of the Everywhen.
- Rue (Perlina Lau): an enchanted ribbon guarding a devastatingly powerful sword. She lets Faye wield it, and the blade becomes Faye’s main weapon.
- Sekhmet: the lioness war goddess of Egyptian mythology, shown as one of the gods hostile to Faye.
- Begtse: originally a war god of the Mongols who later became a protector deity in Tibetan Buddhism, also hostile to Faye.
Santa Monica calls Faye the Golden Hand of the Jötnar, the most powerful protector of the Giants. The Jötnar commanded magic so strong that Odin saw them as one of the greatest threats to his rule, and Faye’s own gift is the ability to manipulate souls. In the Everywhen that power grows: with a strike of her golden palm she can knock an enemy’s soul out of its body, then attack it directly or hurl it into other foes. Alongside the sword, she also carries the Serpent Bow, which we covered when Santa Monica revealed the Serpent Bow and the pre-order editions.
🔮 Theories: What Were Faye’s Plans?
Santa Monica has not explained what exactly the plans at risk are, so everything in this section is speculation. The most common fan reading connects them to what we already know: the marked trees and the ward, the path she laid out to Jötunheim, and her effort to destroy the prophecy murals so Kratos and Atreus could escape their fate. If someone in the Everywhen can interfere with the living realms, any of those threads could be in danger.
Another popular question is how Faye died. Neither God of War (2018) nor Ragnarök gives an answer, and fans hope Laufey will finally address it. Until Santa Monica shows more, treat any specific cause of death you see online as a theory.
📅 God of War Laufey Release Date and What Comes Next
God of War Laufey was originally set for February 16, 2027, but Santa Monica Studio delayed it to May 20, 2027 to give the team more time for polish. Bear McCreary, composer of the last two games, returns for the score. At San Diego Comic-Con 2026, the studio also confirmed that the next game will put Kratos back in the lead and continue directly from Laufey’s story, so whatever Faye does in the Everywhen will matter for the rest of the saga.
❓ Quick Questions About Faye in God of War
Is Faye a Giant?
Yes. Faye is the Jötunn Laufey the Just, a protector of the Giants who hid in Midgard. Kratos and Atreus only learn this in Jötunheim at the end of God of War (2018).
Did Kratos know Faye was a Giant?
The 2018 game presents the Jötunheim murals as a revelation for both Kratos and Atreus.
Why was Baldur looking for Faye?
Odin sent him to find the Giant hiding in Midgard. The Aesir did not know she had already died.
Was the Leviathan Axe Faye’s?
Yes. Brok and Sindri originally forged it for her, and Kratos inherited it.
Is God of War Laufey a prequel?
No. It starts after Faye’s funeral and takes place at the same time as God of War (2018) and Ragnarök, but in the Everywhen.
Final Words
Faye is the quiet architect of the whole Norse saga. Her death started the journey, her prophecy guided it, and her choice to defy fate gave Kratos and Atreus the freedom to write their own ending. God of War Laufey finally lets us meet the warrior behind the legend. If you are already looking forward to the God of War TV series, read about Amazon’s plans for Atreus and Thrúd in Season 2.
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Picture Source: Santa Monica Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation Blog)
