Who Is Laufey (Faye)?

Laufey — the Faye that Kratos mourned and Atreus barely got to know — is God of War Laufey’s playable protagonist. For sixteen years the series told her story only through other people’s grief; in February 2027 she finally tells it herself. This page collects everything official about who she is, was, and becomes.

The name: Laufey, Faye, and why both are used

Official: Sony’s title and marketing use both — God of War Laufey, with copy referring to “Laufey (Faye).”

• Laufey is her proper name, drawn from Norse mythology (where Laufey is best known as Loki’s mother — a deliberate thread the series has long teased through Atreus’s revealed identity).
• Faye is the human-scale name her family used, and how players met her in 2018.

Analysis: one disambiguation worth making for searchers: in Marvel’s comics and films, Laufey is a male Frost Giant king (Loki’s father) — a different character from a different adaptation. God of War’s Laufey shares only the mythological name. The series’ own canon is the reference throughout this site.

Her epithets: the official record

Official: Sony’s first-look post assigns Faye a stack of credentials, each doing specific narrative work:

Epithet	Official wording (paraphrased)	What it establishes
The Golden Hand of the Jötnar	The Giants’ most powerful protector	She was a faction champion, not a bystander
Legendary warrior and leader	Her influence on the Nine Realms predates meeting Kratos	Decades+ of history the games never showed
Previous owner of the Leviathan Axe	The axe was forged for her; Kratos inherited it	Her kit precedes and explains his
A match for Thor	Power-tier benchmark against the saga’s heaviest hitter	She can headline a combat game
Soul manipulation magic	Giants’ magic, greatly amplified in the afterlife	The 2027 combat system’s foundation

Complete Faye timeline: from the Norse saga to 2027

Everything below is drawn from the games’ events and Sony’s official 2026 materials:

Era	Event	Source
Before God of War (2018)	Faye rises as the Golden Hand of the Jötnar, protecting the Giants	Official first-look, 2026
Before 2018	The Leviathan Axe is forged for her; later passes to Kratos	Series lore + 2026 first-look
Before 2018	She marries Kratos and raises Atreus, concealing her Jötunn heritage	God of War (2018)
God of War (2018)	The game opens at her funeral; her final wish — ashes spread from the Nine Realms’ highest peak — drives the entire journey	God of War (2018)
Ragnarök era	Her hidden plans, murals and choices continue shaping Kratos and Atreus’s path	God of War Ragnarök
God of War Laufey (2027)	She awakens after her funeral in the Everywhen; the plans she made to protect her family are at risk	Official first-look, 2026

Analysis: the 2027 premise inverts the series’ oldest wound. In 2018, Kratos and Atreus climbed because Faye was gone; in 2027, Faye fights because they are beyond her reach. Sony’s framing — “death was supposed to be the end” — positions her as the first God of War protagonist who has already lost everything before the first fight.

Faye as a playable fighter

Official: her gameplay identity is built from her lore: amplified Giants’ magic (the golden-palm soul strike), a momentum-rewarding sword earned through Rue’s trust, and the Serpent Bow’s dual stances. The developers describe the feel as Greek-era fluidity fused with Norse-era intimacy.

Analysis: Kratos’s kits always expressed grief-as-rage; Faye’s expresses stewardship — she protects, positions and redirects (souls as projectiles, a guardian’s sword entrusted to her). Even her combat philosophy tells the story of the Golden Hand.

The full mechanical breakdown lives on the god of war laufey gameplay page, and the rest of the ensemble — Phranque, Rue, Kratos, the hostile gods — is cataloged at god of war laufey characters.