God of War Explanation Page

Introduction

The following is a page detailing the nature of the cosmology of the acclaimed video game series, God of War and how it handles the existence of all mythologies and belief systems simultaneously, on an Earth that's far larger and stranger than one would imagine at first glance.

Pantheons and How They Coexist

A common complaint raised by those who may look into the franchise is the presentation of different pantheons. After all, one could easily say that, by the virtue of the existence of each pantheon within their own area on Earth, High 6-A ratings or any feat higher than 6-B would be effectively retconned or reduced in scale to just Greece or Norway. However, none of that would be true. The cosmology established by the new game is, in fact, considerably more complicated than just that.

Word of God: The Meaning of Geography

To summarize everything right off the bat, the cosmology established in the new game is that each of the pantheons that exist within the God of War universe does indeed inhabit an allocated area within the planet Earth, but within the borders of said area, they somehow still contain entire realities and universes within; from the outside, they seem small, but from the inside, they're not.

To start going into more detail about how it works, we will first link an interview with Cory Barlog regarding Kratos and where he found himself, which is the first piece of evidence to suggest this interpretation before we dive further into the game's lore and cosmology:

• “The way I see the mythologies (in God of War) is kinda like that Hubble telescope image. That image shows the universe with all its galaxies - and each galaxy is a representation of a mythology. You sort of wrap that around the Earth, and in any given moment, all of those mythological belief systems existed. They all deal with the creation myths around their region - it’s just separated by geography.”

As Cory Barlog states, the God of War mythology could be better summarized as being similar to the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image, except you’d have to wrap it up around the Earth. Each of these dots would show the number of mythologies that existed at the same time. All of their creation myths hold true around their region, with it being separated by “geography”.

As we progress with this section, the meaning of geography within the God of War universe will become more clear, but this should already make it apparent that it is not as simple as literal regional borders delimiting each pantheon. If that were the case, the contradictory creation myths would not be able to operate independently of each other, as he explicitly claims is the case. The idea of independent cosmologies, however, fits in perfectly fine with what the Greek Pantheon of God of War showed: a vast plane, with a gigantic mountain where the Gods live towering over the entirety of it, and a dark and murky realm far larger than the upper world existing many miles beneath everything, not to say with an entire universe right above it created by primordial deities. This already proves we can't handwave everything from the past six games as "just Greece". It can't be claimed that the games got retconned either, since the senior director of art and animation at Sony Santa Monica, Bruno Velazquez, has gone forward to say:

• "Why would we (retcon the previous games)? This is the continuation of the saga. Retcons are lazy ways out to continue a story."

• "Poseidon was the God of All Seas, but now he is dead."

This confirms the past games were not retconned in overall scale. Poseidon is still considered the god of all oceans, as opposed to just the God of the Aegean Sea, or something similar.

Moving onto other relevant Word of God confirmations: Matt Sophos, the head writer of the Norse game, replied, similarly to Cory Barlog, that all creation myths and their interpretations exist at the same time, in their own history separate from the linear chronology of real history. When asked about it again a full year later, he reinforced his previous answer, stating that the contradictions between each creation story are sorted out mainly via "a combination of geography and the local belief system".

This implies two different things:

• 1. That there exists a distinction between Earth’s historical time and the fantastical time in which the Gods existed, something that was also stated to be the case by Cory Barlog in my previously-linked videoclip, where he states the Gods lived in a prehistorical, magical time that is separate to the modern history of man.

• 2. That, regardless of the contradictions, all creation stories and their interpretations are equally valid, depending on the area of influence. They're separate belief systems, and are not exactly connected in their creation myths.

We now go back to Bruno Velazquez. About a year or so ago, he was once again confronted with the question of how those universal creation myths can coexist, and his reply was:

• "All mythologies exist - all at once in the world of God of War. All creation stories are valid because all gods and myths are separated geographically. Kratos destroyed the Greek World at the end of God of War 3, and not the "entire" world. This is how it works."

And, more importantly, he was subsequently asked whether the "Greek World" he was talking about referred to just Greece, or to the universe as viewed through the lens of Greek Mythology itself, his response was:

• "Everything related to the Greek World falls under the Greek Pantheon and its creation stories."

In more clear words, the Greek World is the entirety of reality, as viewed from the lens of the Greeks/Greece. In the past God of War games and novelizations, Kratos or the Gods visited many lands outside Greece, such as Persia, Egypt, Libya, the Mediterranean Sea, Italy, and etc, and they were still the dominant force within these locations, which further confirms that, within its boundaries, each pantheon is its own Earth.

The last relevant director to talk about this is Cory Barlog, once again. In the Game Developers Conference of March 2019, he decided to touch on the mythological pantheons' subject, and he resurrected his old analogy about the Ultra Deep Field:

• "What I was talking about was the idea that all the mythologies of the world are kinda like this Hubble Telescope Image. They are like galaxies spread out through a complete universe, and the world is the universe. They are sort of the origin stories of various cultures throughout the world, starting from the beginning of time and stretching all the way out, so at any given time all the mythologies existed together - and currently - and they are simply separated by geography. This is important because some people had the conception that Kratos at the end of God of War III destroyed the world. Well, he destroyed what they believed the world was in Greece, their version of the world. Everybody believed their world was the only world; in fact, we still believe that today."

The highlighted bits clearly establish the idea that the world is shaped by each different mythological belief system, except within its own borders.

As of May 9, 2020, it appears that we finally have direct, no-skirting-around director confirmation of this cosmological model, as per the following exchange that took place with Cory Barlog:

• Fan: If the Greek Gods say we created the universe and the Norse ones say we did along with all of the different myths who have different creation stories, which one of those is true?

• Cory Barlog: All of them. They have all carved out their piece of history. When talking about the "universe" though, they are - in my mind - referring to the universes that they themselves have dominion over. The greater "actual" universe has yet to be explored...

So it is 100% confirmed. (Backup image of tweet here)

In-Game Distinction

Freya told Kratos in-game when they first met that she knew he was a God, but not of “this realm”. And, similarly, the official God of War promotional page also stated that the Norse Pantheon of God of War was a “new realm” (The official God of War page also states this, here), implying that the Greek Pantheon was also considered a separate realm in and of itself. This is important, because Santa Monica Studios has clarified that geographical regions and realms are not interchangeable terms. Which means that when Freya states Kratos is not “from this realm”, she isn’t saying that he is from another country (Greece) or continent, she is telling him that she is aware he is from another "world" altogether.

This view is firmly established in the game by Mimir himself, who acts as the Word of God since he has an in-depth amount of knowledge on the gods and tales of the Norse:

• “Odin is extremely clever, you see. Nearly as clever as he thinks he is. And he’s a collector of prophecies. If it’s about the future, he adds it to his collection. Helps him style himself as all-seeing and all-knowing. But of course, the idea is control. Control of the future, control of his fate. He’d control every realm of every land in every world if he could.”

As stated here, if Odin could, he would control all the realms within every world and every land, which tells us that the separate mythological pantheons that exist in the God of War universe are each considered parallel worlds in comparison to each other.

Mimir’s status within the series by itself already brings us evidence in this regard, because Mimir himself is not from the Norse Pantheon! In fact, Mimir is none other than Puck/Robin Goodfellow, as he states in the game himself. He strayed from what he refers to his "homeland" and arrived on the Norse Realms. Yet, despite being originally from a separate mythology (most likely the Celtic Mythology, due to evidence that will be shown later within this section), Mimir constantly tells Kratos and the audience about large-scale tales from the Norse myths, such as Ymir, and he reinforces himself that Ragnarok would be the end of the entire “damn world” if it ever took place.

But, although these statements all by themselves already tell a lot about the complex Pantheon relationship and how it works, the greatest amount of evidence in this regard is independent of all that, since we actually have a direct portrayal and statement regarding of what is needed to travel to other pantheons, and what exactly the act entails:

This triptych by itself conveys a lot of the lore we learn in-game. The four symbols circled in red in each corner represent the specific Pantheons which exist in the God of War world, aside from the Norse myths. From top to bottom, we have the Eye of Horus, which symbolizes the Egyptian mythology, the Omega, which symbolizes the Greek pantheon (we have been there, done that), the Yin-Yang balance, symbolizing the Shinto myths, and lastly the Triskelion, which symbolizes the Celtic culture which Mimir is most likely from.

In the center of the image, we have a depiction of the god Tyr holding the Unity Stone while he is on one of the branches of the World Tree Yggdrasil, in the cosmic void located in the Realm Between Realms, said void being filled with galaxies and stars, which symbolizes the act of traveling to other pantheons. As Mimir states when he recognizes the Unity Stone, its possession is what enables Tyr to travel between the nine realms and even other lands, to boot:

• “That’s the Unity Stone! If Tyr possessed this, that explains how he could visit all the other realms, and other lands, to boot."

This firmly establishes that traveling to other pantheons was considered more difficult than just visiting other realms - with the realms themselves being alternate dimensions, as the blog will explain in great detail in the other sections - which, while difficult, was still fairly mundane if you possessed the Bifrost.

Thus, we conclude from this section the following points:

• There are, at least, five mythological pantheons in the God of War universe. Each one is located inside the Earth, but within their own borders they are colossal in size, with entire realities contained within them and with the own worldview of the people reflected at the time. Therefore, this effectively refutes any sort of argument regarding cosmic retcons.

Hellenic World

This is the setting for the original Hellenic saga of the God of War series and the homeland of Kratos himself. Despite it seemingly being a small section of the world as we know it, it in fact houses a far greater reality within its humble borders as we will soon see. Before we get into describing the various dimensions and parts of the Grecian World, we must first establish the world as we know it.

Theogony

In the beginning, before the age of Olympus and even the Titans, there was a war waged between the first beings that existed in the Greek World, the Primordials, Uranus, Ceto, Ourea, Nyx and Erebus, who were in turn sired by Chaos herself. This battle was waged "for an eternity" between the personifications of fundamental aspects of the world itself. And it was in this battle that the universe came into being, when the Primordial of the Oceans, Ceto struck Uranus and spawned the universe from his body as a result. Supported by how he's referred to as he who gave life to the universe by one of his children, Gyges, even being called the father of the universe and its creator multiple times.

If it wasn't obvious from the intro itself, here is a screenshot from The Art of God of War: Ascension, the official artbook of the game of the same name, that names them. Uranus, Ceto, Ourea, and Chaos. Respectively, the heavens, the oceans, the mountains and life itself.

Eventually, Uranus achieved victory in the great war and came to claim dominion over all of creation. Uranus's status as the father and creator of the universe is extremely relevant to the scaling because Uranus himself ended up being defeated and overthrown by none other than Cronos himself, identical to myth, in a battle described by the developers to be "of cosmic scale". Further supported by Cory Barlog's interview in the 2018 Comic-Con Panel, where they showed various concept arts of Kratos, and one of them states that Kratos's bloodline is cursed by the cycle of patricide, a cycle of sons killing their fathers that "traces back to the very beginning of time", and it starts with Cronos, whose birth coincided with that of time.

The Primordials themselves dwarf the entirety of the universe in size, considering that not only was the universe itself spawned as a consequence of one of their battles, as well as the galaxies inside of them. Supporting the fact that they're of this level of power, Nyx, one of said Primordials, controls a mirror dimension to the real world that's bathed in an eternal night with its own moon, and Morpheus himself, the Primordial God of Dreams manifests a dimension that represents the land of dreams that mortals go to when they sleep. Them, we will get into more of the latter in later sections.

All of this is relevant as none of the Primordials were overtly stronger or weaker than another, hence the lack of hierarchy, which eventually led to war. This confirms that all of them are comparable to each other and would thus scale to each other's feats.

Despite everything however, they would eventually be surpassed by their subsequent generations, as the blog will get into below;

Titanomachy

After the war between the Primordials ended, Uranus took control of the universe he created and mated with Gaia. From their union, the Titans, Cyclopes and Hekatonchires were born. The youngest of the Titans was Cronos, with whom time is considered to have officially began.

This is confirmed in a conversation with Ariel Lawrence, the writer of God of War 2, where she stated that Cronos's birth led to the very birth of time. She also mentioned that time didn't exist when the Primordials fought each other - that is, eons and eons, lending further credence to this. Finally, the motifs referencing time itself aside, it was with Cronos that the cycle of sons killing fathers began, which is described above as being "at the beginning of time" which is supported by the fact that his older siblings and mother consider time to be meaningless to them, which would make sense as they predate it.

As said above, Cronos would defeat his father Uranus in battle and overthrow him, as confirmed in a documentary of God of War 2, in a fight that's said to be of cosmic scale and establish the rule of the Titans.

The Titans themselves aren't slouches without Cronos. Hyperion, one of Cronos' siblings, wielded a spear capable of bearing the weight of the cosmos, which was forged in the Sun's core. This is a solid statement as multiplayer-given lore is confirmed to be canon and that the over-the-top descriptions are to be taken literally.

His son Helios, is another one of the Titans, albeit one that defected to the Olympians come the Great War. He is powerful enough to banish Nyx from the skies and make her retreat everyday. This is far from metaphorical, as Nyx herself warps her realm to eternal night and her attempts to do so in the world are banished frequently enough for the day and night cycle to persist.

Of course Cronos would devour his own children to stave off his destiny save for one. His youngest child, Zeus, rose to power and rescued his siblings, slicing open Cronos's stomach and freeing the children he had eaten. This would end up causing the Great War between the Titans and Olympians. This war was fought in Tartarus and forged the Mortal World as we know it from there.

The Titans were ultimately overthrown and cast aside by their children and Zeus forcibly took control of the universe from the Titans and banished them to Tartarus. Thus came the reign of the Olympian Gods, who would grow in power as time passed until the cycle repeated itself and their era came to an end at the hands of Kratos, the Son of Zeus, Ghost of Sparta and God of War.

The senior lead director of art and direction at Santa Monica Studios, Bruno Velazquez, further reaffirms that the Titans and the Olympians are generally equal to the Primordials, which is consistent with what has been established so far from the above. Bruno himself repeats this yet again in another tweet to one of his fans when they ask him about it, stating that the Titans killed Primordials, Gods killed Titans, and Kratos killed Gods, that if any demigod can defeat a Primordial, it would be Kratos, and that in the world of God of War, children tend to end up killing their parents. Helios, the sixth or fifth greatest god, forces Nyx to retreat every night. Cronos slew his father Uranus, the father of the universe, and was in turn overthrown by his son, Zeus, in battle. So they replaced each other. Zeus is the strongest, of course, since he beat a prime Cronos. And Kratos, especially with the Power of Hope, is stronger than Zeus and at the very top of the Greek World, and perhaps all of the God of War multiverse and pantheons.

Realms of the Greek World

The Mortal World

This is the main universe in which the majority of the story of God of War takes place. It is a flat disk with an infinite sky and heavens above it. It was created from Uranus' body as a result of being struck by Ceto. As such, the infinite heavens would no doubt refer to the cosmos sprung from the Primordial of the Skies and Heavens.

The Underworld

The Underworld is an infinite-sized domain being further being described as a chasm of immeasurable magnitude, a domain within which lies the final resting place of all souls after death. It is an alternate dimension, separated further from the Mortal World by the Domain of Death. The Artbook of God of War II also states that the Underworld is completely separate from the rest of the Greek cosmos.

It possesses an alternate flow of time, shown by how Kratos spent decades fighting in the Underworld when not even hours had passed in the Mortal World. In addition to that, despite the Titans being rescued by Kratos from the pits of Tartarus when the latter went back in time, not only is the Mortal World's past and present unaffected, even Tartarus is unaffected by any changes in the timeline, as the plaque that commemorates the imprisonment of the Titans still exists (Despite the fact that the Great War was quintessential in forging the landscape of the Mortal World in Atlas's own words), as well as the destruction of Atlantis being mentioned by Poseidon (Which would've never happened if Thera was never there to be imprisoned, but the aftermath of Ghost of Sparta still lingers).

One can only cross over from the Underworld back to the Mortal World if they possess the soul of a god and move through Hyperion Gates, which are magical portals. To further showcase this, it possesses an actual sky with stars and constellations within it, even sharing the same skybox as the Mortal World.

The Domain of Death

A dark netherworld that divides The Mortal World and Underworld, ruled by the God of Death, Thanatos. Existing completely outside the mortal world and predating it and its time entirely, It is a dimension that can only be entered through a portal, in which time does not pass as it does in the Mortal World. It solidifies the separation of the Mortal World and Underworld as a consequence of its existence. As the realm of a Primordial of similar nature to Morpheus, Nyx and Uranus, it should be of a comparable size as well.

Morpheus' Realm of Dreams

This is a dimension ruled and controlled by Morpheus, the Primordial God of Dreams, that represents the land of dreams that mortals go to when they sleep During the events of Chains of Olympus, Morpheus attempted to merge both of them together into one and engulf all of the mortal world and its gods within his grasp, bringing about an eternal night. Between the spatial separation, the realm of dreams being capable of engulfing the mortal world for eternity, and Morpheus' own nature as a Primordial, his realm would be much like the others in being an infinite space-time separate from the others.

Nyx's World

This is a mirror dimension to the Mortal World that's bathed in an eternal night with its own moon, accessible only through a portal. It was created by Nyx and acts as her refuge when she is beaten back by Helios every night. It is a reflection of the mortal world and would thus be of similar magnitude due to its mirror nature and status as a Primordial realm that'd predate the space and time of the Greek World.

Greater Timelines

On top of all of this, the Greek World exists as a timeline, with an overarching past, present and future. How, you may ask?

Attempted changes to the past would create timelines of the entire Greek World. During the battle with the Sisters of Fate, Atropos sends him through one of the mirrors and goes back in time to their battle with Ares. In doing so, she explains that one of the powers of the Fates is to rewrite the past and create a new future i.e. timeline. And merely travelling back in time does this, showcased by how Atropos's re-entry into the fight with Lahkesis from back in time is described as being another world as well as time. With developer confirmation as well that Kratos changed the timeline by going back in time, even including the timeline where Kratos failed to stop Atropos, including further confirmation from the Brady Guidebook of God of War II, which state these worlds behind these time mirrors to be alternate time dimensions. But one could simply say that this specifically refers to the mortal world's timeline. However;

The Sisters of Fate are repeatedly stated to command the fate of the entire world without exception. This extends even to other dimensions within the Greek World, such as the Underworld, being under the purview of the "whole world" and when changing the past would've included all of Kratos' actions up until that point, including the short jaunt to the Underworld and further back, the prevention of the merger of the realm of dreams and the mortal world.

Kratos also outright confirms that the threads of Fate span all of life and time without exception, which compounded with the above would mean that time is about all of Creation. Gaia confirms this further by saying that Clotho, who spins the threads of Fate, embodied Creation and the genesis of all beings, superseding even her, a former Primordial, who predates the time of the mortal world entirely and considered it utterly meaningless to her. The threads themselves are confirmed to be strands of time that are manipulated by the Sisters of Fate, making the grand Tapestry of Fate encompass all time for all beings, Primordial, Titan, Olympian, mortal or otherwise.

This would all confirm that there exists a timeline that encompasses all of the lesser space-time continuums of the Greek World, each of which with its temporal axis, as shown by how the Domain of Death exists completely outside the mortal world and predates its time entirely, in which time does not pass as it does in the Mortal World at all. Even the Underworld is unaffected by any changes in the timeline, as the plaque that commemorates the imprisonment of the Titans still exists, even though the Great War was quintessential in forging the landscape of the Mortal World in Atlas's own words.

To sum up, all the information we have, the Greek World is a timeline that encompasses all of Creation within it, with even space-time continuums and higher-dimensional existences like the Primordials being objects within this past, present and future.

There are at least 6 alternate timelines confirmed; the alternate timelines born from Kratos' fight with the sisters (one where he stops the Blade's destruction and one where he dies), the alternate timeline born from his confrontation of Zeus a second time, two more alternate timelines behind the two mirrors flanking the central mirror on the left and right (The central mirror being the one from which the alternate timelines of Kratos dying to Ares and Kratos winning against Atropos were created) and the at least 1 extra timeline implied by Zeus killing the Spartans in every timeline.

The World Pillar

The World Pillar is a structure that once connected the Underworld to the dimensions beyond it, acting as a stabilizing factor for the Greek World. It was stated that, were the pillar destroyed, all of creation would be taken out alongside it. And this was reiterated in another timeline that followed this one.

Additionally, Persephone herself says, all that came before would end and that the world would revert into Chaos.

As stated by Athena, Chaos is actually the primordial realm, the void that preceded the universe and time itself. The exact same void that spawned the Primordials and ended up being conquered and brought to order by Uranus. As such, the World Pillar not only keeps the Mortal World in existence, but all the totality of the Greek World. Lead Animation Director Bruno Velazquez reaffirms this further, stating that the Primordials created the Greek World and that Atlas is the one lifting it up, and when asked again whether the term "world" in this context is merely referring to Greece or the entire universe of the Greek Mythology, Bruno pretty much states that it's the latter. By "world" here Bruno explicitly refers to the entire Pantheon itself, not just the Mortal World, even stating verbatim that everything related to the Greek World explicitly falls under the entire Greek Pantheon and its creation stories.

Summary

• The universe as we know it was created as a result of the war between the Primordials. Uranus achieved victory in this war and claimed rulership of the universe. Other Primordials that survived, such as Thanatos, Nyx and Morpheus, would create their dimensions to hold dominion over.

• The Titans were sired by Uranus and Gaia, with Cronos' birth signaling the birth of time itself. He would then slay his father Uranus and gain control of the universe in the process. They would surpass their predecessors in power and bring humanity to a golden age beneath them.

• The Olympians led by Zeus would overthrow the Titans and cast them into Tartarus, becoming the rulers of all creation in the process. They would divide the world amongst the Brother Kings, with the skies going to Zeus, the seas to Poseidon and the infinite Underworld going to Hades.

• There are many alternate dimensions adjacent to the universe with their own timelines that neighbor the Mortal World, such as Morpheus' Dream Realm, Nyx's World, Death's Domain, and the Underworld. All of this makes up the overall Greek World.

• The Greek World is a greater timeline that embeds 4-dimensional space-time continuums i.e. the realms created by the Primordials and indeed the Primordials themselves as objects within its overarching past present and future, in other words, a hyper-timeline. It is one of many other timelines created by the Sisters of Fate and Kratos as they changed the past of the Greek World to create new futures and each and every one would be Low Complex Multiverse level in size and scale. There are currently 6 confirmed alternate hyper-timelines of the Greek World.

• All of this (Each Greek World specifically) is supported by the World Pillar and subsequently Atlas, without which all of the Greek World would collapse into Chaos, bringing an end to all that came before, even space and time itself.

Scandinavia

Here we deal with the region that catalyzes the next part of Kratos' journey as a god and father, which brings him into conflicts with many of them in order to protect his son and shed the dark past that haunts him. Like his homeland, these lands house a far greater reality within them than they may appear to at first glance.

The Nine Realms

We dealt with the overall nature of the pantheons in the God of War series, but among the Norse part of the cosmology, none are more pertinent than the Nine Realms themselves. Due to a fairly large amount of misconceptions regarding what the realms entail, both in this wiki and outside it, this section is probably among the ones that need the most attention.

In the setting, the creation myth of the Norse world goes as such. As explained by Mimir, in the beginning there were no realms, only Primordial Forces, like Fire, Ice and more, all inhabiting a cosmic void named Ginnungagap, from which Ymir sprung forth and created every man, beast and god. This is further reiterated in Page 124 of God of War: Ragnarok- The Official Cookbook of the Nine Realms.

Ymir’s body gave rise to everything that came after, with Odin using his flesh to fashion Midgard for himself and rule over it. After Ymir came, the Fire Giant Surtr followed him. Born within Muspelheim, the realm of fire, Surtr was the one who created the Sun and all the stars, bringing heat to the primordial cosmos from which all nine realms are built upon.

Each of the Nine Realms are separate dimensions, all fractured from the same source. All of the nine realms exist within the same physical space, that being the World Tree, acting as separate planes of existence, which will be talked about later on.

As stated in this official developer slide-show from the Comic Con 2018, the Bifrost, which is used to traverse between the realms, explores their fractured reality.

One of the main developers, Matt Sophos, further clarifies the nature of the realms on his interview with Game Informer, where he repeats that all of the realms are separate dimensions existing within the same physical space and further explains that if you went to Egypt or a country in Alfheim, and you crossed over a portal to another realm from that point, such as Niflheim, you’d be geographically on Niflheim’s version of Egypt. This further shows that the realms are all the same size and magnitude as each other, just like was implied beforehand, as far as overall stature goes, with only their general appearance and culture being different, depending on the realm.

Ymir's mural also shows the outer space being formed from his skull, specifically for Midgard, further implying the realms having their own separate space.

On the God of War: Lost Pages podcast, the developers’ podcast for each of the themes covered in the games, this information is further reiterated.

Another indication of the stature of the realms is that, throughout the game, you may eventually find black rifts in space - which are officially called "Realm Tears", that the official guidebook for the game, alongside Atreus’s journal, reveals are actually literal holes in the fabric of reality, which act as portals to other realms, from which monsters can emerge. This is further reiterated in the game itself, where in the Wildwoods Hidden Chamber of Odin, a Lore Scroll is revealed that a Valkyrie imprisoned there, after being accidentally freed, sliced hard enough with its wings to tear at the fabric of the Realms, and the end result is a Realm Tear.

Despite the fact they are described to threaten the realms themselves and to affect the very fabric of reality, they are only able to threaten one realm at a time, showing that the realms are parallel worlds and that each one has its own distinct reality.

Direct physical travel between the Realms is also impossible, even if you are physically on the branches of the World Tree Yggdrasil itself. Freya explicitly states in GoW2018 that you need a Bifrost to create travel between the Realms through the Realm Travel Room, the Realm Travel Room is the only place through which Realm Travel is possible, Odin sealed off the realms of Vanaheim, Svartalfheim and Asgard during the game's said events, but eventually makes Realm Travel across everywhere else impossible at the start of God of War Ragnarök. So what do the Huldra Brothers Brok and Sindri do? They use Yggdrasil Seeds and the Mystic Gateway in the Realm Between Realms, plus Mimir's Bifrost Crystals plus Kratos's own Bifrost key, to completely overhaul all Mystic Gateways, to re-establish Realm travel. Valkyries travel between realms using their Bifrost-coated wings, and even beasts like Níðhögg, her Lindwyrms and Garm need to create Realm Tears to travel between Realms. Gjallarhorn's Codex Entry says that normal Realm Travel is established via a portal bridging the space between the two, further proving the separation of the Realms.

Aside from the above, it is stated that each of the nine realms have different flows of time relative to each other.

This is reiterated once again in God of War: Ragnarök, where Atreus travels to Jotunheim via his sleep, has a full journey with Angrboda, and then returns back to Midgard, only to get caught by Kratos who tells him that two days passed since Atreus left, whereas we saw only hours pass in Jotunheim.

Not only that, Realm Shift, an ability used by both Kratos and Heimdall, distorts both space and time by default, and literally shifts an entire realm in the process, further hammering down the realms having their own separate space and time. Even the high Vanir Gods stopping and messing with time in their own realm didn't inundate the rest of the inhabitants of the World Tree.

So we know that the realms are alternate space-times, each lying within the same general physical space, that being the branches of Yggdrasil, with all being identical to each other in general size and magnitude. Seeing as Midgard is the Nordic equivalent of Earth and its cosmos, it stands to reason that it'd be of universal size at the least and that the other realms mirror it in scale, as stated.

Muspelheim

The realm of fire and ash, home to the Fire Giants and Surtr himself. This is one of the primordial realms, that predate even Ymir and coalesced out of Fire itself. It is the source of all heat across the cosmos and is especially unaffected by Fimbulwinter as a result of its primeval nature. It has cooled considerably since its creation.

Niflheim

The realm of cold and mist, home to Sinmara the Frost Giantess and the final resting place of the Primordial Cow Audumbla. Another of the primordial realms, which predates Ymir and coalesced out of Ice itself. It is one of the coldest of the Nine Realms and similarly untouched by the effects of Fimbulwinter due to its nature. It is significantly less icy than it was at the beginning of creation.

Jotunheim

The realm of the giants and their ancestral home. This plane was born of the flood of lifeblood that resulted from Ymir's death and was the realm that Bergelmir and his wife populated to rebuild the Jotnar race. It is a vibrant mountainous world, that's isolated itself from the reach of Odin and his forces and is currently empty of its denizens bar Angrbodr and Gryla, two among the last living Jotnar.

Helheim

The realm of the dead and final resting place of the unworthy; criminals, the diseased and the old. It is a land of unyielding cold and no fire across all of the Nine Realms can burn there. It is the home of Hraesvelgr, the current reigning Hel and the former prison of Garm, the Hound of Hel. It punishes its denizens with illusions and visions of their past regrets and traumas.

Midgard

The realm of mortals and the center of the World Tree, as well as a hub of sorts for all of the denizens of the Nine Realms. It is a lively realm of various biomes and hosts Jormugandr, the World Serpent whose title was earned by him wrapping around the entire planet and biting his own tail. It was formed of Ymir's skull by Odin, after the latter killed the former and is currently nearly depopulated as a result of the desolation.

Asgard

The realm of the Aesir, ruled by Odin. It was created by the Raven God and houses his nigh-immortal army, the Einherjar and their base, Valhalla, from which they are constantly resurrected after death in battle. It is the location of the Rift, which formed on the place where Ymir was slain. The main settlement and city, Gladsheim is protected by Hrimthur's walls and the Watchman of the Aesir, Heimdall.

Vanaheim

The realm of the Vanir, ruled by Freya. Another realm created by Odin, it is a vast jungle-like world, populated by nature gods as well as ravenous and magical flora and fauna. Currently, the Celestial Wolves, Skoll and Hati reside here and chase its sun and moon across the cosmos. It terrain and plant growth shifts on time of day, presence of outsiders and more.

Svartalfheim

The realm of the Dwarves. It is a humid, watery realm whose stars are visible even in the day. It is populated by both the Dwarves, a race of short magical craftsmen that can jump into the Realm Between Realms to avoid danger, and the Grim, a race of noxious amphibious beasts that roam the lands.

Alfheim

The realm of the Elves, ruled by Freyr. It is a beautiful realm that's mired in a civil war between the Light and Dark Elves for control of The Light of Alfheim, a primordial force that existed prior to the creation of the Nine Realms (Even prior to Odin) and has gathered souls towards it since time immemorial, is a cosmic light that transcends everything in the Nine Realms and keeps the Nine Realms separate through its power alone. As such, it is likely a Primordial Force itself, much like Fire and Ice. It has various biomes, from a tropical lake to a vast desert and unlike many of the other realms, it has no Sun or moon of its own.

Yggdrasil

The Yggdrasil, also known as the World Tree and the Tree of Life, is the entity upon which all of the Nordic world and its mythology depends, with all of creation resting atop its branches. Its life energy is interwoven into the tapestry of life, birth, growth, death and rebirth and every one of its strand transcends time and transcends space. So the World Tree is not only a higher-dimensional entity with respect to even the Nine Realms but it encompasses all of creation upon itself.

Even the Ginnugagap mentioned in the prior section is within the Yggdrasil, existing as the Spark of the World, from which Ymir himself emerged, even before time itself was created (As time only came into existence after Odin killed Ymir by stabbing him with his Spear and spilling his mystic life-blood), which itself proves that the space-times of the Nine Realms and the being who spawned them from his body were all bound by the time flow that bound the entirety of the World Tree and its life cycle.

As stated before, the Yggdrasil undergoes an endless cycle of creation and destruction of its inhabitants and the Nine Realms themselves, with this grand cycle encompassing all the Nine Realms, creation coming to and end at Ragnarok and being born anew.

As the triptych depicts, the Nine Realms lay atop Yggdrasil and on its extremities. In the mural, five of them are depicted as resting on the top of the tree, while the other four rest in the tree’s roots. In fact, Yggdrasil is so large that it exists in all nine realms at once and beyond, which is to be expected, since said realms are merely constructs within its branches.

When Kratos opens the Mystic Gateway leading directly into the Realm Between Realms, the narrator states that Yggdrasil’s branches stretch out infinitely. So the Yggdrasil not only holds all Nine Realms, which are in themselves space-times, but it's also infinitely large relative to them and this also goes for the Realm Between Realms, which itself was manifested from the Yggdrasil's branches. So, not only does the Yggdrasil spread across all of the Realm Between Realms, but it is the source of it entirely.

The Realm Between Realms

The true bound of Yggdrasil exists on another plane, called the Realm Between Realms, which is the very center of the Norse World, a cosmic void where the boundaries of all the Nine Realms are located on, existing fully outside of any and all of them. The Realm Between Realms is the very center of the spiritual cosmos, as stated in the official artworks for Yggdrasil.

The Realm Between Realms is a higher-dimensional void relative to the Nine Realms. To summarize, all of the Nine Realms exist within the same "physical space", that being the World Tree, acting as parallel planes of existence to each other, despite also being separated on the branches of the Yggdrasil.

So, they're 4-dimensional space-times that are parallel, in that they never actually meet regardless of any movement one makes in any one of their directions (see the Nine Realms section above), with their own time axes. Yet, they're all displaced across a higher-order space i.e. the Realm Between Realms and for any structure, this would only be possible if there was a higher axis through which they can be parallel.

Remember the triptych shown on the beginning of the blog, of the god Tyr using the Unity Stone to travel to other pantheons? That triptych is actually a portrayal of the Realm Between Realms. Tyr is standing on a bridge created by the magic of the Unity Stone, and we see him surrounded by a number of galaxies and constellations, showing the grand scale of these sections. And those visuals are literal, as will be further proven below.

Once Kratos obtains the Unity Stone, he gains the ability to traverse Yggdrasil. When you jump off one these branches while wielding the Unity Stone’s power, you spend a minute of falling into the void, passing several constellations and distant dots, and when the fall finally reaches its end you step onto what is merely another branch of Yggdrasil. Reminder that the Unity Stone, just like the Bifrost, possesses the power to traverse between the realities, and it is actually more powerful since it can reach other pantheons, which are far more distant, so the fall here isn't necessarily a linear, finite fall as portrayed.

Matt Sophos further clarifies on the nature of this fall and the constellations seen during it (He also confirms these stars, constellations and galaxies, as well as the stars and galaxies in each of the skies of the 9 Realms, to be 100% real), but it should be self-explanatory from the scans alone.

Conclusion

Overall, we can draw very obvious conclusions from the scans presented regarding the stature of God of War’s cosmology, both in the Norse myths and in all the pantheons as a whole:

• The pantheons exist as separate worlds that somehow inhabit the same space, that being the Earth, but within their own boundaries they are far longer, containing entire realities, and all of their histories are true simultaneously.

• The Nine Realms are worlds that exist within the same physical space, that being the World Tree, Yggdrasil. They are parallel dimensions relative to each other, are all different realities, and are all separate space-times.

• The World Tree, Yggdrasil, contains all the nine realms within its branches. It is described as infinite in size relative to the realms, the center of the spiritual cosmos, is stated to transcend time and space and its life cycle follows a higher form of time than anything within the Nine Realms, being a higher-dimensional construct. It would thus be Low Complex Multiverse level in sheer size.

• The Realm Between Realms is the ethereal space that surrounds the Yggdrasil and the Nine Realms, existing outside all of them. It is a higher-dimensional void that encompasses all the parallel dimensions of the Nine Realms and was manifested from the Yggdrasil's branches. It is a Low Complex Multiverse level void in terms of sheer scale.