Ares's History
Ares (Greek: Ἄρης) was the original Olympian God of War, and the son of Zeus and Hera and the main antagonist of God of War, as well as the perpetrator behind the events of God of War: Ascension, meaning he was also responsible for setting the events of the series into motion by tricking Kratos into killing his family and turning him into the Ghost of Sparta, which eventually fulfilled the prophecy of the Marked Warrior who would destroy Olympus and end the reign of the Gods. Ares was the oldest child of Zeus and was commonly referred to as the most hated god on Mount Olympus by every god, even before being killed by Kratos.
Alliance with the Furies
Ares came to covet all of Olympus, especially Zeus's throne, so he struck an alliance with the Furies, and persuaded them to take a more ruthless approach. After learning of the prophecy of the Marked Warrior, who is destined to destroy Olympus and kill Zeus, Ares conceived a child with Alecto in the hope that their child would be the marked one so that he could aid him in overthrowing Zeus and claiming his throne. Unfortunately, Orkos, Ares' child, was not up to his standards and was disowned. The Furies, however, saw potential in Orkos and made him their oath-keeper.
Encountering Kratos
Two Gods of Olympus, Ares, and Athena, raided the city of Sparta in order to capture a child named Deimos, who had been suspected of being the mortal who would destroy Olympus in The Marked Warrior Prophecy. After Ares captured the boy, Deimos' brother, Kratos, charged toward Ares to save his younger brother. Despite his efforts, however, Ares brutally struck Kratos in the face and created a bloody scar on his right eye. Ares was about to kill the boy when Athena persuaded her brother to leave him be. Ares then left with Deimos, and Athena quickly apologized to Kratos. Ares then took Deimos to the Domain of Death, where he would be tortured for many years by Thanatos, the God of Death. Little did Ares know that the boy to whom he gave a scar would be the same boy who would Initially serve him and later leave him in adulthood after his family would be slaughtered by his own hands due to his machinations.
Wager of the Gods
Years later, the Gods created a contest/wager and chose various mortals as their champions for the capture of the Ambrosia. In the wager of the Gods, Ares was seen in the comics choosing Kratos as his champion and was confident that nothing would stop him in his quest for the Ambrosia. After a grueling journey, Kratos captured the Ambrosia and thus made Ares the victor of the wager.
Kratos' Servitude
Kratos and his Spartan army were no match for the merciless Barbarian tribes of the east. Being outnumbered and overpowered, Kratos' army was losing the battle. Kratos, about to be killed by Alrik, the Barbarian King, pledged himself to Ares, the God of War, in exchange for victory. After he saw Kratos as the potential warrior that he needed to overthrow Olympus, Ares accepted, violently and very brutally wiped out the barbarians, and gave Kratos the Blades of Chaos as a sign of his servitude.
To ensure that the Spartan became the perfect warrior and was bound to his will, Ares and the Furies devised three blood tests for Kratos, with the first having already been completed: spilling the blood of enemies. The second, spilling the blood of innocents, was easy to accomplish with Kratos' rising bloodlust as he ended countless lives with his Spartan companions, and conquered most of Greece. The last rite was spilling the blood of loved ones. Ares led Kratos to attack a village built in honor and worship of Athena. The Spartan soldiers ruthlessly sacked the village and killed all who lived there, burning their homes to the ground in the process. Upon reaching a strange temple, Kratos was warned by the Village Oracle not to venture within its walls. Ignoring the old woman, Kratos, blinded by bloodthirst, killed all who were within the walls of the temple, including his wife, Lysandra, and his daughter, Calliope. Ares appeared before the bloodstained hands of Kratos and told him that it was necessary to have his family eliminated so that nothing stood in his way.
The ashes of Kratos' loved ones were gathered by the Village Oracle who then placed them upon his skin as a permanent reminder of the monster he had become: the Ghost of Sparta. Enraged by Ares' deception, Kratos declared vengeance upon the God of War who once saved his life.
After Kratos left Ares' service, the God of War's son, Orkos, learned of the injustice that his parents had inflicted on Kratos and turned against his father and his mothers. Orkos sought counsel from the Oracle, Aletheia, who revealed Ares' plot to overthrow Olympus. When Orkos and Aletheia went to warn Zeus, Ares discovered their attempt and sent the Furies after them. Orkos escaped while Aletheia had her eyes torn out and hidden in the ruined Statue of Apollo. The Furies then ruthlessly hunted Kratos to force him to return to Ares' service for their plan to reach its fruition.
During Kratos' triumph over the Furies, it was revealed that Ares had wanted Kratos returned to him; the plan was ruined when Kratos killed the Furies and mercifully killed Orkos, who was remade the oath keeper to Kratos, and thereby severed his bond. Kratos managed to escape and served Olympus for 10 years, all while hoping to redeem himself as well as for his sins to be forgiven.
Battle with Kratos
Jealousy came over Ares for Athena, and, as a result of that jealousy, Ares laid siege to Athens which was her city. Since Zeus had forbidden the Gods from waging war with one another, Athena could not step in to protect her city. Instead, Athena enlisted the help of Kratos, who had faithfully served the Gods for 10 years. Kratos was instructed to find Pandora's Box in order to kill Ares. While Ares relentlessly tore Athens apart, he suddenly sensed that Kratos had retrieved the Box. Although he was impressed, Ares picked up a broken pillar and hurled it into the desert, which flew into Pandora's Temple and struck Kratos in the chest, impaling him to a wall and killing him. Ares' Harpies retrieved the Box and brought it to him. However, Kratos escaped the Underworld through the help of the mysterious Grave Digger.
Ares challenged Zeus and threatened to open the Box and use it against Olympus. It seemed all was lost, until Ares looked behind him and saw a returning Kratos standing behind him. He then mocked Zeus by his saying that he sent a broken mortal to defeat the God of War. Kratos, using his power granted by Zeus, took the Box from Ares' hands and opened it. The Gods' power was unleashed, and Kratos felt its magic pour into him, which caused him to grow into a giant (though Ares was still noticeably bigger than him). Kratos' strength matched Ares, and the ultimate battle for power began.
Ares claimed that Kratos was still just a mortal and was every bit as weak as the day that he begged him to save his life. Kratos recalled that he was not the same man that Ares had found that day – the monster Ares created had returned to kill him. Ares boasted that Kratos had no idea of what a true monster really was. Ares then unleashed large spider-like spikes from his back and was ready to finally kill Kratos for good.
Kratos gained the upper hand during the fight, but Ares trapped him in an illusion where his family was attacked by an army of clones of himself (representing his mistake of killing his wife and child) and stated that there were more effective ways of killing someone than just physical harm. Though Kratos had managed to kill all of the clones, Ares mocked him, ripped the Blades of Chaos from his arms, and killed the image of his family with them. The two of them returned to the real world, where Kratos was emotionally beaten, and Ares boasted that Kratos should have been stronger and prepared to kill him with His Sword.
Death of Ares
Kratos, however, spotted the Blade of the Gods (which had sent by Athena), dodged Ares' attack, took up the sword, and defeated him in battle with it. Ares pleaded for his life while reminding Kratos of the day that he had saved his life, and how he had only tried to make him a great warrior. Kratos ironically recanted that Ares had "succeeded" in doing that before he impaled him through the chest and killed him. The God of War fell into the Aegean Sea, and was no more, dead at the hands of the mortal that he controlled many years ago. Before his last breath, Ares released a loud death cry, which caused blood to burst from his chest, and a powerful explosion was released. However, Kratos, having killed Ares, the one who made him kill his family, asked Athena to remove the nightmares of his past. Athena replied that even though he had been forgiven of his sins, the Gods nor any mortal could ever remove his memories of killing his family. Kratos realized that his nightmarish visions of his past sins would never leave him and thus tried to kill himself over Suicide Bluffs. Athena saved Kratos and said that the Gods could not allow him, who had done such good deeds for them, to die by his own hand. Athena then said that Ares's tactics and methods were brutal and while the Olympians mourned for their brother, Ares's path of destruction had to be stopped. However, with Ares's death, there was an empty place on Olympus for a new God of War: Kratos. Kratos then ascended to Olympus and was given the crown, throne, and title as the new God of War, which meant that the peace of Ares' death was broken and whenever there were wars, for good or evil, they would be sought by and given permission to by Kratos, the new; all-powerful; and immortal God of War.
After Kratos' success in defeating and killing Ares and becoming the new God of War, the Spartan citizens disowned Ares and hailed Kratos willingly (save for a few staunch supporters of Ares), and even removed all effigies of Ares and replaced them with those of Kratos. However, a few faithful Disciples of Ares attempted to revive their fallen God of War with the power of the Ambrosia (a power that could resurrect even a God), but Kratos had destroyed Gyges, the island in which the Ambrosia rested on, in order to prevent the followers of Ares' plans from coming to fruition.
