So over on SB, someone had proposed the crossover scenario "what if
Fate's Artoria end up in the world of the
God of War Norse saga?", and while barebones, the idea couldn't be dislodged from my brain so I thought about it and expanded the premise of the original poster. The scenario gets even more attractive now that Mimir referenced being familiar with the Lady of the Lake in one of his stories in
Ragnarok. I will recopy/quote my thoughts below:
After the events of
Fate/Zero, instead of being sent back to Camlann, Artoria ends up in the Norse world of GoW. It can be as abrupt as being sent there, or you can take the road that Artoria, broken and depressed, leaves Camlann for the Northlands the same way Kratos did after GoW III (the chronological vagueness of the GoW setting besides that the 2018 game takes place sometimes pre-Viking migration and the mythological settings being their own cosmology means even Artoria being from a later time period doesn't matter much). So the premise was that Artoria arrives in Jotunheim (maybe before it's closed or through other means), and is welcomed by Angrboda's parents, living with the family for a time. So when the Giants leave/go into
soul stones (
Ragnarök spoiler), Artoria ends up as the unwitting caretaker of the young Angrboda, especially as the girl's grandmother Grýla becomes more and more too unstable to help in any way. Basically, Saber ends up a surrogate mother/sister in parallel to Kratos raising his second child, except the situation is complicated by Angrboda having known and remembering her parents, and Artoria herself having had her issues with parenting in her past, so there is tension between the two as to what exactly they are to each other for character drama and arcs. Pairing Artoria with Angrboda also works with how the former want to change the fate of her country after having spent her life being accepting of her own fate (and eventually learn to make peace with it), while the latter follows prophecy to the letter even as it clearly rankles her to have no role besides supporting Atreus/Loki.
(And in general, Artoria's relationship with fate and adverting it vibes thematically with other GoW characters, especially Freya and Odin.)
((Also, paralleling Kratos with Artoria as parents, one of blood and the other of adoption, might sound lazy, but it is simple and can actually be effective. Kratos had been a father before, while Artoria had been a "parent" without her knowledge or consent, and it ended just as poorly as it did Kratos. Killing her own child is one thing she doesn't want her daughter/charge to know, like all the shit Kratos hides from Atreus, and there is also a just as grave secret: Artoria was a prolific giant slayer in her time and did her own genocide in Britain. It was kill or be killed, and the giants resented being unable to go to the Reverse, but I doubt she would like Angrboda to know she wasn't better than the architects of the Jotunn genocide, especially a post Zero Saber. So you have a lot of potential drama there.))
Anyway, Seibah and Angrboda live peacefully in Ironwood, hidden in the sealed Jotunheim like Kratos and son were, up until Faye's protections are torn down in the first game. My thinking is that it would serve as the inciting incident, and when Faye's protections fail, Angrboda, like many others, ping where Loki is hidden, so she decides to head there to accomplish her destiny against Saber's protests. She tries to stop her from leaving Ironwood and (in the struggle? Chase?) they both stumble through the Utangard and fall into Midgard. Angrboda wants to find Loki, Artoria wants to hear none of it and instead wants to find a way back to their home, starting their own quest about fate, prophecy, and whether it's set in stone.
There are a few obvious story arcs that can be done. I do think they eventually join up with Kratos and Atreus, but not immediately, because otherwise it becomes GoW2018 but with two new characters thrown in, and such a rehash would be boring, and there is a need to give them something to do other than be hanger ons to the canonical protagonists. For one, one of the last giants showed up in Midgard, which would attract the undue attention of the Aesir gods to the duo. Maybe it's just rumors, so you don't escalate to Thor immediately showing up to deal with them, but they can become entangled with Magni and Modi like with the boys, the two sons of Thor wanting to prove themselves giant killers like their dad. Baldur looking for a way to die might also show up, wanting to see if Excalibur and its foreign magic does the trick.
I also thought of making the remaining humans of Midgard part of Artoria's story, because it gives her things to do outside the plot of the games and gives her a whole new cast unrelated to Kratos', so you don't have to see her only sharing interactions with Freya and Brok&Sindri (she
can know them or meet them though). It also allows exploration of a side rarely seen in the games: Kratos and Atreus mostly interacts with divine or supernatural beings, the only humans seen and interacted with being raiders. Artoria being "human" makes it perfect for her side of the story to concern humans and their lives before and during Ragnarök while Kratos and son deal with the gods, up until both storylines intersect. The storyline would explain why Midgard became so empty, what the Desolation was, and how the Aesir ended up taking humans and offering them asylum in Asgard during Fimbulwinter.
Therefore my thinking was to use the Völsunga Saga for that. Firstly, because linking Ragnarök with the Völsunga Saga is what Wagner's opera (although the Germanic version) did, with its hero's pyre burning the entire world. And Tolkien
did it too with the Norse version he penned:
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún - Upphaf said:
The wolf Fenrir
waits for Ódin,
for Frey the fair
the flames of Surt;
the deep Dragon
shall be doom of Thór –
shall all be ended,
shall Earth perish?
If in day of Doom
one deathless stands,
who death hath tasted
and dies no more,
the serpent-slayer,
seed of Ódin,
then all shall not end,
nor Earth perish.
On his head shall be helm,
in his hand lightning,
afire his spirit,
in his face splendour.
The Serpent shall shiver
and Surt waver,
the Wolf be vanquished
and the world rescued.'
Which will come into play later. But also GoW already has Fafnir and Regin.
So the way I saw it, after they arrived in Midgard, Artoria and Angrboda are found by Sigurd (Fate version?). He tells them they are close to Vernisa, capital of Niflungaland, the kingdom of the Niflungs, one of the last remaining human settlement in Midgard and probably the last human kingdom standing following the Great Desolation and the fall of Veithurgard and Konùnsgard. He himself was once prince to Frakkland before the kingdom fell to the Dead and, as with many others, became a refugee taking shelter in Niflungaland. He brings them home, they meet some of the Völsunga characters, Sigurd talk a bit about his life, his worries about the Hel-walkers everywhere, how he is concerned for his lover Brynhild who is missing along with the other Valkyries, and something affecting them, as well as the prophecy of doom hanging over him and the apocalyptic one (taken from Tolkien). This helps establish him as another counterpart to Artoria besides Kratos, a nigh invulnerable warrior-king with a dragon's heart and a special magic sword with a grim future, except the opposite of the Týr-Kratos dichotomy, where
Sigurd is the one who won't build lasting things by being cut down treacherously in his prime.
The duo explain their situation in vague terms (they just say they are from another realm with no mention of Angrboda being a Giant), and he tells them about the Lake of Nine being their best bet to travel back to their original realm, proposing to escort them there, coincidentally to the location where Kratos is going.
So the Völsunga Saga brings its own storylines without clashing with GoW's world, the Valkyrie story especially fitting well. It also brings more antagonists for Artoria to deal with, like the Niflung King Gunnar and his brothers, Högni and Guthorm, the ones responsible for Sigurd's death. They might seem underwhelming compared to Sigurd and Artoria, but I think they can be made to work. Gunnar is after the Rhinegold treasure, so his greed could slowly transform him into Fafnir through the Nasuverse Evil Dragon phenomenon as the story progresses, leading to his final boss battle as a dragon. Högni in some accounts was actually his brothers' half-brother, being half-elf from his father, which can also make him a good light or dark Elf antagonist to fight. And Guthorm, the youngest and the one who killed Sigurd, became a berserker when he was fed wolf meat.
So they could make for a pretty good roster. If it's not enough, there is also Fafnir and Regin still alive as dragons (GoW2018 made them sympathetic victims but that can be changed). There is also Gunnar's mother Grimhild, an evil witch (something Artoria is familiar with), and the one who made the potion that made Sigurd forget his love for Brynhild in the legend. And there could be hints that, while these antagonists each have individual motives, Odin is manipulating things behind the scenes to get Sigurd killed and have him as his prophesied savior einherjar to stop Ragnarök.
So enough meat that it's not a complete rehash of the 2018 game, while not being a completely different story and sharing the same themes.
