Sanford

Sanford is a central/supporting character of the God of Wars series, serving as one of the secondary protagonists, mainly alongside his partner and comrade, Deimos. Both he and Deimos worked under the anti-NEXUS organization, seeking revenge against them and the Auditor for their hometown's destruction to fulfill their selfish needs. Sanford and Deimos were considered very well experienced in both hand to hand combat and the use of firearms. When Deimos was killed by the Auditor's soldiers, Sanford remained in state of despair and loss for his comrade's death until he has seen him again, having been resurrected by the Auditor to use him as his tool. This enraged and motivated Sanford even further to track down the Auditor no matter what the cost was and save his partner from living under his influence.

History
Just like Deimos, the two were former allies alongside with Hank and the anti-NEXUS organization, a special group of refugees allied in hopes of finding a way to bring NEXUS down. The tag team were well known upon NEXUS as they have been seen performing operations inside their outpost bases, seeking the knowledge and projects that NEXUS was conducting. Knowing of this, NEXUS set a trap to capture them into an extermination building to be executed. The objective resulted in complete failure when Deimos and Sanford regained consciousness and fought their way through the building while sustaining harsh physical injuries however they were able to bandage themselves and even pick up their clothes, which later became their signature outfits. They were last seen hijacking a helicopter and escaped the building returning to the anti-NEXUS home base.

During the story
Deimos, Sanford and a small squad of elite trained soldiers from the anti-NEXUS group were reassigned new orders to bring Hank's corpse to the Science Tower of NEXUS in order to hopefully revive him through the Agent Magnification Chamber, used to create Mag Agent soldiers for NEXUS. After successfully defeating through the tower's security forces, two enhanced A.T.P. engineers, possessed by the Auditor, and a group of NEXUS agents ambushed the squad and forced Sanford with the squad to split up from Deimos who was carrying Hank's body. Sanford, unable to come to Deimos' aid, arrived at a dead end room with an A.T.P. engineer firing at him while he was undercover. Soon, the other engineer rushes in and gives him a sign that they needed to leave immediately. Curious as to why they retreated, Sanford set off outside to find out what the commotion was about. Having faced the squad of NEXUS agents engaged in a gun warfare with his men, Sanford aided his comrades and managed to wipe out the NEXUS group. When Sanford faced the possessed soldiers, Deimos, under the possession of the Auditor, slaughtered their comrades and left Sanford shot several times in his torso, causing severe injuries. Deimos immediately regained consciousness and stared at his fallen comrades in complete shock and realizing what he had just done. As he comes rushing to Sanford's aid he is shot and killed by the possessed A.T.P. engineers. An enraged Sanford charges at the engineers, careless of his injuries. Hank rushes in and throws a pipe bomb towards the engineers, immediately killing the possessed soldiers. Sanford grieves over his partner's death and Hank later assists him for his burial.

Having faced emotions of grieving and loss for his best friend and former comrade, Sanford travelled with Hank as they shared the common goal of killing the Auditor for his sinister crimes. However, upon seeing Deimos, who had been resurrected by the Auditor and being used as his tool, left Sanford in shock and attempted to rescue Deimos from the Auditor. However, Deimos, who bares no memory of himself or what he had done in the past, was ordered by the Auditor to kill Hank and Sanford. This failed when Deimos failed to defeat Hank in battle made his escape with Bellatrix, who had been watching them from the start. The Auditor's true purpose in resurrecting Deimos was to manipulate with Sanford's thoughts and to kill the rest of Hank's group. Like the rest of Hank's group, Sanford sought extreme vengeance against the Auditor. However, his primary goal was to rescue Deimos from the Auditor's influence and save his life.

Personality
Unlike Deimos, who has more of a sense of humour towards his job, Sanford takes his tasks on the more serious side as he always wants to get answers from anyone who may know about NEXUS and the Auditor. Sanford was fierce and fearless, regardless whether he was at near death. He showed his strong side to avenge for Deimos' death and would harm anyone who stood in his path. Sanford generally has stronger mentality, even when his enemies attempt to manipulate him into committing the wrong acts. Sanford's primary objective was to find a way and save Deimos from the Auditor's control over him, showing his commitment and using whatever it took to save him. Sanford had a brother-like relationship with his former partner and after discovering his resurrection, he believed that he was given a second chance to saving him and hoping to that Deimos will be able to overcome the unintentional crimes he committed against him and their companions.

Physical Appearance
In his first appearance into the series, both Deimos and Sanford looked just like any other ordinary grunt. However due to their sustained injuries, they placed bandages in order to heal their wounds. Sanford continuously changes outfits as they make their way to escape the building prison. He now currently wears a black bandana, with a pair of professional black shades. He wears a low class tank top with black cargo shorts and like Deimos, has multiple bandages wrapped around his body, specifically his abdomen and back of his head. He is also one of the few main characters in the series to be shown with a mouth as a facial feature.

Powers and Abilities
Sanford is physically very strong; stronger than most humans. He was also one of the strongest soldiers in the anti-NEXUS group. He mainly uses the hook and has mastered using the weapon to his full advantage. He is seen using the hook in many different ways, either as a grappling hook, or simply as long range melee weapon. Sanford is also a very skilled hand to hand combatant, also using his hook as a melee weapon and using his snub Colt Python as a sidearm. Even without either of his weapons, Sanford has been shown in dozens of scenes fighting without them with great skill, although it was usually lower ranking soldiers of NEXUS. Despite being a member of the team who has no spiritual or demonic power, she is still easily equal to them in knowledge and fighting capabilities. On humans, she used hand to hand combat as well as in combination with her weapons. Sanford also has a lot of poisons, different powders, mists, and liquids at his disposal which he uses to their full potential.
 * Hook: Sanford's main signature and most useful weapon is his hook. He often uses it for many different tasks and reasons, mainly for slaughtering his enemies in combat. He is also able to use it as a grappling hook to climb buildings and even manage use its rope to get across trenches. Sanford has shown to master his ability with the weapon, as he hardly ever misses his shot whenever aiming for an enemy. Despite its great effectiveness against his enemies, Sanford's hook seems to show no effects on Mag Agents, demons of great power, or recurring characters such as Jesus, Tricky or the Auditor.Enhanced fighting skills and agility
 * Enhanced fighting skills and agility: Sanford is more experienced in tactical fighting than most of the soldiers trained in the anti-NEXUS organization. He was skilled and well able to dodge most forms of attacks. As a soldier, he is also highly skilled in the use of modern firearms and can virtually use almost any type of weapon he wishes to use.

Allies
Deimos

As former partners and allies for a long duration of time, Sanford and Deimos have grown to be very trustworthy and a strong bonded team, appearing to be very effective in working together in combat. When Deimos had his memories wiped by the Auditor, Deimos and Sanford's relationship was severely strained, as Deimos continuously to attack Sanford with no remorse or emotion. However, this did not stop Sanford from finding a way to release Deimos from the Auditor and help him recover from his past mistakes.

Hank

Sanford originally served working with Hank before the events of series took place. It is assumable that they both parted ways after Sanford was experienced enough to venture on his own. Like Deimos, Sanford wouldn't question his orders given from Hank whether it would be in a battle or orders taken from the higher ranks. As their comrade, Hank has promised Sanford that they would save Deimos from despair and attempted many times to rescue him, but Bellatrix or Maia would interfere and cause a diversion to make their escape with Deimos.

Enemies
The Auditor

Like most characters within the series, Sanford greatly despised the Auditor, possibly more than Hank did himself. He planned to avenge Deimos' death and later for using him as a human puppet and tool to commit terrible acts and having to erase his memories. The Auditor generally uses the resurrected Deimos as a way to manipulate with Sanford's thoughts and mental state, up to the point where Sanford will even kill Deimos just for him to rest in peace without living on as a human puppet. After discovering that Deimos finally regained his memories, the two begin to partner up and plan to kill the Auditor for good and destroy NEXUS.

Others
Jesus

Although they have met several times in their travels, there was not a lot of interaction between them. Although they were clearly not allies before, as Jesus was well known to be a formidable rival to many people, Sanford preferred not to run into any sort of issue with him. One noticeable interaction was when Sanford ran to Jesus to question him of what he knew about Deimos and the Auditor. Jesus simply replied by saying "Your friend is still being held by him, I cannot help you find him, but I can tell you that there is something I find suspicious to his sacred orb shard I sensed in his heart."

Tricky

When Sanford and Deimos made their escape from the prison, they encountered Tricky along the way (who was still under the control of NEXUS). At first, they didn't seem intimidated by Tricky, until Deimos has challenged to defeat him as well and this led to their downfall when Tricky, using the power from his Portable Improbability Drive, quickly disposed of them out of the building. Tricky didn't seem he wanted to finish them, as his main concern was Hank. Therefore, the two soldiers were left spared from Tricky's wrath.