Each game that has ever been released has some kind of a story or in-depth lore to share. Be it for Elden Ring or Riot Games’ Valorant too. On the surface, it may seem like your usual tactical shooter, but look deeper and you will see every agent with their abilities has lore.
One agent that has some mysterious lore is Yoru. His ethnicity, behavior, enemies, and abilities like his Dimensional Drift have importance. So let’s jump into the lore story Yoru Valorant!
For some basic Valorant lore context: there exists a resource called Radianite that’s used by the Kingdom corporation for profit, experiments, and to power 3/4 of the world’s energy supply. Radianite first appeared in 2039 in an incident known as the First Light incident, and it gave each agent powers. Although Radianite has sparked many enemies to appear in the game, Riot Games’ Yoru lore may say otherwise.
Where is Yoru From?
Riot Games always strafes to import a lot of places and cultures into Valorant with every agent, which is just too good. And with his supernatural abilities, Yoru comes from Tokyo, Japan. It’s speculated that Yoru in-game lived somewhere around Split, indicated by a voice-line that only appears on that map: "This neighborhood used to be so much better without this Kingdom bad.".
We can conclude that among our best agents, even Yoru hates the Kingdom corporation. But besides the Kingdom corporation, what stands out most are Yoru’s abilities. Just why are they so weird-looking compared to other abilities?
What is Yoru Based On?
The Yorus footsteps, the mask, and his dimensional drift are all based on ferrofluid, which you could see in the image below. The parallels are just too similar. These abilities enable Yoru to defeat the enemy lines, or even step into enemy territory with his mask untouchable. And with the recent Yoru rework, his stealth is just unmatchable.
Putting his mask on for his ultimate Dimensional Drift to jump out of reality, and tricking the enemy with a fake footstep is Yoru’s gameplay style. What’s even more special is that for this Valorant agent, the mask may hold more importance than one may think at first sight.
What is Yoru Backstory Valorant?
Yoru’s backstory revolves around the map Icebox and his samurai ancestors. His story may have a deeper meaning in Valorant’s lore overall. Yoru is in search of his ancestors, and his truth may lie on Icebox, as seen in this voice line, and tons of in-game details: "There are more answers here. I just have to find them.". The first important event here is the Kingdom’s corporation making experiments and keeping secrets of Yoru’s ancestors. Before Yoru was released, a samurai armor was spotted being kept in a container with a mask. After his release, the container was broken with Radianite leaking and the mask stolen. This mask is probably how Yoru uses his Dimensional Drift ultimate to travel between dimensions and reality.
His agent contract player card may even suggest that, with its name being “Unmasked Lineage”, or his samurai player card with its name “Bloodline”. His lineage may be important since it shows that Radianite has existed before the First Light.
On Icebox, a warship can be noticed that was probably in possession of Yoru’s ancestors. Yoru probably goes to explore there and in voice mails he sent to Brimstone, something seems off. In the first voice mail, he calls the warship S22. While exploring it, he found a weaker, “older”, dimensional fragment and says that someone left it. He explored that dimension, and while recalling it weird, he says that he heard a familiar voice, which may be another agent.
The other voice mail recalls on the same warship, finding dimensional scars left from way back in time. Why are these voice mails important? They indicate that Radianite has existed way back in time, and Yoru’s family was using it. Another theory states that the warship noticed in Icebox actually traveled through time using the power of Radianite, landing in our world.
Yoru Joins the VALORANT Protocol Lore
To fulfill his desire for his ancestors, Yoru joins the VALORANT Protocol as Agent 15. It is unknown who recruited him, but he can be seen with the mask in the RETAKE cinematic. This means that Yoru joined the VP after he stole the mask, thus looking out to use each agent to resolve his lineage mystery.
Yoru may be god-like in his coolness, but his ego knows no boundaries. His character sometimes is unbearable, so who are his friends?
Are Yoru and Phoenix Friends in Valorant?
Yoru’s probably only best friend has to be Phoenix. They may not be that close, but their friendly relationship looks like an older-younger brother kind of type. He even saves Phoenix from the enemy Jett in the RETAKE cinematic, meaning he looks out for him, but still keeps his smug face.
Aside from Phoenix and maybe Omen if you squeeze your eyes enough, Yoru doesn’t have many friends. His only goal is to be as rude as possible, just to boost his self-confidence in being a god, while searching for his samurai ancestors and defeating the enemies. But that prompts the question:
What’s next for Yoru in the Valorant Lore and Story?
Riot Games is definitely not finished with Yoru. With any upcoming Valorant episode or leaks, we can expect to see more revelations about his ancestors. But until then, you should visit the Valorant Lore Hub!