Nov 19, 2022 — min read

Valorant Pearl Lore: The Story Behind the Map

The Valorant Pearl lore and story for the map explained: Mirror Earth, Oran and Ruben, and more.

Riot Games have made and added a lot of lore and a story to every agent and every map as well. And in the main Valorant lore and story, which you must know to understand Pearl's lore, we know there's a threat of the Mirror Earth agents in our world. Well, Riot Games took that further and set the new Valorant map Pearl in Mirror Omega Earth.

With this revelation, the new Valorant map Pearl brought a lot of new information about the overall narrative that Valorant's headed to. So here we'll see the full new map Pearl lore - Valorant!

Where is Valorant Pearl Located in Real Life?

The new Valorant map Pearl is set in Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, but in Mirror Omega Earth from Valorant's lore perspective. We know The location of the new map Pearl is known due to Riot Games giving us its coordinates on the loading screen: "38°42'05.4"N 9°08'24.2"W".

The new Valorant map Pearl boasts a small A-site and a big and wide B-site with a fairly big mid-section. It's the eighth map to be released, with every map before Pearl being set in Alpha Earth. So Pearl is the first map set in Omega Earth.

There is a lot of evidence from voice lines to in-game details that the new Valorant map Pearl is set in Omega Earth. But the most important piece of evidence comes from the Episode 5 Cinematic, where Reyna, Neon, and Killjoy enter the Omega Earth Pearl map through a portal. And from the main story, we know that Killjoy created and Neon powered the portal.

New Valorant Map Pearl Cinematic Trailer Omega Earth

Knowing the location of the new Valorant map Pearl is essential to understanding the lore behind it. This is due to Riot Games' creation and progress with the story behind the eighth map while continuing with all maps. So let's jump straight into the details of the new Valorant map Pearl lore and story!

What is the Valorant Pearl Lore and Story?

So we saw that the main gimmick with the story behind the new Valorant map Pearl is that it's set in Omega Earth. But the Pearl map itself is underwater in a big city dome protecting it. This is because, in Mirror Earth, a big climate change has occurred with water enveloping the cities and its citizens having to resort to living in domes underwater. These domes were created and powered by the mirror counterpart of the Kingdom corporation - the Kingdom Industries.

If you look outside the boundaries of the new map Pearl, you'll notice multiple underwater city domes as well. The domes are powered by Radianite which protects the citizens. As you could've guessed, a lot of Radianite is needed to power these domes. And that's why the Mirror Earth agents stole Radianite from our Earth, it was simply to protect their homelands.

In Omega Earth, the Mirror Agents are known as the VALORANT Legion, and they're praised as heroes by the people living there. This can be specially noticed from the comics shop on the Defender Spawn of the new map Pearl, from which Riot Games even made player cards. They get and give Radianite to the Kingdom Industries which then they use for reality stabilization and the dome life support system in Killjoy's words from the Episode 5 Cinematic.

For the reality stabilization part, there are closed-off sections on the new Valorant map Pearl with energy surrounding floating objects of buildings. We can speculate that this is caused by Radianite because we've seen it in Ascent's lore.

Valorant LEGION New Map Pearl Reality Shattered

Another thing worth mentioning is how the Kingdom Industries in Mirror Earth is supporting the residents to learn more about Radianite and the possibilities behind traveling to other universes. There are also posters encouraging the residents to keep quiet about the secrets behind Radianite of the potential threat that an unwanted party like our Earth learns more. You can see this from various posters Riot Games has plastered around the new map, Pearl. Here's the translation for the Pearl posters below from left to right going downwards:

"Radianite - Future or Threat?"
"History of First Light"
"Alphaverse Exhibition"
"Beyond Omega: We make it possible"
"Keep it Secret - Keep it Safe"
"Worlds Apart - High Risks"

On the top posters, there's a repeating sentence under them which translates to "Come visit us at Pearl District. Free for residents. Sponsored by KINGDOM INDUSTRIES". This is referring to a museum in B-Hall on the map. The museum has a chart outlining Omega Earth's history. In the first half, we can see symbols indicating the bad climate change and the appearance of the First Light which spawned Radianite in Omega Earth, similar to how it appeared on our Earth in Valorant's lore.

Then in the second half of the chart, there are symbols indicating 2 worlds with portals for travel and the city-wide domes we mentioned above. This is where a new organization known as Atlas comes into play. They're an organization with an eye logo who's invented the portal travel through other universes, which can be seen in the history on the 5th panel below. Atlas also works closely with Omega Earth's Kingdom, as the soldiers in the Pearl cinematic that attack our agents are also from the Atlas organization, which can be seen from their armor logo.

That's the main story behind the Valorant map Pearl with all the details in the Mid shops and markets, comic shops, posters, and cinematics. But there's also a looming threat that's been cooking up ever since the release of Fracture. And that's the story of Oran and Ruben.

Valorant Pearl Lore Story: Oran and Ruben

Oran and Ruben were scientists in Fracture's lore, where Oran is from our Earth and Ruben is from Omega Earth. Fracture however was destroyed, yet Oran and Ruben managed to travel into Omega Earth. Though transporting an Alpha Earth agent into Omega Earth is illegal, so now both Oran and Ruben are labeled wanted criminals. You can see their wanted poster below alongside Oran and Ruben traveling underwater in the "Yellow on Rails" player card.

Ruben's poster says he's a dangerous man and is wanted for harboring a fugitive. Oran's poster says he's an illegal alien and is wanted for conspiring against Alpha Earth. We can even see Ruben's house on the new map, Pearl, in Mid-Connector covered with police tape.

The last thing worth mentioning between Oran, Ruben, and the Valorant map Pearl is an email left to Ruben from his niece Aurora way back on Fracture. This is a light-hearted email where Aurora promises Ruben she'll score a goal in her soccer match. But she also mentions that the geo-dome might even open. This means that in certain situations, Omega Earth and Pearl's geo-dome can open up.

And that's it for the full lore and story behind the Valorant map Pearl. Riot Games will build up on this story with new additions of details and even with other new Valorant maps that will get released. Until then, you should definitely visit the TheGlobalGaming YouTube channel for more Valorant lore content!