What is Valorant? Everything that you need to know

Almost every game has its own story and lore. And Riot Games’ creative director David Nottingham didn’t disappoint the players when it came to Valorant lore. Each Valorant agent has lore implications, including our whole Earth. So here you can check out related articles about every agent’s story, fan theory, and general discussions in Valorant’s lore!

What is Valorant Lore Backstory?

The spark for a theory or two among Valorant fans begins in the near future, the year 2039. An incident known as the First Light event starts out and causes rifts to appear in the sky. These rifts introduce us to a resource called Radianite. Because of it, players are able to play their favorite agent like Omen since Radianite gave each agent their power and abilities. Although the appearance of Radianite is left for a fan theory or two, one thing is clear: it was bound to be abused.

Riot Games presents us with 2 main organizations in the lore: the VALORANT Protocol and the Kingdom Corporation. The Kingdom corporation uses Radianite to supply 3/4 of Earth’s power resource, but along the way, they also conduct inhumane experiments, bad climate habits, and such. The VALORANT Protocol with Brimstone as the leader and Sage as the co-leader consists of every Valorant agent like Omen with the power to protect Earth from Radianite crises and problems in the game. The hatred towards the Kingdom corporation can be noticed by each agent which has made fans and players alike come up with a theory or two. Skye hates Kingdom for ruining her homelands, while Raze hates Kingdom for ruining her city viewing them as enemies. Breach hates them so much that he steals from them. But a bigger looming threat is around the corner than the Kingdom corporation…

Valorant Mirror Earth Lore

Besides supernatural Radianite powers, there also exist parallel worlds. KAY/O comes from a future alternate world where Reyna reigns the world and Astra’s powers know no bounds, but the bigger threat to our Earth is the Mirror Earth parallel world. Mirror Earth is running out of Radianite, so they travel to our Earth and steal it with the spike. If this is familiar to you, it’s because this is the core Valorant gameplay. The attackers are Mirror Earth while the defenders are our original Earth. The first presence of Mirror Earth in Valorant’s lore was in the DUALITY cinematic. Fans and players were shaken by this introduction as it was the first major Valorant lore entry with a hardcore cinematic. 

The lore theory within each cinematic became questionable to players. This is because we’ve seen Mirror Jett first successfully detonating the spike in Venice, Italy, blowing the whole place up and creating the map Ascent from the DUELISTS cinematic trailer. The interactive narrative object with Mirror Earth can also be seen in how the VALORANT Protocol keeps it secret, even from its own agents. In the DUALITY cinematic, Viper keeps it a secret from Phoenix. And it was a secret to Fade too until she joined the protocol. This is the main Valorant lore so far, so next up we’ll take a look at important events from Riot Games about the overall story.

Did Radianite Exist Before Valorant?

One interesting story in Valorant’s lore is the mystery with Radianite. Although the first major presence was with the First Light event in 2039, Yoru says otherwise. You can check out his lore, but in simple terms: a warship from the past traveled to our future showing signs of Radianite. The most interesting theory here is how Riot Games may be implementing real-life elements in the game’s lore. So question this: what if all the legends and myths we know from our real-life past were caused by Radianite, or what if one peculiar agent Omen received his powers before everything happened?

You can take this with a grain of salt, but it’s an interesting fact to mention that shapes Valorant’s story. Although this is a far stretch, let’s take a look at something really important and imminent in the present’s lore.

Valorant Fracture and Chamber Lore

It’s no secret that even Valorant maps have lore. And the most interesting one with it is Fracture. Previously called the Everett-Lynde research facility, Fracture was used to create a machine known as the Radian Collider which would supply Mirror Earth with Radianite. Chamber blows Fracture up alongside the scientists in there for his own personal gain. An important thing to note here is although we have the Kingdom corporation on our Earth, Mirror Earth’s alternative is called Kingdom Industries. 

Chamber steals blueprints to Mirror Earth from Fracture and gives them to the VALORANT Protocol. He also recommends Neon join the game and power up the portal, which she does so alongside Killjoy. And they’ve succeeded.

Portal to Mirror Earth Valorant Lore

One of Brimstone’s goals is to reach Mirror Earth. He succeeded in opening the portal alongside agents like Cypher and Sova, which is known as the Alpha-Omega bridge in Episode 4 Act 3. The upcoming agent Fade’s the first one to travel to Mirror Earth, specifically Lisbon, Portugal, where the next map is speculated to be. Fade also mentions another portal (terminal) which could probably answer a lot of Valorant lore questions in the near future.

This portal has been teased for a long time since Fracture’s release. On Fracture, 2 scientists sent out emails to each other indicating a more sinister story in Mirror Earth’s Lisbon…

Who are Oran and Ruben Valorant?

Oran and Ruben are scientists that first appeared in Fracture. Oran is from our Earth while Ruben is from Mirror Earth. They both work closely together and show interest in each other’s Earths. And although Chamber blew up Fracture, it seems Oran and Ruben are safe and sound in Lisbon on Mirror Earth. Because of the emails, the city is speculated by each Valorant player to be underwater, and a player card in the Episode 4 Act 3 Battle Pass shows an underwater tram with 2 familiar people: Oran and Ruben.

It seems like they’ve found a way to travel to Mirror Earth. But their actions didn’t go unnoticed, with the operations board in the Practice Range showing an investigation on the emails with Ruben’s face slapped on them. Although they probably won’t be new agents in Valorant, their mere presence seems to set off some alarms in Valorant’s lore.