Before it was known as Valorant, the game was just ‘Project A’ — a shooter that Riot promised would come with its own lore. Now, the beta is in full swing, but Valorant’s lore isn’t exactly clear: What is a Radiant? Or Radianite? What does the spike actually do? Little is known about the world of Valorant, but what little is known, we summarized for you.
Valorant takes place in the near future on a fictional version of planet Earth. This is evident from the characters’ bios, such as Sova being Russian and Phoenix being British, as well as the maps being in real-world locations and one of Jett’s voice lines referencing Venice:
“I wish they would stop blaming me for what happened in Venice.”
If Valorant takes place in the real world though, how come the agents have superhero-like abilities? Well, as with all good stories, let’s start at the beginning...
In the beginning there was a light
Planet Earth within the Valorant lore was changed forever in an event dubbed The First Light, after which people started to exhibit supernatural powers—people who then became known as Radiants. What exactly caused The First Light to happen is unknown. It could’ve been aliens or a natural phenomenon or any other number of things. Whatever it was, it changed certain people. Even people that did not become Radiants, like agents Brimstone and Sova, still somehow use whatever it is that The First Light left behind via technology that is fueled by what is called Radianite.
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As we mentioned above, all that is known about Valorant’s lore is scattered across the game and the internet in bits and pieces, but we do know that this Radianite is very, very precious within the Valorant world. So precious in fact that an organization named Kingdom is seemingly trying to monopolize it.
Those sprayed ‘K’s’ you might have seen around the maps or those fancy skyscrapers on Split? That’s the Kingdom insignia and Kingdom property.
Whether or not Kingdom is evil is not known yet, but monopolization of anything usually causes resistance, or, in this case, caused the Valorant Protocol to be formed.
Whether all of the playable agents are part of the Valorant Protocol or some are part of the Kingdom is unclear, but if Riot Games’ League of Legends is any indication, the character roster likely consists of agents from both sides of the conflict.
Rumor has it...
Now this part is where we’re getting deep into the rumor mill:
Ever notice the odd pillars and the fire on the Haven map spwan? According to some internet detectives, that could’ve been caused by a Radianite explosion. Maybe Radianite is dangerous and that’s why the Valorant Protocol wants to get rid of it by planting the so-called Spike.
Now while we’re on the subject of the Spike, this is where the information gets even more clouded. Anyone who’s played the game knows that the Spike doesn’t exactly blow up in a bomb-like manner. Rather it emits a black light, after which all light seems to be drained from the area. Combine that with the aforementioned First Light event and we… still have no idea what’s going on.
Does the Spike suck up Radianite in an attempt to get the valuable resource back? Are the bomb sites strategic locations of Radianite production that are sabotaged? Why does the Spike explosion, in-game Radianite sightings and collectable ultimate-orbs all have the same look?
Let’s check the facts
So we’ve got a big, possibly evil, organization called Kingdom, that is trying to harvest an energy source known as Radianite. This energy source exists courtesy of the First Light event which also created super-powered humans known as Radiants. Radianite also seems to be what is contained within the spike and it powers up our playable agents.
This all takes place within a worldwide conflict that has a rebel faction known as Valorant Protocol, oppose the Kingdom with a key part of it being the strategic planting of spikes. There is a lot to speculate and even more to explore with what little we know, but, if League of Legends is any indication, we can look forward to a good lore and a whole lot of it.
To stay on top of any new lore Information, keep it right here at EarlyGame where we cover you on all things Valorant.