VALORANT Lore

The lore of VALORANT refers to the fictional universe that the game is set in, the histories of its characters and settings, and the stories/narratives that occur within. Each agent in the game has their own backstory, all united together under the VALORANT organizations that the game takes its name from. The primary narrative follows the perspective of the VALORANT Protocol agents of Alpha Earth.
The central conflict that the organization is a part of is reflected in VALORANT's core gameplay (one team seeking to detonate a spike and steal surrounding radianite, the other defending their homeland), but the games and round-by-round fights played by players are not canon themselves and have no effect on the lore. Not every aspect of gameplay is required to be justified and canonized into the lore, and gameplay does not need to adhere to how things would "realistically" (in the context of the VALORANT universe) function within canon lore, nor does it need to accurately reflect moments when agents are not presently "active" in the Protocol within the lore. Similarly, not everything related to the game's cosmetics is necessarily part of the lore either, as many collections use original characters in their art as part of that collection's own theme and narrative; historically, these characters have never been of any relevance to canon lore.
==Sources of VALORANT Lore==
VALORANT lore is mostly told through its cinematics and what can be found on its maps:
*Cinematics show stories about the VALORANT Protocol while on missions.
*Each map is set in a location within the world of VALORANT and its contents can be searched to clue you in as to why it is an area of importance. Some maps, such as Fracture or the Range have, or have had, interactive lore elements that players can use to view images and emails or listen to audio and voicemails that show more about the map or the current activities of the VALORANT Protocol (in matchmade games, these can only be viewed during the buy phase). These communications are updated every patch on maps where they are available. Some maps also have audio lines that play in certain areas.
**Interactive elements are currently present on the following maps:
***Range: Found in Brimstone's office in the basement under the main hall, this area contains VALORANT Protocol emails and voicemails. Occasionally, there are also larger audio logs that can be found in Cypher's office in the main hall.
Other sources include:
*Agent quotes.
*Developer AMAs held on the VALORANT subreddit or the VALORANT Lore // Art Discord server.
==List of lore-relevant wiki pages==
===Story of Earth===
VALORANT is set on a near-future Earth impacted by large advancements in technology, a mysterious global event known as First Light, and the discovery of a substance called radianite. 
Articles relevant to the story and history of the VALORANT world include:
*Alpha Earth, including notable locations and characters, and alternate realities of this primary Earth that VALORANT takes place on, such as Omega Earth.
*Kingdom Corporation, including their dealings with an alternate version of themselves, Kingdom Industries.
*Radianite
*Radiants
*Maps, including the meaning behind the 'Seconds' cipher used in their coordinates.
**Some maps also have subpages due to PA System messages or interactive lore elements being present on the map.
***Bind/Lore, Fracture/Lore, Fracture/Quotes, Icebox/Lore, Lotus/Lore, Pearl/Quotes, Split/Quotes, Sunset/Quotes
*Organizations, a list of all known organizations to exist within the lore of VALORANT.
**Atlas, an Omega-only organization known to be involved with inter-dimensional security.
**REALM, an Alpha-only organization dealing in the recovery of artifacts from the black market.
**Scions of Hourglass, a secretive organization that attempted to keep the existence of radianite a secret before its modern rediscovery, now in conflict with the VALORANT Protocol.
*First Light
*The Guardians, a mysterious group of beings operating beyond Earth.
===Story of the VALORANT Protocol===
The VALORANT Protocol is the secretive organization that VALORANT revolves around. Made up of multiple agents from around the world, they have been tasked with defending their home against mysterious assailants from another, yet familiar, world.
Articles relevant to the story of the VALORANT Protocol and its agents include:
*VALORANT Protocol, including their dealings with an alternate version of themselves, VALORANT Legion.
*Cinematics (Cinematics/Episode, Cinematics/Trailer)
*Range/Lore, where an office of Brimstone's can be found, including a laptop and phone that relay the emails and voicemails he receives from other agents.
**These are also separated into subpages containing content per episode e.g. Range/Lore/EP3, Range/Lore/EP4
***Current episode content is available both on the main Range/Lore page and its own episode subpage. Content from previous episodes is kept archived on their episode subpages only.
*The Biography sections of each agent's page (e.g. Brimstone#Biography), including a timeline of events for each one listing every appearance or mention of them within the lore.
*Abilities, explaining the difference between the agents' abilities in gameplay and lore, and showing the canon appearances abilities have made within the lore.
*Spike, a device the Protocol has often encountered on their missions.
===Side characters===
Some characters within VALORANT lore also have their own, smaller stories that may connect with the main, larger narrative:
*Rúben Pontes and Oran McEneff, two engineers who worked together at Everett-Linde.
*Max Bot, a modified cleaning robot from VALORANT HQ augmented by Killjoy and Raze to fight as a training room bot.
==VALORANT Lore Wiki==
The VALORANT Wiki covers the lore of the game for the purposes of documentation regarding official information and appearances. For further details, analysis, and speculation into VALORANT lore, this is covered by the VALORANT Lore Wiki. The Lore Wiki was created by members of the VALORANT lore community surrounding Cynprel, one of VALORANT's most well-known content creators for lore at the time who would go on to become an Associate Narrative Writer for Riot Games on VALORANT. The site and its community of editors are regarded as very reliable for VALORANT lore and analysis, and the VALORANT Wiki has partnered with the Lore Wiki to bring more insight into VALORANT lore to fans of the game and its lore from this site.
==First Light Dating System==
VALORANT takes place in a near-future Earth that still uses a Gregorian calendar. VALORANT intentionally does not use any exact canon dates for how far in the future VALORANT is, and any "confirmed" dates from cinematics have been revealed to be a result of details from development phases unintentionally making it through to the final product (source). Within the community however, a custom dating system is often used using First Light as a reference point:
*BFL refers to the years Before First Light.
**Further back beyond First Light into our known pre-21st century history, Gregorian dates may be used instead.
*AFL refers to the years After First Light.
*0 YFL, or 0 FL, refers to The Year of First Light, the year that First Light occurred in.
Though this dating format is not an official VALORANT product, the VALORANT Wiki will sometimes use this to more easily reference specific points in the timeline. A full timeline can be found on the VALORANT Lore Wiki:
Category:Valorant
Category:Lore