Yesterday night, Cynprel had an interview with David Nottingham about VALORANT's lore and many other things such as Character heights, and LGBTQ+ in the game.

I took down detailed notes during this interview, as well as rewatched the VOD a couple of times and would like to share it with everybody! Here is the Original Twitch VOD if you want to watch that as well. I also have these notes written down in a Google Docs if it's hard to read on Reddit. Also, be sure to join the VALORANT Lore Discord for more information about the game's Lore and many more things like this!

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Rift Radio x David Nottingham Notes

For Skye, some lines, especially Omen, reveal that she uses her powers in a limited manner, or in a manner that wouldn’t be seen in the game. Within the lore, are the Agents able to do more with their abilities?

• Thinking about the game we are playing, a tactical shooter, there are lots of constraints that are very much driven by the gameplay experience
• There are other people in the world who are not Agents, nor future Agents, that have Radianite power
• Thinking about the lore, it depends how well the Agents themselves have cultivated and mastered their ability
• The possibility that not all Agents got their powers the same way. There’s a core reason why the majority of the Agents that have Radiant ability got them, but it’s not the only one that exists in the world
• Each Agent may have the ability to change how their powers work and get stronger because of them
• “All things will become clear before the year is out what the cinematics, the content, etc are related to”
• The books in David Nottingham’s video that were teasing Astra were
• Children of Blood and Bone Novel by Tomi Adeyemi (Nigerian-American)
• Akata Witch Novel by Nnedi Okorafor (Nigerian-American)
  • These books are an African, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy POV
• LGBTQ+ Representation in VALORANT
• “We have a pretty active community within Riot already.”
• "We have groups we will engage with depending on which direction a character is going in”
• In terms of the existing roster, everyone can theory craft, ship, and match people, Agents will soon have voice lines that reveal their backgrounds ex. What they do on their free time
• When it comes to gender, it is going to be an organic devolution that feels right for the character. There is core truths that you want to peel away as you’re exploring the character
• Agents that are non-binary and LGBTQ+ is coming VALORANT and will come in the future soon
• All agents have their own motivations for fighting
• Would we see a character that is playable that is not in VALORANT Protocol join the roster?
• Not sure about playable characters not in the VALORANT roster
• Though characters that are in the roster that have their own reasons for joining VALORANT Protocol that is not directly related to Kingdom will join the roster
• Have you thought about conflicts that could arrive beyond the current conflict, mainly future proofing?
• “Yes, we haven’t really went into this conflict, though it will be our central conflict”
• “We have ideas on where we want to go as well”
• “We want to keep everything in a high level framework way so we don't box ourselves in and be able to expand”
• Agent 08 is still unknown - Developers still have no idea what Agent 08 is or how they’ll fit in the story
• What challenges did you face in crafting a narrative that has gone through so many changes before you joined?
• Maps are some of the most complex to provide context that support the gameplay, the storytelling, and the visuals
  • Visuals should be visually appealing and should tell a story, but should support that clarity
  • The storytelling aspect as well,
    • does the map have a story to tell
    • does it fit in the world?
• A lot of the world and lore that will be revealed with start to contextualize the central conflict
• The characters had most of their fundamentals already done, Voice lines weren’t recorded yet. The challenge, how to make lore that makes sense that is future proof and could be easily built upon
• How great is this threat that asks these agents to put aside their differences?
• It threatens the security and the stability of the entire planet
• Will Agents speak their native language more often?
• Assuming that people are playing the game in English, there will be more voice lines having the agents speaking their native language that won’t have an effect in gameplay
  • The games identity is rooted in the English language
• The agents have some say in what they are
  • Agents’ names are VALORANT issued, they have some say in the choice though.
• Astra was learning, observing VALORANT before she decided to join the team
• Agent heights:
• The tallest male character in the Protocol is Breach
• 2nd tallest male character is Brimstone
• “You know who’s surprisingly tall is Phoenix. Yeah, he’s taller than I thought he was.” - David Nottingham
• Shortest Agent is Jett
• 2nd Shortest is Killjoy, her hat adds a few inches
• The other Agents are in between these heights
• “I think we can put something together to share to share to the community where we can be a little more specific” - David Nottingham
• At the end of the interview, there was a secret message that was deciphered by a VALORANT Lore Scribe, DuckTime
• https://clips.twitch.tv/TubularTacitLegOSkomodo-cGooVSb0JOO6JrY3
  • A global event, a sudden flash consumes the globe. electrical grids and power systems, worldwide shutoff. Civilization plunged into darkness for a few tense hours before just as mysteriously, power restores, engines hum back to life. "What just happened" A mysterious research lab is operation during first light. Its experiments intended to observe a hitherto undiscovered substance in the universe and to discover its truths. F.L. is a super charged radianite event and for the first time (or is it) humankind is able to record it's unimaginable progress change. Is the world ready?

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Cynprel has said that there is still more they will be revealing later in the Discord and in their YouTube channel. Exciting stuff happening this year for VALORANT's Lore!