Harbor is the 21st Agent to join the VALORANT Protocol, who uses abilities centered on water sourced from an ancient artifact he uncovered. He has history with an organization called REALM as a expert soldier, historian and antiquities expert.
Hailing from India's coast, Harbor storms the field wielding ancient technology with dominion over water. He unleashes frothing rapids and crushing waves to shield his allies and to pummel those that oppose him.
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Lore[]
Harbor is an Indian 'tech'-user (he isn't a Radiant[1], but whether or not his Bracelet counts as 'technology' is debated) who uses water-based abilities in combat.
Personality[]
Harbor has a generally cheerful and positive personality, with his speech full of encouraging confidence and endearing mirth. From his voicelines, it is evident that he also has considerable experience in combat, both as a soldier and a leader. This likely comes from his long years serving under REALM, where he built up a reputation of being an exceptional soldier.
Alongside this, Harbor is a very accomplished historian and antiquarian, who is fascinated by the worlds of ancient artifacts, history, and architecture; and who genuinely seems to enjoy his job of working with historical relics and structures. A lot of this aspect of his character was added with the goal of him being more than just a typical 'Hollywood action hero', with focus placed on achieving a multifaceted and dense character, passionate about subjects beyond what has come to be expected from a muscular soldier stereotype.
This design philosophy was made in homage to, and taking inspiration from, old Hindu myths and legends - where the main characters were often portrayed as having skill as philosophers, scholars, poets, and the like[2].
The Artifact[]
Harbor's powers stem from his Bracelet and Rings, an ancient artifact set that he discovered on a mission while serving under REALM (for more about the events leading up to him obtaining his Bracelet, see History below). This artifact lets him summon water at will and manipulate it into various shapes and forms.
Following his discovery of the Bracelet, Harbor used its powers to protect himself in a firefight with Captain Greaves. Since he had just discovered it, and evidently wasn't aware of its powers or how to best utilize the artifact by then, it is assumed that the Relic responds more to his subconscious thoughts than to his conscious actions.
According to a comment from 'The New Wave', Harbor's live-streamed community event, both the Bracelet and the 5 Rings that come with it have a role to play in his powers. The Bracelet is responsible for summoning the water itself, but the Rings are required to control and manipulate it into various shapes and forms while also providing some degree of control over its temperature.
"[...] Harbor gets his powers from an ancient Radianite artifact, a Bracelet and a set of rings. The Bracelet unleashes the force of water, and the Rings control its temperature and movements... together they give him 'infinite power' to get that control over the element..."
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— 'The New Wave' livestream, 1:12:37
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This was later confirmed by Narrative Lead Riot ParmCheesy in a reddit comment[3]. He also clarified that using the relic to its full potential required some mastery on the part of the wielder; Harbor is still unable to summon water that is boiling hot or freezing cold because of this.
For more analysis on the artifact, especially of the information that we got from his Agent trailer, see here.
Omega Harbor[]
Ω-Harbor was recruited into the VALORANT LEGION before his Alpha Counterpart. On Omega Earth, Harbor served as the 'keeper' of LEGION's mysterious power source (this 'power source' being Harbor's Bracelet), according to emails from Cypher[4] and Fade[5]. Not much is known about Ω-Harbor's history with the LEGION, but their connection is what drove the PROTOCOL to seek out and hire α-Harbor.
It is unclear what exactly the comment about the Bracelet being a 'power source' is for Omega. Its powers, while definitely miraculous, don't seem to extend beyond generating and manipulating water. One possible interpretation that pops to mind is that it aids in producing hydroelectricity (this does beg the question of what happens when Harbor is busy, or somehow unable to attend to power-generating duties).
However, while the Bracelet could be used to generate massive amounts of energy through this method, it's still not the intended mode of usage. This, combined with the slight uncertainty with which Cypher referred to the 'power source' in his Email[4], makes it seem like he was trying to describe the Artifact without completely understanding what it was himself.
While it is known that Ω-Harbor had interactions with LEGION prior to α-Harbor's recruitment, it is unknown whether he was formally an Agent in the VL before α-Harbor was hired by the VP. When asked about it, all the Devs said was that the paths taken by Alpha and Omega Harbor were different[6].
History[]
Harbor used to work for REALM, an organization which retrieved lost historical relics from black market trade. While Fade's initial research on him hinted that he was just an antiquities expert working for them, the audio log obtained in Patch 5.07 tells us that he also has considerable experience on the battlefield as well.
Indeed, 'experience on the battlefield' is quite the understatement; Harbor has had several years of history working under REALM, showing exemplary performance in combat, with a reputation and legacy great enough to earn the respect and awe of many lower-ranked members. Those who had the privilege of meeting him in person (such as the senior officer from the same audio log) claimed that he was a great person too.
Harbor's career under REALM came to an abrupt end during a mission with Captain Greaves in India, where they were hoping to secure a powerful artifact (this being the same one he uses in-game to channel his abilities).
Either by chance or by Greaves' design, Harbor discovered the artifact, and it attached itself to his wrist. Immediately after, Greaves confronted him at gunpoint, demanding that he hand the relic over (for more on Greaves' motives and the divisions within REALM, see its page). Harbor was unwilling to do so, resulting in a firefight which he only just survived by using his newfound powers.
Unable to get his hands on the relic, Greaves resorted to the next best option: he designated Harbor as having gone rogue, and fashioned a story that Harbor attempted to kill him to back up the claim. Greaves then set REALM's goals on trying to hunt him down, ordering his soldiers to kill him on sight to ensure that he didn't have the chance to talk.
The 'assault' caused Harbor to be publicly labeled as a criminal - going from a celebrated hero to a traitor and international fugitive - and forced him to go on the run. He was ceaselessly hunted down by REALM operatives, who chased him across most of northern India over the course of two months. The main driving force behind REALM's relentless pursuit was Greaves himself, who went to greater and greater lengths to ensure Harbor's death.
However, despite everything that REALM threw his way, Harbor fared well against the repeated attacks. His already impressive skills in combat, now heavily bolstered by the power of his artifact, allowed him to handle himself well enough.
Meanwhile the PROTOCOL caught onto his trail somewhere around Mumbai. A team of Agents (including Skye, Omen, and perhaps Yoru and others) was dispatched to track him with the end goal of recruiting him. Since they began tracking him, Harbor lead them on quite the trail - he moved from Mumbai and headed east to the Sundarbans forest, then north to Bhutan, before turning west towards New Delhi (effectively making a U-turn).
In 'the Setup' audio log, we see that Greaves, growing more and more desperate to catch Harbor, had directed at least 4 REALM trucks to an attack, as well as called in regional artillery, gotten access to the local satellite network, and perhaps even an attack helicopter. REALM's goal of safely retrieving the artifact seems to have taken second place to Greaves' mission to kill Harbor.
Around this time, the PROTOCOL managed to contact him and schedule a meeting point to rescue him from REALM. The communicator used was then discarded and found by Greaves[7].
The ambush that Greaves had set up seemed to have mostly failed, as in the final chase (seen in TURN THE TIDES, his reveal trailer) Harbor is showed to be only being trailed by 2 bikes - Greaves and one last remaining soldier (who was promptly taken out).
Greaves managed to shoot Harbor's bike, damaging it such that it veered out of control. The bike swerved up a ramp, causing Harbor to be launched up in the air. However, he was rescued by Brimstone in the VLT/R, who had scheduled to meet up with him that day and was apparently late. Brimstone then gave him a Vandal and welcomed him to the PROTOCOL.
Appearance[]
Harbor's clothing primarily features a green/teal color. His jacket is on the greener side, with a popped collar that shows a blue floral design underneath. His pants are a lighter blue, with several pockets and belts. The back of the left thigh has the numbers '23 1 22 5' written on them, which translates (through a simple A1Z26 Cipher) to 'WAVE'[8]. Hanging around his neck is a single broken dog tag, with what looks to be a computer chip hanging out of the other end.
Harbor has a dark brown complexion, with matching brown eyes and long, dark hair tied in a bun. His body is punctuated by large and well-toned muscles. He has elaborate tattoos on his arms, with the right one having a intricate and repeating triangular pattern, and the left having a REALM logo (this might have been a compulsory part of uniform for all REALM recruits[9]).
The left arm also has his Bracelet latched on around the wrist, forming a golden circular band with a gilded blue orb on the top. While usually dormant and collapsed, when channeling his powers, the Bracelet expands into its 'activated' form, with the band rotating around his wrist and the orb spinning in place. The 5 Rings that he uses in conjunction with the Bracelet are dispersed among his fingers, with two on the left hand and three on the right.
Meaning of the name[]
Harbor means "a place on the coast where ships may moor in shelter, especially one protected from rough water".
Varun (वरूण) is a Indian name derived from the name of a Hindu god, "Varuna" associated with the sea, oceans and the sky.
Batra (बत्रा) are known as "Suryavanshi" or "people of the sun/Solar people" also known as "House of the Sun" seen in Hindu mythology. Batra are described as Descendants of the Hindu god "Rama".
Relationships[]
Of all the Agents, Harbor possibly expresses the most friendship towards Phoenix. Going alongside their antithetical themes of Fire and Water, the two share a genuine camaraderie with each other.
Skye was the Agent who recovered Harbor's bike from Delhi, and so he is grateful to her in return. They share a positive relationship.
With his primary personal interest being in ancient artifacts and relics, it is no surprise that Harbor has strong opinions of Yoru for painting over his mask, which in his opinion is a priceless relic meant to be preserved.
Harbor clearly has a lot of respect for Astra, considering her to be incredibly powerful and looking to her for advice when it comes to handling artifacts. Astra has interest in Harbor's artifact, since it has important connections to the Astral Guardians[10].
Harbor is one of the only Agents who has not experienced Fade's blackmail attack firsthand, and so his relationship with her is unmarred by past conflict. As such, he gives her a lot of respect and admiration, considering her to be a friend.
When looking at in game voicelines, Harbor is revealed to be coaching Gekko in training. For this, Gekko shows a great deal of respect towards Harbor on how he helps and trains him.
Cards[]
The VALORANT Harbor card is a generic portrait of Harbor.
The Wake of Betrayal shows Harbor inspecting his artifact, casting Cove, in a marshy environment with palm trees nearby. The name represents the event in which Harbor discovered his Bracelet and receieved his powers, namely, his betrayal by Greaves. For more information about Harbor's past, see above.
The Rising Tide card shows Harbor's artifact in its activated state. The extremities of the card are filled with the designs on the inside of Harbor's jacket, along with depictions of more water.
The Harbor ID card shows Harbor's VALORANT PROTOCOL identification card.
The Unearthed: The Bracelet card shows Harbor's Bracelet in the cave where it was discovered on a hand sculpture.
Voicelines[]
Find all of Harbor's voicelines here, complied by Kingdom Archives.
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Harbor's teasers campaign has been one of the longest for any new agent so far, starting from the launch of Episode 5 and going for a total of 2 whole acts before concluding with Harbor's launch.
Teasers started in Patch 5.01, when Cypher discovered that the VALORANT LEGION had obtained a new 'power source' of some kind[11]. In the same patch, the Bulletin Board in the Range was updated with a mysterious pixelated image[12] (this would later be revealed to be Harbor's Bracelet[13]).
In the Patch immediately following it, Fade sent an Email to Brimstone reporting on a new addition to the LEGION who is the keeper of said power source, going by the name 'Varun Batra'[5] (the man who would go on to be Harbor). Since allowing Omega VALORANT to have an advantage on them could prove disastrous for the safety of their world, the PROTOCOL immediately set to finding the Varun of their Earth.
In the Episode 5: Act 2 Battlepass, we also got the Rising Tide Playercard, teasing Harbor's artifact and his water-related abilities.
Hunting Down 'Varun': Patch 5.04 - 5.07[]
Following Act 2, a slew of new content was added to Harbor's story. Fade inquired into Varun with REALM, and got a cold response from Captain Greaves, stating that Batra was a fugitive they were after and asking the VP to stay out of REALM's internal affairs[14] - which, obviously, they weren't going to do. Without any help from REALM's side, the PROTOCOL proceeded by sending in their own team.
Omen, Skye, and possibly others (such as Yoru) were sent to chase after Harbor, and get to him before REALM did. However, in the end it turned out that Harbor was more than capable of handling himself - his already impressive combat skills, bolstered by the power of his newfound artifact, allowed him to handle himself more than well enough against REALM[15].
The various updates to this chase, which ended up spanning across most of northern India, were sent to Brimstone in several Emails and Voicemails throughout Episode 5.
State of the Agents[]
'samosachaat'
The next major teaser for Harbor came on September 13, 2022, with the release of the State of the Agents article for September 2022. As always, the last section of the article gave some hints to the position that Harbor would fill in the meta, along with some hints of how they fit into the lore, finishing up with an image teaser. The caption for the image reads "Jald hi milte hain", translating to "let's meet soon" or "we'll meet soon".
For Harbor, his teaser image is titled 'samosachaat' (Samosas and Chaat both being popular street foods), and shows what looks like an image taken from a boat near the city of Mumbai - identifiable from the Gateway of India, a popular monument, being visible in-frame. A table in front of him is laden with a single glass of chai along with a plate of half-eaten Samosas.
Next to the glass is a small journal, filled with notes about his journey and his powers. The right page has a sketch of the Taj Hotel (a famous luxury hotel near the Gateway of India), below which is a timed schedule and a map that shows the direction he plans to move on; the left page has a hand-sketched drawings of the Bracelet (one of just the orb, and one of its side profile) with some notes under it.
ChronoVoid Skinline Trailer[]
On September 20th, 2022, the trailer for the ChronoVoid skinline was released on the PlayVALORANT Youtube Channel, building hype for the skins. At the time, it was an unusually high-quality cinematic for a mere set of cosmetics, with very long animated segments - and, more importantly, a voiceover.
There's a story among treasure seekers... well, we have plenty of stories, but this one's different.
It starts with whispers... a voice that beckons adventurers into places of impossible origins, untouched by time. | ||
— ChronoVoid Trailer
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The faint Indian accent of the speaker caused many people to speculate that it was voiced by Harbor (who at the time was expected to be an upcoming Indian Agent), which was confirmed later in the Episode 5: Act 3 Dev Hangout[2].
The trailer was indeed meant to be a teaser for the Agent, not strictly adhering to canon (most of the individual skinlines aren't really 'canon' in that sense, as far as the greater Lore of VALORANT is concerned), but rather meant as a hint to how Harbor and his artifact would fit into the story.
It teases at how he would be an adventurer working with lost relics of the ancient world; and his Bracelet being such a relic wielding immense power designed by mysterious and powerful entities - perhaps with the intention of being used by them. In this case, these 'entities' would be the Astral Guardians, as pointed out by Astra in the Cypher's Office Audio in Patch 5.08
'The Setup' Audio Log[]
For the first time this Episode, Cypher's Office received an update, getting a new Audio Log that played when interacting with the laptop there. It was a recording of a conversation between a REALM operative and his subordinate officer, who are enroute to ambush Harbor in a carefully planned operation.
The recording gave us our first real hint about his history and relations with REALM, describing his reputation as a legendary solider and great person, who had served with REALM for many years.
We also get more information about REALM itself in this Audio log, giving us some insight about its structure, and the decisions going behind Varun's chase. It seems that Captain Greaves was in command of the situation, and had ordered his troops to attack with intention to kill - which some members were not happy with.
REALM also seems to have an upper level of command than Greaves' rank, which is only referred to as 'REALM Command'. However, while Greaves may be answering to them, he still seems to have some level of independence with his actions - it is unclear whether his superiors were fully aware of his goal to kill Harbor instead of just capturing him.
Social Media Campaign[]
Harbor's social media campaign kicked off on October 5th, 2022, with a simple tweet[16] from the @PlayVALORANT account, reading "Jald hi milte hain". This was the same text that was seen in the State of the Agents Article, translating to "Let's meet soon" or "We'll meet soon".
The second tweet[17] came the day after, on October 6th, and shows Killjoy and Astra working together to try and pinpoint Harbor's location. Astra has her arm scanned by some of Killjoy's tech, which detects a 48% energy match somewhere near the city of Delhi. This would later line up with his Agent trailer taking place in the same city.
This post was followed by mostly silence until October 9th, when two teasers were released on the same day. The first of these[18], titled "A Curious Sighting...", seems to be a recording of someone's livestream. It's 5:43 AM, and the stream has just barely started when the water in a glass on the table starts behaving anomalously. The glass rattles about, and the water inside begins to float up in the air - but before anyone has a chance to investigate, a pair of bikers roar past, causing the glass (and the streamer) to topple over.
The second[19] is a short scene from Harbor's Agent Reveal trailer, from 0:19 to 0:23, in which Harbor takes down the REALM solider pursuing him with an explosive launched from his bike. The fifth and final teaser[20] for Harbor came on October 10th, being a Bollywood-esque poster for his reveal trailer[21].
Notes[]
- Harbor's working name in the game files is 'Mage'.
- Harbor is voiced by Sunil Malhotra.
- The sphere on his Bracelet isn't directly fixed onto the main body - it floats in place, seemingly on its own, and can freely rotate in all directions.
- The name 'Batra', Harbor's surname, originated from Punjab (a state in India). Because of this, it could be that Harbor (or perhaps his family) has his origins in the region.
- As seen from his Reveal Trailer, Harbor has his own bike. In a tweet[22], Riot KingKut (VALORANT's Creative Director) stated that Harbor's bike is a custom scrambler (another term for an off-road bike).
- The 'Storm of Realities' occurring in India on Omega Earth is thought to somehow be related to Harbor and his Artifact.
- Harbor's Agent description claims that he is from "India's coast". Since his song, 'RAJA', claims that the singer is from the city of Mumbai (a city on the West Coast of India), it is possible that the city is his hometown.
- Due to his teasers coming right after the release of Pearl, a map that is underwater, it was speculated for a long while that he had some role in causing (or protecting against) the city's flooding.
- The 'base' temperature of water produced by Harbor's relic is quite cold. The reason for this is "tied to the relic's origin".[3]
- As with every other agent, Harbor has a playlist on Spotify:
Sources[]
- Harbor's Agent Page Go
- Harbor's Agent Reveal Trailer, 'TURN THE TIDES' Go
- Harbor's Voicelines, compiled by Kingdom Archives Go
- The State of the Agents - September 2022 Article Go
- Several updates in Brimstone's Office throughout Episode 5, archived by Kingdom Archives Go
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Harbor is not a Radiant - Twitter Post by Narrative Lead, Riot ParmCheesyGo
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Episode 5: Act 3 Developer Hangout - Twitch VoD Go
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Riot ParmCheesy on Harbor's relic - Reddit Comment Go
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 As seen in the Email at Brimstone's Office in Patch 5.01 - archived by Kingdom Archives Go
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 As seen in the Email at Brimstone's Office in Patch 5.03 - archived by Kingdom Archives Go
- ↑ Alpha and Omega Harbor have taken 'different paths' - Discord QNA with Narrative Lead, Riot ParmCheesy Go
- ↑ As seen in the Email at Brimstone's Office in Patch 5.07 - archived by Kingdom Archives Go
- ↑ This was first mentioned by @_ad1812_ in a twitter post Go
- ↑ This might not extend to Fade, since she technically freelanced for them and wasn't an official member.
- ↑ As heard in the Audio Log at Cypher's Office in Patch 5.08
- ↑ As seen in the Email at Brimstone's Office in Patch 5.01 - archived by Kingdom Archives Go
- ↑ As seen in the Bulletin Board at Brimstone's Office in Patch 5.01 - archived by Kingdom Archives Go
- ↑ As seen in the Bulletin Board at Brimstone's Office in Patch 5.08 - archived by Kingdom Archives Go
- ↑ As seen in the Email at Brimstone's Office in Patch 5.04 - archived by Kingdom Archives Go
- ↑ As seen in the Voicemail at Brimstone's Office in Patch 5.06 - archived by Kingdom Archives Go
- ↑ The first post of Harbor's Social Media Campaign - Twitter Go
- ↑ The second post of Harbor's Social Media Campaign - Twitter Go
- ↑ The third post of Harbor's Social Media Campaign - Twitter Go
- ↑ The fourth post of Harbor's Social Media Campaign - Twitter Go
- ↑ The final teaser of Harbor's Social Media Campaign - Twitter Go
- ↑ The poster was made by Brandon Meier, one of the visual designers working at Riot Go
- ↑ Information about Brimstone and Harbor's bikes - Twitter Post by Creative Director, Riot KingKut Go