Kingdom is a company with hands in every money-making venture across the globe, with the majority of their power from their control over and use of radianite. Their monopoly and dominance over both Alpha and Omega Earth can be seen in various ways across each of VALORANT's maps, from their investigation into large events related to radianite, to their abandoned research and storage facilities.
It is important to note that Kingdom is not the primary antagonist at this time in VALORANT's story, rather it represents unethical corporations whose main goals are to grow their companies.
Kingdom also plays a large role in the equipment used by the VALORANT PROTOCOL, with their logos visible on equipment such as the Spike and Defuser. The Kingdom skin line from Act 1, Episode 1's Battle Pass and the K/TAC skinline from the Act 1, Episode 3 Battle Pass are also the only canon skins aside from the default skins and the RDVR Phantom. Kingdom's monopoly is conveyed in various other ways across VALORANT's world in the form of a wide spread of products such as food and drink, clothing and accessories such as sunglasses, airlines[1], and construction companies. Kingdom even owns large chains, such as Crown Coffee and Kingdom Cola on Split.
Almost all of VALORANT's Agent have a connection to, or take significant issue with Kingdom, with some Agents such as Killjoy and Viper have worked for Kingdom in the past, while others like Cypher and Raze have had something taken from them by the company. Kingdom's stance on Radiants is not known, however with their extensive research into Radiants it can be assumed that the corporation does not necessarily oppress them.
K-CORP vs K-IND[]
K-CORP or Kingdom Corporation is the Kingdom of Alpha Earth. Their logo is represented by two parallelograms and a trapezoid creating a geometric design of the letter K . The boxes of refined radianite they produce is green, and they appear to be under greater public scrutiny than their Omega counterpart as evidenced by a brief news clip questioning the safety of radianite in Kingdom's power plants in DUELISTS. According to a dev discussion on the design for Pearl, K-CORP was made to use more harsh, straight-edged lines and boxes in their design language.[2] K-CORP tries to project a big family public image on its personnel and media, they frequently are seen to address their employees as "Kingdom family" in company wide emails they send out. This email is in contrast with how they have been known to hide or give false information to questions from the media or their own employees. [3] K-CORP has multiple programs focused on improving their public image with general population; One of these programs is a plan proposed by Kingdom's founder for a convention called "KingCon" in time for the anniversary of the First Light as a place to celebrate decades of Kingdom's innovations; Another effort on projecting a benevolent image on the company is holding an event for Good Samaritan of the year that seems to celebrate helpful innovations and activities around the world and the finalists are chosen by public votes.
K-IND or Kingdom Industries is the Kingdom of Omega Earth. While their logo is similar in shape to K-CORP, it does not consist of large solid shapes, but rather, several thinner lines. The boxes of refined radianite they produce is orange, with the color also being used to distinguish their communications from K-CORP's. The first introduction to K-IND was on Fracture, where K-IND and K-CORP share a split research facility on Alpha Earth. From Fracture, it seems K-IND has something of a more sinister and secretive side to it since posters on their side of the map consistently remind employees not to mingle with their Alpha coworkers. Furthermore, the final Fracture message from K-IND prioritizes data destruction rather than evacuating personnel (as K-CORP does)[4] after the critical failure of the LRC at the site.
The map Pearl heavily expands on the influence of K-IND in Omega Earth. Similar to K-CORP, they appear to have a rather wide grasp on companies and influence in their world. At Pearl, they have a museum and railroad set up, as well as several cafes, and are the primary driving force behind the reality restoration project taking place there. To further set K-IND apart from K-CORP, K-IND is working directly and openly with the VALORANT LEGION. K-IND works with the organization called ATLAS as well, as seen on Pearl and later confirmed by Cypher; ATLAS is not a part of K-IND but they are an organization that seem to promote Alpha being aggressors on Omega despite Omega being the primary party to attack Alpha Which means K-IND plays along with promoting Alpha as the real threat. K-IND has also developed the technology to jump between dimensions while K-CORP does not appear to have this capability.
Kingdom Organisations[]
There are various subsidiaries and sub-sectors that are owned and ran by Kingdom consisting of:
- K-SEC (Brimstone/Neon)
- K/TAC
K-SEC is a militaresque organisation which has employed VALORANT agents Brimstone, Neon and Chamber in the past. Little is known about K/TAC apart from the skinline of the same name.
Other Kingdom departments include:
- Kingdom Research and Development
- Kingdom Defense
- Kingdom Weapons Design
Kingdom Research and Development (stylised Kingdom R&D) was lead by Killjoy before her recruitment in the VALORANT Protocol. Kingdom also does seem to outsource a section of their research programs; They are in contract with a hazmat reserve company in Los Angeles that works closely with their labs.
Kingdom's Influence Across VALORANT's Maps[]
Kingdom is likely on Ascent due to it lifting into the air at the end of the DUELISTS cinematic, however there are some offices and facilities on the A side of the map, possibly indicating that Kingdom had influence in Venice prior to its rise.
Bind is the location of a Kingdom refinery utilizing short range teleporters which, unlike the one seen on Breeze, are fully functional. There are also laboratories and refining equipment present around the map, implying that Bind is a radianite refinery with some research being conducted on site. Bind is one town that Kingdom has exploited and taken over in order to advance their company.
Breeze is the only Alpha map without a direct and visible connection to Kingdom. While some equipment and boxes around the map are Kingdom branded, much of the branding does not match with the shipping branding seen on Icebox, which is further brought into question by the use of the company First Light Freight Company on the crashed ship. Furthermore, the island's owner, Thurston Wolf, is unlikely to be an official Kingdom affiliate[5].
Fracture, also known as the Everett-Linde facility, is a dedicated Kingdom facility where research is conducted and the only Large Radian Collider (LRC) on Alpha is located. Both K-CORP and K-IND are working together here, although there is tension between the two sectors and transparency of information is kept to a minimum. It is not currently known what the LRC is used for.
Haven a Kingdom facility used for radianite storage and research. Kingdom is likely interested in Haven due to the large event that caused the hexagonal rocks to erupt around the map.
Icebox is a Kingdom port where large amounts of radianite and other goods are stored. Kingdom is also investigating Icebox as it is the location of a crashed Japanese ship and where Japanese samurai armor was located. Kingdom does not seem to perform much research in this facility, however they have a storage facility for the samurai artifacts, and the mask which was stolen by Yoru.
Lotus is an ancient structure/city on Omega built and used by Astral Guardians, and has the least amount of connections out of all the maps to Kingdom. In fact, there is a total lack of Kingdom related objects on the map, making it the first map to not feature any sort of Kingdom radianite crates.
Pearl is VALORANT's first map on Omega Earth. Here, K-IND has a significant part in the reality restoration project on A side with a Multiverse Museum on B side. From the appearance of Pearl, the people of Omega have a generally more positive view of K-IND than Alpha does of K-CORP.
The Range has little to no influence from Kingdom as it was a Forward Base of Operations for the VALORANT PROTOCOL after the rise of Venice in the events of the DUELISTS cinematic.
Split is the pinnacle of Kingdom's economic reach, with their massive headquarters and clear disregard for cultural preservation. A train station for workers is present next to A site, which has completely been taken over by Kingdom, while B site has much less influence from Kingdom, however it is not completely untouched.
Sunset, also known as Kingdom West, was the main facility for Project Landfall. It was destroyed by the VALORANT PROTOCOL in Sunset's reveal trailer and is now abandoned.
Project Landfall[]
Starting in 6.02, a series of Kingdom Corporation emails became available to view, mostly related to a K-SEC project called Landfall. These emails were first found on a tablet in Icebox's kitchen, and after the map was removed from the map rotation pool in 6.08 the emails moved to a terminal in Bind's A Tower. A new Kingdom email could be found with each new patch since 6.02.
Patch 6.02's email, "Keep Soaring With Science!", is a K-SEC dispatch to Project Landfall staff. It reveals staff are being crunched on the project and that work would go on late into the night, with midnight meals just being set up to keep workers refreshed. It's also revealed that the project is of a classified nature, with the company asking staff to politely use their NDA as a cover to any journalists who approach them for any info.
Patch 6.03's email, "Slides Over Snowshoes", shows a conversation between two K-CORP employees, M. Calvin and B. Tate. Calvin tells Tate that they are riding shotgun on a transport to Los Angeles, which is where one facility working on Project Landfall is based. Calvin also reveals they will be crashing with a pal of Tate's, "PD". These specific initials stand out as those of Paul Delmann, a recurring NPC who works for K-CORP. This would confirm that Delmann is still alive since the last time we saw him referenced in Fracture's lore elements, which had previously raised concerns for Paul's fate as most of Everett-Linde's staff were killed by the destruction of its LRC.
Patch 6.04's email, "What's the deal out there?", shows a follow-up email from Calvin to Tate after the former had heard about an incident at the Los Angeles facility. Unbeknown to Calvin, the incident they refer to is of Gekko's break-in to steal some creatures related to Project Landfall. Calvin understands at least that there was a break-in of some sort. Despite K-SEC's attempts to cover up the truth by saying it had just been a company red cell testing security, Calvin isn't easily fooled, as they had to have their biometrics rescanned and their badges reset after the incident, things that evidently would not be part of the procedure for an actual test drill, as well as what appears to be a security level being set to a value of concern to Calvin. Calvin also expresses some concern for PD, asking whether he was on the job at the time. This gives a some small, additional support to PD being Paul Delmann due to Calvin's use of he/him pronouns.
Patch 6.05's email, "KINGCON SURVEY", is a dispatch from Customer Experiences to K-CORP employees discussing the creation of a Kingdom-themed convention. Suggestions are made to have the celebrations be a convention or music festival where the company could share their future visions and celebrate their innovation, and to have it occur during the anniversary of First Light, a date specifically fitting for K-CORP as they themselves likely played a major part in First Light's causation. The email also reveals this idea was pitched by the company's founder (this would be the first time we have seen them be mentioned in the lore, presuming they were not also the CEO of the company during the events of DUALITY), as well as the fact that K-CORP has been operating for multiple decades at this point. Due to the timing of the email however, it appears likely that this dispatch is also a case of corporate distraction to avert attention away from the news of the break-in at Los Angeles.
Patch 6.06's email, "Making a Difference", is a K-CORP PR dispatch to K-CORP employees, celebrating the nomination of Dr. Nathaniel Valdez, Neon's father, for Good Samaritan of the year. Whilst it may also continue the company distractions from the LA break-in, this email does give us some more details on Dr. Valdez's work with radiant support technologies after his job was first mentioned in Fade's dossier on Neon. A couple of examples are given for devices he has made that have helped young radiants around the world; an implant that helped a radiant from Jakarta return to playing badminton, and a device that allowed parents of a radiant in Vancouver to be able to hold her safely.
Patch 6.07's email, "SUBJECT: 34.029571, -118.211540", is a dispatch from a Landfall admin to the Landfall team. The email subject contains coordinates that point to a location on East 7th Street, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, though there does not appear to be a real-life landmark of importance here. The admin reports that experiments being done in the area are remaining inconclusive. The experiments are running analysis on "temblor activity", which is just an alternative way to refer to earthquakes. Data from the experiments is reported to be unable to verify "coseismic subsidence and vertical displacement", which appears to show that the aim is to sink a large area. From this, we can start to see where the project gets its name from. Local residents are reported to have only been able to make unreliable reports related to the experiments, believing to have heard sonic booms of military aircraft, thunderstorms, unpermitted dance parties, and off-gassing local sewage.
Patch 6.08's email, "SUBJECT: LANDFALL ON SCHEDULE", introduces us to two senior Landfall staff: Akimbe, a director, and Griffin, a supervisor. Akimbe appears to have previously expressed frustration over Gekko's break-in and how it could affect Landfall. Griffin writes that they understand, but commitments have been made and the Board has expectations, so they can't allow Gekko's actions to affect the project timeline. Griffin says they had been assured by "acquisitions" that contingent protocols were ready. Given that the subject of discussion is Gekko's theft of some creatures the project was using, this could suggest that K-SEC has a contingency plan to acquire suitable replacements. In order to keep on schedule, it's revealed Landfall staff are about to be crunched on the project, possibly more than what had already been mentioned in the very first email of the series.
Patch 6.10's email, "SILOS AND SECRETS", shows a conversation between two K-CORP employees, L. Kozlov and Faz Serrano. Kozlov mentions they had recently met another fellow K-CORP employee, Lexi, at a Rad Burger, which given the context is likely a fast food chain. Kozlov, whose division had recently been losing personnel, learnt that Lexi's cyber vision group had also been losing personnel. This prompted Kozlov to review her logs where they found what was responsible for the personnel drain: Project Landfall. Kozlov says that they couldn't get access as it was an eyes-only project, and laments to Serrano that decisions like this were turning K-CORP into a "maze of walled gardens" in comparison to what had previously felt like an open community. Kozlov also briefly speculates though on what Landfall is about, as someone in their division had heard it was related to Italy. Whilst all of our knowledge of Landfall so far in regards to location had been its facility in Los Angeles, Italy immediately stands out due to it being the country where Ascent is located. From this we get to see what the potential aim of Landfall could be; put the name and location together, as well as the details on what Landfall has been experimenting on, and it could point to K-SEC attempting to bring the floating islands of Venice back down to earth.
Patch 6.11's email, "ITINERARY APPROVED", shows an email received by an employee called A. Dorsey from Employee Travel Services approving the details of a journey Dorsey is going on. The journey is described as an "out-and-back" requiring a security escort. The location they're travelling to is described as having "inclement" (meaning unpleasant) weather and a temperature of -2 °C/28 °F. This doesn't tell us much on its own apart from the destination being towards the north or south of the world, but this patch's email for Brimstone's Office gives us more info thanks to a report from Jett who had overheard Kingdom employees talking about a cargo pickup in Norway, which matches with the descriptions in this email. This was one of the final teasers with references to Norway before Deadlock's reveal and release in the next patch. This particular trip mentioned in the email would go on to be featured in the Episode 7 cinematic UNMADE, sending Dorsey to The Vault facility in Svalbard, Norway, along with his security escort of three Ståljeger operatives. It was revealed the "cargo" he had been sent to pick up was a radivore that had taken the form of a bear. However it had escaped containment and attacked the pickup team when they arrived, resulting in Dorsey's death.
Patch 7.0's email, "INCIDENT CONSEQUENCES", shows an email received by Supervisor Griffin from Human Resources after the events of UNMADE and the death of Dorsey. They mention that things are in place to limit Kingdom's post-mortum exposure to the consequences of the tragedy, something they've been doing ever since the Everett-Linde "debacle". Evidently since the aftermath of Everett-Linde's destruction, when relatives of employees who had been killed started pressing Kingdom for answers, the corporation has since taken action to further prevent themselves from coming under such scrutiny. This time, the situation has ended up working much more in their favor. Dorsey is reported to have been "a loner without dependents", meaning that it appears extremely unlikely that anyone else is going to be asking questions or looking for any closure regarding his untimely death, which then means nothing more for Kingdom to have to deal with so that they can quickly put this all behind them and move on with the project.
Patch 7.01's email, "PROGRESS NOT PROMISES", shows a message from Director Akimbe to Supervisor Griffin. Akimbe calls back to the guarantees Griffin was making back in the 6.08 email, when Akimbe had previously voiced frustrations after Gekko's break-in. Akimbe reveals that since then, they had expanded Griffin's budget and their access to corporate resources, but with the latest disaster at The Vault in Svalbard, Akimbe has now starting to lose their patience with Griffin, with Kingdom's board also losing faith in Griffin's approach. Akimbe warns Griffin that with any continued lack of progress will end up hurting Griffin's career, and that Akimbe's own reputation meanwhile would remain unaffected. The email also contains a direct reference to Venice, greatly adding to expectations that Landfall's mission is directed at Ascent.
Patch 7.02's email, "RADIVORE CONTAINMENT UNITS", shows a message from Supervisor Griffin to Applied Engineering. After receiving Akimbe's warning in the previous email, Griffin is noticeably under stress and writes in a much more desperate manner here. They appear annoyed that revised builds for the project's radivore containment units still haven't reached Kingdom West, which appears to be another name for the Kingdom branch that's present in Los Angeles. This could be based on them being on the US West Coast, but also works for being present in the US itself as a Western country. Griffin also confirms that radivores have the ability to "mimic" animals, listing some predators as an example. This puts into question though why Gekko's crew of radivores look so much different and unique compared to the radivore bear at The Vault which took a form that looked much more closer to what a bear would normally look like. Possibly, some radivores may have stronger mimicry powers than others and so Gekko's radivores, whilst being able to resemble the animals they mimic, can't fully transform into fully-detailed versions. The size of the radivore's "true form" could also be a possibility, with Gekko's radivores being about the same size as their globule form. Griffin then reveals that six radivores have broken out of containment so far. There are five that we know of - Gekko's four radivores and the bear from The Vault - meaning there has been one more unknown radivore that has broken out of containment. There's no further implications though on whether this sixth one is at large in the world right now or whether Kingdom was already able to deal with it.
Scrapped Content[]
Alpha in Rise of Venice Short Story
References[]
- ↑ Kingdom Airlines can be seen in the opening of a Twitter teaser for Harbor
- ↑ How We Shaped Pearl // Dev Diaries - VALORANT on YouTube
- ↑ Emails Patch 6.04 - Kingdom Archives [Go]
- ↑ Patch 3.12 shows the two last messages from both the K-IND and K-CORP terminals. From Kingdom Archives
- ↑ Narrative lead David Nottingham divulges the British subsidiary on the advertising posters for Breeze doesn't exist.