REVELATION cinematic

REVELATION
REVELATION cinematic
Release date	January 5, 2023
Setting	Lotus
Characters	α-Harbor, α-Astra, Ω-Fade, Ω-Omen, Ω-Jett, Ω-Sage, Ω-Killjoy, Ω-Raze

The REVELATION cinematic was released on January 5th, 2023, just before the start of Episode 6 and the launch of Lotus. It was made by Blur Studio. The cinematic has no dialogue, but VISIONS, a new song created by eaJ and published by Riot Games, is played during the cinematic.

Synopsis

REVELATION shows the VALORANT Protocol's second major mission to Omega Earth, with α-Agents Harbor and Astra (Skye had also joined them for the mission, but was forced to stay back in order to hold of a group of ATLAS soldiers). The mission objective was to stop the VALORANT Legion Agents from powering up the Multiverse Nexus located in the City of Flowers, whose activation was expected to bring about catastrophic results on Alpha Earth.

City of Flowers, Lotus' map trailer, was released exactly one day after REVELATION. It doubles as a reveal of Lotus and a continuation of the story depicted in this cinematic.

Plot

There are four major sequences occurring simultaneously throughout the video, as well as a final scene where the VALORANT Protocol and VALORANT Legion Agents face each other at Lotus, with a fight on the verge of ensuing.

Astra and Harbor

The first scene depicts α-Astra and α-Harbor navigating a forest overlooking Lotus, after making a long trek from the teleporter in Pearl to find the city. α-Skye was with them for most of the journey, but could not reach Lotus with the other two Agents as she engaged in combat with ATLAS soldiers who were aiming to stop the trio from reaching Lotus.

The two Agents make their way across a chasm, with Astra helping Harbor cross since she was likely able to fly across. They arrive at the entrance to Lotus and use their artifacts created by Astral Guardians to open the gate. The two suddenly fall unconscious in a body of water inside the City of Flowers for an unknown period of time, before they awaken and enter the city. Here, they meet the Omega Agents and engage in battle.

Fade

The bearded man's device showing a map of Lotus

Ω-Fade's story shows her battling three unidentified pursuers in a nightclub located in Istanbul, Türkiye. She uses her powers to incapacitate a bearded man sitting at her table, possibly sitting there for negotiations or threats. Fade then removes a device from the bearded man's pocket, revealing a map of Lotus, with the central area glowing red.

Two other affiliated men, one of whom is bald, spot Fade with her unconscious victim and begin working their way through the crowd to catch her. Fade uses the busy nightclub to her advantage, however, and manages to slip past without them noticing.

After some time, the bald man spots Fade again, who is still trying to hide between the crowd. Although he suspects that he has the element of surprise, Fade is aware of his presence. As the bald man lifts his gun to shoot at Fade, she quickly throws her Seize, which wraps around the two remaining men and knocks them unconscious.

Omen and Sage

Ω-Sage and Ω-Omen's sequence shows Omen pruning his bonsai tree as Sage gears up and enters a VALORANT Legion Headquarters training room to test her skills. In the second teaser video (see below), we saw that Sage had activated the Difficulty Override, which suggests she is probably practicing well beyond the ideal safety limits.

Sage makes her way through the obstacles as dozens of robots converge on her. She employs tactics such as shooting behind cover and and peeking around corners. In the meantime, Omen continues trimming his bonsai, progressively becoming more aggressive with his cuts. Sage begins getting overwhelmed by the robots, with nowhere to hide for cover. Omen eventually snips a whole branch off the bonsai, slightly hesitating before making the cut.

Sage gets shot and is thrown backwards by the bullet's force, before scrambling to cover to heal herself. Omen senses this and enters the combat arena, throwing his Dark Cover to protect Sage and allow her to heal herself. Omen teleports in, and they pick off all the remaining robots together.

Once every enemy robot has fallen and the Dark Cover has dissipated, Omen holsters his Sheriff, thinking them to be safe; however, as we watch a one-armed robot stands back up, raises its gun. Sage notices it before Omen can react, whips out her Recon Balisong, and kills the bot with a brutal scream. Omen pats her on the shoulder as the robot falls dead, and they look at the carnage they have just caused.

Jett, Killjoy and Raze

Ω-Killjoy and Ω-Raze are shown listening to music together in a Pojangmacha (포장마차) restaurant in Seoul, South Korea, while Ω-Jett approaches them with a tray full of Korean dishes, including Gimbap (김밥) and Hot Dog (핫도그).

The three Agents eat together, and Jett takes a selfie with Raze and Killjoy hugging each other. Killjoy and Raze's closeness hints at Nanobomb being canon on Omega Earth as well. The restaurant has several posters in Hangeul that show the names of various Korean dishes such as Tteokbokki '떡볶이', Sundae '순대' and Fishcake '어묵'; as well as a poster that writes '야시장' which translates to 'Night Market'.

Final sequence

Jett's phone shows an alert about an Alpha Threat

At the end of each of the VALORANT Legion Agents' stories, they receive an alert indicating that Alpha Harbor and Astra have been detected at Lotus. All the Omega Agents previously shown (apart from Omen) are instructed to stop the Alpha Agents.

Afterwards, α-Astra and α-Harbor awaken from their unconscious states and swim to the surface of the water, entering the City of Flowers. The VALORANT Legion Agents come out from the shadows to stop them, and after a brief moment, they get ready to fight. The cinematic ends right as both sides raise their guns at each other.

Lore

Locations

Coordinates are provided for each of the locations shown in the cinematic, apart from the VALORANT Legion Headquarters:

• Lotus is located in the Western Ghats of India, with the coordinates (10°09'60"N 77°03'40"E) showing it to be set in Eravikulam National Park. Interestingly, these coordinates are different from the ones found in game, which lead to (14°07'03"N 74°53'21"E) instead. It was later confirmed that the in-game coordinates are accurate

• The nightclub in Fade's scene is in Istanbul, Türkiye. Its coordinates (41°0'30"N 28°58'42"E) show that the nightclub is slightly east of the Hagia Sophia, however, there are no clubs in the exact coordinates in the real world.

• The restaurant that Killjoy, Jett and Raze eat at is located in Seoul, Korea. The coordinates (37°31'57.0"N 127°01'29.0"E) put the restaurant on the south side of the Dongho Bridge crossing the Hangang River in Seoul, although there is no restaurant in that location in real life. The street that the restaurant is in also has visual similarities with the street that Jett runs through in CAN'T SLOW ME DOWN.

Sage's locker

Ω-Sage's locker provides a substantial amount of information about her life and backstory.

• The locker is shown to have the number 10, implying that Sage was the tenth Agent to be recruited to the VALORANT Legion. In the VALORANT Protocol, however, Sage is the 7th Agent, meaning that another Agent may have been recruited before her on Omega Earth.

• The UNDERCURRENT newspaper posted on the inside of her locker door shows a Portuguese article praising the VALORANT Legion for aiding Kingdom in creating the geodome around Lisbon, as seen in Pearl. The headlines in the paper read:

Portuguese		English
Estátuaş erguidas em homenagem a Legiao VALORANT A Legião VALORANT ajuda nos esforços de resgate		Statues erected in homage to VALORANT Legion VALORANT Legion helps in the rescue efforts

• Sage's locker wall shows a picture of her practicing in the monastery she trained in, as well as some other personal belongings. These include a graffiti style drawing of Sage's name, gifted to her by Raze, the Happy Dumpling gunbuddy (part of the 2022 Lunar Celebration pass), and a sticky note which reads "ROBOTERCODE 'MAXBOT#66'". This sticky note has an 'x' symbol on it, indicating that it may be related to Raze or Killjoy.

• Sage's Final Chamber Classic skin is mounted in the wall of her locker, and the Recon Phantom that she uses in the training room is held in a clip.

• Other details in the locker include her regular monk robes, a Tactibunny plushie and writing on the back wall of her locker which quotes her voiceline, "I am NOT just your healer!".

Sage's locker

Agent 8

• There is no number 8 locker 0:37 of REVELATION
• The number 8 locker is scratched out 0:12 of WARM UP

1/2

The REVELATION cinematic also gives an important detail on Agent 08. In the VALORANT Legion HQ, there is no locker for Agent 8, with the lockers skipping straight from 7 to 9. In contrast, the VALORANT Protocol HQ has a locker for Agent 8, however, the number '08' is scratched out.

This could means that the VALORANT Legion may never have recruited Agent 8 for unknown reasons (this does not, however, explain the jump in numbers straight from 7 to 9). The difference between the two Earths likely means that either the VALORANT Legion never recruited Agent 8, or they put extra effort in removing all traces of Agent 8.

Recon Skinline

With this cinematic, the Recon skinline was revealed to be canon in the VALORANT Universe. Sage uses a Recon Phantom throughout the cinematic and at the end of her fight scene, she is seen using the Recon Balisong as well. Riot ParmCheesy, VALORANT's Narrative Lead, explicitly confirmed this later as well.

Fade's fame

Due to the VALORANT Legion's fame on Omega Earth, it would be expected that Fade would be completely surrounded by fans wanting to meet her, but she is not noticed in the nightclub. At the beginning of her first scene, however, a woman says "Selam, Fade!", a casual greeting in the Turkish language. This may mean that Fade is a regular visitor of the nightclub or that she is not as famous as the other members of the Legion, therefore attracting less attention.

Omega Recruitment Order

In the VALORANT Legion HQ, Sage opens locker number 10 and all of her belongings are stored there. From the WARM UP cinematic, we know that each locker number correlates to the Agent's number, as Phoenix opens locker number 9 and he is the 9th Agent to be recruited to the Protocol. Ω-Sage opening locker 10 means that she was the 10th Agent to be recruited to the VALORANT Legion, in contrast to α-Sage being the 7th Agent in the VALORANT Protocol. This may mean that the recruitment order for the VALORANT Legion is completely different compared to the VALORANT Protocol.

Posters

A week after the cinematic had released, Riot also released a set of four posters of the cinematic. They were posted to VALORANT's social media accounts, one per day, from January 14 to 17th. As with the teaser videos (see below), each poster corresponded to one of the four major plot sequences that took place in the cinematic. The captions for all the posters seem to have been written from Legion's perspective.

"The stage is set. The stakes are clear. We must be ready."

"In the eye of the storm there is quiet, comfort, even kinship."

"We do what we must. For duty, for purpose, for a chance at redemption… and revenge."

"They beat their fists against the door to our world. It’s time we answer."

Teasers

REVELATION was the first (and, at the moment, the only) full-scale cinematic to have received a proper teaser campaign - WARM UP and SHATTERED were teased before their release through posters, but nothing to the scale that REVELATION got.

In the week prior to the cinematic's release, a series of four videos were released on VALORANT's social media accounts, one each day. Each video teased one of the four major plot sequences that would take place during the cinematic. Each video had the caption ".JAN // .05 // .2023", referring to the date when the cinematic would be released.

The first teaser, hinting at Fade's plot sequence

The second teaser, hinting at Omen and Sage's plot sequence

The third teaser, hinting at Killjoy, Jett, and Raze's plot sequence

The fourth teaser, hinting at Astra and Harbor's plot sequence

Voiceovers

The first, third, and fourth videos had voiceovers from the participating Agents, further teasing the plot sequences that they would be a part of. The first video was a short monologue from Fade:

So many places to run from the dark... but it always catches up.

— The first teaser

The audio for the third video was a short conversation between the participating Agents (Ω-Killjoy, Ω-Jett, and Ω-Raze):

Raze: Come on, just try it! Trust me. Killjoy: If you insist... what's one more experiment, yeah? Oh no... hot! Hot! HOT! Jett: Not nice, Raze... Raze: Aw, but look how red she gets! [laughter from Raze and Jett]

— The third teaser

The fourth post also had audio playing in the background. It was not unique, instead just being an edited version of the 5.12 Audio Log.

Harbor: The ATLAS troops are gaining on us! Skye: How far to the lost city? Any chance we outrun 'em? Harbor: It's too far, we need a contingency plan. Skye: Watcha got? Harbor: We'll hold them here. Astra: There's no time, we must move! Skye: Right. You two keep going, I'll stay here, slow 'em down. I'll handle it! Harbor: Be safe, Skye. Skye: Ah, you know me.

— The fourth teaser

Notes

• The food brought to the table by Ω-Jett at the Korean restaurant was identified by Scribe Uberchain on Twitter ^Go.
• It is not known why Ω-Fade was being pursued or who the her pursuers work for.
• Jett's phone displays a VALORANT symbol in the top right corner, indicating that the VALORANT Legion's phones are likely custom made or have custom software.
• Interestingly, the coordinates shown for Lotus were quite close (either by intention or by design) to Anamudi, which happens to be the tallest mountain in India south of the Himalayas.

Sources

• REVELATION // Episode 6 Cinematic - VALORANT ^Go
• Disturbo's Twitter analysis of REVELATION ^Go
• u/regard_of_keko's Reddit post on r/VALORANT, the first to notice the woman who says "Selam, Fade!" ^Go