VALORANT’s lore offers a near-perfect concoction of fun, suspense, and adventure, balanced with juicy rivalries, ambitious goals, and commendable team effort. But it can be a bit too tedious to decipher what’s up in the timeline if you don’t visit Brimstone’s office in the Practice Range often.
Throughout Episode Six, agents continued to interact with Brimstone via encrypted emails, which showed up in his office located below the Practice Range. While a good bit of the lore happens to be tied to these messages, Icebox and Bind also came with hard-to-notice easter eggs, hinting at the Kingdom Corporation’s latest “eyes-only project.”
Let me begin with the time after Harbor and Astra stumbled onto the beautiful Lotus map, VALORANT’s newest map located on Omega Earth, and then branch into newer details that happened in this Episode.
VALORANT Episode Six lore
Time after Lotus’ discovery
After Harbor and Astra managed to unlock the door to the City of Flowers, courtesy of Astra’s golden gauntlet and Harbor’s enchanted artifact, Protocol discovered three sites filled with staggering amounts of radianite power, harnessed and used by Legion (VALORANT Protocol’s Omega counterpart) all this while.
Lotus’ history is tied to the Astral Guardians, a group of godly entities who inhabited the City of Flowers once upon a time. Astra is believed to be the last surviving Astral Guardian.
It’s noteworthy here that there’s nothing left of the City of Flowers’ Alpha Earth counterpart: it was destroyed by unknown causes, as revealed by Harbor earlier in Episode Five.
Look around Lotus, and you’ll see several wall engravings depicting the appearance of Astral Guardians, largely similar to that of Astra in her Astral form. In addition, all the large plants, vines, and gigantic lotus flowers you come across have been genetically modified with radianite and used by the Guardians to power features around the map, including the rotating doors.
But what’s most important is the “Multiverse Nexus,” the inactivated structure in the middle of B-Site. Astra believes that the Astral Guardians used the nexus to collaborate with people, but there’s no indication regarding the actual motive. As per the lore, the nexus can only be activated with Harbor’s artifact working as the key.
Fade’s terrifying dream
In Patch 6.01, Fade sent Brimstone a concerning voicemail, indicating how the Nightmare itself came to her with a vision.
Not much has been clarified regarding this dream yet. But Cypher sure had concerns for their “dear dream seer.” According to Cypher, Fade hasn’t been sleeping well and has been wandering all the time, drenched in thoughts.
While he did mention that he’ll have a chat with her, no other indication regarding Fade’s state has been revealed other than Jett showcasing her worries for Fade in one of the newer voice messages. It’s, however, apparent that Fade’s vision may indicate a forthcoming calamitous event.
Project Landfall: What is Kingdom up to?
In Patch 6.02, the name Project Landfall appeared in an email on Icebox in the Kitchen, indicating a mysterious plan set up by Kingdom Corporation, an organization working closely with VALORANT Protocol.
For those who are unaware, Kingdom Corporation is known for its immense interest in harnessing radianite to create revolutionary solutions for energy.
Viper and Brimstone, Protocol’s founding members, and Omen are known to be former employees of the organization. In fact, Omen is said to have received such an appearance as a result of a failed radianite experiment conducted at Kingdom, and Viper may have been involved in this.
Considering its fishy conduct and questionable attempts at using radianite, many VALORANT agents, especially Radiants, and the locals of Alpha Earth aren’t very fond of Kingdom Corp.
Another email in Patch 6.02 sent by Killjoy to Brimstone tells us more about Kingdom’s nature. While the German tech expert wanted to gift her lover, Raze, eelpouts or micro-organisms, she could not get hold of any due to a stock shortage.
Upon checking the supply chain, Killjoy deciphered that a buyer contracted with Kingdom had swept up all creatures from the market. Rightfully, she asks Brimstone why Kingdom would need to research and develop with “cute creatures thriving near volatile sources.”
Gekko’s sighting and recruitment to VALORANT Protocol
So, you may have already guessed it—the adorable creatures that Kingdom is conducting experiments on are Gekko’s buddies, after all. But what exactly happened?
In Patch 6.03, Jett emailed Brimstone about weird sightings near one of Kingdom’s facilities in Los Angeles.
Then, in Patch 6.04, a new Kingdom mail from M. Calvin (Kingdom employee) to B. Tate (Kingdom staff member in Los Angeles) showed up in Icebox’s Kitchen, where Calvin asks if everything is good at the facility. Calvin also seems to be furious about having to rescan biometrics and reset badges when the threat was “just a company red cell testing security.”
In the same patch, Brimstone welcomed Gekko, the newest recruit then, to the Protocol through an email showcased in his office.
To explain the matter, Gekko seemed to have infiltrated the Kingdom facility and stolen four captive creatures, causing the facility’s alert to go off and the weird sightings described by Jett in Los Angeles.
In Gekko’s launch trailer, besides an adorable introduction to his creatures, you may have noticed Thrash unleash herself at a Kingdom Corp poster while Gekko was riding the train. It shows how angry she’s at Kingdom, possibly because of the agony those researchers put her and other creatures through via experiments.
Later in Patch 6.05, Reyna confirmed these theories even further via an email to Brimstone—saying that there’s no video evidence or eye-witnesses of Gekko “stealing” his pets from the Kingdom facility. But she also seemed worried about the fact that K-Sec will “never stop looking.”
Proving Reyna’s fears, in Patch 6.10, an anonymous K-Sec remailer contacted Brimstone, seeking help to track down the person who stole Kingdom’s “proprietary goods.” It even looks like Gekko’s radianite-enhanced pets had something to do with Project Landfall.
Max Bot goes missing, returns with Team Deathmatch
In Patch 6.05, via a voicemail, Omen brought the Protocol Boss’ attention to Max Bot’s recent change in behavior. “I have witnessed it deviate from its usual pathing. Activate on its own. It observes our training and our routines. In the middle of the night, I have watched it watch me,” he said.
Omen also indicated that Killjoy and Raze—Max Bot’s creators—may have done something to the robot and that they should undo it.
In Patch 6.08, Raze’s email to Brimstone revealed that Omen has not only been bugging her about Max Bot “going off program” but has also accused her of stealing radianite from Protocol’s reserves. Raze denied having to do anything with both, and it’s rather believable: Gekko’s creatures have probably been chomping on that powerful stuff. But why is Omen so concerned?
In Patch 6.10, the tension escalates, with Omen realizing that the Max Bot is no longer where it’s supposed to be. “I have looked everywhere, no one is taking this seriously, but something is happening. I am not crazy, Brimstone, you must see it. Please,” he begged.
Well, Omen’s definitely not crazy, as Max Bot has been actively seeking revenge all this while. It began after Max Bot was defeated by Phoenix, Killjoy, KAY/O, Jett, Sova, and Raze in Episode Four: the potent robot suffered a lot of damage and was reduced to a laughing stock. It became the cleaning bot ever since.
Now, by hacking Protocol’s Portal Systems, Max Bot has managed to capture all the Protocol agents in a high-octane 10-minute skirmish featuring three new maps—District, Piazza, and Kasbah. And, while they “Live.Die.Repeat.” in four stages of weapons and abilities.
Related: VALORANT Team Deathmatch: Release, features, and how to play
On June 15, Riot launched the trailer for Team Deathmatch, a highly anticipated alternate game mode in VALORANT, and its host is none other than Max Bot.
While it looks like Protocol’s cleaning bot finally exacted its R.V.N.G on those who questioned its capabilities, it’s definitely not in the way some fans had anticipated. So, if you were expecting Max Bot to be a part of Agent 23’s kit, or better—the new agent itself—this trailer may disappoint you a bit, but only in terms of lore: the game mode seems quite exciting.
In Max’s words, “You had your fun. Now it’s my turn. I am going to watch you fight. I am going to watch you die.”
What’s up with you, Kingdom?
Multiple email exchanges between Kingdom employees indicate that the organization’s definitely up to something shady, if not intentionally destructive.
The Project Landfall, despite facing a minor inconvenience during the Gekko event, is still on, with Kingdom’s supervisor Griffin confirming to Director Dr. Akimbe that all “contingent protocols are ready” and that “it’s crunch time.”
In the meantime, L. Kozlov, a Kingdom employee, reveals information on the secretive project to his colleague, Faz Serrano. According to Kozlov, the organization has been siphoning employees from its other facilities to work on Landfall.
“A guy in my div heard it’s an Italy thing,” he further revealed, indicating the cataclysmic event in Venice caused by Omega Earth’s Jett. The explosion ripped a huge piece of land from the ground, causing it to rise up in the air.
While the piece of land came to be known as Ascent and remains suspended like an island in the air to date, the event did cause massive destruction to life and property.
Kozlov also talks about how their openly collaborating Kingdom community is becoming a “maze of walled gardens.”
Currently, the Landfall team is reportedly on their way to Norway, a piece of information Jett picked up from some Kingdom folks lingering at her food truck. It fits perfectly with the itinerary email that A. Dorsey received, indicating the temperature at the destination to be minus two-degree Celsius and directing Dorsey to expect inclement weather.
New VALORANT agent and his possible ties to Project Landfall
As per several theories, the new sentinel is expected to be a Norwegian—indicated by the official teaser’s representation of a heart-shaped waffle with what’s possibly some Brunost cheese, a classic Norwegian delicacy.
If so, Kingdom’s Landfall project, which is expected to be set in Norway, may be connected to the highly anticipated agent.
Also, this won’t be the first time a highly ambitious Kingdom project crosses paths with a mysterious person, who later gets hired by Protocol: Chamber was responsible for the destruction of the Everett-Linde Facility (Fracture) and the Radian Collider, which was built to nurture a saintly collaboration between Omega and Alpha Earths.
Related: Who is VALORANT Agent 23? All details so far
Besides the catchy Landfall theory, lore enjoyers also briefly believed that the new agent may be Breach’s nephew of Swedish origin. This was after Breach’s voicemail, thanking Brimstone for “pulling strings” to get his nephew’s sentence reduced, showed up in Episode Five’s Patch 5.09.
A mysterious “PD” reappears
Lastly, we also noticed an interesting development nested deep inside Kingdom Corporation. It’s related to Paul Delmann, a Kingdom employee whose name first showed up on an “Employee of the Year” poster in Icebox’s Kitchen. His employee ID later showed up on Fracture, indicating a job relocation.
You may have noticed the abbreviation “PD” in the recent K-Sec emails exchanged between M. Calvin (Kingdom employee) and B. Tate (staff at Los Angeles’ Kingdom facility). PD is most likely a nickname for Delmann, as none of the other Kingdom employees have the same initials.
It’s definitely thought-provoking, as Paul Delmann’s name vanished from the scene after the Everett-Linde incident in Fracture: many thought Delmann died in the disastrous accident. From the looks of it, Paul is related to Project Landfall in some way; his laudable expertise in radianite has been acknowledged before.
While it’s perfectly normal to be related to a Kingdom project as the organization’s employee, Paul’s sudden reappearance is definitely suspicious and seems important to the forthcoming lore. This also begs the question, is Paul the new agent?
The fun theories we shared regarding the agent and Max Bot are still awaiting Riot’s confirmation to be deemed valid—you may want to take it with a grain of salt until then. But luckily, with Episode Seven headed our way, all confusion regarding the new agent, Project Landfall, and the revengeful cleaning bot will soon be mitigated: we’ll update the story with new information as we know.
