Omen (2024)

Omen is the third Agent to join the VALORANT Protocol. He uses his Radiant powers to move silently and stalk on his enemies.

Lore[]

Omen is the first Radiant to join the VALORANT Protocol, and has a mysterious and dark past that is intertwined with Viper's. The central focus of Omen's character is an unknown event or accident that occurred in his past, resulting in him being 'ripped apart', and transformed from a human into his current state.

The theme of critical elements of Omen's backstory and lore being 'unknown' is a recurring one, with several key plot points and events simply being missing or unclear, never fully described or explained. This seems to have been the general and intentional theme around Omen, with him being the 'mysterious and edgy' character, who's own amnesia mirrors our lack of knowledge about him.

Omen has a cynical and cheerless personality, complimented with a dark sense of humor and a grim attitude. Omen has lost most, if not all, of his memories of his past self prior to the accident, and one of his main goals as a character is to recover them^[2]. Relating to this, Omen has intriguing voicelines with Cypher and Viper, both Agents who seem to have some knowledge about Omen's past^[3].

Prior to joining the VALORANT Protocol, Omen was a highly skilled and ruthless assassin for the organization known as Scions of Hourglass. In order to stop the discovery of Radianite from becoming public knowledge, he was sent to assassinate the chief scientist in charge of the research on radianite, Dr. Sabine Callas at her lab. In the altercation that happens between the two, Omen is severely burned by the contents of a vial Dr.Callas had been examining, An extremely corrosive substance that later would go on to become Viper's Snake Bite ability, and stumbles inside a test chamber. To prevent him from attacking again, Viper activates a mechanism in the test chamber that causes Omen to be hit by multiple beams of pure radianite energy; This incident causes Omen to be ripped apart across space time and lose majority of his memories. The details of how he is brought back to life and kept in a stable state is still unclear but it is highly implied through voicelines that Sage has had a role to play in achieving that.

Omen has multiple voicelines indicating having known Viper before but the reason of the acquaintance was always a mystery until the release of the Reckoning cinematic. In the voicelines between Viper and Omen, she specifically seems to know some details of his past (how much of this she has shared with Omen remains unclear). We also know from Fade's dossier (see below) that Omen worked under several aliases, including Fred, John, Marcus, Yohan and Dimitri, all of which seems to have been fake names that he had been using in his time as an assassin.

Omen's overarching goal has been to somehow regain his memories of his past self, to find an 'answer' to his current predicament, and return to a 'normal' state. Omen seems to have a notion that he can achieve this from killing, which extends to an eagerness to strike down the enemy team, with comments such as "I feel like myself... catch them, again!" or "Again... hurt them again!" being common.

Omen seems to derive a particular satisfaction from killing his own Omega counterpart, claiming that by killing him and 'taking his memories', he will be able to remember again. Even other Agents like Viper, who is speculated to have some knowledge about Omen's condition, comment that the enemy Omen may be aware of truths kept hidden from their own.

Powers and Abilities[]

Following his accident, Omen has gained a ghostly and 'wraith-like' form, with powers relating to teleportation and manipulating shadows. His new body, now empowered with his Radiance, is capable of incredible feats - but also at the cost of losing a lot of his 'human' nature^[4].

In many of his voicelines, Omen also says that he is in great pain at all times. In various animations, we can see how Omen's body parts (it is easiest to notice in his arms, but the effect is largely universal) frequently shudder and warp. Omen does hint that he needs to exert considerable conscious effort in order for him to remain 'stable', with him going out of his way to indulge in practices such as knitting, that (as evidenced by his voiceline interaction with Phoenix^[5], and the Downtime // Omen card) let him focus on this better.

Omen seems to have supernatural powers beyond those that he uses in combat. An example of this is level of perception of emotions and feelings of the people around him, such as dread, hope and laughter^[6]. Although not as masterful in its manipulation as Fade, he also seems to have an intuitive understanding of fear.

However, the most prominent of these is an understanding of souls and life. Omen can innately 'feel' concepts such as healing, life and death, which has lead to several noteworthy interactions with other Agents (such as Yoru, Reyna, Skye, and most notably Sage. See Relationships for more information.)

Popular Past Theories[]

The central theme of Omen's lore being an absence of important information does make it very intriguing and it leaves a lot of holes in the narrative which remain unknown until the release of the RECKONING cinematic. Several wide-ranging theories have popped up in an attempt to fill these. Some of the most prominent ones have been listed here.

It goes without saying that, despite how common these may be, all of the following are just theories: they are, unless otherwise confirmed, not canon.

Viper, Omen, and Sage's collective history[]

Arguably the most common of all theories related to Omen's past is based on the mutual history between him, Viper and Sage. Due to the countless times this has been shared, there has grown to be considerable variation between different accounts, although all of them have the same general story.

Viper was a scientist working under Kingdom, conducting experiments related to Radianite. In one of these experiments, the human who would go on to be Omen was a test subject. The experiment went horribly wrong (this being Omen's famous 'accident'), resulting in his death.

Viper sought Sage for help, who tried to heal Omen back to life - but due to a lack of experience or strength, she wasn't able to revitalize him fully. The result was Omen being brought back in his current state, lacking a true body and having lost all his memories.

As said before, there are several variations to this theory. Omen is sometimes placed as another scientist, working under Kingdom alongside Viper, instead of a mere test subject. Sometimes, the accident didn't directly result in Omen's death, but instead created some threat before which Omen boldly sacrificed himself to save all others involved. Or, the reason for Sage being unable to revive Omen properly wasn't the absence of skill, but rather because Omen was just too far gone from the terrible event.

This theory has been shared within the community with such frequency that it is now often assumed to be true, despite it never having gotten official confirmation. Over time, the context of it being the community's 'most probable explanation' for the event has given way to a pretense (or some times even explicit claims) that it is canon.

One of the reasons behind this theory's prevalence is how neatly it answers several mysteries and uncertainties from the backstories of the three Agents. Examples of this include Viper's apparent hatred for Sage, Sage's comments of having 'grown stronger' since the past, and of course Omen's own condition, among others.

'Omen is an Artificial Radiant'[]

This theory is somewhat related to the previous one, and has its roots in the idea that Omen's current state was caused by a scientific experiment gone wrong.

It is known that Omen's current 'condition' is closely related to his Radiance^[4], if not directly caused by it. The same cannot be said for our understanding of Radiance itself, however. Currently, all that is known about what goes into the making of a Radiant comes from a comment^[7] from the Creative Director, explaining that it requires both a suitable genetic makeup and being involved in some Radianite-related event.

This theory claims that Omen was the result of an experiment with the goal of artificially creating a Radiant, likely headed or funded by Kingdom. While trying to engineer the sequence of events required to gain Radiance, something somehow went wrong - resulting in the test subject (in this case, Omen) 'dying' and becoming a wraith, somehow alive and yet not quite.

This theory often bleeds into the prior one, with the ending segment of this one being replaced with him being imperfectly revived by Sage later.

Omen's Armour[]

The clothing that Omen wears is unlike anything seen in other characters: it seems metallic, somewhat, but with a glowing blue 'core' in the chest area, with arms that are wrapped in bandages. Omen's hood and the cloth it extends into is made of an unknown purple material, with a Kingdom logo on the front and mysterious, undeciphered runes running across the back.

One of the popular theories for Omen's strange and unnatural apparel is that they are necessary for him to survive - they help bind his 'essence' into a single body, and help him remain stable.

'Omen is an Octopus'[]

One of the more humorous/non-serious theories, this one was started by u/KahlCottonCandy in a post on the r/VALORANT subreddit, based on the What Ancient Mystery? card. The post rapidly gained attention as a joke theory, and was shared by many. Over time, the theory got shared often enough for its existence to become common knowledge among the community, and it started to be looked at in a more serious light than was originally intended.

Eventually, Riot themselves took notice, and the premium content team working on VALORANT incorporated it into several skins and cosmetics, contributing to its spread.

For example, the Ancient Mysteries Revealed gunbuddy (shaped like an octopus holding some Radianite, reminiscent of the What Ancient Mystery? card) when equipped onto the Soul Silencer ghost skin (obtained from Omen's contract) changes its colors to match Omen's theme. The resemblance is pushed further by the octopus now gaining three bright blue slits over its head, uncannily similar to the slits on Omen's 'face'.

The Omen/Octopus connection was also incorporated into the Neptune skinline, with the dark variants of the Vandal, Guardian and Spectre all having an octopus with Omen's color scheme as their sights. A giant octopus of a similar color pattern was also present in the teaser^[8] for this skinline. This connection was also incorporated in the Downtime // Omen card, where he was seen knitting an octopus.

Omega Omen[]

As with many other Agents, almost nothing was known of Omega Earth's Omen for a long time. This changed with the addition of Pearl, in which Ω-Omen got a special statue and announcement made for him in the Garden of Heroes (the garden visible from Defender Spawn), a unique playercard in the Garden of Heroes set from the Episode 5: Act 2 Battlepass, and a lecture series ('Monster Redeemed') detailing his work to save the people of Ω-Lisbon.

His exploits saving the citizens of what would go on to be Pearl are illustrated in the aforementioned Garden of Heroes: Omen playercard, in which he is shown using his powers to help rescue people who were caught by the surging waters and bring them up to safety.

Omen has also gotten a set of comic books made in his name, literally. The series has four different books, of which the first one (titled 'Shadow Walker') can be found at Hi-Tide Comics, the comic shop at Pearl in Defender Spawn. Later, this comic was also immortalized as a playercard, and was obtainable in the Crossover pass.

Dossier[]

The blackmailer released a dossier about Omen in Patch 4.04:

Omen has taken on various names, such as John, Fred, Marcus, Yohan, and Dimitri, but even the Blackmailer was not able to find his true name.

The Blackmailer lists Omen's various pseudos, before suspecting that Omen himself does not know his true name. They back this up by their investigation on a mysterious event or location named Point Light.

The blackmailer then mentions that they think Omen may have been a 'monster' before the event that turned him into the creature he is now, due to his lack of a proper name. They seem to sympathise with Omen, hoping that he doesn't regret finding the answers he is searching for.

Appearance[]

The centerpiece of Omen's clothing is a suit of 'armor' that covers his upper body. It is largely metallic, mostly light grey in color, with small 'holes' in the chest and abdomen area that reveal a glowing blue mass underneath.

While Omen's legs are covered by relatively standard cargo pants and shoes, his arms are wrapped in bandages. As with his chest, the gaps through the bandages also offer view into some glowing blue substance below.

Omen's 'skin' is wispy and black, and his 'face' (partially covered by his hood) consists of three vertical, pale blue, glowing slits. His Kingdom-branded hood covers most of his head and extends down his back, and is covered with a series of currently undeciphered runes.

Relationships[]

Cards[]

Voicelines[]

Find all of Omen's voicelines here, archived by Kingdom Archives.

Notes[]

• Omen's working name in the files is 'Wraith'.
• Omen is voiced by Jason Marnocha.
• Omen has played a central place in the story behind the origins of the Protocol, and the core conflict of the game^[14], although the exact details of this are unknown.
• While Omen's body is capable of holding onto objects and affecting the physical world, he cannot eat or drink^[15].
• As seen in the REVELATION cinematic, Ω-Omen indulges in bonsai, the Japanese art of growing miniature trees for aesthetic purposes. The 'LOTUS: UNEARTHING VALORANT’S LOST CITY' article also mentions this, and given how it does not specify which Omen it is referring to, it is possible that the love for bonsai applies to both.
• As with every other Agent, Omen has a Spotify playlist:
  

Sources[]

• Omen's Agent page ^Go
• Omen's Voicelines, compiled by Kingdom Archives ^Go

References[]