Riot Games Reviews The Creation Of Lotus, Valorant Lost City
Graphic choices, lore, lush vegetation... Riot Games reveals details about the creation of Lotus, the ninth map of Valorant. After a week of access in a specific queue, this map is now available in other game modes. The lotus flowers have not yet revealed all their secrets, but the developers indicate that new interactive elements will be added in the future.
An important map for Lore
In June 2021, Riot Games posted a video entitled Duality. Therefore, we understood that Valorant Agents exist in two versions. More details about the FPS Lore appeared with Fracture, a map that gave names to the worlds presented earlier in the year. The team Valorant Legion comes from Omega-Earth, the other, Valorant Protocol, from Alpha-Earth.
Until Pearl appeared, all maps were located on Alpha. With this eighth map, the studio fully integrated travel between the two worlds into the game. The confrontations between the universes became even more legitimate.
With patch 5.08, we learned the existence of an ancient city, destroyed on Alpha, but potentially still standing on Omega Earth. Clues left here and there revealed that the Agents of the Valorant Protocol were desperate to get to Omega before their Legion counterparts got their hands on this lost territory.
Brimstone. Astra, Killjoy, and I finished our analysis. We looked at it a dozen different ways, and it always comes back the same. The City of Flowers on Omega is a multiverse nexus. If Legion powers up that nexus with Alpha's version of the city ruined...there's nothing left to absorb the shock...the result... The result would be catastrophic, millions of lives in my home country, lost, that's not a scenario I'm willing to entertain. No one else can stop Legion from pulling the trigger, this is on us. So get a team ready, and make sure I'm at the top of the list!
As stated in Riot Games' publication, Lotus has aroused the curiosity of the Agents because of the powerful technology and the damage it could do to Alpha.
Joe Lansford, lead level designer, explains that "Lotus was built by a civilization who appear to have been aware of some powerful presence in the mirrorverse". Furthermore, the developers indicate that the ruins are powered by lotus flowers modified by radianite, and that these plants had a much broader purpose than just decoration.
For the time being, no information has been revealed about the famous hidden technology and the real purpose of the flowers. However, a video published shortly after the addition of the map may contain some answers. Would the huge coloured beam from the bowels of Lotus be used to open gates between universes? One can also envisage a more obscure use, and imagine that it is a weapon to annihilate other worlds.
More Lore elements will appear on the map in the future. We will probably have answers to these questions soon. In the meantime, we'd like to take a look at Lotus' graphic and artistic choices.
A Dravidian inspiration
When the overall skeleton of Lotus was completed, the so-called the greybox, it was necessary to choose how to dress this neutral environment. Initially, the illustrators looked at Jordanian architecture, taking the ruins of Petra, in Jordan, for example. This first idea was put aside, to focus on Indian architecture ; a choice that was more in keeping with the arrival of Harbor, who himself came from this territory.
Lotus is therefore inspired by the some 1500 Dravidian ruins, scattered across the land of India. In order to capture this architectural style in the best possible way, Riot Games has called upon the services of Fiza Vasudeva, a doctor specialising in Indian culture. The latter also helped in the creation of Harbor.
Furthermore, Joe Lansfard points out that when creating a new map, aesthetics often guide the hand of the teams. In addition to the beautiful overall view and architecture that Lotus offers, you can also admire numerous frescoes and other engravings. Here again, it was important for the illustrators to refer to the animals present in the Western Ghats, an Indian mountain range. Cobras, peacocks or elephants, they make the charm of this last map!
Lotus contains easter eggs!
Watch out, SPOILER! In all the maps of Valorant, you can discover hidden easter eggs by the developers. The Tactibears are a perfect example. Lotus is no exception to this rule and has its own set of mysteries.
By searching the map, you can find a secret meeting of Tactibears or even a troupe of plush animals, which is about to open a door to who knows what fabulous treasure. Will you be able to flush them out?
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