[2020] Agent Lore: Omen

Hey everyone,

I've been playing Valorant for a few months now and I, like a lot of you, absolutely love playing Omen. Aside from his abilities offering a lot of value, he is easily the most mysterious agent in the current lineup, and I couldn't help but to come up with my own theory for his background and abilities. Most of the evidence for this theory will be from voice lines and some amount of speculation will be involved. I'll also rely on other popular theories that have not been confirmed yet, so bear with me. That being said, here’s my take on who or what exactly Omen is.

Omen was once a scientist or a researcher who worked with Viper. They likely worked on the same research program involving radianite and its uses.

I think the following voice lines captures this perfectly:

• "Sabine, look at the monsters we've become! At least you have flesh to hide your horror."
• If you also happen to kill the enemy team’s viper he says - "Experiment complete."

I'm fairly confident that the theory Viper = Sabine is true and there's evidence in her voice lines to support it.

In an experiment gone wrong, he sacrificed himself to save the lives of others and this led to his physical body being completely ripped apart.

This is evident in these following lines:

• "Make the right choice even if it calls for sacrifice."
• "Split? Ah, They don't know the meaning of the word."
• When he spots the enemy team’s omen he literally says it - "There is another of me. How many times did I get ripped apart? How many times did I die?"

So what happened to Omen? He no longer has a true physical body and does not exist in the same way that other agents do. He is in a superposition of existing everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I'm not too good with quantum mechanics so I won't even try to explain how that happened but I'm reasonably certain that's how he exists. He literally says the line “I am everywhere” and the best evidence for this is also an explanation as to how his teleportation ability works. Whenever Omen teleports, he just goes back into a state of superposition and collapses into existence at the location he wants to be at.

He manages to maintain a semblance of a physical form due to the armor he wears and his sheer willpower. However, it is an extremely painful process and requires him to be constantly in focus of his own existence. Imagine trying to keep yourself from being ripped apart into infinite states of existence and then having to willfully let go of it to use your ability.

These following lines are evidence of how he feels:

• "Keep yourself together! You can't fall apart now."
• "I feel the strain... block it out, Omen."
• “If I must live in this nightmare my enemies might as well join me."
• "I let go for a second..." - Response to Sage reviving him.
• "Now rest,You can finally let go." - Response to killing enemy Omen.

His armor helps him hold onto his current existence and allows him to slip in and out of that physical form. If you check his ult animation, it looks like he is ripping himself/his armor apart before he actually teleports. If you also look at the character design, his entire body is covered up and where there are slight gaps like in his arm you can see energy spilling out.

On a side note - I personally believe his armor is radianite powered and subscribe to the idea that the spike somehow steals or takes away radianite. The theory goes that all the agents are affected by the spike either because they are physically powered by radianite such as Reyna or Phoenix or they are infused with radianite technology like Brimstone and Killjoy. If that was the case then Omen dies from the spike because it affects his armor and does not allow him to exist physically in one place anymore. As a character he also dies from being shot at because it destroys his armor.

Whenever Omen uses any of his teleportation abilities, his current instance dies and he picks where he wants to be and pops into existence there. I use the term “die” liberally here since I don't think he himself would consider it to be death. Even if he did, death itself is meaningless to him. His player card and voice line is indicative of this and reads - What’s another death? After all, what is death to someone who exists beyond it.

This is where I’m going to go entirely into the realm of speculation.

Omen is a fragment of the terrifying dark realm of possibility and nothingness that outlines all of existence. He is simultaneously dead and not dead because he exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time (hence the name Revenant you can unlock in his contract). For his allies and foes he is the dark reminder that the underlying truth to all of reality is the dark realm he belongs to. When they see him they are reminded of the dark fate that await all of existence and they can't help but be filled with existential dread (hence the name Harbinger). It is for these reasons that his code-name is Omen.

Underneath all of it though, he is still just a man forced to live through a nightmare of unfathomable pain at every given moment. He also willfully undergoes some of this pain so that he may put his abilities to good use and to help others. Aside from all of this he endures a lot of psychological pain in the process of holding his form together. There are even voice lines that indicate he hates himself:

• "Can't even remember the spike?"
• “Shameful Performance”

So if you ever see Omen out in the field be sure to give him a hug. God knows he’s already in a lot of pain and he needs it. Who knows, you may even be able to help him keep it together.

[TLDR] Omen was once a scientist who ended up being the victim of a terrible experiment or research program gone wrong. The event made him end up in a state of constantly existing everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He uses his armor and sheer willpower to hold himself together to take on a physical form. Whenever he uses his teleportation abilities he dies and comes into existence elsewhere. As a result of his abilities and existence, he is in constant pain mentally and physically. Probably a good idea to give him a hug if you ever see him.

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