Valkyrie and the Amassing Enemy - The Exodus Archives

![[s7-background-main.png]] *Published on January 10th, 2024* *Cover image made by Gene* --- Hey there, Comet here! Today has been quite an exciting day as we got news for Season 7 of Battlefield 2042 and some events in between now and then. Most notably, we received our first look at one of the new maps coming in Season 7. I've been thinking a lot lately about how the narrative will bridge the gap between Season 6 and Season 7. Dark Creations has certainly given a lot of lore material to analyze and, in particular, a new character to ponder: Valkyrie. ## Valkyrie's Involvement While Valkyrie was introduced to us in new Codex entries, we had actually encountered them before. During the Narrative Hunt that took place before Season 5, we were tasked with retrieving a data drive which contained a report exposing America's involvement in the Blackout of 2040. It was specifically noted that "an associate" kept the intel safe for Oz, who had planned to broadcast the damning evidence. This associate was revealed to be the entity known as "Valkyrie." >For years, Valkyrie had kept Oz's intel safe: the report that proved America's role in causing the Blackout of 2040. When the time was right, a unit came to collect. From afar, they watched as these fourteen specialists restored balance to the world. Wolff. America. Namaqualand. Shearwater-2. They noted their performance as potential candidates for recruitment. When the opportunity arose, a test would begin.[^1] >[!info] Balance of Power >In this excerpt, it highlights the fact that Valkyrie was concerned about the "balance of the world" and to restore it. Who was threatening the balance? Even the text itself calls this out: America. Not only did America build a technology that could unleash hell upon earth, but also did unintentionally do just that with the Blackout of 2040. Furthermore, what was thought to be a turning point in the War of 2042 for Russia was the Battle of Nordvik. Both sides had increased support from their allies, but in the end Russia lost heavily, not only in battle but in the materiel that could have been harvested from the Nordvik factories.[^2] I find the word choice interesting here. "A report" was what Valkyrie attained and one could assume that this report was on the failure of the Shearwater-1 satellite - the culprit of the Blackout. This intelligence was the ace up Oz's sleeve, and Noah Wolff even knew that his enemy had it: >Wolff knew Oz had intel about America’s involvement in the Blackout. Surmising why he hadn’t released it yet was futile. It had to stay that way. If not, Director Renoit had warned the repercussions would be devastating. Not just for America.[^3] I'm sure Oz saw this as revenge on Wolff, especially after Wolff's betrayal all those years ago. ### The Exodus' Test Another important piece of information was a player card rewarded from this Narrative Hunt titled "The Messenger." ![[messenger-valkyrie.png]] From this player card it is apparent that Valkyrie is secretive with their identity. It is also important to note how Valkyrie is described here, "this ghost who lived in the shadows." To compound this, here is Blasco's reaction to Valkyrie transmitting a message to her and the Exodus No-Pats: "Contact made - they were watching us. Like a specter in shadow."[^4] This ghostly imagery - and actions - of Valkyrie will come into play later. In this instance, Valkyrie communicated via Morse code, with the message saying, "Go to source of power. Romero Three, Charlie Two." Such a vague task for the Exodus No-Pats (and ourselves). This was one of Valkyrie's many tests, in order to gauge whether these No-Pats have what it takes to join their organization. The solution was back in South Africa, more specifically Oz's base "Eden-1." In the abandoned Wellspring facility, there was an array of solar panels, which was what Valkyrie meant by "source of power." The other part of the message mentioned "Romero Three, Charlie Two," which was interpreted as "row 3, column 2." At the apparatus was a data drive sat atop the concrete fixture. It was the report, the key to getting Wolff off of the Exodus' and Oz's tails. They promptly broadcasted the intel and soon it would propagate across the world. Wolff was finished. The job was done and Valkyrie had some potential candidates to join them... in time they would cross paths once again. When a new threat to the balance of power arose. ### The Emergence of a New Threat During the years between Season 4: Eleventh Hour (takes place November 2043) and Season 5: New Dawn (takes place March 2048), the world rebuilt with the advent of the Shearwater technology. Countless nations were revitalized, only due to the favorable treatment by the Dark Market, the arbiter of Shearwater. However, in this time, the organization would transition the control of Shearwater to Arkangel Corporation. A company that was dedicated to the betterment of humanity through advanced technologies; from AI to medicine, Arkangel wanted its impact felt across the world. With the War of 2042 still simmering, the benevolent organization evidently invested significant funds into military resources, like Arkangel Legion. The conflict during Season 5 was situated in Zlín, Czechia, where a rogue signal exposed an operation being carried out by Nova Group, a PMC supporting Eastern forces. Russia sought to push forward west with the support of all the power and influence gained in the past years. The site was the Zlín Chemické Zpracování factory that had a vital train route. There was an opposing faction, the Moravian Guard, which was secretly backed by American intelligence. The Guard was the only force stopping Nova Group's advance and was seemingly outgunned due to the Dark Market supplying Nova Group with Nordvik weaponry. The Moravian Guard was made up of brutal fighters, but knew that they were against all odds. Bringing this back to the inciting incident, a signal was broadcasted out of Zlín, which was immediately picked up by an American outpost in New London. Colonel Greenland contacted one of her acquaintances from the War of 2020: Kimble "Irish" Graves. He was unable to commit to leading the operation as he was already occupied elsewhere. Irish did suggest to Greenland his friend Maria Falck. Maria was hesitant at first given she was still on her almost decade long search for her son David. However, her mind changed when her communications was hacked and the perpetrator told her to reconsider, for David's sake. Maria began recruiting for the squad and reconnected with her old family, Exodus. She reached out to Pyotr "Boris" Guskovsky, who declined but was convinced to join, and Santiago "Dozer" Espinoza. Loyiso "Oz" Okusanya wanted a representative from Namaqualand - the No-Pat homeland - to join the operation, that being the encryption-breaker Wikus "Casper" Van Daele. Tombstone Squad had been reformed. ### Tombstone's Initiation The squad arrived in Zlín and sought out to make contact with the Moravian Guard. Their territory was in the forest, somewhere that Nova Group wouldn't dare to go. Maria convened with the Guard's leader, Major Brozik, about the transmission. Brozik offered a deal: Tombstone helps repel Nova Group and they'll get all the info on the transmission. Maria thought it was a fair trade and needed to find her squad members. The Moravian Guard's plan was to ambush Nova Group in the night. The elite mercenary group had been receiving shipments of cerium, which was somehow crucial to Eastern forces' war efforts. They placed explosives on the train tracks and denied the delivery. Nova Group sprung into action but ultimately lost two soldiers in the firefight. A successful first strike. This made way for American forces to deploy and drive back the enemy. The Battle of Zlín was a victory for the West. Tombstone Squad returned back to the Moravian Guard camp to finally learn about the transmission. After Casper broke through the encryption, there was indeed message: >“Irish, if you’re out there, we need your help.” >[!info] Identity Revealed >The message was decrypted by Casper in the "Ghost Signal" player card. However, the person behind the transmission was not mentioned. That was until one of the quotes found on the "Gambit Squad" codex entry revealed that it was Valkyrie who was the person heard. None of them recognized the voice, but Maria hoped Irish did. After all, it was addressed to him. With the facility cleared out of enemy forces, Tombstone squad ventured in to investigate further. There, they found a transmitter and an accompanying message: >In the land reclaimed a secret in transit… Our Moravian allies did well to stop it here. But it will not last. Soon, the faithful warriors will descend and secure what they have lost. Then its journey will continue west, to a place far below. Be vigilant, No-Pats. We must stand united against the threat that is coming. I will signal when ready for you to join the fight. It was only the beginning in this fight. The cargo that was displaced from the Moravian Guard ambush was Arkangel's. As Valkyrie says, "the faithful warriors" aka Arkangel's Legionnaires will come to collect the cerium shipment. The most important part is at the end, "I will signal when ready for you to join the fight." When Valkyrie was ready, Tombstone would begin their **initiation.** It came with the first message: "It's time. New threat to balance of power. Must stop. Find my marks. Leave signal." As part of the Narrative Hunt on Reclaimed, we had to find Valkyrie's "marks," which were black skull graffiti. Once we interacted with them, our character placed to the right a flag with a cross through it (a No-Pat emblem). Valkyrie responded, "We begin. In sands of time, proof of evil hides." Tombstone traveled to Doha, Qatar and received the next set of instructions, "No-Pats missing. Bogeyman hunts them. Rumors of evil. Proof contained here." There had been rumblings of a No-Pat disappearance, but who was doing it? Tombstone was going to find some answers with the "proof" located here. This intel was actually collected by Ji-Soo Paik, who had began an initiation with Valkyrie before Tombstone. Paik infiltrated the Boreas facility in Scotland and left the data in a container. A complicated puzzle stood in the way of the proof, another test for Tombstone to prove themselves. They succeeded and delivered Paik's laptop - the proof - to Valkyrie and they answered, "Arkangel. Crimes in darkness. Punish. Where hope lifts off, send message." The final stage brought them to Kourou, French Guiana, where Arkangel was about to launch another of their Ascension Satellites. "Prove loyalty. Arkangel launch. Overload. Destroy. Mind your haste. Four as one. Find brief." Tombstone was sending a message to Valkyrie's organization, that they were loyal. But their worthiness was not yet discovered. The No-Pats found a data drive - a brief - from Valkyrie's superiors. "Final test. Prove worthy. Santiago: Protect land and take thirty souls, close and personal. Pyotr: Wreak havoc from your shoulder to ten steel beasts. Maria: Save ten allies without falling. Wikus: End eight souls from great distance. Reveal thirty souls your allies must depart." This was the final phase of the Narrative Hunt and once one completed these challenges, you were rewarded the "Phantom Revenant" player card tag. Tombstone were worthy, and evidently believed to be recruited into this unknown organization. Besides Tombstone Squad, Valkyrie also crossed paths with Gambit Squad, which includes Kimble "Irish" Graves, Webster Mackay, and Ewelina Lis. When Gambit was inside the Boreas, they eventually found Paik and learned of their mission. Gambit was sent into the facility to destroy sensitive Arkangel data. However, Valkyrie told Paik that they should also keep a copy of the data. It was critical to Valkyrie's emerging plan. ## Who is Valkyrie? Ok, I know that was *a lot.* I felt I had to include basically everything so that you could get a picture of who Valkyrie is, and now I have some guesses as to who Valkyrie could be. I'm sure you noticed how it was mentioned that Valkyrie was a part of an organization. This is heavily speculated to be a group of Phantom operatives, which was popularized in Battlefield 4's easter eggs. There wasn't a lot of concrete lore surrounding the Phantoms in BF4 and this appears to being rectified in 2042's lore. Furthermore, think about earlier in this blog post where I drew attention to how Valkyrie was described (ghost and shadowy person). If you didn't already realize, Valkyrie is this current narrative's "Oz." Both characters are incredibly important to pushing forward the story. Oz's identity wasn't known until Season 4: Eleventh Hour, and so I would expect the same for Valkyrie (in terms of when their identity will be revealed.) It could be in Season 7, or the possible Season 8. Only time will tell. >[!info] Valkyrie's Gender >One thing I'd like to point out is a possible clue we have towards the gender of Valkyrie. Looking back at Oz, we could tell based on his voice that he was male. Besides this, Loyiso's "Oz" persona was created because of Wolff's betrayal in 2033. When Loyiso found out Wolff was CIA, he recited stanzas from Wolff's favorite poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The poem itself is about a traveler coming across a shattered statue of a long gone ruler, which was the pharaoh Ramesses II. > >When looking at the alias "Valkyrie" through the same lens, I think we can assume this person is female. In Norse mythology, a valkyrie is a female figure who guides the dead to Valhalla, a hall for the afterlife. One of my guesses for Valkyrie's identity is a popular one, Huang "Hannah" Shuyi. There are some several interesting details in the actions of Valkyrie along with some other details that I'll list below: - The "Phantom Revenant" player card tag could be interpreted as someone seemingly coming back from the dead. - In the "Revenant" player card, Irish is watching a security log inside the Boreas facility. He watches as a member of Unit 86 ambushed a scientist by hiding in a body bag. At the end of the card, there's a suspicious sentence, "First the dead coming back to life, now this." I think that we, the readers, are being withheld information about either Irish meeting or learning about Valkyrie's identity. He could've been sent the transmission from Zlín and we just haven't heard about that yet to build more speculation around Valkyrie. - When Valkyrie sent the transmission in Zlín, Czechia, they curiously called out "Irish" in particular. Given Hannah's involvement in BF4's Tombstone Squad and the reappearance of Tombstone in 2042's narrative, this could be a hint. - One of Irish's loading screen quotes mention her: "Hannah? No, I can't talk about her. Doesn't matter how many years it's been." It's curious how this quote was included, and it also begs the question: why isn't there a quote talking about Pac? This could be a seed planted that Hannah might return in someway and we have insight into Irish's feelings towards her death. My second guess is that Valkyrie is the Sparrow, a Dark Market Council member. Here are my points towards this possibility: - In "The Messenger" player card background, we see what appears to be a pistol out of frame, a Joker card, and some ammo spilled on a black wood surface. The depiction of the Joker has a skull, which is a common symbol in the series of "Phantom Program" easter eggs across multiple Battlefield titles. While there are a myriad of possible origins of the Joker card, one stood out. The card playing game called "Jucker" originated somewhere between the current Germany and France border and may have gave the Joker card its name. While this could be quite a reach, the Sparrow is from Germany and this Joker card could've been a hint towards where Valkyrie was from. - The Sparrow tried to warn the CIA and KGB of Germany's collapse years before it occurred. Once the nation did fall, she became vengeful for America and Russia not listening to her. Now that she's a part of the Dark Market, she uses her pool of intelligence to compromise those nations who betrayed her and the Non-Patriated. To take her revenge on America, she could have attained the report that exposed the Shearwater failure and cover-up. With Oz's close partnership with the Dark Market, he was made aware of this report and wanted to use it against the person targeted by it: Noah Wolff. - Continuing with the previous point, the Sparrow could've used their asset in Daesong, Executive Yoon, to gain access to the report. Daesong has the majority of earth bound internet traffic running through their servers in Songdo, South Korea. When the War of 2042 came to Songdo, the U.S. was accused of using Daesong to spread its influence to this part of the world. Of course, the third possibility is that Valkyrie is an entirely new character to the narrative, just like Oz was as well. ## Season 7's Maps One of the two maps coming in Season 7 was teased today with concept art. We first learned of there being multiple maps during a special holiday video posted on Twitter. In this video, there were two images showing South America and the Middle East. ### South American Map ![[s7-map-concept.png]] It's clear by the flags in this image that we're looking at the South American map, and specifically in Chile. There is also a black sign on the wall that says "San Pedro de Atacama," which is a town located near the Andes. The posters/graffiti on the wall are also incredibly important for next season's narrative. One symbol we can see clearly is a black lotus flower, the insignia of the Pan Asian Coalition (PAC). We can also see a skull with wings on each side. Above the eyes, there is a small lotus flower in the skull as well. So what does this mean? Well, we're not quite sure yet. The large lotus flower is distinctly lacking petals from the PAC logo present in Battlefield 2142. The likely answer is that this is symbolizing an early version of PAC. If you've been reading through the recent Codex entries, then the introduction of PAC is not a surprise. There have been multiple references to a secret alliance in Greater Asia. Besides the large symbols, there are writings over the graffiti/art: - "Tenemos regalos para Arkangel" -> "We have gifts for Arkangel" - "El diablo" -> "The devil" - "Son el diablo" -> "They are the devil" - "Arkangel" I think the reason as to why these posters are being written over is because the people doing so are a local resistance group. They don't want Arkangel and PAC's influence over their land and so the "We have gifts for Arkangel" aren't the friendly type of gifts. One thing I observed that could be a minor stretch is that there appears to be a Joker card beneath the chaos. The reason as to why I say a Joker card is because there's a "J" in the top left corner, which is the design of playing cards. We can't see the bottom right corner, which the other "J" would be, because its obstructed. In the middle of the "card" is what looks to be a skull painted over several times. The Joker card is somehow relevant to Valkyrie and could be a sign that they have been at a certain location before. I'd also like to point out that the logo with a skull and wings could be the symbol of one of the factions in the Season 7 Battle Pass. If we look back to the previous two seasons, we had the Moravian Guard symbol for Season 5 and Unit 86's symbol for Season 6. The question is: what's the other faction? It must be the faction that is opposed to PAC, which means it must be allied or involved with the U.S. ### Middle East Map The second map is a complete mystery besides the general location: the Middle East. I think we've been given a hint to this map in the Season 6 Battle Pass. You may have noticed besides the Unit 86 and BCS skins, there are two skins that stick out like a sore thumb. - "Panopticon" Epic set for Casper - The panopticon is defined as "a design of institutional building with an inbuilt system of control, originated by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single security guard, without the inmates knowing whether or not they are being watched." ([Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon#:~:text=The%20concept%20is%20to%20allow,by%20Willey%20Reveley%20in%201791.)) - "Generation Blue" Epic skin for the Rorsch Mk-4 Both of these skins are themed around the European Recovery Foundation (ERF). The ERF is working with Arkangel to restore the EU to its former glory. I think it's safe to say that any entity collaborating with Arkangel is reason enough to be suspicious. Given the Casper skin's name, I think the Middle East map could have some sort of prison as the main focus/one of the main focuses. The ERF could be up to something real shady here. So, the next question would be where? I think I have a lead on that as well. There's a patch on the Casper skin that is displayed below. ![[panopticon-display.png]] Nothing really out of the ordinary with the patch, but there is a bird of some kind. This must symbolize the country where ERF is potentially running this prison. I think it's located in Sudan and here's why. The emblem of Sudan features a secretary bird, which matches the patch on Casper's uniform. Sudan has also featured in the lore of Season 6. One of the new characters introduced in Season 6 was 8838, formerly Leila Zekkal. She became a No-Pat after seeing the Non-Patriated victory at the Battle of the Richtersveld and the founding of Namaqualand. Leila was helping with the deployment of a Shearwater-II satellite in Sudan when there was a sudden mudslide that consumed a village. She was among those injured from this disaster. However, when she woke up, she found herself in a cage aboard a cargo ship. There were other people in the same situation as her. They eventually reached their destination: the Scottish Hebrides. Leila and the other No-Pats were bound for the Boreas facility. Some local scrappers found this cargo ship off the coast and reported it to the Scottish government. A Royal Highland Biohazard Detail was sent to the vessel to investigate along with Tombstone Squad. It was an incredibly toxic environment inside and any evidence of what happened was discarded... except that they missed a trace of blood. It was matched to Leila Zekkal, who went missing months prior. Going back to Sudan, I think the ERF took control of a institutional building/prison to keep witnesses from saying anything about the accident. The last thing Arkangel and ERF want is for people to become worrisome of this so-called "stable" Shearwater technology. Then, because the investigation in Scotland led to Leila Zekkal, I think Tombstone will eventually find Leila and ask what happened. They learn about the disaster in Sudan and set off to investigate further. I think I've exhausted everything I could write about! I really hope you enjoyed this blog! Thank you for visiting and reading The Exodus Archives, Comet [^1]: Taken from the "Valkyrie" codex entry [^2]: The outcome of the Battle of Nordvik was, interestingly, revealed in the "Balance of Power" player card. [^3]: An excerpt from the "Clear and Present Danger" player card [^4]: Taken from the "Perfect Storm" codex entry