![[valkyrie-ravens-main.png]] *Published on January 18th, 2024* --- Hey there, Comet here! I've written about Valkyrie in my previous [[Valkyrie and the Amassing Enemy|blog post,]] however I think I've found some more clues spanning across the lore. I had two guesses about who Valkyrie could be: Hannah and the Sparrow. Now, I've gone back on these guesses. I believe that Valkyrie could be someone who matches the mystery of this character: the Broker. The Dark Market Broker is a really interesting character to me. They're the "messenger" for the Dark Market Council, a trio of No-Pats whose goal is to enact revenge against their governments that failed them. The identities of the Council members are unknown and they are only known as their avatars: the Dragon, the Jaguar, and the Sparrow. As I mentioned, the Broker acts as the voice of the Council in order to further protect their identities. However, even for someone as forward-facing as the Broker, we don't know a lot about them. How did they get this role? Do they have their own agenda? Someone that wields this much power surely does... The Broker's codex entry doesn't give us any hints towards who this person is, which is in sharp contrast to the Dark Market Council's codex entry. The fact is that we have more information on the Council members than the Broker. Curious, isn't it? Throughout the narrative of Year 1, we followed the current Broker, who is a woman. She didn't appear in that many player cards, mainly when the Council convened. One thing I find interesting is how the first appearance of the Broker is in the "Headshot" player card. ![[Headshot.png|440x440]] Through various clues about Valkyrie, one thing is for certain: they are part of the Phantom organization. As you can see, this player card background is a skull with the Dark Market insignia painted over it. Skulls are commonplace with the Phantoms and I believe one interpretation of this background is that this represents the Broker. She is working for the Dark Market, but her true allegiances are being a Phantom. With such a position of power and reach, the Broker can provide an abundance of information back to the Phantom organization. Another player card that is critical to solving who Valkyrie could be is titled "The Messenger." ![[The Messenger.png|440x440]] Just looking at the name of this player card, there is certainly a connection to the Broker. The main subject of this background is the Joker card laying on a black wooden table, along with the grip of a black G57. After doing some research into the Joker card, I've learned there are two ways the card is printed: - red and black Joker cards - a large, full-color Joker card and a small, monochrome Joker card These colors are largely associated with the Dark Market. Furthermore, the similarity between the words: "Joker" and "Broker" could be a coincidence, but I consider a hint. The description of this player card paints a vivid picture of how Valkyrie operates. They never showed up to meet Oz and are described as "this ghost who lived in the shadows." When Valkyrie contacts the Exodus during the Narrative Hunt leading into Season 5, Blasco describes them as "a specter in shadow." Adding on to this, one of the Broker's quotes always stood out to me: >"Who am I? A voice in the shadows. The rest doesn’t matter. Were someone to kill me in the next five minutes, another Broker would be live by minute six." She seems to be defensive of her identity and refers to herself as "A voice in the shadows." The fact that she says "The rest doesn't matter," reinforces that she seems to be hiding something. The other half of this quote is really intriguing. The phrase "would be live" sounds like the next Broker won't be any regular human, but rather a robotic human. Or this could also be another way to deflect attention from them, as they will be replaced with another Broker. --- Next, I want to shift towards how the alias "Valkyrie" gives this character even more depth. In Norse mythology, valkyries were female entities who chose which fallen soldiers would be sent to Valhalla. All of my theories on Valkyrie have been female characters as I believe the alias is a clue itself. Furthermore, in the legends, ravens are associated with the valkyries because the soldiers who weren't chosen to go to Valhalla will be eaten by ravens. Why am I mentioning ravens? I've found some interesting details in the Season 6 player cards which expand upon the machinations of Valkyrie. First, in the "Nocturnal Hunt" player card, Blasco meets a "contact" to exchange goods. Blasco takes notice of the contact's mask and is described as "They wore a mask that she thought was a bit over the top, but it did leave them anonymous." I believe this contact to be a recruit of Valkyrie. The mask is most likely depicting a raven because ravens are nocturnal, linking back to the title of this player card. Second, the "Of a Feather" player card describes the friendship that sprouted between 8838 and 8812 in the Boreas facility. There are curious mentions of their tattoos; 8838 has an Algerian nuthatch, because she's of Algerian heritage, and 8812 has a black raven. The card goes on to reveal that during Stress Testing 8838 killed 8812. Why is this relevant? When Paik is infiltrating the Boreas facility, she finds a note left by Valkyrie on her ID. This mentions that the recruit before Paik didn't make it past the first round of Stress Testing. Because of this, Valkyrie adjusted their approach and made sure Paik received BCS gear, thus avoiding the possibility that she dies during training. That's all for this blog. I hope you enjoyed! Thank you for visiting and reading The Exodus Archives, Comet