Voron (Russian: Ворон) is a Russian special operations group dedicated to high-risk infiltration and information gathering, analogous to the United States of America's Third Echelon initiative, a sub-branch of the National Security Agency.
History
2009-2010
A former Voron operative named Ruslan Lupul met with former Splinter Cell agent Sam Fisher in Vancouver, Canada to give him a classified file that Voron had regarding the death of Sarah Fisher. Before Lupul gives Fisher the file, however, he gets Fisher to steal DVR technology from a Korean electronics firm called Nexegen Technologies.
2010-2011: Third Echelon Conspiracy
Voron's involvement in Conviction appears to be limited to providing field operative Mikhail Loskov (call-sign Kestrel) to work with Third Echelon Splinter Cell Daniel Sloane-Suarez (call-sign Archer), as Voron appears to cede operational control entirely to Third Echelon. Voron is no longer seen in game after the co-op prologue missions.
2013, 6 Months Later Blacklist Attacks
Voron appears in Blacklist in three missions given by Isaac Briggs. Voron uses the Blacklist as a distraction to steal nukes from India. It is later revealed that Voron had placed Kestrel in a medically-induced coma at an abandoned city situated in Koltsovo Naukograd, Russia, torturing him for information.
In Blacklist, Voron is much more explored compared to Conviction. Operatives are shown to be used much like Third Echelon operatives, trained in assault tactics rather than infiltration. Additionally, the Raven Suit (VR SV1 Akula) makes a second appearance in the series as an unlockable suit for Sam and Briggs.
Developer commentary
- "We seized on the idea of a kind of mirror image for Third Echelon, that served the interests of a modern Russia ruled by billionaire oligarchs. Where Third Echelon was imagined as the sharp point of America’s information warfare apparatus, the Russian group we called Voron (Russian for ‘raven’) would be a black-bag group tasked with sabotage, corporate theft and “talent extraction”. It turned out that in reality, a lot of those kinds of operations were the domain of the SVR (‘Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki’), which handles the foreign and economic intelligence duties that used to be done by the KGB. So in our story, Voron was a shadow unit within the SVR."
- ― Patrick Redding, Splinter Cell: Conviction Co-Op Game Designer
Gallery
Trivia
- "Voron" is the transliteration of Ворон, with Ворон translating to "Raven".
- A Voron operative named Stephan Drachev also appears in Tom Clancy's HAWX 2, code-named Wolfhound.
- At one point, Voron attempted to recruit Sam to be one of their agents instead of a Splinter Cell.
- All Voron agents have red goggles as their trademark color.
- The group logo has VOPOH written wrongly on it - the correct way to write "voron" in Russian is BOPOH. This is probably an oversight on the side of the developers.