Xen lore question

[o]

Are the Vortigaunts, Hunters, Head crabs and Antlions native of xen ? Or I'd happily take a link to where this is best answered. I just want to understand the connections before xen comes out. Thanks if you can help.

[Tunnel]

Sorry i dont have the link to this source but Mark Laidlaw said that nothing is native to xen

[o'night]

Xen itself is a bridge between different worlds/dimensions. In hl2ep2 Vortigaunt says that they harvest Antlions for their essence/nectar, so Vorts and Antlions are most likely from the same world. Hunters are Synths made by Combines, same as Striders or Gunships.

As for headcrabs, barnacles and bullsquids it's unknown where they came to Xen from, I assume same place as Vorts and Grunts, because only someone intelligent enough can open a portal to Xen

[phillippi2]

If I remember right, the reason that the aliens were on Xen was due to them running away from the combine (meaning; the Nihilanth and Vortigaunts were running). As for them coming to Earth, they were, again, fleeing the combine (which explains how the combine got to Earth).

However, most of the random teleports you see are from a "portal storm". The non-random ones supposedly start shortly before you meet the alien grunts, which were sent in to try to clear out the given areas.

[moon]

Headcrabs are basic parasites most likely not from the Vortigaunt's plannet due to the lack of Vortigaunt zombies so most likely from another plannet, The Vortigaunts are slaves, Alien grunts are most likely beefed up Vortigaunts, Bullsquids are like alien cows and ithiocour is basicly an alien shark, Snarks, Antlines, hive hand, shockroach and spore launcher are insecets, the Opossing Force Alien grunts are most likely from the same plannet from the insects I mentioned.

[Sovereign]

As others have stated nothing is native Xen, it’s just the void between dimensions. All the creatures we see there were either fleeing the Combine or simply migrated there over time.

Hunters are Combine, not Xenian.

[Dragunov]

But Xen cannot be a death place before, there is alot of flora, all the essential stuff is there: air, water,...

So Xen can have life on its own

[Just Chill]

That's true.

Yet we don't know exactly if some organisms originated there.
Bullsquids for example are pretty well adapted to live in Xen. They drink from the healing pools and probably hunt some of the smaller creatures, when they don't meet the bulky Houndeyes to fight with. XD

Might be possible that these originated there. At least in Black Mesa, as Crowbar made Xen to a mysterious but living and breathing place.
Not like Valve with their vomit textures. XD
Well... As of the technical restrictions back these days, that might be the best we were able to get in the original.


I am more than happy about what Crowbar did to Xen. :D

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Dragunov:

But Xen cannot be a death place before, there is alot of flora, all the essential stuff is there: air, water,...

So Xen can have life on its own

No, it has been directly stated that no life is native to Xen, all the creatures we see (including the "flora") simply ended up there over many years and have adapted to the void.

[Rixxz]

IIRC Xen's a very strange universe that exists within the 'padding' of the multiverse, and nothing in Xen is native to Xen, but is instead a mess of matter and inherited physical properties from all over the place.

Originally posted by phillippi2:

If I remember right, the reason that the aliens were on Xen was due to them running away from the combine (meaning; the Nihilanth and Vortigaunts were running). As for them coming to Earth, they were, again, fleeing the combine (which explains how the combine got to Earth).

However, most of the random teleports you see are from a "portal storm". The non-random ones supposedly start shortly before you meet the alien grunts, which were sent in to try to clear out the given areas.

The first and last parts of your post are true, though, and I could be completely wrong, I'm pretty sure the reason why the vortigaunts invaded the facility and killed everyone in sight is because they believed the resonance cascade was due to a combine invasion, and that humanity was actually a part of the combine.

The Combine/Universal Union didn't know of neither Xen nor our own universe until after the resonance cascade due to the massive ripples on the rhetorical waters the incident caused.
The UU quickly pin pointed ground zero (I.E Earth), and immediately sent out a scouting/science vessel to investigate. However, due to technological incapabilities, while they're able to teleport between universes, they're unable to select exactly where to teleport to other than "in relatively close proximity", which in turn means they have to rely on regular non-FTL means to reach their target once there, this is also what makes them very interested in humanity (and Aperture Laboratories in particular), and acknowledges that we have potential as an ally and member of their union, and why the 7 hour war doesn't take place until a good couple of years (at least) after the Black Mesa incident

[God's Wingman]

Hi mate. Xen is something like an universal place of exile. Actually xen is not a planet or galaxy but is another dimension. If we are talking about origin of species there is not a real xen-main species thing. But years by years that aliens just evolved to survive in xen then became what they are now.

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Rixxz:

Originally posted by phillippi2:

If I remember right, the reason that the aliens were on Xen was due to them running away from the combine (meaning; the Nihilanth and Vortigaunts were running). As for them coming to Earth, they were, again, fleeing the combine (which explains how the combine got to Earth).

However, most of the random teleports you see are from a "portal storm". The non-random ones supposedly start shortly before you meet the alien grunts, which were sent in to try to clear out the given areas.

The first and last parts of your post are true, though, and I could be completely wrong, I'm pretty sure the reason why the vortigaunts invaded the facility and killed everyone in sight is because they believed the resonance cascade was due to a combine invasion, and that humanity was actually a part of the combine.

The Combine/Universal Union didn't know of neither Xen nor our own universe until after the resonance cascade due to the massive ripples on the rhetorical waters the incident caused.
The UU quickly pin pointed ground zero (I.E Earth), and immediately sent out a scouting/science vessel to investigate. However, due to technological incapabilities, while they're able to teleport between universes, they're unable to select exactly where to teleport to other than "in relatively close proximity", which in turn means they have to rely on regular non-FTL means to reach their target once there, this is also what makes them very interested in humanity (and Aperture Laboratories in particular), and acknowledges that we have potential as an ally and member of their union, and why the 7 hour war doesn't take place until a good couple of years (at least) after the Black Mesa incident

Yeah sorry a decent chunk of that is wrong. The Vorts were forced to attack humans by the Nihilanth and they invaded Earth to escape the Combine, not because they thought Earth was under Combine control.

We don't know if the Combine were aware of Xen and our dimension or not, but they were indeed led to Earth by the "ripples" of the Black Mesa incident. But there was no "scouting vessel", once they detected Earth they launched a full attack by teleporting dozens of citadels(maybe more) into major population centers and promptly decimating most of human civilization.

The problem with Combine teleportation has noting to do with interdimensional jumps but rather they're lack of efficient local teleportation, as in they can teleport from Earth to their Overworld just fine but they can't teleport from New York to Hong Kong. And yes, they do have FTL tech, their empire would be impossible without it. Also Humanity is a slave race, not an ally.

While we don't have a solid post BM Incident timeline, the 7 Hour War was most likely only a matter of months, maybe a year after the incident, not years (though to be fair we don't know for sure).

Lastly it's "Combine", not "UU". (seen a few people on forums call them that and I find it a bit weird)

[Carlz0r]

Xen is often described as a Borderworld, or the Bridge Between Worlds. Half-Life's understanding of the universe follows a Multiverse theory, in which there is more than one universe like our own.. and when leaving your own universe, you end up in a sort of in-between void, where Xen exists.

Lots of stuff has wound up in Xen some way or another, but it was originally a dead void. Even the chunks of ground that you can stand on in there may have gotten transported in through some form of spacial rifts or whatever, which could help explain all the plants... but one group in particular, that is very relevant to the events of Half-Life, ended up there sort of on purpose: the Nihilanth's race was at war with the Combine, and it wasn't going very well for them. The last remaining one, the Nihilanth itself that you encounter in Half-Life 1, fled to Xen with its Vortigaunt slaves, and manged to survive there, and successfully avoided the Combine.. Pretty sure they were stuck there, though.

Scientists from Earth were already researching Xen by traveling there purposefully and studying the plants and creatures that lived there.. but when the experiment at the beginning of Half-Life 1 triggered the resonance cascade, creatures that had wound up in Xen started getting warped to Earth via a portal storm: chaotically opening and closing rifts between our world and Xen. Those described in the spoiler tag above saw the rifts as a chance to leave Xen and invade Earth, so they held one open and started to do exactly that.

That same portal storm I believe is what led the Combine to come investigate Earth, because they detected it somehow, and were still looking for the Nihilanth . When they got here, they attacked and wiped out Earth's entire military force.. and the only reason we didn't die is because Dr. Breen struck up a deal.. basically they get to subjugate humans, and take whatever resources they want from Earth, and we get to live (for now, under their terms). So they invaded, and took over... and the creatures from Xen were also still around, but the Vortigaunts were freed because of Freeman's actions in Half-Life 1.

[Rixxz]

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Originally posted by Rixxz:

The first and last parts of your post are true, though, and I could be completely wrong, I'm pretty sure the reason why the vortigaunts invaded the facility and killed everyone in sight is because they believed the resonance cascade was due to a combine invasion, and that humanity was actually a part of the combine.

The Combine/Universal Union didn't know of neither Xen nor our own universe until after the resonance cascade due to the massive ripples on the rhetorical waters the incident caused.
The UU quickly pin pointed ground zero (I.E Earth), and immediately sent out a scouting/science vessel to investigate. However, due to technological incapabilities, while they're able to teleport between universes, they're unable to select exactly where to teleport to other than "in relatively close proximity", which in turn means they have to rely on regular non-FTL means to reach their target once there, this is also what makes them very interested in humanity (and Aperture Laboratories in particular), and acknowledges that we have potential as an ally and member of their union, and why the 7 hour war doesn't take place until a good couple of years (at least) after the Black Mesa incident

Yeah sorry a decent chunk of that is wrong. The Vorts were forced to attack humans by the Nihilanth and they invaded Earth to escape the Combine, not because they thought Earth was under Combine control.

We don't know if the Combine were aware of Xen and our dimension or not, but they were indeed led to Earth by the "ripples" of the Black Mesa incident. But there was no "scouting vessel", once they detected Earth they launched a full attack by teleporting dozens of citadels(maybe more) into major population centers and promptly decimating most of human civilization.

The problem with Combine teleportation has noting to do with interdimensional jumps but rather they're lack of efficient local teleportation, as in they can teleport from Earth to their Overworld just fine but they can't teleport from New York to Hong Kong. And yes, they do have FTL tech, their empire would be impossible without it. Also Humanity is a slave race, not an ally.

While we don't have a solid post BM Incident timeline, the 7 Hour War was most likely only a matter of months, maybe a year after the incident, not years (though to be fair we don't know for sure).

Lastly it's "Combine", not "UU". (seen a few people on forums call them that and I find it a bit weird)

Regarding the UU part:

"In order to be true to our nature, and our destiny, we must aspire to greater things. We have outgrown our cradle. It is futile to cry for mother's milk, when our true sustenance awaits us among the stars. And only the Universal Union that small minds call 'The Combine' can carry us there."

From a Breencast at the beginning of HL2, pretty sure 'Combine' is more of a derogatory term rather than something they actually call themselves

[Sovereign]

Originally posted by Rixxz:

Originally posted by Sovereign:

Yeah sorry a decent chunk of that is wrong. The Vorts were forced to attack humans by the Nihilanth and they invaded Earth to escape the Combine, not because they thought Earth was under Combine control.

We don't know if the Combine were aware of Xen and our dimension or not, but they were indeed led to Earth by the "ripples" of the Black Mesa incident. But there was no "scouting vessel", once they detected Earth they launched a full attack by teleporting dozens of citadels(maybe more) into major population centers and promptly decimating most of human civilization.

The problem with Combine teleportation has noting to do with interdimensional jumps but rather they're lack of efficient local teleportation, as in they can teleport from Earth to their Overworld just fine but they can't teleport from New York to Hong Kong. And yes, they do have FTL tech, their empire would be impossible without it. Also Humanity is a slave race, not an ally.

While we don't have a solid post BM Incident timeline, the 7 Hour War was most likely only a matter of months, maybe a year after the incident, not years (though to be fair we don't know for sure).

Lastly it's "Combine", not "UU". (seen a few people on forums call them that and I find it a bit weird)

Regarding the UU part:

"In order to be true to our nature, and our destiny, we must aspire to greater things. We have outgrown our cradle. It is futile to cry for mother's milk, when our true sustenance awaits us among the stars. And only the Universal Union that small minds call 'The Combine' can carry us there."

From a Breencast at the beginning of HL2, pretty sure 'Combine' is more of a derogatory term rather than something they actually call themselves

Nope, universal union is just a descriptive term used once by Breen, it's not a name. This can be clearly seen in the subtitles where "Combine" is always capitalized, same goes for subgroups like "Overwatch" and "Civil Protection". But universal union is not, meaning it's not a proper noun, not a name. The correct quote is:

"And only the universal union that small minds call 'The Combine' can carry us there."

"Combine" is what humans call them and is the only proper name we get. Even if they have a single true name that they use themselves it obviously wouldn't be an English word like "combine" or "union".