Combine History: Difference between revisions

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{{TODO|Sections: Gordon Freeman and Xen, The 7 Hour War, The World After That}}
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[[Category:Half-Life Continuity]]
The [[Combine]] are a group of intergalactic (or possibly interdimensional, or both) alliances of species. Its true nature is not very well known.
 
==Introduction==
 
[[File:Advisor.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The Combine are apparently led by a group of Advisors such as the one seen talking to [[Dr. Wallace Breen|Dr. Breen]] in Half-Life 2.]]
 
What we do know is this:
 
* The Combine were in fact NOT on [[Xen]] at the beginning of [[Half-Life]]. This was stated by [[User:Lombardi|Doug Lombardi]].
* The creatures on [[Xen]] were there because they had been running from the Combine, and Xen was a refuge.
* The dimensional rift caused by the resonance cascade attracted the Combine to Earth. It only took them seven hours to completely take over Earth, hence the invasion's name: {{section|The Seven Hour War}}.
* After the invasion, [[Dr. Wallace Breen]], the [[Black Mesa Research Facility]] administrator, brokered a "peace" with the Combine and convinced them that Humanity could be evolved and assimilated into the Combine. Dr. Breen worked with the Combine to produce  "trans-humans", mostly in the form of Combine Soldiers.
* The Combine had at least one [[Citadel]] at the beginning of [[Half-Life 2]]. It's possible there may be more, possibly one for each of the cities, cities 8 through 20 at least, mentioned at the beginning.
* The only other race apart from the natives of Xen and Transhumans is the race of the [[:Image:Advisor.jpg|Combine Advisor]].
 
==[[Xen]]: Before Half-Life==


'''WARNING: SPOILERS WITHIN'''
Before Half-Life, the Combine were already an interstellar threat. The Xenians were made up of many races of alien species that were conquerors at one point, and then sought refuge from the Combine destruction. The [[Vortigaunt]]s were slaves to the [[Nihilanth]], but the Nihilanth also has metal wristbands similar to those of the Vortigaunts, and it has what appear to be surgical scars. The Nihilanth's legs have also been amputated (similar to the [[Stalker]]s). This signifies that the Combine may have enslaved the Nihilanth at one point. Although they were not on Xen, the Combine had their fair share of influence before the resonance cascade. More than this cannot be said.


==Introduction==
==[[Black Mesa Research Facility]]==


The Combine is an intergalactic (or possibly interdimensional, or both) alliance of species. Its true nature is not very well known. What we do know is this:
Because the Combine were not on [[Xen]], we can't say anything about the Black Mesa incident except that it attracted the Combine to Earth.


* The Combine were in control of [[Xen]] at the begining of Half-Life 1.
==[[Dr. Gordon Freeman|Gordon Freeman]] and [[Xen]]==
* The [[Vortigaunts]] had been enslaved by the Combine.
* During the course of of Half-Life 1, Gordon Freeman freed the Vortigaunts from Combine oppression, likely by killing [[Nihilanth]], who seems to be equateable to [[Dr. Breen]] on Earth.
* The Combine invaded Earth after the [[Portal Storms]], and took 7 hours to defeat all of Earth's armed forced. This was known as the [[7 Hour War]].
* After the invasion, Dr. Breen brokered a "peace" with the Combine and convinced them that Humanity could be evolved to the point where it would be useful enough to be included into the Combine. Dr. Breen worked with the Combine to produce  "trans-humans", mostly in the form of Combine Soldiers.
* The Combine had at least one enormous skyscraper-like HQ at the beginning of Half-Life 2. It's possible there may be more, possibly one for each of the cities, cities 9 through 20 at least, mentioned at the beginning.
* The only other race apart from the natives of Xen and Transhumans is the race of the Combine Advisor.


==Before HL1 - Xen==
There isn't a whole lot that can be said here either, but there is evidence of a "greater threat" in the original game. Although you don't meet this threat in Half-Life, the [[Nihilanth]] hints at the existence of the Combine. For more info, see [[Wikipedia:Nihilanth]].


Before HL1 the Combine had already invaded, conquered and pacified Xen. It seems that the natives of Xen, the Vortigaunts, were enslaved, which is mentioned throughout HL2. Also, the entity used to place Vortigaunts in HL1 was called monster_alien_slave.
==The Seven Hour War==


Why exactly the Combine invaded Xen is a mystery, but it seems likely it was to do with teleportation. Even at the beginning of HL2, the Combine only just managed to get intradimensional teleportation working, and then only with the help of [[Judith Mossman]]. It seems unlikely that they had this technology at the beginning of HL1. Other than possible research into technology, the Combine seemed to be mass manufactring alien grunts.
The Seven Hour War is the name given to the military invasion of Earth by the Combine. It seems that Earth's forces were overwhelmed and almost, if not totally, annihilated in 7 hours. After this Wallace Breen brokered peace. See [[Wikipedia:Seven Hour War]] for more information.


I'm quickly going to propose a theory here: What happened on Xen could have happened on Earth. That is, you might equate enslaved vortigaunts with stalkers, grunt as supersoldiers and nihilanth as Breen. If you look at the alien grunts from HL1 closely, you'll not many similar anatomical similarities to vortigaunts, such as a third arm, siphon like structures on either side of the neck and similar eye positioning. They're just much bigger. The same idea applies to the alien controllers. This could be a natural evolutionary divergence from a common ancestor, but the prescence of the Combine make me suspect their direct involvement. I believe that the grunts were modified vortigaunts who were designed to be much better than normal vortigaunts at combat. This hadn't happened on Earth yet, but I don't think it was very far off. I don't think Breen had got very far along with his transhuman program at all.
"Dr. Breen...


There is an alternative theory to this, however, based on three things things:
He's the Administrator of this whole vile business now.


* "We knew that some immense threat had chased the Nihilanth and its creatures out of their own world and into Xen, from which location they were all to glad to seize the opportunity to continue on to Earth with suppression through the citadels. But the exact nature of the threat was left to be solved in Half Life 2" - Mark Laidlaw, PCZone issue 160 pg 139
He ended the Seven Hours War by managing Earth's surrender.
* Nihalanth can teleport things locally in your last fight with him
* No evidence of typical Combine architecture in Xen


This theory apparently proves that Nihilanth wasn't a Combine puppet when he first arrived on Xen from somewhere else (at least, at first).
The Combine rewarded him with power." -- [[Dr. Eli Vance]]


==Black Mesa==
==Post Seven Hour War==
We still have no idea what happened at Black Mesa, and I don't think we'll ever get much more information. What we do know is that for some reason is that the experiment that Gordon Freeman was ordered to perform seems to have allowed for a massive invasion of aliens to teleport onto Earth.


This was, however, not the first time Earth and Xen met. It seems Black Mesa research teams had been making excursions into Xen for some months before the accident. Research teams had discovered the Border World, Xen, while experimenting with teleportation in the advanced Lambda bunker. Not only did they likely do research on teleportation, but they also did seem to have taken "biological samples", native Xen wildlife, and brought it back to Earth.  We can see evidence of this in Blue Shift, were you visit an abandoned human research post on Xen, as well as things scientists say in the Lambda bunker. It's possible that it was these excursions which first made the Combine aware of the existence of a culture with an advanced understanding of the principles involved in teleportation.
After the Combine invaded Earth and established the Overwatch to police its inhabitants, Breen began oppressing humanity on the behalf of his Combine overlords. While no one knows the exact nature of the activities the Combine were engaged in, they may have included some of the following:


It's been suggested in [http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/index.htm HLS] that Breen was contacted by the Combine before the incident and offered Breen a position as ruler if he caused a resonance cascade to allow them to invade.
* Gradual draining the world's oceans (possibly for shipment offworld?).
* Production of a "transhuman" army for the Combine.
* Gradual enslavement and '[[stalkerization]]' of the entire human race.


==See Also==
==See also==
* [http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/index.htm The Half-Life Saga Story Guide]: A very good site on the background of the Half-Life story, which Mark Laidlaw has called "pretty darn accurate for the most part" by Valve employees, apparently.
* [[Wikipedia:Combine (Half-Life)]]
[[Category:Half-Life Continuity]]

Latest revision as of 00:10, 7 January 2024

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Spoiler Warning
Some information on this page may contain plot spoilers. Continue reading at your own risk.

The Combine are a group of intergalactic (or possibly interdimensional, or both) alliances of species. Its true nature is not very well known.

Introduction

The Combine are apparently led by a group of Advisors such as the one seen talking to Dr. Breen in Half-Life 2.

What we do know is this:

  • The Combine were in fact NOT on Xen at the beginning of Half-Life. This was stated by Doug Lombardi.
  • The creatures on Xen were there because they had been running from the Combine, and Xen was a refuge.
  • The dimensional rift caused by the resonance cascade attracted the Combine to Earth. It only took them seven hours to completely take over Earth, hence the invasion's name: § The Seven Hour War.
  • After the invasion, Dr. Wallace Breen, the Black Mesa Research Facility administrator, brokered a "peace" with the Combine and convinced them that Humanity could be evolved and assimilated into the Combine. Dr. Breen worked with the Combine to produce "trans-humans", mostly in the form of Combine Soldiers.
  • The Combine had at least one Citadel at the beginning of Half-Life 2. It's possible there may be more, possibly one for each of the cities, cities 8 through 20 at least, mentioned at the beginning.
  • The only other race apart from the natives of Xen and Transhumans is the race of the Combine Advisor.

Xen: Before Half-Life

Before Half-Life, the Combine were already an interstellar threat. The Xenians were made up of many races of alien species that were conquerors at one point, and then sought refuge from the Combine destruction. The Vortigaunts were slaves to the Nihilanth, but the Nihilanth also has metal wristbands similar to those of the Vortigaunts, and it has what appear to be surgical scars. The Nihilanth's legs have also been amputated (similar to the Stalkers). This signifies that the Combine may have enslaved the Nihilanth at one point. Although they were not on Xen, the Combine had their fair share of influence before the resonance cascade. More than this cannot be said.

Black Mesa Research Facility

Because the Combine were not on Xen, we can't say anything about the Black Mesa incident except that it attracted the Combine to Earth.

Gordon Freeman and Xen

There isn't a whole lot that can be said here either, but there is evidence of a "greater threat" in the original game. Although you don't meet this threat in Half-Life, the Nihilanth hints at the existence of the Combine. For more info, see Wikipedia:Nihilanth.

The Seven Hour War

The Seven Hour War is the name given to the military invasion of Earth by the Combine. It seems that Earth's forces were overwhelmed and almost, if not totally, annihilated in 7 hours. After this Wallace Breen brokered peace. See Wikipedia:Seven Hour War for more information.

"Dr. Breen...

He's the Administrator of this whole vile business now.

He ended the Seven Hours War by managing Earth's surrender.

The Combine rewarded him with power." -- Dr. Eli Vance

Post Seven Hour War

After the Combine invaded Earth and established the Overwatch to police its inhabitants, Breen began oppressing humanity on the behalf of his Combine overlords. While no one knows the exact nature of the activities the Combine were engaged in, they may have included some of the following:

  • Gradual draining the world's oceans (possibly for shipment offworld?).
  • Production of a "transhuman" army for the Combine.
  • Gradual enslavement and 'stalkerization' of the entire human race.

See also

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