#xen

[alexisaelx]

Arca and Kelela, 2014

#arca #kelela #xen #jesse kanda

[follow-freeman]

"Entering Xen" Half Life (1998) vs Black Mesa (2015)

Half Life

Black Mesa

#half life #black mesa #gordon freeman #xen #half life xen #my own clips #half life gifs #half life enviroments #crowbar collective

[deltoidlover]

A pack of ravenous wasteland dwellers caught on a trail camera. (made for an art contest)

#houndeye #half life #half life 2 #half life 2 beta #xen #half life fanart #art competition #my art #alien

[tubework]

for sure this stuff does NOT come off your shoes if you step in it

#half life #hl:a #alyx vance #half life alyx #xen #inktober

[kythytil]

Vortigaunts watching Gordon run around unplugging and blowing up everything in the Xen factories:

#half life #black mesa #vortigaunt #xen

[scarredluc]

gonarchs lair

#half life #hl1 #meme #art #valve #xen #gonarch #headcrab #artists on tumblr #sorry i was lazy and didnt draw the last bit LOL

[doyums]

XEN / 'iykyk' Jacket Shooting Behind

#xen #lee jinwoo #omega x #kflops #nugudom #*g #useroro #usermairin #oorieri #userbbie

[narklos]

Half-Lore #1: Xen, The Nihilanth, and Race X

As promised, here's the first instalment in my deep dives into HL's worldbuilding! You all voted for this topic to go first- I'll work my way down from the list I made, but if there's anything you'd like to hear about, let me know. So, without further ado... have a gander at the wall of text under the cut. All images have descriptions!

Xen

Xen is what's known as a 'border world', a planet right on the edge of our understanding of space, and the primary subject of a lot of Black Mesa's research. The planet is also used as a teleport 'slingshot', according to Mossman in HL2, as its latent energy acts as a launching pad for whatever's being teleported.

Crystals from Xen (the orange-yellow rocks found all around the planet) were able to facilitate early teleportation research, the likes of which made Black Mesa a hell of a lot of money. A sample of these Xen crystals was delivered by the G-Man to Black Mesa, at the behest of Administrator Breen. This was tested by Dr Gina Cross and found to be the purest sample they'd seen yet, and they were sent to the anti-mass spectrometer for testing immediately. At this point, the crystal was swapped out for a corrupted sample by the G-Man, therefore kicking off the Resonance Cascade.

Xen is a hostile planet, home to quite a few dangerous creatures. However, it should be noted that nothing is native to Xen. Everything you encounter on Xen wasn't born there, but instead fled there. This is because they were escaping persecution on their respective homeworlds by the Combine. It's unknown whether this was the result of the Nihilanth teleporting them to the planet to act as its invading force, or mere coincidence that so many ended up there. Speaking of which...

The Nihilanth - In-Game Lore

The Nihilanth is the last of its species, having fled the Combine's invasion of its home, and possible enslavement of its race. The Nihilanth was also implied to be a former slave itself. It oversees a vast slave colony of vortigaunts, who toil away in its factory. It's unknown what this factory was actually producing- in typical chunky 1998 fashion, a lot of it is just boxes with pretty textures. This is why the Vortigaunts all wear a green collar and chains in HL1.

When Gordon inserted the corrupted Xen crystal into the anti-mass spectrometer, the resonance cascade allowed the Nihilanth to finally breach through to Earth and directly teleport its alien forces in. Again, it's not known whether the Nihilanth intended to take over Earth, or simply find another place to hide from the Combine, and was willing to do whatever necessary to secure it.

The Nihilanth was also not particularly fond of human scientists taking things from Xen for research purposes. In a level transition in HL:D, it'll say "Thieves, you are all thieves..."

When the Nihilanth was killed, the Combine took notice of Xen- and by extension, Earth. The resonance cascade had already shattered Earth's natural defenses to teleporting aliens, and so the Combine quickly swooped in to conquer Earth. That's the 7-Hour War, but we won't get into that here. The death of such a psychically powerful creature sent shockwaves throughout Xen. The vortigaunts were freed from its influence, however, leading to their tense alliance with the humans.

Curiously enough, it appears that the Nihilanth was actually aware of the G-Man, and his influence over Gordon. During level transitions, The Nihilanth makes repeated references to the G-Man deceiving Gordon, and that he "is not man." It's the first reference we have to G-Man explicitly being non-human, and also led to a lot of fan theories that the G-Man was actually part of the Nihilanth's race (though this is unlikely, as the Nihilanth is clearly referred to as 'the last).

The Nihilanth - An Interpretation

The Nihilanth is the most blunt piece of symbolism we get in Half-Life's story. The entire first game is an analogy for fighting against nihilism in an uncaring world that will constantly seek to break you down. Gordon is battling against forces completely outside of his control, trying to fix a mistake he didn't realise he was making, which was orchestrated by a man who's been manipulating him from the very beginning. It's a pretty grim tale. Gordon's reward for defeating his own nihilism is to be forced into another situation outside of his control- he quite literally does not have a say in it. He either takes a new deal, or is killed.

Gordon's defeat of his nihilism became a source of hope for the rebels 20 years on- despite being a single scientist in Black Mesa, facing impossible odds, he lived. That's why it's such a big deal when he comes back, and why the lambda symbol became synonymous with the rebels. Gordon is hope, the light in the darkness for so many nihilists who didn't believe they could do anything to fight back against the Combine. Gordon is a character to be projected on- this was explicit in the game's design. He doesn't have a personality, a voice- anything. He's the human spirit, and whenever you play through Half-Life, you're going on your own journey to defeat your inner nihilist. How cool is that?

What the hell is Race X?

Race X is a funny one. This is one of those "It'll be a cool idea, guys!" moments that never comes up again. In fact, it's pretty much agreed that Race X has been retconned entirely. Sorry, Pit Worm lovers.

They were essentially a group of aliens from beyond Xen, first featured in Opposing Force. Race X itself was entirely created by Gearbox (the studio behind Opposing Force and Blue Shift), rather than Valve. Even Marc Laidlaw said that he doesn't consider them canon. Yowch.

It's implied that Race X is more powerful than regular Xen creatures, as they actually have access to advanced weaponry and teleportation tech. They were discovered by chance, when a group of Black Mesa scientists accidentally teleported into their realm. Where this realm is located is pretty nebulous, if you'll pardon the pun. It's just... somewhere beyond Xen.

Their leader is the Gene Worm, whom they were clearing space for when they first teleported to Earth. The Gene Worm required a pretty sizeable portal to get to Earth- hence needing to clear space by force. Obviously, this doesn't happen. Adrian Shepard massacred them so thoroughly that they aren't even canon anymore.

That's all for this instalment! If you got this far, thank you for reading! Here's a video of Gabe Newell pretending to be Ringo Starr as a prize.

#half life #text post #xen #race x #gordon freeman #nihilanth #half life opposing force #vortigaunt

[tangerineseed]

#hl #half life #half-life #gordon freeman #xen #gman #source #valve #1998 #Half life 1998 #headcrab #video game #im running out of things to tag #Thisntook me so long. labor of love. genuinely #Spotify #emperor x #emp x #empx #extermina beat

[mighty-mations]

blue to pink means that you STINK

#hlvrai #hlvrai fanart #benrey #hlvrai benrey #i'd tag the others but they're not rlly playing an important role #xen #traditional

[francescamagali]

Xen Alyx concept - a commission for @amilee24 sketches + indepth process of this on my Patreon.

#xen #alyx vance #concept art #half life #half life 2 #hl2 #my art

[mizugucci]

I'm not lonely (cover by XEN)

#omega x #omegaxnet #kflops #malegroupsnet #xen #lee jinwoo #ultkpop #useroro #higabi #oorieri #userbbie #foraddy #kpopedit #mp #mg #bg #mox #the face he makes in the 1st one lmao

[sc0min]

OMEGA X (오메가엑스) The 3rd Mini Album [iykyk]

#scomingif #kpop #headers #kpop headers #kpopccc #kpop icons #comeback #icons #kflops #gifset #omega x gif #omega x #taedong #junghoon #xen #hwichan #hyuk #kevin #jaehan #yechan #jehyun #sebin #hangyeom #iykyk #my boys are back #ultkpopnetwork #omega x comeback #edits #kpop edits #pfp icons

[deltoidlover]

BLACK MESA XENIANS MODEL REFERENCE (Alien Slave, Alien Controller, Alien Grunt, Garguantua, Houndeye & Bullsquid) send me a message if there's a specific model you need references of, i'd be happy to snap some pics!

#half life #art reference #model reference #gmod #black mesa #xen #alien #vortigaunt #houndeye #bullsquid #alien grunt #alien controller #gargantua

[internetskiff]

A tidbit of Half-Life lore that always fascinated me is that the machine that causes the Resonance Cascade and basically kicks off the events of the entire series is called the "Anti-mass SPECTROMETER" - spectrometers usually doing.. exactly what it says on the tin, measuring the spectrum of something (light spectra for example). So basically, instead of the entire incident being kicked off by a deliberate teleportation experiment gone wrong like in a cliche science fiction horror story (which iirc that was what they originally went with in early development), the whole incident was kicked off by a "relatively" mundane measuring device (by Black Mesa standards, at least). It's such a good subversion of tropes methinks, especially for a videogame from 1998. The teleportation experiments still happened, of course. They've been happening for a while. They've been dissecting fauna from the other world, studying it, setting up outposts - they were pretty close to finding their footing in Xen, and in any other videogame at the time the Lambda Labs would be the root cause of the problem, and their teleporter device would be what causes a tear between realities. But nope! It's merely the precursor. Shit only hits the fan because of an otherwise normal sample measurement gone wrong.

It adds a degree of believability to it, methinks. A device being pushed to it's limits by staff racing to meet a quota - it almost sounds like I'm describing the lead up to a real life nuclear accident, doesn't it? Hundreds of lives cut short by a rushed sample measurement? The G-Man planted a particularly pure sample, but I really do wonder how much it's purity actually played into the whole disaster. It seems like it was IMPERATIVE that the Spectrometer was also pushed to it's limits analyzing it. I mean, even one of the scientists says that boosting it to 105% is a "bit of a gamble" so they knew it was a risky move to stress the system like that. The Lambda Core Teleporter operated swimmingly - meanwhile a mere spectrometer was the weak link the G-Man targeted. Half Life 1's lore is a lot more sophisticated than people give it credit for imo.

#half life #hl #half life 1 #hl1 #anti-mass spectrometer #gman #the gman #g man #rambling #xen

[ithinkilikeit-reactions]

Thread of the Omega X members thriving lately

Thriving in the most deserved way

#omega x #jaehan #hwichan #hangyeom #sebin #taedong #xen #jehyun #kevin #junghoon #hyuk #yechan #little positivity on the timeline #thye look so good and happy #they're taking their time to heal