Combine Advisor

"'That thing was hurt-Did you see it? I can only imagine what it would have done if&mdash;Uh oh...sounds like it called its friends.' - Alyx"

The Combine Advisors are the face of the Combine Empire on Earth, and are possibly the original master race behind the alien empire. They briefly appear in Half-Life 2, in Dr. Breen's office on giant monitors, and they can be seen several times during Episode One. They play a much larger role in Episode Two. Physically, they resemble large grub-like creatures, belonging to a species which most likely passed its singularity long ago. As a result of their expertise in developing advanced technology, the Advisors have evolved to an artificial state which may be vastly different from their original physical state.

Characteristics


In terms of size, an Advisor is about as large as a rhinoceros. They are able to hover, possibly through some form of anti-gravity technology, but most likely some form of telekinesis, as they seem to have some other psychic abilities. They can completely immobilize and levitate objects and living beings. Advisors are virtually featureless, with no visible eyes, ears, mouth, or limbs. This may be the explanation for the many mechanical augmentations they bear. They have no visible eyes, though they do possess an eye-like mechanical device attached to one side of their "head", though at one point in Episode Two, the first Advisor encountered mistakes a barrel for a human, though it used its tongue afterwards to figure out what it had wasn't biological. Their "faces" are covered by what may be some form of respirator, though as the hose attached to it does not lead to any obvious tank, the device's true purpose is unknown. Advisors rest inside a metal cradle which has two mechanical claw-like arms protruding from the upper section. However, in Half-Life 2: Episode 2, advisors can be seen both with and without the cradel and mechanical arms. Their appearence seems to change significantly between Half-Life 2 and Episode 2. The reason for this is unknown. Each Advisor wears a stitched olive-green body suit, leaving only the mostly featureless "face" and part of the tail fully visible. The suit also has a black collar adorned with golden hieroglyphs on it. Advisors appear to feed on something inside humans and, presumably, other species. After immobilizing a victim, an Advisor extends a long flexible proboscis from an opening in its face, which it then jabs into the victim's neck. It is unknown what the Advisor is consuming from the body, possibly brain matter or something of the like. One popular theory contends that Advisors can extract useful information from the brains of those they kill, in a similar fashion to the brain bug from the Starship Troopers series. They are shown to feed on both the living and dead. Besides "Advisor", the only other spoken term for these creatures is "Shu'ulathoi" as mentioned by a vortigaunt in the Freeman Pontifex chapter of Episode 2. "Shu'ulathoi" means more specifically the ones who are still in the Pods.

Advisor Rule
Under normal circumstances the Advisors seem happy to live in artificial seclusion. During the Combine rule of Earth, a number of them lived within the Citadel and ruled the planet through the medium of Dr. Breen, who was more or less their puppet. They subsisted in pods during this time, apparently reliant on life support systems. None of the citizens of City 17 or even the Resistance seem to have been aware of their existence; the outward face of the Combine on Earth was Dr. Breen and his post human minions, and the Advisors seemed happy to retain this facade.

During the events of Half-Life 2, it becomes obvious through the increasingly panicked Breencasts that the Advisors have grown to suspect both Dr. Breen's motives and his usefulness to them. One is shown communicating telepathically with Breen as he pleads and bargains for rescue. With the apparent death of Breen at the end of Half-Life 2, the Advisors seem to have taken control of the Combine on Earth directly. In Episode One, they are shown preparing to evacuate themselves from the damaged Citadel while their soldiers and other minions are ordered to destroy the Citadel's Dark Fusion Reactor to send an unknown message to the Combine homeworld. This indicates that they are of a high position in the known Combine hierarchy, as their minions have no chance to evacuate once the reactor begins to detonate, whilst their escape pods ensure they can flee to a safe distance. Advisors have a ring where the body meets the head that has strange markings which are evidence of a combine language.

Metamorphosis
Following their escape of the Citadel, the Advisors seem to have gradually abandoned their life support systems; they have, in the words of the Vortigaunts, begun to "hatch". It seems that when forced to the Advisors undergo a change or even rebirth that allows them to regain the power to cope in the outside world. During Episode 2, Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance shut off the life support systems of one, but it is evidently too late to kill the Advisor they are attached to. During the events of Episodes 1 and 2, they are shown to have a keen interest in Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance, frequently appearing on screens and in the open, monitoring their progress and dispatching Combine Soldiers to apprehend them.



Telekinesis
As well as their apparent telepathic abilities, the Advisors cause visual disturbances to anyone who approaches them, and have considerable overt psychic powers. Twice in Episode 2 they are shown pinning multiple humans to walls telekinetically without any noticeable effort, and one is shown to snap a human's body in half once it no longer interests it. Their concentration, however, is broken both times by an outside source inflicting pain on them.

It is theorized that the impaling tongue appendage may be a way to extract information directly from a human's brain, similar to that of the "Brain Bug" from the loose film adaptation of the novel Starship Troopers. This can be inferred by earlier dialog between Dr. Kleiner and Eli Vance concerning what would happen should Dr. Judith Mossman be captured by the Combine. The possible ramifications of Eli's death include the Combine acquiring Eli's knowledge of the Resistance and possibly his knowledge of Portal technology.

Episode Three
Commentary from the first Advisor encounter in Episode Two suggest that the player will have to directly fight at least one Advisor in Episode Three.

Behind the scenes
When viewing earlier versions of the Advisor in model viewer, they appear to have another attack which uses their mechanical arms. There seems to be a small amount of this at the end of Episode 2 when they confront Eli Vance. Also, just before Eli is killed by the Advisors, the player can use noclip to find them waiting behind the hangar for a trigger. If shot, they not only move with their own animations, but emit a screaming sound pulled from the hurt sounds of a gunship that will most likely change in Episode 3.

In the coffee-table book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, designer Ted Backman mentions that the immense, worm-like form of the Combine Advisor was inspired by the work of Frank Herbert, most likely the images of the Spacing Guild Navigators and Leto Atreides II from the Dune novels and the original 1984 film.

The Advisor might be partially based on the Kingpin concept, due to the similarities to the Kingpin's second design and the concept of psionic attacks.