Combine Advisor

The Combine Advisors, sometimes simply known as Advisors ("Shu'ulathoi" by the Vortigaunts), are the masterminds behind the Combine occupation of Earth, and are commonly speculated as being the master race of the entire Combine empire.

Overview


The Advisors appear as large, pale grub-like creatures with no discernible facial features, save a gas mask-like device attached to their front end as well as a cybernetic eyepiece on the left-hand side of their "face". Each Advisor wears a skintight olive-green body suit that covers all but both ends of their bodies, with a collar around their "necks" adorned with golden glyphs. Some Advisors also have a pair of spindly black robotic arms strapped to their back that are capable of grabbing and lifting an adult human. Advisors also possess a long, prehensile proboscis, which it uses to feed. In Episode Two, Advisors are seen grabbing humans, both living and dead, and plunging the proboscis deep into the back of their necks. Exactly what they feed on from humans is unknown; most likely it is blood or spinal fluid. Combine Advisors have a wide range of odd vocalizations, from robotic growls and groans, to loud shouting noises and screeching. Besides their technological prowess, the Advisors also possess incredible psychic powers (see below).



Advisor rule
Under normal circumstances the Advisors seem content to live in artificial seclusion. During the Combine control 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, reliant on life support systems for survival. 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 transhuman 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 Overworld. 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.

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", implying that the Advisors as they are known are undergoing some sort of metamorphosis, or perhaps the Vortigaunts are simply poetically describing their abandonment of the comfort of life support. During Episode Two, 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 One and Two, 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. This is probably due to the fact that they are carrying a stolen copy of Judith Mossman's transmission from the Borealis.

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 Two 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, as well as crush a metal oil drum like a soda can. When they take to the air, loose dust and debris can be seen whirling around them, this is thought to be a way of the young advisor protecting himself from possible threats, as he has not received his mechanical arms from the combine troop yet. In this particular chapter however combine are suddenly swarming the place either because they heard a silent distress call from the destroyed incubation chamber or they were coming to attach his mechanical arms because they knew he was developed enough for them.

It is theorized that the impaling tongue appendage may be a way to extract information directly from a human's brain, or possibly to feed, 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, but this has not been confirmed yet and is pure speculation. Their tongue can be used to kill creatures by driving it straight through the neck, snapping the spinal cord, demonstrated on Eli and a Rebel in Episode Two.

Episode Three


Commentary from the first Advisor encounter in Episode Two suggests 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 Two when they confront Eli Vance.
 * In Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar, 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 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.
 * The shaft seen in the Citadel in Episode One where the Advisor leaves is one of the oldest concepts created for Half-Life 2. An early WC mappack map (" ", last edited on October 12th, 2001) features a prototype version of it.
 * Several different texture colors can be found in the playable Half-Life 2 Beta files. They include yellowing tones, red, blue or green. It is likely that the Advisor were to come in only one color and that these files are only experimentation.
 * In the first map of Riding Shotgun chapter, an advisor can be found out of playable area inside the unfinished wooden house. It may be the unfinished scene from Episode Two trailer. It should also be noted that at the end of the transmission to White Forest on this map, a garbled picture of said Advisor can be seen.
 * In the final map in Half-Life 2: Episode Two, if the player uses noclip, they can fly behind the hangar. There are two idle advisors here. They can be damaged with weapons, causing them to actually play a sound and an animation. (If they are killed, the end cutscene will be broken.) This shows that Valve has already scripted the Advisor, possibly to be used in Half-Life 2: Episode Three. Another hint is the console command sk_advisor_health 1000.
 * During the beginning of a scene in Half-Life 2: Episode One, the Advisor can be heard "speaking" while it is on a screen, just before Combine soldiers come out. This is actually the sound of Vortigaunts from the original Half-Life slowed down. If this is indeed the Advisor speaking this suggests that they speak the same language as the Vortigaunts, although this is most likely just recycling old sounds.
 * An unused particle system "advisor_psychic_shield", found within the Episode Two game files, suggests that Advisors were to be seen using some kind of an energy shield.
 * Spawning the Advisor in Half-Life 2: Episode Two crashes the game, most likely because the Advisor only appears when scripted.

List of appearances

 * Half-Life 2
 * Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
 * Half-Life 2: Episode One
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Two
 * Half-Life 2: Episode Three (concept art)