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The Advisors, also known as "Shu'ulathoi" by the Vortigaunts, are a race of alien beings responsible for overseeing the Combine occupation of Earth. Advisors possess telepathic and telekinetic abilities and are implanted with cybernetic enhancements which grant them extraordinary powers. A high-ranking species within the Combine, it is unclear whether the Advisors represent the 'true form' or master race of the Combine empire, or if they are simply another enslaved species.
Overview[]
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The Barn Advisor in the Episode Two trailer.
Advisors are large, pale, super-intelligent grub-like creatures with no discernible facial features. They have a device similar to a gas mask attached to their front end or 'snout', implying that they require a breathing apparatus to survive on Earth. Advisors lack visible eyes, so a cybernetic eyepiece on the left-hand side of the faceplate allows for vision.
Each Advisor wears a skin-tight olive-green bodysuit that covers all but the ends of their bodies, with a collar adorned with strange golden glyphs around their "necks." They also have a pair of thin black robotic arms implanted to their backs, capable of grabbing and lifting an adult human and moving the Advisor's weight. They also have an appendage that can protrude from their mouth like an elongated tongue, similar to an invertebrate's proboscis. It can be used as a weapon and plunged into a weak point, such as the human neck, as shown from two scenes in Half-Life 2: Episode Two. This attack causes instantaneous death.
Combine Advisors have a wide range of odd vocalizations, from robotic growls and groans to loud shouting noises and screeching. Besides their technological prowess, they also appear to possess incredible psychic and telekinetic powers. They can communicate with others telepathically as well, as shown from their apparently one-sided conversations with Wallace Breen.
The model of an Advisor in Half-Life 2.
Advisor rule[]
Under normal circumstances, the Advisors seem content to live in artificial seclusion. During the Combine's rule of Earth, an undetermined number of them lived within the Citadel and ruled the planet through Dr. Breen. They subsisted in sealed pods during this time, reliant on life support systems.
None of the citizens of City 17 or even the Resistance seemed to be aware of their existence. The face of the Combine on Earth was Dr. Breen and his transhuman minions. The Advisors seemed happy to retain this facade. However, the Vortigaunts seem to know them well and even fear them.
During the events of Half-Life: Alyx, Alyx Vance, and Russell manage to derail a Combine Razor Train by diverting its path into a dead end. The Razor Train smashes through a brick wall and tumbles partway into a Combine bridge network underground, train cars crashing into one another as it falls.
As Alyx and Russell search for Eli Vance, they come across a train car with three dead Advisors. The sight of them surprises Russell, though since neither of them has ever seen one before, and Alyx quickly exits the train car to continue their search, Russell has little time to inquire about them.
Near the end of Half-Life: Alyx, a Combine Scientist is heard arguing and being sarcastic with an unknown Combine agent, demanding to speak with its supervisor and wondering why it is taking so long. Shortly after waiting, she can be seen speaking directly to an Advisor where her tone softens a bit. However, even when speaking to this Advisor, her tone remains rather harsh and often openly frustrated.
During the events of Half-Life 2, it becomes clear through the increasingly agitated Breencasts that the Advisors have grown to suspect both Dr. Breen's motives and his usefulness to the Combine. Breen's frustrations with the failure of the Overwatch to capture Gordon Freeman have him complaining that the Advisors (referred to by their propaganda name 'Our Benefactors') are becoming doubtful of humanity's worth to the empire. During Follow Freeman, Breen makes a desperate plea to Freeman to surrender immediately, as the Advisors have begun to look upon Breen himself with suspicion.
With the apparent death of Wallace Breen, the Advisors seem to have taken control of the Combine on Earth directly. In Episode One, they prepare to evacuate themselves from the damaged Citadel while ordering their soldiers and other minions to remain behind to destroy the Citadel's dark fusion reactor and send an unknown message to the Combine Overworld.
The Advisor's 'tongue' appendage, used to burrow deep into the victim's neck during a process that kills the victim instantly.
Following their escape from the Citadel, the Advisors seem to have gradually abandoned their life support systems; they have, in the words of the Vortigaunts, begun to "hatch," indicating a level of adaptation to the environment. When Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance shut down the "Barn Advisor's" life support systems in Episode Two, they gravely injure but nonetheless fail to kill it.
During both episodes, they seem to show interest in Gordon and Alyx. The Advisors frequently appear on screens and in the open, monitoring their progress and dispatching Combine Soldiers to apprehend them. This monitoring could be due to the duo carrying the data packet containing Judith Mossman's transmission from the Borealis and, more importantly, the contact code for the Combine Overworld.
It is possible that the Advisors are the master race of the Combine, though the evidence is inconclusive. The Advisors are the highest ranking beings witnessed on Earth, but Earth itself is of nominal interest to the Combine, raising the question of why the Advisors would bother settling on Earth and managing its affairs whatsoever rather than delegating the task to lesser beings. Whether they are the Combine's master race, a high-ranking species in the Combine, or simply something akin to middle management remains to be seen.
Abilities[]
Concept art for Episode Three, showing an Advisor and Gordon Freeman.
Advisors possess considerable telepathic and telekinetic abilities. They can communicate telepathically with Dr. Breen, as demonstrated near the end of Half-Life 2 and the beginning chapter "A Red Letter Day" when Gordon accidentally teleports into Breen's office. They can also launch psychic attacks to ward off unwanted attention. Such attacks take the form of visions that obstruct the senses of those affected and cause severe headaches.
Despite their grotesque, grub-like appearances, they seem to be extremely intelligent and more than capable of directly leading the Combine occupation forces on Earth in battle, appearing alongside Overwatch units in the open and orchestrating the assault on White Forest. It is unknown if they possess any understandable vocal communication abilities, though they can speak with others, telepathically as demonstrated with Breen.
The telekinetic abilities of an Advisor allow it to manipulate objects in close range with considerable force. They can completely immobilize several adult humans. They are also able to levitate themselves and achieve flight, presumably with telekinesis. Though they can concentrate on multiple, independent objects, they cannot maintain their abilities under immense pain or physical damage. This limit might imply that their neurological abilities require some level of concentration or uninterrupted focus.
Though their psychic and mental abilities are exceptionally devastating, they appear to be quite vulnerable physically, at least in their "larval" forms. Besides two mechanical arms and their tongue-like appendage, they have no means of physically interacting with their environment nor any hazards they encounter. Their suits do not appear to provide any armor, and their bodies as a whole are fleshy, "squishy," and bulky. An Advisor is driven off by Dog with ease in physical combat, and another is injured by conventional weaponry.
Their "tongue" can be used to kill and extract from other beings by driving it through the neck, demonstrated on Eli and a Rebel in Episode Two. What the Advisors do this extracting for is unknown. Episode Two implies the Advisors extract nutrients or information from the brain or any nervous tissue.
Behind the scenes[]
Unused particle system for the Advisor's "psychic shield" found in the Episode Two game files.
- When viewing earlier versions of the Advisor in a model viewer they appear to have another attack which utilizes 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.[1]
- 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.[1]
- 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 ("
proto_citadel_advisor.vmf", last edited on October 12, 2001) features a prototype version of it.[2] - 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 Advisors were to come in only one color and that these files are only experimentation.[3]
- In the first map of Riding Shotgun chapter, one of the screens shows an Advisor inside a wooden house. It is possible that it is the same Advisor that can be seen in Episode Two trailer due to similarities in the interior of the wooden house to the place in the trailer.
- 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 ending cutscene will be broken.) This shows that Valve has already scripted the Advisor, possibly to be used in a future Half-Life game. Another hint is the console command sk_advisor_health 1000. Besides, a commentary from the first Advisor encounter in Episode Two suggests that the player would have to directly fight at least one Advisor in a possible Episode Three.
- 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.
- While it may seem that the Advisors do not possess any actual AI, this is in fact false. In the Source SDK, npc_advisor_shared.h includes this line: #define NPC_ADVISOR_HAS_BEHAVIOR 0..If set to 1 and compiled, the Advisor will pick up objects with its telekinesis and throw them at the player, as well as forming a makeshift shield with any physics objects at hand.
- The Half-Life 2 model also has some unused animations.
- In BreenGrub, a non-canon ARG by Marc Laidlaw, the Advisors are revealed to be another species enslaved by the Combine. They were once a utopian society of philosophers and scientists who spent most of their time in an artificial dream state. For this reason, they were easily conquered when the Combine came to their homeworld. The Combine forced the species to never mature beyond its adolescent "grub" stage, and used their bodies as hosts for the greatest minds of all their subjugated worlds. During this time, a few members of the species managed to flee into outer space, while others placed themselves into dream states that would endure a hundred thousand years. The homeworld of the Advisors is for reasons unknown kept a secret by the Combine, who maintain its existence is a myth.
- The name "Shu'ulathoi" shares consonantal similarities with the alien R'lyehian language featured in the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
Gallery[]
Models[]
Concept Art[]
Screenshots[]
List of appearances[]
- Half-Life 2 (First appearance)
- Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
- Half-Life 2: Episode One
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- Half-Life 2: Episode Three (concept art)
- Half-Life: Alyx
References[]
 The Half-Life Wiki has more images related to Combine Advisor.
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- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar
- ↑ WC mappack
- ↑ Playable Half-Life 2 Beta files