![]() But again, the hatched forms are airy nothings, of little import to the culture of the grubs. “Their psychic strength is such that they can imprint upon their cells and dictate the form which they will take upon hatching. It’s highly relevant that Breengrub implies that the Shu’ulathoi can choose their own physical form upon hatching, presumably by using their psychic ability to shape cells. ![]() The hosts are equipped with amplifying devices–for locomotion, for investigation.” “More commonly, metamorphosis is suppressed. Much like the human suppression field, the Combine are preventing their reproduction by suppressing their growth into adulthood. Dormant and buried in the epochs of extremity, waiting to hatch, but not wasting their time.” “The host bodies, the grubs, are a larval stage. The Shu’ulathoi, as we see them in the game, are only babies. The Advisors are suspended in a larval state BreenGrub/status/485818346630152193įinding these “sleeping philosophers” could be the key to understanding the Combine.ģ. If they found another world, this is something I cannot know.” “There is some indication that once they understood the process of parasitic engineering, they embarked on a desperate course of subversion. The result of this resistance is unknown but it’s an interesting possibility that they may still experience the same oppression the Vortigaunts and Humans still do at the hands of the Universal Union. It also appears that the uncorrupted Shu’ulathoi fought back. Little of this knowledge is shared or shareable. By what means I cannot comprehend…I am not that much one of them. “A desperate few encysted, deeper, thrust themselves into trances that would endure hundreds of thousands of years. Some of them might have escaped during the initial assimilation while others could have adopted a state of mental hibernation to avoid corruption. This probably means there are Shu’ulathoi still resisting the Universal Union. The superstructure is riddled with cracks. And the first of the nurseries set to work.” “What is known is that the home world was at last breached, its harvest of hosts exhumed. With an unerring eye for weakness, THEY pursued not the host but the parasite. They were a perfect target, those perfect hosts. And in its isolation, such vulnerability. “THEY came upon this paradise of philosophers, this unbodied malleable invisible empire, where only thought had power. The Combine saw this parasite as an opportunity and used it to quickly corrupt the Shu’ulathoi. Breengrub implies that the Shu’ulathoi quarantined affected members in an effort to save the whole race. A kind of telepathic virus that spread throughout their civilization. BreenGrub/status/339476373179609090īefore this, the Shu’ulathoi were afflicted with a mental parasite. Until the world of the Shu’ulathoi somehow came to the attention of…the ones I cannot name.” “And so it went for generations, for eons. ![]() BreenGrub/status/336628291958083584īut this all changed when the Shu’ulathoi were discovered by who we can only assume to be the Combine. They are shapers of visions that they trade like currency, builders of unseen worlds.” During the dormant phase, they are engaged in ceaseless communication. In the larval state, they possess a racial telepathy. An invisible culture that persists–or persisted–for eons. Dreamers, sages, composers of intricate artforms that exist only in their minds. Telepathic in nature, their weak physical existences were vastly contrasted to the rich culture they created with their minds. They are in fact victims of the Universal Union, just like the Nihilanth’s race, the Vortigaunts and Humans. It’s easy to look at the Advisors and assume them to be the primary Combine race, but Breengrub implies that they are not. They appear powerful and completely evil. By the end of Episode 2, the player has learned to fear and loathe them. They were first seen in Half-Life 2: Episode 1 in the Citadel as they were being loaded into escape pods. The Combine Advisors, or ‘Shu’ulathoi’, are menacing and terrifying. Here are five interesting insights that can be inferred from the BreenGrub tweets: While the tweets have not been confirmed by Valve to be part of the canon story, they can be considered an interesting perspective into the Half-Life universe through the eyes of one of its creators.
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