Another Wonder

[Ezboy04]

Xen is that a planet ?

 

[Comreak]

Xen is that a planet ?

Yeah, it was that planet you went to near the end of Half-Life. Have you played through the original yet? It might clear a few things up.

 

[Rupertvdb]

it was that planet you went to near the end of Half-Life.

I never really picked up on the planet vibe from those rocks and things, i always got the impression that Xen was a completely different dimension, maybe even several dimensions that your silly otherworldly tinkering had stirred up.

 

[ComradeBadger]

We don't really know what Xen was, apart from it was otherworldly.

Moved to Rumours and Speculation

 

[Brian Damage]

I read a theory somewhere that Xen was a bubble of gases and planetary fragments orbiting a large unknown mass (Possibly a black hole). That might work, if the fragments were going fast enough. Though, if it were a black hole, the gases could be in trouble.

Also, did anyone notice that the strange orbs in the background bear a strange resemblance to a certain type of single-celled colonial water organism (I forget the exact name, Volvox, I think)...?

 

[ray_MAN]

Also, did anyone notice that the strange orbs in the background bear a strange resemblance to a certain type of single-celled colonial water organism (I forget the exact name, Volvox, I think)...?

Indeed, it did look like a single-celled orgasm. We were learning organisms in school, so that's probably why I was thinking about it at the time.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Indeed, it did look like a single-celled orgasm

Something on your mind there?

 

[Brian Damage]

Awesome typo, there.

 

[Varsity]

Xen is a borderworld, so that would suggest it needn't be like our universe. If you look at the floating rocks as the Xen equivalent of planets and huge bubbles as perhaps nebulae it seems pretty logical, without a need for any black holes or anything 'outside' the green 'sky'.

 

[Brian Damage]

So what does "Borderworld" mean?

A world between two dimensions?

A world on the edge of the galaxy?

A world that's only really a borderline world?

 

[Varsity]

Presumably an area not in our universe, but neither in another. I reckon that a world in between two dimensions is a reasonable idea, although only Valve can have any authority on the defenition.

 

[AzzMan]

I think it is just a place you must go to in order to travel between 2 different places via teleportation. I also don't think any of the aliens you encountered in HL1 are from there, rather some other place we havent seen. I think the intelligent species (slaves, grunts, controllers etc.) had discovered teleportation also and had settled on Xen, bringing some of their native lifeforms with them also. After the accident, however, a lot of the aliens that had bee nbrought to xen started gettin teleported here. Makes sense when you think about it I mean, how can a bunch of floating rocks support the evolution of all the diffent things we saw? Unless there actually is a surface way down there somewhere, maybe the floating platforms are wayy above the surface and what we see when we look down is the clouds covering up the features. Well just my theory anyways

 

[[sl@yer]]

I always imagined Xen as an alternate dimension existing next to our own, and always thought of it as an "exploded" planet. Perhaps it is even our own planet at another point in time....sorry...I don't want to start another time travel theory but who knows. The "teleportation" experiments at Black Mesa could have done more than offer a passage between 2 places, they could offer a means of time travel. I'm not saying that this is where I personally think the story's going, I'm only speculating. Sorry if this has already been suggested.....

Also, what about "Race X". I never understood that, did they come from another part of Xen or another place altogether. Perhaps there are multiple borderworlds. Again, perhaps Race X were the dominant Xen species at a different point in time, or perhaps they used Xen as a means of access to our world from another (like Azzman suggested, Xen could just act as a gateway world).

 

[Sulkdodds]

Well, I always thought Xen was simply our world in another dimension. It's obvious from the backstory that somehow Xen is integral to the teleportation. I suspect there is a solid core somewhere...and the giant things in the background REALLY reminded me of the Final Fantasy film. As for Race-X...who knows?

 

[RblDiver]

I am of the mind that Xen proper is the place where Gordon goes into the alien factory (the place 2-3 maps before Nih), and that the other places Gordon goes (like the opening platforms and whatnot) are orbiting near the planet Xen.

As for RaceX, I think they're just another faction of Xens that were anti-Nihilanth, and the GMan is under their pay/control. This could explain how the GMan knew of the "battle you cannot win" and teleported Gordon infront of all those grunts (if you refused employment that is), it could be an army to re-take Xen, or Earth, or somewhere.

 

[Brian Damage]

Ooooo... the time travel talk sparked a thought:

Y'know how they say that, if there's some sort of global nuclear bombardment, the only thing that will survive will be cockroaches, rats, and scotsmen? What if Xen is Earth in the future, and the Vortigaunts and their relatives are the final evolution of the common cupboard cocky?

Or have I just had too much fizzy drink?

 

[[sl@yer]]

Too much fizzy drink gives you Brian Damage..heh...sorry.
Anyway, that's kind of what I was thinking with the time travel thing. Due to a certain nuclear disaster or something, the dominant species changes and then evolves...and so Xen could be a future Earth. I didn't know about the cockroach trivia though....interesting.

 

[kaf11]

i thought that was a cool touch in the first game. how you saw the cockroaches everywhere after the accident. they were surviving just fine, except when i squashed them...

 

[Epsi]

And they had yellow blood, just like the Xen aliens. Creepy.

Personally, I just hope they actually give some answers in HL2. I mean, the whole Xen thing would be less confusing if it wasn't for the presence of the G-Man, and his... employers.

Who are they? And why did they use humanity as a pawn to invade Xen and assassinate the Nihilanth? What significance does Xen have in the grand scheme of things?

BTW, did anyone else notice that near the portal to the Nihilanth, and at one bit in the factory, you could hear noises like screaming, and what sounded like people from Black Mesa?

 

[RblDiver]

Yes, I tried to listen to that and figure out what was being said. I know most of it was a re-hash of previous voices (like playing various Scientist and Barney sounds), but I could have sworn there was something else. But it isn't there in the pak file, so I must assume I'm just hearing things lol

 

[Flyingdebris]

I see Xen as a different dimension, as for what is in that dimension, i think that the floaty rocks are actually above something more solid considering there is a downward gravity. Perhaps the rocks are floating within a gas planet?

 

[FictiousWill]

Put two and two together here:

Xen's horizon looks like a cell structure.

Now go look up quantum physics and time travel. I don't know the exact logistics of it, but there's something to do with the idea that in order to travel through time, you must pass through quantum connections or 'foam', and of course in order to do this, you would have to be really really small.

Admittedly, if you were that small, physics would act very differently, who knows if you could even survive, even maintain physical form, also the cells in the sky would be so large as to be unidentifiable, if not completely invisible due to sheer magnitude. But hey, how better to give the impression of small size in a game than to use a "cells" horizon? That's a bit of a fudge factor I'd allow in a game, especially of HL's time.

Xen is a borderworld, not a planet, not in our dimension. It is called a borderworld for a reason: Any teleportation that takes place is a three point journey. This is explained somewhere, I forget where. I think the G-Man explains it. There's the initial starting position, an instantaneous stop-off in Xen, which redirects you to your destination. Every time you teleport..... or time travel.

Control of the border-world is essential because it is such an integral part of these two capabilities. Who's to say that the borderworld is extremely small, small enough to allow passage through quantum foam, facilitating time travel or teleportation?

Valve could have picked any horizon texture for Xen. This is all a wild guess, and is most likely way off base, but keep in mind that Xen is truly alien. In Xen, throw away your assumptions about Gravity, Physics, Location, Dimension, and size.

 

[clarky003]

wow, thats really deep.. I'll sleep on that one.. I love reading about Quantum stuff.

 

[Sprafa]

Xen is infact a borderworld.

If u guys just went to ***s sites and learnt the storyline, you would stop speculating (although I understand some of you just likes it more to guess...)

 

[HomelessDroid]

Xen is definetly not a planet.

It's some kind of dimension!

 

[Sulkdodds]

Yes we know. But I believe that somewhere in that dimension, the Xen as seen in Half-Life was Earth. Other than that I agree with what Fictious Will says, only I reckont he cells in the background were just to make it look weird. Even so he could be on to something. As for cockroaches their probably some weird Xen cockroach that escaped from the Black Mesa labs and nobody noticed.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Back to the time travel thingy. What if Xen is another reality of Earth, but is probably a day or two behind the time of the BM incident.

I got this idea when I killed the Nihilanth. He went out so violently that he might of caused the incident to happen in the first place, maybe transmitting its energy through the crystal that Gordon posted into the anti-mass spectrometer at the beginning of the game.

Think about it, what if the GMAN's presence at the beginning of the game was to warn everybody to take shelter.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Those giant cells in the background could be the parents of the little blobs that hover over the Xen pond in the "dream sequence" after the accident.

They also could be inspired by the "Horror of the Heights" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
http://www.parascope.com/nb/cautionarytales/horrorHeights.htm

 

[Epsi]

Back to the time travel thingy. What if Xen is another reality of Earth, but is probably a day or two behind the time of the BM incident.

I got this idea when I killed the Nihilanth. He went out so violently that he might of caused the incident to happen in the first place, maybe transmitting its energy through the crystal that Gordon posted into the anti-mass spectrometer at the beginning of the game.

Think about it, what if the GMAN's presence at the beginning of the game was to warn everybody to take shelter.

Thing is though, as the scientists in the Lambda Complex say, they believe a powerful being over in Xen is holding the portal between Earth and Xen open. The Nihilanth was this being, and killing it closed the portal, so it's not unreasonable to expect fireworks when the thing dies.

 

[Brian Damage]

Are those the same "Little Blobs" that guide you around in the latter part of OP4? I think it was OP4, anyway...

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Yeah, in Decay, it's explained that Nihilanth actually starts to widen the rift at one point, letting the bigger aliens in.

So, the original rift was an accident, but then Nihilanth started to use it as an invasion portal later. That's why Gordon had to kill him.

Edit:
"Are those the same "Little Blobs" that guide you around in the latter part of OP4? I think it was OP4, anyway..."

No, the guys i'm talking about guys are more like jellyfish without tentacles. Based on some concept art, there were going to be a few all around Xen, but then they were cut from the game, except for the opening sequence.

If you play the part with the test chamber again, look in the air around the bullsquid drinking the water.

 

[AzzMan]

No I think he's talking about when the accident first happens, it seems you kinda teleport between the test chamber and different parts of xen. One part is a large healing pool with a couple bullsquid in it. Theres some blob thing hovering over the pool in circles.

Okay I just remembered another thing when you use the secondary fire of the teleporter gun in op4 at one point it will teleport you to this place.

edit: oops looks like mechagodzilla beat me to it

 

[Mechagodzilla]

Yup, that's the one I meant.

i've never managed to get there via the portal gun, but it's also the place where you start off in the bonus mission of Decay, where you can be an alien.