ok, let us establish, here and now

[Sir Arj]

go ahead.

flame me. burn me. email threats to me. i don't care.

but i doubt i'm the only person who doesn't know.

what the hell is Xen?

note: i thought it was a planet, but others are telling me its some sort of cosmos, or interplanetary system.

 

[15357]

Well, its hard to explain, but what I can tell you is this:

#1 Its a world. Or another dimention.

#2 It has floating rocks on it.

#3 It has weird fauna and flora just like Austrailia.

#4 You go to it in HL1

#5 Its messed up.

 

[bliink]

Its a border world

 

[AJ Rimmer]

A border world in between dimensions like ours and the combine's dimension which was investigated by the team at Black Mesa when they were creating teleporting technology. Due to a bad experiment conducted by, among others, Gordon Freeman, a crapload of nasty creatures escaped into Earth with hilaaarious consequences.

Headcrabs, Barnacles, Gargs, Bullsquids and possibly Antlions are from Xen. Or rather they lived there, we don't know whether or not they are actually indegenous... Indiginous? Indiangenius? We're not sure they originated from Xen or simply moved there for the great scenery or the jumping puzzles.

 

[Foebane]

Xen is pretty to look at, but nothing else.

 

[Asknoone]

Talk about cheesy. Next time, please post questions like this in the mythology forum.

 

[Drackard]

Or use the search button :bounce:

 

[carrera]

pttf you call that flaming? must try harder

 

[Drackard]

I wasn't flaming him actually, just making a simple suggestion.

 

[carrera]

i know, but he asked to be

 

[Drackard]

Ah .... in that case .... F****** STUPID MOTHERF****** S*** GO ... bah i cba, im no good at this flaming malarky

 

[DarkClawz]

I'll give a shoot at flaming...ummm..ok, You stupid F***ing n00b. Get the first game before you ask stupid F***ing questions. Why the hell do you give a S**t anyways? You thinking about going there for vacation next year? Dumb A**, it's not real! It's just a game...F**K

Ahh...oh well, best i could do...i'll try better next time

 

[Sulkdodds]

How arrogant must you be to ask to be flamed? If we wanted to flame you, we'd flame you, knobjockey.

Xen is the alien world (or collection of worlds) where it all started. From the way the G-Man refers to it as a 'borderworld' we assume that it's somewhat of an in-between space, a crossroads, a hub-world. In the early days of the Black Mesa research facility, research with crazy teleporters I can't even begin to explain ended up with the meddling scientists tearing a hole in the fabric of our reality and discovering the strange and wondrous world of Xen.

They promptly sent other meddling scientists in armoured suits through to investigate and capture 'samples' of local wildlife. Unforunately, it wasn't just dumb animals over there - there was a race of intelligent and seemingly hostile (although it can be argued that they were defending themselves) aliens - controllers, grunts and slaves not to mention the Gonarch which I strongly believe is the thing that was "collecting" the surveyors.

This alien civilisation was led by Nihilanth, a huge creature likely created by the Controllers to act as their leader. The controllers are the ruling caste and utilise Vortigaunts (highly intelligent creatures with a shared consciousness/hive mind called the 'vortessence') as slaves. The Grunts act as warriors and are presumably bio-engineered from Vortigaunts (there are similiarities in physiology). Xen itself is a very strange place - much of the wildlife is plant-like in nature yet able to move incredibly fast in a very un-plant-like way - such as the Tentacles and Trap Plants (or whatever they're called). Everything is organic, and what structures there are seem to be grown, not built.

The Nihilanth and the Controllers were apparently engaged in a war against the Combine in some far-distant other world. In order to save its people, Nihilanth broke through dimensional barriers and led a mass exodus into Xen, where, for reasons unknown, the Combine could not follow (possibly their teleportation tech was inadequate, or maybe they were simply biding their time, not wanting to hastily rush in against such a strong force as the Xenians with their massed ranks of Grunts fresh off the assembly lines).

The Resonance Cascade tore open rifts between Xen and Earth once again. Nobody is quite sure why and that's another subject for another time, but what's certain is that when it happened, Xen denizens including bemused Vortigaunts were pulled through into our world. Most of them were hostile to Black Mesa's human workers, and the facility was quickly overrun. Later, as Nihilanth came to realise the extent of the damage (or perhaps even as Black Ops and US military units assaulted key locations in the borderworld) he mobilised a full invasion force, for which Black Mesa would become the beachhead.

 

[DarkClawz]

...And ther you go!