The Combine Advisors, also known as "Shu'ulathoi" by the Vortigaunts, are a larvae-like race that possess telepathic and telekinetic abilities and are grub-like creatures with cybernetic enhancements. A high-ranking species in the trans-dimensional Combine, with it being implied they are in fact the ruling class.
Overview[]
The Combine Advisors are large, pale, super-intelligent grub-like creatures with no discernible facial features. The Advisors have a device similar to a gas mask attached to their front end. The Advisors also have a cybernetic eyepiece on the left-hand side of the faceplate.
Each Advisor wears a skin-tight olive-green bodysuit that covers all but the ends of their bodies, with a collar adorned with 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, though it is more or less phallic in appearance. The appendage is used similarly to an invertebrate's proboscis and plunged into a weak point, such as the human neck shown fro
m a scene in Half-Life 2: Episode Two.
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.
The 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 Dr. Breen. They subsisted in 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 member, 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 usefulness to them, as one shown communicating with Breen as Breen pleads and bargains for rescue.
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.
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 make it angry.
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. As they seem to observe rather than directly intervene in most of their appearances.
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.