Information Half-Life 2 Roleplay Lore

[Aspect™]

Half-Life 2 Roleplay

Exordium

A stone memorial stands in the now desolate Tawau district.

Like many of its kind, it commemorates those who died in the brief, needless conflict between humanity and the transdimensional empire that became colloquially known as the Combine.


“MOURNING THE DECEASED
I regret that some of our friends have died so young.
It is very sad.
I just hope that you enjoy the afterlife
And your holy light over radiates to us the living, peaceful and happy forever.”


Unofficial estimates place the casualties of the 7 Hour War at over 2,500,000,000 - making it the deadliest war in human history. Despite the death toll, the surrender of most military powers had been accepted on the same day that fighting commenced.

To make any sense of this, we have to start from the beginning.​

 

[Aspect™]

Entanglement

A lone researcher scales rolling hills of pebbled gold, stretching as far as the eye can see. Scorching rays of sun bear down from above; lashing winds whip and crack around him. Despite the hostility of the desert, however, there is some modicum of peace to be found – especially in comparison to what came before.

Even amidst blistering and likely fatal heat, he is one of the lucky ones. Countless bodies are strewn about the smoldering ruin of the Black Mesa Research Facility, soon faced with the final indignity of a nuclear cremation. Speculation on the thermonuclear detonation is promptly discredited, and any candid reporting is restricted to the most peripheral and radical media.

In the face of spiraling rumors and discontent, the United States Government eventually released an official declaration: that the events of this fateful day, and its future consequences, were the result of a rogue science team conducting an unlawful and unapproved experiment within the facility – one that leads to its complete destruction.

This statement is corroborated by the surviving Administrator of the facility. No other living witnesses of the incident ever come forward, despite a public appeal.​

 

[Aspect™]

Consequences

“In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Unusual, near-cataclysmic storms wreak havoc across mainland America, and other worrying incidents – such as unprecedented levels of lethal animal attacks – serve to compound the situation further. Maintaining the deception that obscures the facts of the calamity at Black Mesa becomes increasingly costly and difficult.

Seemingly without cause or explanation, these occurrences gradually begin being observed all across the globe. International cooperation is briefly bolstered in the Western sphere of influence, whose members desperately combine their experience and expertise to devise a permanent solution.

Elsewhere, however, tenuous global relations are fractured and broken; many are quick to place blame for the ceaseless devastation abroad. Isolation and conflict become commonplace, with war emerging across much of the world.

At its extreme, armed insurgency manifests and intensifies - leaving many areas in near complete desolation. Less severe is the wave of protests, unrest, and tumult that disrupts many of Earth’s previous regimes. To almost all of humanity, the era that followed the Resonance Cascade was ubiquitously known as one of intercontinental instability.​

 

[Aspect™]

Looming Shadows

Far from the barbed fences of a fortified European metropolis, a trail of hefty boot-like impressions mark their way into dense woodland – not yet washed away by the intense storms that emerge so frequently. Following the imprints further, the soil and mud are soon accompanied by dark stains of crimson blood.

Little remains at this gruesome scene - there is no cadaver to be recovered, no lurking predator to be observed, not even any belongings strewn about of the unfortunate soul who met their untimely end here. Nonetheless, authorities are quick to arrive and promptly make a thorough attempt to secure the area.

This is the case for most recorded “wildlife attacks”, with independent investigations formally restricted and regarded as extremely dangerous for those unprepared to deal with Earth’s now belligerent wilderness. Though it is commonly suspected that there is some other rationale behind this new danger, material evidence is impossibly scarce – at least, until now.

Obtained from this most recent happening is a discarded, but functioning camcorder which displays the ambush in visual detail. Perhaps obtained from an immediate passerby, an unlikely survivor of the attack, or even leaked from the investigative team – whatever the circumstances may be, it provides definitive proof of what many have suspected.

Humanity is no longer alone, and these other-worldly visitors do not come in peace.​

 

[Aspect™]

Echoes of a Resonance Cascade

With the revelation of alien encroachment now widespread, humanity’s ailing civilization is overwhelmed by a new wave of panic and hysteria. What meager order remains is swiftly subsumed by the oncoming terror, and the last vestiges of the world’s powers unite into a consolidated unitary body in a desperate bid to retain control.

A final series of all-out measures are frantically introduced, with vast areas of desolate countryside now officially evacuated into more secure urban centers. Any resources that can be spared are pooled into a forlorn attempt to investigate the tempest of portals which are now theorized to have flooded the globe with unknown, merciless creatures.

It is perhaps this final sin of science that calls forth a cataclysm; one which even the most ruinous preceding portal storms pale in comparison against. Vast tracts of land are obliterated by the shockwaves alone, and from the portals themselves cascade unfathomable numbers of biomechanical horrors.

These artificial abominations are unlike any creature that came before. Military and logistical positions are assaulted with a strategy that betrays a greater intelligence, and seized with such incredible swiftness that it places the armed forces of Humanity immediately on the back foot. After establishing a substantial foothold, the mysterious heralds of this alien force reach out to negotiate Earth’s surrender.

An armistice is agreed almost globally, with the majority of the world’s nations issuing some form of surrender after only 7 hours of conflict.​

 

[Aspect™]

From Here to There in Under a Second

It is perhaps just as quickly as the world was first upheaved following the first portal storm, that the next morose chapter of history begins. The existing infrastructure that remained was seized by what would come to be known as the Combine Empire, The Occupation, or Our Benefactors – and rapidly upgraded with advanced technology capable of properly securing even the larger metropolitan areas. Now granted a brief reprieve from the Xenian threat, it is this initial gesture of apparent benevolence that sways the loyalty of a sizeable few toward the side of these new Benefactors.

Joining a new grand repertoire of preternatural visitors, the Combine wisely opts to do so with a human face. It is with a particular precision that those dwelling in the scattered cities of the world are selected for employment within key roles – security, administration, and medicine. Those who volunteer willingly quickly populate the upper echelons of this new hierarchy. As for those who refuse? Detractors are quick to speculate as to their fate.

The surviving inhabitants of Earth are swiftly polarized between support and condemnation of this new regime. Efforts at rebuking the ever-encroaching alien threat are more successful than ever, though the threat does persist; most people are nevertheless now able to live without any great risk of encountering them. After so many tumultuous years gone by, the prospect of life as it was finally returning appears to be looming on the horizon.

Yet it comes at a cost. It begins with the schools; what precious few remain are boarded up and abandoned. Most children are taken away to distant, unspecified facilities; their return – if, and when they do – is marked by a distinct change in their persona. It is the first of many steep tolls that the Combine extract from humanity.​

 

[Aspect™]

Slow Light

Almost two decades have passed since the 7 Hour War, generally remembered to have both begun and ended on the 26th of May, 2003. An impossible era of both immense change and paralyzing stagnation; the once unquestionable dominance of humanity is now only a bitter memory.

Shorelines recede gradually but steadily – even the vastness of the oceans seems insignificant against the magnitude of Earth’s Benefactors. From each of the urban centers, spires of steel and cable stretch into the clouds and even further beyond. Civilization as we know it exists strictly within the confines of Combine walls, preserved by merciless Civil Protection Teams.

Not even the passage of time – at least as it was known to the majority of the world – is spared. A new calendar is declared, and now commonly used by both collaborator and resistant elements of Humanity:

Before Extrication*
DD/MM/2002/ 1 BE
After Extrication*
DD/MM/2004/ 1 AE

Currently, the year is 2024 - now 21 AE.


*extrication: To be extricated; to be freed from a constraint or difficulty.​

 

[Aspect™]

Credits​

Moon: Primary Author
@Aspect™: Edits & Adjustments