Administrarot"Who is this?“This question agitated the mind, created terrible pictures associated with this creature, disgusting to the point that the urge to vomit began to rise in the throat. The creature hovering above Gordon spoke. "Freeman!“- it screamed, and the ground under Gordon’s feet disappeared.
"The name "Nihilanth" not only means nihilism, but also "anth" ("flower") due to the appearance of its head, which opens like the petals of a flower."
(Ted Backman. Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar")
One of the most mysterious characters in the Half-Life universe, not counting the G-man, is Nihilanth. He keeps a lot of secrets, a lot. More precisely, he kept. After Gordon Freeman killed Nihilanth, this character took all his secrets to the grave.
“The head with absolutely dead sockets like eyes and mouth was disproportionately larger than the body, long thin arms, crowned with bracelets, ended with the same thin fingers, crowned with sharp claws, the third arm protruding from the chest was as if sewn to the body (rough seams were visible), and below, instead of legs, there was an implant that allowed one to stay in the air. In all his appearance he resembled some kind of giant embryo. The whitish skin on the round tummy ran in disgusting folds. A dozen bright fireballs, intended either for defense or attack, slowly rotated around the head. Gordon looked at the giant and didn’t know what to do.»
(Sergey Dmitriev. Book based on Half-Life)
Little is known about Nihilanth. But what is known plunges us into the abyss of thought. Questions arise faster than answers. Based on everything we know, we can build a completely different portrait of Nihilanth – not a cruel conqueror, but a kind of Spartacus, leading humiliated and insulted slaves to victory against the Alliance system.
Yes, there is an opinion, and it is predominant among all others, that Nihilanth is connected with the interworld totalitarian system Alliance. And connected by the most important thing, mainly.
Versions based on the fact that Nihilanth is associated with the Alliance
Version No. 1
Nihilanth is https://nongamstop-casinos.uk/ the ruler, autocrat of the Vorth race, which had its own territories in parallel worlds. Of course, the Alliance, as a system based on a policy of conquest, is gathering campaigns against the Vort race. Having defended for quite a long time and having already come to a state of siege on the last crumbs of the earth, Nihilanth moves with his army to the border world of Zen, where the Alliance was unable to reach the Vorta race.
Version No. 2
Almost no different from the first version. But here, before reaching Zen, Nihilanth is defeated in the battle against the Alliance and the Vort race becomes subordinate to this totalitarian system. After some time, Nihilanth raises a rebellion and, taking part of his subordinates, goes at the very last moment to Zen, where he sets up a temporary camp. Until the Alliance finds. Or the people from Black Mesa will not open a passage to the world of Xen.
Version No. 3
Combines versions one and two. Having been conquered (second version), the Vort race, led by Nihilanth, turns out to be the “viceroy” race in the world of Xen on behalf of the Alliance. Nihilanth, sensing a gap in space-time, immediately sends his soldiers there (vortigaunts, controllers, grants, (possibly) gargantuas). A plan emerges to capture another world to create a springboard against the Alliance.
“What we saw in Half-Life was the end of a long struggle between the Alliance and the last of the Nihilanth race. The “world” of Nihilanth (assuming that such a thing existed) remained far in the past for him; Xen became their last refuge, but they found themselves backed up against a wall, and when the wall cracked, it allowed them to leak into our dimension. Xen itself is a transit corridor between dimensions – a place of constant confrontation between forces.»
(Mark Laidlaw. Screenwriter VALVe Software)
The history of Nihilanth himself is also very interesting and mysterious. Most likely, Nihilanth himself was also a conqueror and led expansion into other worlds, including the Vort race. Here the question arises about the conquest of the Vort race itself. The fact is that all the creatures of this race are telepathically united with each other, and this connection is so strong that it is absolutely impossible for it to be broken (as a result, a global “entity” is formed). Thus, the cohesion of the Vort race becomes both a major advantage and a strong disadvantage. It was not difficult for Nihilanth to enslave the Vort race; he just had to take the place of the node connecting each and every one of the Race. Perhaps this can explain the implanted third arm of Nihilanth – for greater similarity with the Vort race.
Half-Life Events
Nihilanth is trying to transfer his entire contingent to Earth. In order to prevent this, the team of the Lambda complex sends Dr. Gordon Freeman, who has gone through the hell of Black Mesa, to Xen to destroy the Nihilanth (this was the only way to close the gap). While in Xena, Dr. Freeman repeatedly found himself in a mental connection with Nihilanth. The phrases he uttered became the main object of attention.
1. "Comes…another.. "—"Came… another one. ". There is basically nothing special here except the word “another”. That is, before Gordon, guests already came to Nihilanth. And not necessarily people in "H" suits.E.V" whose corpses Dr. Freeman saw in Xena. Perhaps representatives of the Alliance also visited Nihilanth.
2. "Win… you can’t win. "—"Win… you can’t win", or "You can’t… win. ". Yes, Nihilanth was probably trying to lead Gordon astray, to make him doubt his abilities. But there’s something else hiding here. Since Nihilanth knew what would happen to humanity in the event of his death (this concerned the Alliance), he tried, no matter how stupid it may sound, to warn Gordon that nothing was an obstacle to the Alliance, and that he was better than the Alliance. As we know, Nihilanth’s warning turned out to be bad.
3. "Done…what have you done. "—"Did… what did you do. ", but a more correct translation option "What have you done… what have you done. ". All Nihilanth’s phrases have a duality, but this one is unlikely. Because this phrase sounds after we dealt with Gonarch, and one can assume that Nihilanth simply felt sorry for his little animal.
4. "You are man… he is not man… for you he waits… for you. "—"You are a man… he is not a man… he is waiting for you… for you. ". A hint of G-man. Apparently, here too – Nihilanth tried to warn Gordon about what awaits him in the end. And he was right.
5. "Die… you all die… you all die. "—"You will die… all of you will die… all of you. ". Almost the same. Either Nihilanth spoke about his victory, or about Gordon Freeman’s victory, and then about the Alliance invasion.
6. "The last… I am the last. "—"Last… I’m the last one left. ". – Now this is where it gets interesting. All versions are removed to the side. Judging by this phrase, we can build a theory that Nihilanth is not the first leader of the Vorth race, and not the first viceroy of Xen. Or – the word “the last” may indicate a milestone – that is, the Vort race is the last race captured by the Alliance before Earth.
7. "Alone… not you alone… not you alone. "—"Alone… you are not alone… you are not alone. ". Alliance connection. Nihilanth tells Gordon that humans are not the only race in the universe. In particular, there is also the Alliance.
8. "Deceive you… will deceive you. "—"You will be deceived… you will be deceived". It is unknown what Nihilanth meant by this phrase. Either again he was hinting at the G-man, or he was hinting at the Alliance (Wallace Breen’s viceroy on Earth).
During the battle between Gordon Freeman and Nihilanth, Nihilanth showed remarkable abilities in telepathy, teleportation, telekinesis. It seems that Nihilanth was specially bred by the Alliance (something like modernization of human specimens). As you can see, the sample rebelled.
Epilogue
Nihilanth is certainly a key figure in the Half-Life universe. If he had remained alive, then answers to some questions would not have been long in coming. It is possible that Nihilanth, like all the other characters, played his own game. Against the Alliance. Against the organization that G-man worked for. And he knew that if he died, he would still finish what he started.