Talk:Nihilanth

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Aside from general cleanup and elucidation, I removed the following phrase: "he wears shackles similar to what the Vorts carry" because after carefully looking at the model, it doesn't appear to be true. Does anyone disagree?---Jackel 16:11, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Decay?

"This is made more clear in the expansion Half-Life: Decay, although it is never made completely obvious."

This point should be developed further, maybe explaining how this is made "more clear". Crimson Shadow 21:56, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Foetus?

"In Half-Life 2, various Vortigaunts refer to the Nihilanth being destroyed in the first game. They say that Freeman has given them newfound hope, for since the "lesser master lay defeated, ... the greater must also fall in time." This could also be a partial reference to how the Nihilanth resembles a giant fetus, whereas the greater counterpart may resemble a more alien physique."

To me, this is just clutching at straws. The Vort's comments to me seem more likely that to suggest the Nihilanth served a greater master, and is not a mention of his physical appearance. I've removed it.Crimson Shadow 12:59, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nihilanth's Shackles

Nihilanth does wear shackles. They are hard to see as they are nearly the same colour as he is. But if you take a close look to him(I did noclip and notarget) you can see them on all three of his arms.

Yes, he does wear shackles, only they don't remotely look like the ones the Vortigaunts wear.

[edit] "The Nihilanth"

I have deleted the part "It is sometimes referred to as "The Nihilanth", making it unclear if this is the being's name or its title/rank.". I assume this was written based on the Vortigaunts saying The Nihilanth. However, they refer to everybody with the title "The". One will frequently notice them saying "The Freeman" or "The Eli Vance"(which I find utterly irritating). So I believe the name/rank uncertainity is just something caused by the peculiar way of Vortigaunt speech.

[edit] Pronounciation

How is "Nihilanth" pronounced exactly? --Yar Kramer 18:13, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

My guess would be "NIE-hill-enth", similar to "nihilism". Nufy8 18:23, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
Yeah, but don't some Vortigaunts pronounce it in HL2? --Yar Kramer 01:33, 16 July 2005 (UTC)
They basically pronounce it like I said, but their alien accent sort of makes it sound like "NAY-hill-enth". Nufy8 01:51, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Possible relation?

Found this on a Google search. Just thought I'd bring it up. CABAL 18:38, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

it does make the name make more sence and gives it more meaning.(Chardrc)

[edit] Quotes

When you first arrive in Xen (and I also got this from examining the .GCF file), he says something that sounds like "Come ..." and then something that sounds like "another" but I can't quite make out what it is (definitely not "interloper" or "intruder", I think). Can anyone help here? --Yar Kramer 04:40, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

"Comes another." As in "here comes another," most likely referring to Freeman as another to enter Xen (or more specifically, his dwelling). Nufy8 04:45, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

i found that the qoute "Alone, not you... alone, not you... alone" is more like "alone you not.. you alone you not... you alone...." please confirm and edit if nessisary. (Chardrc 01:35, 5 August 2005 (UTC))

"You" comes after "not," from what I'm hearing. Nufy8 01:41, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

I just added a phrase saying the transcriptions of Nihilanth's quotes are somewhat speculative, as his weird articulation isn't really easy to transcribe. Personally, I think the list includes different transcriptions of single phrases without stating so, like 'Thieves, you are all thieves, you' and 'Decieve you, he'll deceive you', but I'm not sure.

"Their slaves...we are their slaves...we are...": Probably a reference to the Combine as the Combine later enslave humans in Half Life 2, whereas the Vortigaunts are allied to the humans in Half Life 2 and are fighting the Combine.

I added the above as previously it had said the slaves quote was probably about Alien Controllers. These creatures are obviously minions of the Nihilanth and not its master Mostly Zen 14:19, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Attack!!

When Nihilanth attacks with his teleport orb and it sucessfully hits Freeman, I remember him saying something like "Dieeeee" or "Noooo" in a whisper? Am I just imagining this? ( Jontce 18:23, 31 August 2005 (UTC) )

All I remember is him going "Ho ho ho" reminiscent of Jabba the Hutt. Or, well ... maybe not reminiscent of Jabba the Hutt. --Yar Kramer 19:37, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
Actually, I think most of the things he said were said when teleporting Freeman. Possibly among other things, he said "Now, die, now, die, now" and "Alone, not you alone, not you alone" and "The truth, you can never know the truth" and "Deceive you, he'll deceive you" right after teleporting Gordon.
Not just when the Nihilanth did it, actually -- every time Gordon teleported, we heard some kinda snide comment from him ... --Yar Kramer 21:33, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
To be honest, I didn't really realise that Nihilanth said anything at all during the final battle (must have had my sound down low!), and it has been an awful long time since I've played it. Brrr, just the thought of being teleported into that deep water makes me feel uneasy... Jontce 13:00, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] A thought on Xen races

Something occurred to me while I was playing HL at one point: a lot of Xen races seem to be "miniature" versions of others, i.e. compare headcrabs/Gonarch (or baby headcrabs/"normal" headcrabs for that matter); and those brown tentacles in Xen that started whacking randomly if you shot them or got too close/the big green tentacles; and I noticed a resemblance between Alien Controllers and Nihilanth, i.e. they float around in defiance of gravity, their heads open up like a flower, and they fire either a group of energy orbs or one single energy orb (they even have the same SFX). Anyone else have any thoughts on this? --Yar Kramer 16:29, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Well, Alien Controllers are undoubtedly similar to Nihilanth, not just in terms of look, but in their attack. Other races share some similarities, but it might be interesting to note the connection to Alien Controllers in this article (they don't have their own article anyway). Nufy8 16:37, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
The Xen fauna in Half-Life seems to have a very realistic evolutionary structure. Some species seem to be related to others. Also, it appears to me that for example the barnacles in Half-Life 2 may be a different race of the same creature from HL1, since physically it is obviously a (slightly) different creature. The same might go for headcrabs (not only the new types but also the classic headcrabs seem slightly different) and Vortigaunts in HL2. the alien controllers are probably offspring of the Nihilanth, same kind of thing between headcrabs and gonarch
The new head crabs might be a result of the Combine's mass-producing Gonarch sacs that they hook up to machinery to make more headcrabs. There's a picture of it in the Source model viewer but i cant find it  :(. It appears to me that the combine made existing headcrabs bigger through some sort of genetic alterations:

"You know Bob, these headcrabs are too small." "Let's crank up the growth hormones then" "You know Bob, these headcrabs are too slow. So are their zombies, for that matter" "Let's add little spindly legs like a strider then" "You know Bob, since we got a promotion from that last headcrab breakthrough, let's do it again" "How about poisonous Headcrabs?" "Why not?"

"You know Bob, these headcrabs are just right

and both combine genetic engineers lived happily ever after.

[edit] Crystals / brain

At the end of the article, the following is mentioned:
"The material that makes up the crystals protecting the Nihilanth is the same as the crystal sample which Gordon Freeman placed into the anti-mass spectrometer, triggering the resonance cascade in Black Mesa and portal storms across Earth. Valve Software originally intended to make this connection more obvious but never did."
However, didn't Valve include the Nihilanth's brain when they told us this? I remember reading it back then, but I have no idea where anymore, and I can't seem to find it now. Also it's been a while since I played, but from what I remember the "brain" resembles the crystals more than it does a regular brain, although the (switching to tech speak now) skin for the model doesn't seem to have the appropriate colour and/or shader for that part. Does it sound familiar to anyone what I'm talking about? (I added a similar question to Talk:Alien Controller. Retodon8 17:38, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

I found a picture of Nihilanth with his head partially open ([1]). To me, his brain resembles the portals you see throughout the later part of the game. Crimson Shadow 12:59, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Combine aren't its masters

Or, it could suggest that the combine, which is the "greater" (owing the the possibility that the Nihilanth was a slave to the Combine), can also fall.

I removed this part from the article. Marc Laidlaw already confirmed that the Xenians were hiding from the Combine, so, until denials, the Combine aren't Nihilant's masters.

[edit] Level called "The End of Nothing"?

There is no chapter in Half-Life called "The End of Nothing", so I'm not sure what this is referring to. I am going to remove this part of the sentence soon unless someone knows what this name is from. MarphyBlack 22:56, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh wait, now I get it. "The End of Nothing" could be an interpretation of the actual chapter name "Nihilanth". I think the connection should have been made a bit more clear since the chapter isn't literally named "The End of Nothing". So nevermind this. I never left a comment here. This never happened. MarphyBlack 23:04, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alome, not you...

"Possibly saying that Gordon is not alone, perhaps a reference to the G-Man, Adrian Shephard, "

but

"the Nihilanth's saying this predates any plans for either of the game's two expansion packs."

And that's why I removed this. 84.10.103.180 07:21, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Meaning of Nihilanth

I find all of these speculations to be silly. "Nihil" obviously means "nothing," but I don't think they'd change language to sanskrit half way through. The "anth" ending makes more sense if it's just a contraction of "anthropo" meaning overall "nothing-man" or "nothingness-man". The "man" part of it is probably not a reference to his shape, more a sapient intelligence. Keeping with a latin theme would make more sense since it would in this case still remain totally alien and difficult to comprehend as a concept, and have a science-sounding edge to it. Latin, after all is used in most phylogenic organisations.

His name and how vortigaunts talk still leaves a lot of room for speculation when it comes to personal identities within their society. It could refer to what he represented, reduction of the self to nothingness and slavery, or perhaps they have bizarre alien ideas and don't fully concieve of self like we do and the Nihilanth has some deeper understanding of nothingness.

That said, I really don't think it's connected to flowers or sanskrit. --Irrumat0r 11:20, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Future Meetings

You know what would be cool? What if Nihilanth's body was destroyed, but his mind lived on, and later on in the series, while he's in that G-Man-esque void, Gordon meets up with a guy who looks like a normal human being, but turns out later to be Nihilanth projecting himself in human form for Gordon's benefit. Then we discover that by killing him, Gordon somehow set Nihilanth's "spirit" free, and now he's our ally, providing us with advice and so on. I know this doesn't belong in the article, but I needed to share this idea somehow. What do you guys think?

I'm thinking this isn't the most appropriate place to share such speculation. Join a forum. Crimson Shadow 21:12, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] We are their slaves...

Why not Nihilanth wasn't speaking about G-Man. He was talking about "him" before, and we don't know something about G-Man...

[edit] Incorrect Info

"It is interesting to note that in the at this portal to the game's last battle, the voices of scientists that Gordon has previously encountered throughout the game can be faintly heard." I personally have beaten Half-Life several times and I have never heard this. BUT! In Half-Life Source the scientists can be heard VERY clearly. This line should be revised to indicate that it is in Half-Life Source that the voices can be heard. If you believe me to be wrong, please provide audio from Half-Life.

In addition, the audio heard from scientists when you approach the portal is not (from my knowledge) used at any point in the game, so you can not say that it is in fact from those you have met. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by BradleyJensen (talk • contribs) 02:42, 3 December 2006 (UTC).

Half-Life: Source is an incredibly buggy and poor representation of the original game. Volume levels, in particular, and messed up beyond belief. It should not be used as a source for anything. The voices can, in fact, be heard in the original game, but only very faintly and only if you stand at the exact spots.
Anyway, only one of the scientist lines (At least, I can only remember one offhand) heard at the portal is unused. It's the old scientist at the test chamber saying "Get him out of there. Someone get him out," referring to Gordon. Although the line is unused, technically Gordon did meet this scientist. This is most likely just an oversight by Valve, as there are a few unused scripted lines during the test chamber sequence (And I doubt they put in a whole lot of thought into which lines they chose for the portal area). Either way, many unused scientist lines exist in the game files. While Valve may have removed them from normal gameplay, they may have simply forgotten to update this one sequence. MarphyBlack 03:09, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
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