Hello Everyone!

I've decided to take upon myself the daunting task of writing a COMPLETE, Half-Life Two Roleplayer's Guide. Reasons be for this post or quest of self salvation is to reduce and or deter the amount of so called mingebaggery on the server for all known factions that populate this server; I will be double-posting, Getting pictures, and of course breaking everything down barney style as best as i can. At any given moment if you feel something should be added to this guide feel free to toss me a PM and we can debate the change, But as for now Let us take a journey!

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-> Chapter One - A Brave new world.
- The Half-Life Timeline
- The World as it was
- The Black Mesa Incident
- The Aperture Science Timeline
- The Portal Storm War
- The Seven Hour War
- The Fall of Humanity
- The Rise of Dr. Wallace Breen and the Combine
- The Introduction to Cities.

-> Chapter Two - Basic Guidelines and Definitions
- Faction Definitions and Descriptions
- Roles of the factions
- Basic Terminology
- Advanced Terminology
- Currency
- The Attribute System
- Kuroscript and you
- The Do's and Dont's of HL2RP (Half-Life Two Roleplay)

-> Chapter Three - The Civilians
- Description
- Roles
- Communication
- Intercommunication with other factions
- Weapons (Very Short chapter)
- Citizen Technology

-> Chapter Four - The Combine
- Civil Protection
- Rank Structure
- Roles in Units
- Escalation of Force
- Intercommunication with other factions
- Weapon systems
- Common technology

-> Chapter Five - The Universal Union
- Higher Command of the Civil Protection
- Roles of the high command
- The Overwatch Trans-Human Arm
- Common Tasks
- Roleplay types
- Weapon systems
- Common Technology
-Intercommunication Between Factions

-> Chapter Six - The City Administration
- Description of faction
- Roles
- Do's and Donts
- Intercommunication between factions

-> Chapter Seven - The Rebels
- Description
- Roles
- Roleplay types
- Weapon Systems
- Common technology

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Welcome to the world of Half-Life,

The half life timeline all begins roughly around the year 1995, During the premier years of the Black Mesa Research Facility stationed in New Mexico, During this time between 1995 and 200- (200- The unknown date of the actual black mesa incident) Black mesa secured huge military contracts and funding through applications in experimental portal technology along with its Sister corporation Aperture Science working at a abandoned salt mine complex in upper Michigan. During this time were the Black Mesa facility was securing massive funding and building its complex underground structure the Half-Life protagonist "Gordon Freeman" was attending his MIT education. In the Year 2000 Gordon freeman was added to the Black Mesa research facility staff under the Anomalous Materials division as a Theoretical Physicist. During this time another Antagonist in the Half life series is introduced also known as "The G-Man"; The G-man is considered on equal playing field when discussing who is the main character in the Half-Life Saga, The GMan single-handedly orchestrated the Resonance Cascade, Which will bring the world to an almost near end. 

During this time The Combine Empire invades and takes control of the Vortigaunts' homeworld (which we have never seen), and attempt to enslave them, including their leader, Nihilianth (who is not necessarily a Vortigaunt). A long and bitter struggle ensues, as the Vortigaunts flee from planet to planet, battling and evading the Combine forces. With their backs against the wall, they flee to the border world Xen, where they wait their demise. Xen is sort of like a "subway station" of the universe in that it can be used to cross dimensions.The Combine attempt to hybridize the dominant species of the planet (In Xen's case, the Vortigaunts) with their own technology to create a "Super soldier" that is adapted to Xen's environment and uses powerful Combine technology.

Long story short, The Resonance Cascade happens due to Gordons involvement and the Gmans involvement by bringing the Xen crystal to earth. The resonance cascade rips open space-time and forms a portal between Earth and Xen. Nihilanth's race sees the dimensional fissure as an escape route. Of course headcrabs and other life trapped on Xen decide to hitch a ride to Earth, for the fun of it. Black Mesa becomes chaos, as the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, a United States Marine Corps Special Forces division, is brought in to quell the results of the Resonance Cascade, including the elimination of all humans caught in the cross-fire. This resonance cascade is so immense in nature, that the Combine Empire notices it, turning their interest to what is happening on Earth. The resonance cascade rips open space-time and forms a portal between Earth and Xen. Nihilanth's race sees the dimensional fissure as an escape route. Of course headcrabs and other life trapped on Xen decide to hitch a ride to Earth, for the fun of it. Black Mesa becomes chaos, as the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, a United States Marine Corps Special Forces division, is brought in to quell the results of the Resonance Cascade, including the elimination of all humans caught in the cross-fire.

Eventually Black Mesa is destroyed by nuclear detonation (noted in Opposing Fronts). Several survivors exist, including Wallace Breen, Black Mesa's former administrator; Barney Calhoun, a security guard; Dr Issac Kleiner, a prominent scientist at Black Mesa; Dr. Arne Magnusson; Dr. Eli Vance; and of course, Alyx Vance, Eli's daughter.

The Portal Storms

In 2010, unfortunately, though Black Mesa has been obliterated, Earth has yet to feel the brunt of this disaster. "Portal Storms", a seeming side-effect from the resonance cascade, form a dimensional rift between Xen and Earth. These Portal Storms spread outside the confines of what is left of Black Mesa and throughout all of Earth, providing temporary, chaotic, and destructive links between Xen and Earth. Aliens (from Xen) of all types are teleported into suburbs. Headcrabs crawl along the aisles of grocery stores while others teleport into swimming pools and homes. Utter chaos erupts on Earth. The freed Vortigaunts use these storms as a ticket out of Xen and onto Earth, fleeing from the Combine. A huge population shift occurs as people move into the cities, protected by soldiers and barbed wire fences, to escape the monsters. A feeling of safety comes over the people of Earth, as they can once again live normal lives within the confines of the cities, as the alien species continue to infest the outside world. Vast networks of ant-lion nests are formed throughout the Earth's crust, housing millions of new species.

The Combine, who have been keeping an eye on Earth since the resonance cascade, finally decide to take action. They plan on taking the Portal Storms to their advantage and use them as a method to mount an invasion on Earth. Now that Nihilanth's race have fled from the border-world to Earth, the Combine can forget about Xen and enslave both Mankind and Nihilanth's race in one fell swoop, on Earth.

The Seven Hour War

In 2015, forcing space-time and the portal storms wider open, the Combine launches a multi-pronged, all-out assault on the entire earth. They teleport troops as well as drop-ships, gun-ships, and striders from Combine off-world outposts through the Portal Storms, and onto Earth. Once there, the Combine uses the same technique that they used on Xen on the humans, building a super-army out of the combination of the DNA of the most dominant species on Earth (the humans) and Combine technology.

The primary Citadel is established in City 17. This enormous structure is home to the Earth based Combine control center. Combine armies are produced here as well as vehicles and armaments. Combine presences are established in other cities around the world. (It is hinted that there may be other secondary Citadels around the world, linked by a network.) While fighting each other, the humans and Combine also have the threat of Nihilianth's race. The freed Vortigaunts ally with the rebel forces, wanting revenge against the Combine. The headcrabs, being headcrabs, just attack anyone they can find. Other monsters find their place assaulting both Man and Combine.

The next stage of the Combine's plan takes root. Wallace Breen, "made" optimistic about the Combine takeover, is appointed the Administrator of Earth, acting as a puppet for the Combine. How he is selected for this role is unknown at this time. Breen's first act is to surrender Earth to the Combine, explaining that the Combine have arrived for good, to immortalize humanity, convinced by the Combine that the loss of life is inevitable in this transition period as Earth joins the Universal Union. Breen formally "surrenders" Earth after 7 hours of combat between Mankind and the Combine. Breen being a human helps the Combine, too. He is a species-specific leader - this helps propagate the lie that the enslavement of humans is a positive step forward, and humans, seeing a human in power, can be more readily coerced into their new lives.

Most of the major population centers of Earth are destroyed. Those still alive move into the country, spreading out to avoid Combine capture. Small pockets of rebel fighters surface, but have to establish bases in un-safe areas in the country, where the Xenians have manifested themselves, finding niches in Earth's ecosystem. Still under the spell of the Combine, and ignoring the massive genocide, Breen views the building rebel force as a group of short-sighted troublemakers. The remaining populated areas are named City 1, City 2... City 17, City 27, etc and are placed under control of the Combine, who are establishing a huge presence on Earth. The United Nations in New York City is taken over and destroyed. Meanwhile, all scientists have evacuated their facilities at Aperture Science, including their main enrichment center. The events of Portal take place[/b ]and The 'Aperture Science Hand-Held Portal Device' is inadvertently released into the wild, however, it is not known what becomes of it.

Rise of the Combine Overwatch

Wallace Breen takes residence in the top floor of the City 17 Citadel, under the close counsel of the Combine, attempting to quell the rebels. Breen attempts to console humanity by permanently making a connection between himself and it. He does by controlling the media. Huge television screens are erected in city centers. Newspapers, television, and other forms of communication are censored and their content is controlled.Breen's message is simple: That humanity should not attempt in any way to cause friction in the transition period as mankind integrates itself with the Combine. He believes in order to join this Universal Union, Man will have to sacrifice a lot, but he still believes that the ends justify the means. He truly believes that joining the Combine will be positive to humanity, and tries to convert the rest of it to his point of view. After The Portal Storms, mankind are in such disorder that they can and will believe something like this.

Ruling by fear, the Overwatch assure to continue to protect human city centers from the outside aliens, and thus fearful humans continue to live in the cities out of fear for their families and themselves. The Overwatch's brutal reign begins. The Combine's purpose with Breen is also simple. His purpose now is to prepare Earth for an eventual total Combine migration. His job is to eliminate any resistance to the Combine. Using controlled raids and a "civil-protection" force, Breen captures and converts any resistance to stalkers, human slaves. Additionally, the Overwatch attempt to re-enslave the Vortigaunts, with some success. The Combine's ultimate purpose is to convert all of humanity into stalkers, and all of the vortigaunts into the slaves they were before Gordon freed them .More important minds are taken to Nova Prospekt, where they are stored in containment and experimented on - the Combine want to get as much knowledge out of humanity as they can before they destroy it. All of these things are leading to a drastic change in the purpose of humanity - it is about to become a slave race.

The Combine Overlord orders some transitional tasks, above and beyond Breen's power. First of all, the Overwatch enact a Suppression Field to prevent humans from procreating. (In particular, protein chains important to the development of an embryo were specifically blocked.) They do this so no new humans can be born, and that the humans left on Earth will be the final generation of them. They also put a biochemical in the water supply to make people gradually forget the past, and so they can more easily comply with Breen and the Combine - to forget why they hate them. Finally, the Combine begin to drain Earth's oceans. These tasks show that the Combine are preparing Earth for new residents.

And now the Year is 2016, Still in the transitional phase of the Combine overlords plan and it still is in full swing. But humans are beginning to band together seeing the horror of this plan, With the aid of the Vortigaunts Humans slowly lie in wait for the perfect chance to strike. They wait in Silence, Shadow, and solitude.